The topic tonight is rain. In honor of rain, we have rain to show that the topic is authentic and true, so Hashem made it rain. Anyway, concerning rain, we find that rain is considered one of the most important blessings that Hashem could give to the Jews, to the people at all. It says in the Sifrei, the Sifrei is a midrash that deals with halacha, things like that, and they date back to the same time as the Gemara. So in the, in the Sifrei on the pasuk, ונתתי מטר ארצכם בעתו, Hashem says, \"I will give you the rain of your land in its time.\" This is the pasuk that we say in the Shema. Hashem says, והיה אם שמוע תשמעו, if you will listen to my mitzvot and you will do the mitzvot, then I promise to give you the berachot. So which beracha does Hashem mention? ונתתי מטר ארצכם בעתו, \"I will give you the rain.\" And the Sifrei says that the rain is the most important beracha. The Ramban, the commentary, the Ramban, on the pasuk in Parashat Bechukotai, where the pasuk says אם בחוקותי תלכו ואת מצוותי תשמרו, if you're going to go in my mitzvot and follow my ways, etc., etc., Hashem says what will I do? ונתתי גשמיכם בעתם, \"I will give you your rain in their time.\" So the Ramban on that pasuk explains at length how the blessing of rain is a blessing that includes all the blessings. That's actually I think the lashon, the expression in the Sifrei too, that the blessing of rain is a blessing that includes many blessings or all the blessings. There is a vort of the Baal Shem Tov on this pasuk, the פסוק ונתתי גשמיכם בעתם where it says, \"I will give you your rain in its time,\" the Baal Shem Tov said that the pasuk does not only mean \"I will give you your rain,\" but the word גשמיכם means your gashmiyut. We know that gashmiyut is a general word for physicality, all physical needs are included in the word gashmiyut. So when the pasuk says ונתתי גשמיכם בעתם, that if you will follow my ways, \"I will give you גשמיכם,\" which the simply meaning is \"your rain in time,\" so the Baal Shem Tov says it means, \"I will give you your gashmiyut in time.\" But the literal translation is rain, so obviously the word rain, the concept of rain includes all the גשמיותדיקע needs of a person. The truth is that rain is not only a bracha for gashmiyut, for physical things, rain is a bracha that includes all the brachot of gashmiyut, but rain also includes spiritual brachot. Where do we see it? We see it in the Gemara. The Gemara says in Taanit that the day the rain comes down is as great as the day the Torah was given. Imagine, the day the rain comes down is as great as when the Torah was given, or it says maybe even greater than the day the Torah was given. So obviously rain includes a רוחניותדיקע, a spiritual blessing too. It's brought down in the Yerushalmi, the Tur brings it down, the Alter Rebbe in Shulchan Aruch brings down, it says that he quotes a pasuk, and based on the pasuk he says that מה תחיית המתים לעולם, just like תחיית המתים, the resurrection of the dead is forever, because that's the idea of resurrection of the dead, that they will become alive and stay forever, אף גשם, מטר, I don't know the word, so too is rain forever. There is something in rain that's forever. And obviously what's in rain is not only the gashmiyut, because gashmiyut is not forever, it's not something that's everlasting in essence, but spirituality, that's something that's forever, and we compare rain to תחיית המתים which will be forever. So this shows that the bracha of rain is not just a bracha that includes all other ברכות בגשמיות, the physical aspect, but it also includes all the ברכות ברוחניות. Now the question is why is rain so important that this includes a רוחניותדיקע, a spiritual bracha? When we say it includes all physical brachot, somehow we could understand that, because after all rain makes things grow, and when things grow you have food. When you have food, people could eat, animals could eat, and when animals eat, you have wool, and you're able to work, and you're able to do things. So everything, really, really, basically, it depends on things that grow, so everything depends on the rain that makes things grow. So we could understand why rain is such an important ברכה בגשמיות, in the physical aspect. But why is rain so important ברוחניות? What's so special about rain that we say that this is such a spiritual bracha, that it's like the day the Torah was given, or even greater than the day the Torah was given? What's so special about rain?

