When we speak about the great blessings of rain, shouldn't a person be happy over the rain on those days when it rains only when everybody is at home late at night?
ANSWER:
Certainly. When it rains at a time when people must travel, we sympathize with them; however the phenomenon of rain is always an opportunity to utilize. When the rain comes pouring down, we shouldn't let that opportunity go, no matter when it happens. Of course we're happier when it happens at night. When the rain comes down everybody should realize that it's a miracle that's taking place, only because he is habituated to it, that he doesn't see the miracle. Rain is no less a miracle than mon falling from the sky.
Do you know what rain is? Rain is seawater. Seawater is bitter, it's full of chemicals, iodine and salt, and other chemicals. It's brackish, it's full of infusoria* of microscopic organisms, and now it has turned into pure clear water, and the system is distillation. A marvelous system. Hakadosh Baruch Hu doesn't raise water from the oceans in the form of a liquid, it's transformed into a gas. And when it becomes a gas, water vapor, it leaves behind all the impurities. That's one of the great manifestations of Hakadosh Baruch Hu's perfect plan. As the water rises to the clouds, it's already cleansed of all the impurities.
Actually when you drink water, it's a good chance it was already urinated by somebody else. You're drinking water that was part of somebody's body. He died and the liquids passed into the atmosphere and it became rain.
We are drinking the same water that was drunk before, a thousand years ago, over and over. There is no new water, no new water comes on this globe; all the water is reused constantly. And so certainly the water was once in a dead elephant, the water was once swamps, whatever it is, when the water rises to the sky it's purified and it starts its career all over again. That's one of the miracles of rain.
When it's in the clouds how does it come down? How do you get it from the clouds to come down here? It's such a simple matter, people think they understand it. But when it does come down, it comes down exactly in the right size drops. If it would come down in big globs, it would break the crops and injure people! A big glob of water falling from a big height is almost like a stone, but it falls in tiny raindrops.
It's remarkable how useful the rainfall is in this method. It's harmless, and it comes down and gives the benefit without doing any damage.
There is a lot to think about in this phenomenon of rain, and just to stare at the rain through the windows on a rainy day is a good deed. It makes you aware of the abundance, the bounty of the Creator.
Good Shabbos To All
*FYI: Infusoria is a collective term for minute aquatic creatures.
This is transcribed from questions that were posed to Harav Miller by the audience at the Thursday night lectures. To listen to the audio of this Q & A please dial: 201-676-3210
Important Numbers
