Oct 12, 2008
Hurricane Sukkos is coming
Sukkos is bearing down upon us almost as fast as a hurricane can hit the southeastern coast of the United States.
And speaking of hurricanes, the meteorologists are expecting some nasty weather over the holiday, though not exactly hurricane quality.
Here is the forecast for the first day of the holiday. Rain expected all around Israel. Depending on the weather site you look at, you will see different expectations as to how long the rainy weather will last - anywhere from 2 days until through shabbos chol hamoed.
Rain over sukkos in Israel is very unusual. It happens to be that this year, sukkos falls out fairly late in the "season", so normally these rains would be post-sukkos, but this year they are during sukkos.
The thing is that it creates a bit of a dilemma. On the one hand, nobody enjoys rain during sukkos. it messes up sitting, eating and sleeping in the sukka. It messes up travel plans. it messes up the general enjoyment of the holiday. Along with the fact that the gemara considers rain during sukkos to be a curse, because it is as if Hashem is saying even though you are trying to do a mitzvah, He is not interested and He throws us out of the sukkah by sending rain.
On the other hand, we have such a serious shortage of rain (didn't the experts say we would not make it through the summer? what happened with that?) and water that every extra drop is really a blessing!
The real problem is that because it is such a rare event, most people are probably not familiar with the laws of how to deal with rain during sukkos, such as when you can eat indoors, when you have to stick it out and wait for the rain to stop or even eat in the rain, etc. It is time to review these laws that have not applied here in a very long time!
And speaking of hurricanes, the meteorologists are expecting some nasty weather over the holiday, though not exactly hurricane quality.
Here is the forecast for the first day of the holiday. Rain expected all around Israel. Depending on the weather site you look at, you will see different expectations as to how long the rainy weather will last - anywhere from 2 days until through shabbos chol hamoed.
Rain over sukkos in Israel is very unusual. It happens to be that this year, sukkos falls out fairly late in the "season", so normally these rains would be post-sukkos, but this year they are during sukkos.
The thing is that it creates a bit of a dilemma. On the one hand, nobody enjoys rain during sukkos. it messes up sitting, eating and sleeping in the sukka. It messes up travel plans. it messes up the general enjoyment of the holiday. Along with the fact that the gemara considers rain during sukkos to be a curse, because it is as if Hashem is saying even though you are trying to do a mitzvah, He is not interested and He throws us out of the sukkah by sending rain.
On the other hand, we have such a serious shortage of rain (didn't the experts say we would not make it through the summer? what happened with that?) and water that every extra drop is really a blessing!
The real problem is that because it is such a rare event, most people are probably not familiar with the laws of how to deal with rain during sukkos, such as when you can eat indoors, when you have to stick it out and wait for the rain to stop or even eat in the rain, etc. It is time to review these laws that have not applied here in a very long time!
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Here is a good english weather website..He's usually pretty accurate and it includes most cities in Israel
ReplyDeletehttp://www.weather-it-is-israel.com/
bet shemesh looks ok for monday night - that is good.
ReplyDeleteRAfi, I was going to ask where you get your weather information.
ReplyDeleteSince we've been here, there really hasn't been a question. It's been pretty much clear every day since we got here, maybe a bit hot at times, but 137 days of continuos days of sun!
http://israelweather.co.il/week.asp is the site I use for weather.
ReplyDeleteSummer time there is no need to check. I use it mainly in the winter and the transitional seasons.
I have been teasing our friends who are arriving tonight from Israel about the mistake they are making coming to England for Sukkos, but looking at the forecasts, it looks like they made the right choice - at least from the weather point of view
ReplyDeleteOh I really hope those forcasters are wrong. We're having a bris on the first day of chol hamoed followed by a meal in the shul's sukkah. I guess we better make alternate arrangments.
ReplyDeleteOy Vey, a tropical storm (Nana) just formed in the Atlantic, just in time for Succot! And this Nana isn't the kind of tempest in a teacup, it's for real. Though luckily if it gets here, it would likely be close the end of succot.
ReplyDeleteMark
I saw a shaila brought down that it could be a problem of "ne'ehen from a d'var mitzvah" if you sit in the sukka while it rains to take shelter from the weather.
ReplyDeleteAlso a story that one tuime for the first three days of sukkos it rained straight. Rather than eat/sleep out of the sukka, the Sar Shalom of Belz simply did not do either.
Oy sukos in america ahhhhhhhhh I remember many years where our schach just flew off.. sheilos of what to do.. schach cant be put back on shabbos (dont thing on chag either)weve had goyim throw our schach on at times..
ReplyDeleteI remember sukos in new york with whole sukos falling down! you dont have this issue in miami since we build it on patios using the house as 1-2 of the walls.
Theres a 99% chance in miami that it will rain on sukos every year.