In order to explain that, we have another place where the Torah talks about rain, and from there we could come out to understand what is so special about rain. And that's the pasuk, I have a Chumash here, that's a pasuk in Parashat Ekev. And one of the things the Torah tells us in Parashat Ekev is this the specialty of Eretz Yisrael. The Torah says to the Yidden that, \"Now you are in the desert, and from here you are going to Eretz Yisrael.\" And the pasuk explains what is so special about Eretz Yisrael. Let me find the pasuk. It's not the words of the pasuk, but if I don't find it right away I'm not going to spend my time looking for it. Oh, here, okay. Here is the pasuk in Parshas Eikev. The pasuk says like this, now I'm going to read the pasuk: כי הארץ אשר אתה בא שמה לרשתה, \"In the land that you are about to enter,\" לא כארץ מצרים היא, \"It's not like the land of Egypt,\" אשר יצאתם משם, \"that you left from there,\" אשר תזרע את זרעך, \"there when you plant your seeds,\" והשקית ברגלך כגן הירק, \"you will irrigate the fields, over there you irrigate the fields by yourself.\" You just walk and you have to shlepn, and and that you will irrigate it by yourself. והארץ אשר אתם עוברים שמה לרשתה, \"but the land that you are entering to inherit,\" ארץ הרים ובקעות, \"it's a land of mountains and valleys,\" and then the pasuk says, למטר השמים תשתה מים, \"there you will drink water from the rain of the heaven.\" So the pasuk is trying to tell the Yidden, Hashem was telling the Yidden, what's so special about Eretz Yisrael. It's not like Eretz Mitzrayim, not like Egypt that you came from, that it doesn't rain. We know in Egypt it doesn't rain, even up to today naturally it's hardly, hardly ever rains. So how do they irrigate the fields? In Egypt the Nile, the Nile overflows once a year, and the people make canals throughout the whole land, and when it overflows the water goes throughout all the canals and that's how it irrigates the fields. And that's what the pasuk means that in Eretz Mitzrayim, והשקית ברגלך כגן הירק. There, with your feet, by yourself you are the ones that you irrigate the fields. But in Eretz Yisrael, remember, Eretz Yisrael you don't irrigate the fields that way, but it's it's watered because Hashem, \"because I will give you rain, למטר השמים תשתה מים, from the rain of the heaven you will drink, and you will have water.\" But the question is, what's so special about rain? When Hashem is trying to describe Eretz Yisrael to the Yidden and tell them how special it is, so when He tells them all about the special fruit that they have and how beautiful the country is, all kinds of things, they all we understand that that all shows how great Eretz Yisrael is. But to tell them that, \"You know how special Eretz Yisrael is, because you have rain?\" What's so special about rain? Who cares if the Nile overflows once a year? As a matter of fact, it's easier, it's better, you know exactly the season, you know when it happens, and it overflows and you're ready for it, and it's very easy to irrigate the fields, and here it's not so easy. So why is that one of the maalot, one of the praises of Eretz Yisrael, that it rains and it's not like Eretz Mitzrayim? But in order to explain that, let's look at the next pasuk. The pasuk right after that, right after these words where the pasuk says למטר השמים תשתה מים, that you will have the water from the rain, the pasuk continues also to describe Eretz Yisrael. So the pasuk says Eretz Yisrael is an ארץ אשר ה' אלקיך דורש אותה, \"it's a land that Hashem constantly looks after it.\" תמיד עיני ה' אלקיך בה מראשית השנה ועד אחרית שנה, \"constantly are the eyes of Hashem there from the beginning of the year to the end of the year.\" What does that mean? This means that this is a land that Hashem is very interested in. Hashem really looks into it. Hashem really cares about it. Hashem takes care of it. Hashem looks after everything that happens, the eyes of Hashem are there. Which, if we would use simple terms, it means that there you have hashgacha pratis. There you have Hashem, Divine Providence, Hashem takes care of everything. One might ask a question, hashgacha pratis is not only in Eretz Yisrael. We know that hashgacha pratis, Divine Providence, is in every part of the world, everything that happens, especially the way the Baal Shem Tov explains that everything in the world happens by hashgacha pratis, a leaf doesn't turn over without Hashem taking care of it. So what's the difference to say that Eretz Yisrael is a place where Hashem always takes care and other places Hashem doesn't take care? The answer is very simple. What it means is that Eretz Yisrael is a place where it is easier for a person to realize, to feel that Hashem takes care of it. Hashem takes care all over, but using the terms of Chassidus, in other places of the world it is not b'giluy. It's not revealed. We don't feel it, we don't see it. But in Eretz Yisrael, it's a place where a person is able to feel that עיני השם אלקיך בה מראשית השנה ועד אחרית השנה, the eyes of Hashem are there. Or to use the terms the way the Rabbeinu Bachya says, one of the great Rishonim commentaries on Chumash, he says on this pasuk that in Eretz Yisrael the eyes of Hashem are there, that means Hashem himself takes care of Eretz Yisrael, while all other countries in the world, they're taken care by the sarim. There are different angels, different officers, spiritual officers in the higher world that Hashem has appointed on different places of the world, and every country has his sar, his officer, and the care that's taking place in every place in every country goes through the sar. While Eretz Yisrael, he says, that is taken care by Hashem himself. Now what that means really is that even when Hashem take- when this- when the other places are taken care by the sarim, by the different angels, different malachim, it's also by Hashem. There's They don't do anything on their own. They don't have their own control, their own rulership, their own בעלבתישקייט they could do what they want, it's all by Hashem. The difference is, the way it in other places is the control of Hashem in those places goes through what we call a לבוש, goes through a garment, it's dressed into the השפעה that comes, into the influence that comes through the through the מזל, through the שר. While in Eretz Yisrael, Hashem doesn't cover it up, doesn't even dress it into a cover that people should not see it. Basically, what it really means is that in Eretz Yisrael, if a person wants, a person is able to feel the hashgacha pratit more than in other places. And I mentioned this many times, that it doesn't mean that if a person comes to Eretz Yisrael, he will automatically see hashgacha pratit, see Divine Providence, and feel the presence of Hashem and realize how everything comes from Hashem. It doesn't happen that way. But if a person wants, it's much easier. Hashem doesn't take away free choice. Imagine if a person would walk down the off the plane into Eretz Yisrael, he would right away feel the Shechinah, there would be no free choice and everybody would be frum, everyone would do what they're, what you're supposed to. So if you don't want, you don't feel it. But if a person is ready for it and wants, over there he's able to feel the Shechinah and feel the hashgacha pratit much more than you could feel in any other country. This is what the pasuk means when it says it's a land that Hashem always searches it, looks after it, the eyes of Hashem are always there from the beginning of the year to the end of the year. That means that you are able to see how the eyes of Hashem are there. This is the מעלה, the specialty of Eretz Yisrael, that the pasuk says. Now the this is the pasuk that's right after, mamash right after the פסוק למטר השמים תשתה מים, which says that you will have rain. Because this is the reason why Eretz Yisrael has rain, different than Eretz Mitzrayim. It says in a midrash that when a place needs rain, so the expression is, הכל הכל תולין עיניהם כלפי מעלה. Everyone picks up their eyes to above. When it's rain, everyone looks above and realize that it comes from above. So, even though physically it comes from the clouds, but this makes a person think, \"Look, you're looking up.\" A lot of times when you daven to Hashem, you pick up your eyes to heaven. Lehavdil by the non-Jews, you pick yours eyes up to the top. So when it rains and you have to pick your eyes up to the top, what it means is that you're looking to shamayim, you're looking to heaven, and you're looking realizing that the rain, which is the one thing that makes things grow, comes from Hashem. And more than that, it says that when it doesn't rain, sometimes you have a time when it doesn't, like we just had here for weeks, months it didn't rain, so what do people do? You have to daven. People realize that you have to daven to Hashem. So, a place that's watered by rain is a place where it's easier to realize the truth that everything comes from Hashem. And this what the pasuk says. The pasuk says right ארץ אשר השם, it's a land that you could recognize Hashem's hashgacha pratis. Right before that, it says it's a land where it rains. That means that this is part of it, because it's a place where Hashem, so that it's easier to feel the kedusha, feel this presence of Hashem, that's why it's a place that rains. Not like Mitzrayim. The pasuk says it before, in ארץ מצרים, in Egypt, it doesn't rain. Because Egypt, out of all places in the world, was the worst place as far as their emunah, their belief in Hashem. In Egypt, Paroh made himself to a god. Paroh said, \"לי יאורי ואני עשיתיני.\" \"I'm the god, I'm the one that made everything. I'm the one that created, I'm, I'm the god.\" Out of a whole world where people did not really believe in the truth of Hashem, Mitzrayim was the worst. And we know that the word Mitzrayim, which means Egypt, also has a meaning boundaries, limitations. It blocks out, it covers, it blocks in the true belief in Hashem. So in Mitzrayim, being that Mitzrayim is a place where the emunah in Hashem is not strong, therefore it turned out physically, too. Physically, it didn't rain there. It doesn't rain there. What happens there? The water overflows, and it looks as if naturally, things are watered. And if a person wants, he could forget that it comes from Hashem, because you see, every time, the same season, the water overflows, and you forget that it comes from Hashem. This is what Mitzrayim is.

We know that when Moshe Rabbeinu came to Paroh, and he told Paroh, \"Hashem said, 'שלח את עמי ויעבדוני.' Send my people out, and let them serve me.\" Paroh said, \"מי הוא השם אשר אשמע בקולו? Who is this Hashem that I should listen to him? לא ידעתי את השם, I don't know Hashem.\" Now, we look into the Chumash, Hashem has many names. Which name of Hashem is used when Paroh said, \"I don't know Hashem\"? It's the name Havayah, י-ק-ו-ק. Not the name Elokim. He didn't say, \"לא ידעתי את אלוקים, I don't know Elokim.\" He said, \"לא ידעתי את הוי'ה.\" He used the term Havayah. Now, we find a different place, when Yosef was brought to Paroh. The same Paroh, that doesn't mean necessarily the same person Paroh, but the same philosophy, it's all the same. So when Yosef came to Pharaoh in Mitzrayim, and Pharaoh said to him, \"I heard that you're able to interpret dreams,\" so Yosef answered that, \"It's not me, it's Hashem that's going to do it for you.\" Which name of Hashem did he use? He said, \"אלוקים יענה את שלום פרעה.\" Elokim is going to answer the peace of Pharaoh, Elokim will, Hashem will give you that koach, but he used the name Elokim. Now, we know the difference between the name Havayah and the name Elokim is very simple. We learned that in the almost every class we talk about it. Elokim is Hashem the way he is dressed in the nature. We all know that the name Elokim is the gematria, the numerical value of Elokim is hatteva, the nature. In Hebrew, hatteva, ה-ט-ב-ע, is the same numerical value as Elokim, א-ל-ה-י-ם. It adds up to the same, to 86. Because Elokim represents Hashem the way he is put into nature. Havayah, the name Havayah, whenever we use the name Havayah, it refers to Hashem the way he is beyond nature. That's what the word Havayah means. The word Havayah is made up of three words: היה, הווה, ויהיה, which means past, present, and future, and it's all in one word. How could you have past, present, future together? Naturally, it can't happen, so this is something beyond nature. Also it says in Chassidut that the word, the name Havayah, we say Havayah because we're not allowed to pronounce it, but really it's י-ק-ו-ק. So the words, let's take away the י for a moment, the words ה-ו-ה, that means creation. And י, whenever there's a י in Hebrew, not every whenever, a lot of times, it means that it's happening constantly. So י, that's what in Hebrew, we find this in Rashi or in Parashat Beha'alotcha, that a י means constantly. So the pasuk is saying here that, or the word I should say, Havayah, means that it's the constant creation, so we're referring to Him as the one that's on top of the creation, that He's constantly creating. So the name Havayah represents Hashem the way He is beyond nature. The name Elokim is Hashem the way He is as nature. And that's what happened when Moshe Rabbeinu came to Pharaoh, and he said to Pharaoh that Hashem said שלח את עמי, Pharaoh said, \"לא ידעתי את הוי'ה.\" I don't know Havayah, because Pharaoh, which was the epitome of the philosophy of Mitzrayim, did not believe in beyond nature, which means he did not believe that nature comes from a power that is beyond nature. What did Pharaoh know? Like Yosef said to him, אלוקים יע... You know only of Elokim, you don't know of Havayah. He only knows of nature. But the truth is nature in itself is also Hashem. As we were saying, that the name Elokim is Hashem the way He is in nature. So nature is also nothing but Hashem. But the way Hashem is in nature is that He hides Himself, that you can't recognize Him. That's why the word teva, which in Hebrew means nature, also means something that's sunk into the ground or in the water, it's called טובע. By the ים סוף, where it says when they drowned it says טובעו בים סוף, that means it's drowned. What's the idea of something being drowned? When something drowns in the water, it's there. It's not like something is burned by fire, so it disappears, it's not there. It's there, fully, 100%. The difference, you just can't see it, that's all. It's hidden. And that's what teva is. Teva is really Hashem, but it's hidden. Like I explained once before when we spoke about Havayah and Elokim in Kitzur, that really, the most fundamental idea in Yiddishkeit is that הוי׳ הוא האלוקים. We say that seven times at the end of Yom Kippur: \"השם הוא האלוקים, השם הוא האלוקים.\" What we're saying is that Hashem, which is above nature, הוא האלוקים, that's Elokim. In the Zohar it says that one of the most important things that we have to accomplish is to realize that הוי׳ ואלוקים כולא חד, that Havayah and Elokim are really one. Because Elokim, which is Hashem the way He's in nature, really is the same as Hashem beyond nature. The difference is, here He hides Himself. And what we have to do is reveal it and recognize that it's not so, that it's really Him, not that we don't see Him. But if a person doesn't have that understanding, so then a person has Elokim, but doesn't have Havayah. And that's what Pharaoh was. Pharaoh, which is Mitzrayim, they believed in teva. Which is the reason why they made the Nilos as their god. Pharaoh in Mitzrayim, it says they had many types of idols. It says the animals were their idol, Pharaoh was their idol, and it says that the Nile itself was their idol. Why was the Nile their idol? Because they basically worshipped nature. That's what it was. To them, nature was the epitome, was the top. They didn't believe in anything beyond nature. The Nile was the makor, the source of their nature. The source of their livelihood was the Nile. So they made the Nile into a god, so they worshipped the Nile, because they only believed in nature. And even nowadays, those people that don't believe in a Creator or don't believe in supernatural powers, when you ask them, \"How in the world could this happen?\" \"Well, it's Mother Nature. Things happen not by God, Mother Nature.\" When they use this term, what they mean to say is that it's not by God, it's by nature. Now in truth, it makes no sense. What kind of answer is that? What is nature? Nature, basically, is one word that contains, includes everything that happens in the world. But that's not a reason! It's a description, but not a reason how it happened. When you ask, \"How in the world could this happen?\" \"Well, through nature.\" What does that mean, through nature? Nature is nothing! And the word nature is when instead of going through a list of many things, the sun rises, and this happens, and you get to wake up in the morning, and all the different things, instead of saying every one, everything individually, you give one word for it: nature! But that's not an explanation. It's just stating facts. It's not an explanation where did it all come from. But nevertheless, in the eyes of people, you get so used to it, that's nature. In truth, it says in sefarim that nature is nothing but a constant miracle. That's all it is. It's a nes tamid. Why is it less miracle that the sun rises in the morning, or why is it less miracle for a child to be born, than the Yam Suf, the sea to split? Why is this seem more likely to happen than this? The only reason this seems to be simpler is because it happens every day, so we're so used to it, so it turns into nature. When the Jews were in the desert, and the mon came down every day, so after a while, and especially children who were born with that happening, to them it was nature. It looked like, you know, every day would come out, would pick up. Why the difference when the rain comes down, or why things that grow, that that makes sense and this doesn't? But we know that this doesn't usually happen, so if the mon would come down from heaven now, ooh, it's a big miracle, not nature. But this is nature. But really nature is nothing. It's just a miracle that happens daily. And since it happens daily, we're so used to it, we call it nature. So again and again, so in truth nature is nothing but Hashem. But because we're so used to it, we forget about the source, that it all comes from Hashem, and we think it happened by itself, it's just things that happen, that's what nature is. And that was the philosophy of Pharaoh, the philosophy of Mitzrayim. Why did they worship Pharaoh? In addition In addition to many things, Pharaoh was the smartest person of the whole nation, Pharaoh was the strongest, the most handsome, so he was the epitome of the natural human being, so they worshipped Pharaoh. Why did Hashem take them out, Jews, took them out in the month of Aviv, in spring? So it says, because in springtime, nature is at its best, at its strongest. To show the Mitzrayim that even though you worship nature, and now the nature is the strongest, I'll show you that I'm taking them out of Mitzrayim and I'm going to make miracles. But it's all because their philosophy was nature, not to believe in Hashem. And whatever happens to ruchniyus also manifests itself in the physical sense. That's why in Mitzrayim it doesn't rain, because the philosophy of Mitzrayim is not to believe in beyond nature, and rain, as we said before, represents this idea of beyond looking up to Hashem and realizing it comes from Hashem. So that's why in Mitzrayim it doesn't rain. But in Eretz Yisrael, in Eretz Yisrael, where it's a place where if if you want, you are able, Hashem says my presence could be felt there much stronger and realize everything comes from Hashem, there specifically it rains.

Now, in truth, when we say that Eretz Yisrael has this specialty of rain, it's not only over Egypt. This is over the whole world. Egypt is just the worst. Egypt is a place where it doesn't rain at all. Other places, it does rain, but nevertheless the pasuk says Eretz Yisrael is a place where you could feel the presence of Hashem more, not only than Egypt, more than any other place in the world. And the truth is that the Gemara says that in Eretz Yisrael it rains more than all over. It says in Eretz Yisrael they need rain more than they need in any other country. Now, I don't know exactly what that would mean physically, maybe if you ask around, maybe those that know the facts know that even physically nowadays it's like that. Or maybe even if it's not that way nowadays, but at least when times were normal, time of the Beis Hamikdash, it was that way. But it says that Eretz Yisrael needs more rain, and it says like this: that Eretz Yisrael gets the rain from Hashem, the Gemara says, and all other countries, when they get their rain, it's like a continuation, a hitpashtut, how would you say the word, a coming from Eretz Yisrael, that's what it is. It says the whole world, that's what the Gemara says, שותה מתמצית ארץ ישראל. When Eretz Yisrael gets the rain, that's where the rain really comes, and everything gets from there. So the whole concept of rain, really, if you want to put it to a certain place, it's Eretz Yisrael. Eretz Yisrael gets rain, and every place else gets a little bit from it. So now we see why rain is such a special bracha. Not only b'gashmiyus, physically. Rain represents the same thing of the Torah. When Hashem gave us the Torah, what did he want, what did he give us the Torah, that we should recognize the truth of Hashem, to make a דירה בתחתונים, to make a dwelling place for Hashem in this world, bring godliness into this world, meaning being in this world, in the nature of the world, we should recognize the truth, that's what it is. And that's why the Gemara says that rain is similar to the day the Torah was given, because it has the same idea the Torah was given. And that's why in Eretz Yisrael it rains. We find in Gemara an interesting thing. The Gemara says like this: ישראל הדרים בחוץ לארץ דומים כמי שאין לו אלו-ה. Yidden who live in out in chutz la'aretz, outside of Eretz Yisrael, it's almost like they have no God. And Yisrael, another Gemara, ישראל הדרים בחוץ לארץ, Yidden who live in chutz la'aretz, outside of Eretz Yisrael, the Gemara says עובדי עבודה זרה בטהרה. I mentioned this in one of the other classes. It's as if they worship idols purely. What does that mean? So I explained that time. Since in Eretz Yisrael it's easier to feel the presence of Hashem, so in Eretz Yisrael it's easier to feel that whatever we get is because Hashem gave it to us. Outside of Eretz Yisrael, it's harder to feel that. And if a person doesn't feel that it came from Hashem, that's like avodah zarah, that's like idol worship. I explained last time, what's the idea of idol worship. Idol worship doesn't just mean to take a stone and bow down to it, but the belief in another power. That's what the Rambam says: if a person believes that there's another power other than Hashem, that's avodah zarah. That's how the whole concept of beginning worshipping idols started. They used to think that the sun has its own power, so they would bow down to the sun. Then they would make images of the sun. So, believing in another power. So if a person believes not in another power that's something up there, if a person believes that he has his own power, that's also idol worship. It's not the same low level of idol worship, that's why it's called idol worship בטהרה, in a pure way, but Even Jews who live outside of Eretz Yisrael, being that they don't have that opportunity that you have in Eretz Yisrael to feel that everything comes from Hashem, it's like you're worshipping idol- idols בטהרה. And this is connected to the rain that Eretz Yisrael has, because the rain represents and makes it easier for us to have this emunah in Hashem. While in Egypt it was opposite. Egypt worshipped the Nilus, that was their avodah zarah because that was nature and they did not believe in Hashem, and therefore they do not have rain. This will explain another point. We know that when Yaakov Avinu came to Mitzrayim, when Yosef, his son, brought him to Mitzrayim, and he went in to visit Paro, so it says he gave Paro a berachah, a blessing. And Rashi says, what was the blessing that Yaakov Avinu gave Paro? The blessing was that let the Nile overflow to your feet. That whenever you walk over to the Nile, the water from the Nile should should rise and then it will automatically irrigate the fields. That's what used to happen. When Paro used to walk over, because of the berachah of Yaakov, so the Nile would overflow and irrigate the fields. So the question that's asked, the Rebbe asked this question: The Nile was the idol of Mitzrayim. Why would Yaakov Avinu want to give a chizuk, a strength to their idol? He gave him a berachah. Wouldn't this give a place for Paro to show, \"Look, you see, I walk over to the Nilus, the Nilus comes up. It would make the Nilus stronger, it would give him more power. Look who I am! I'm able to do this.\" So why did Yaakov Avinu do this? And the Rebbe says it's just opposite. Because the Nile was the avodah zarah of Mitzrayim, Yaakov Avinu wanted to show that this nature that gives you all your needs, your livelihood, is also because of the blessing of Yaakov Avinu, who had the power to bless because he had the koach, the power of Hashem. So it wasn't giving strength to the avodah zarah, to the idol of Mitzrayim, it was breaking the idol of Mitzrayim. It was showing that the idol of Mitzrayim, which is the Nilus, only works because Yaakov Avinu, who was a tzadik and had the power of Hashem, he was the one that made it happen. So every time Paro would walk over and the Nilus would overflow, what would it show? Yaakov Avinu's berachah worked! It's doing it. That means that Yaakov Avinu, Hashem, who does gives the koach to the tzadikim, He is the one that does it. This is one of the ways he wanted to break the avodah zarah that they would think that it's only natural, he would show it's not natural. Because before Yaakov gave him the brachah it didn't happen, and when he came, gave him the brachah, it started happening, obviously it's not nature. So why is it happening now? Because of Hashem. So this was a way to bring even in Mitzrayim the understanding in the truth of Hashem. But still, it was only to a small, small degree that Mitzrayim started recognizing the truth, but all but generally speaking, they didn't. But in Eretz Yisrael, which is the land that belongs to the Yidden, that's where we're able to feel the specialness the the presence of Hashem, and it expresses itself in the ענין of rain.

There are a few more things that we learn about rain, other than this point that I was making before, and this is when we talk about rain and dew. And it's interesting to see that one part time of the year, we make a we say the blessing for rain, and from then on, we start asking Hashem for rain, or at least mentioning the rain. And there's one time of the year when we give the brachah, the blessing for dew, and from then on, we talk about that, but we don't ask for rain. And when in that is that? Pesach, we bless טל, which is dew. And Shemini Atzeret, which is in the month of Tishrei, that's when we bless we give the brachah for rain, and from then we start saying משיב הרוח ומוריד הגשם, we mention the rain in the Shemoneh Esrei. Another while later in Eretz Yisrael, not much later, we start ז׳ חשון we start asking for rain, we say the שאלת טל ומטר in Shemoneh Esrei. Outside of Eretz Yisrael, it's a while later, but it's at that time when we start, it's from the time of Sukkot when we start with rain. Why is it that we ask for dew in Pesach time and we ask for rain Tishrei time? Now the simple reason is because in Eretz Yisrael, from after Pesach, it doesn't rain, but after Sukkot, it rains. Now, since it rains then, we ask for rain, that's the time when we need the rain. But everything has a spiritual explanation. We know that the difference between the month of Nisan and the month of Tishrei, and when we talk about Tishrei, it includes Elul and Tishrei, we know that Elul is a time when Hashem expects that we should turn to Him, and He will turn to us. The month of Nisan is a time when He turns to us, and that in turn makes us turn to Him. The word Elul has the abbreviation of אני לדודי ודודי לי. I am my to my beloved, and my beloved is to me. That means it starts with I, that means us. That we start turning to Hashem, and Hashem turns to us. We call that in חסידות מלמטה למעלה, from below up. There is the way that we get close to Hashem, and then Hashem in turn gets close to us. Concerning Nisan it says another pasuk, it says דודי לי ואני לו, my beloved is to me and I am to him. That means it starts from Hashem. And actually as we see, the month of Elul and Tishrei is a time of teshuvah. Teshuvah means that we return to Hashem. Nisan was a time when Hashem came down from heaven to Mitzrayim, and the Jews were not ready for it. נגלה עליהם מלך מלכי המלכים הקדוש ברוך הוא, we say in the Haggadah, השם revealed Himself to us and took us out of Mitzrayim, and then we started getting close to Him. He took us out when we were far, far away spiritually. He took us out and then we started counting sefirah, and we started getting close to Him, so it starts מלמעלה למטה, from above down, and that brings about from down up. And Elul and Tishrei is the opposite. It's actually interesting that in the word Tishrei we see it. The word Tishrei, which is the Hebrew month of Tishrei, the letters Tishrei is ת, ש, ר, י. But the first three letters are ת, ש, ר, which is ת is the last, ש is second to the last, and ר is after that, it's starting from the bottom. We're starting from the ת, and we're going up, ש, that's going higher, ר is up. Nisan is called חודש האביב, the month of spring. The word אביב is א, ב, י, ב. So the first two letters of אביב starts with an א, and goes down, א, ב, further down, because the month of Nisan is a time when you go down, because it's Hashem from above coming to us. That's how it happened the first time when the Jews went out of Mitzrayim, and every year when this happens again, it's a time when we expect Hashem to get close to us, and that awakens us to get close to Him. Using the terms of Chassidut and Kabbalah, it's the time of אתערותא דלעילא, אתערותא דלתתא. There's an awakening from above, and that makes the awakening from below, while the month of Elul and Tishrei is אתערותא דלתתא, אתערותא דלעילא. There's awakening from below and that causes the awakening from above. This is basically the difference it says between rain and dew. Rain comes from below, and dew comes from above. It says in Gemara that tal, dew, comes from above. Whenever the tal comes during the night or whatever it is, it goes through the atmosphere, comes from above and comes down. While rain, rain is that there's the moisture that's down here, and that moisture goes up, and goes through the clouds, and that causes the rain to come down. Actually, this is a pasuk in Chumash. The Chumash in פרשת בראשית it says, ואד יעלה מן הארץ, that there is moisture that comes from the ארץ and goes up, is elevated, and goes on top, and that makes the rain come down. While tal is not like that. So the rain represents the fact that we serve Hashem, and in turn Hashem comes to us, gets closer to us. So it's something that we deserve. We are working for it because it starts from below. But tal is something that comes from above. And that's why the Gemara says that there were times when because of certain sins that the Yidden did, Hashem said there will be a hunger, there will be no rain. But טל לא מיעצר, טל never stopped, the dew never stopped. And Chassidut explains why. Because dew does not depend on what happening down here. Whether we behave or we don't, whether we deserve it or not, since it's something that comes from above, it doesn't depend on below. While rain, since rain comes from down from below, so spiritually it means the same thing, it depends on what is done down here. And that's why when do we start asking for tal? Pesach. Pesach is a time when it's the עבודה מלמעלה למטה, it comes from above down, so that's tal. The month of Elul and Tishrei, when it's the time of אני לדודי, when it comes from us to Hashem, and then that causes Hashem to get close to us, so that's similar to rain. That's why that's when we start asking for rain. When it comes to the end of Tishrei, in Atzeret, when we already did our avodah down here, then we can say to Hashem, we did our things down here, so the moisture already is going up, now you can bring down the rain. So the rain is something that is מלמטה למעלה. So on one hand, tal is a higher madregah, because tal is something that doesn't depend on what we do, it's something that Hashem gives on His own. But on the other hand, there is no effort that's put in when we deal with tal. But by rain, on one hand it's lower and therefore sometimes, chas v'shalom, it could stop, but on the other other hand, when it does happen is because we worked for it. And that's the most important thing, that Hashem wants us to work and we should deserve. And this is what rain stands for. And that's why rain is the, includes all the berachot, because it represents our service of Hashem, our avodah. And that's how we know a lot of times, when we want to refer to a berachah, we call it גשמי ברכה, rains of blessings. Rain is always a סימן ברכה, it's always a sign of a berachah. It's called גשמי ברכה, rains of a berachah, because rain is always a bracha. That's why it says that usually, even though there is a din that when certain disasters and tragedies happen you have to fast, and do all kinds of things, it says, if what happens if you have too many rain, there are floods? You shouldn't, you shouldn't fast, you shouldn't ask Hashem to stop it, because we don't daven for too much good, because rain is good. Certain places that says when it's extra, then there is an exception, but usually rain is looked upon as something good, and therefore we should not ask Hashem to stop it, because we're asking Hashem to stop a hashpa'ah of something that's good. But even though in the Gemara we refer to rain with the word gevurah, gevurah means strength, but usually gevurah represents, since it's strength, it's contraction, it's holding back, it's not giving, and rain is a bracha, but we call it גבורות גשמים because the gevurah, the way the rain is made that it's broken up in little pieces, that's the bracha. Gevurah means when you take things and you, you don't give a lot, you give a little. Imagine if the rain would come down as one big chunk of rain, it would flood. So the fact that it's broken up in little pieces, which is gevurah, that itself part of the blessing. Like the story we find in the Gemara with Choni HaMe'agel, that there was a time in Eretz Yisrael there was no rain for a long time, so they came to Choni HaMe'agel to ask him for a blessing. So he said, I'll daven for you. So he came out into the street, and he made a circle, and he stood in the circle, and turns around to Hashem and said, Hashem, please give the Jews rain, your children need rain, give them rain. And Choni HaMe'agel was the greatest tzaddik, and he says, Hashem, listen here, I'm not moving from this place till you give rain, I'm not going to move. And as he's standing there, it started raining buckets. Couldn't take it, it was going, was going to flood the world. So he turns around and said, Hashem, hey listen, that's not what I asked for, I asked for a little bit. So it stopped, and it started drizzling tiny tiny drops. He says, no, this is not what I wanted. So it started raining normal drops, and he stood there, he didn't leave, and he sent to find out if it's enough, and they had a stone in Yerushalayim called, and there was a high place that they used to use that to make announcements, so he said, go find אבן הטועים, I forgot already the name, he says, go find out if it covered that stone, then we know we have enough rain. Like nowadays, you measure how many inches of rain, so you say how many inches of rain are there, and then he said, Hashem, please, enough, he said enough, it stopped. And we find a lot of stories that tzaddikim would daven for rain in different ways. In the Zohar we find that ר' Shimon bar Yochai, when they came to him to ask for rain, he didn't even daven, he sat down and started saying Torah, and he said Torah on the פסוק הנה מה טוב ומה נעים שבת אחים גם יחד, how beautiful it is when brothers sit together. And when he said the Torah, all of a sudden it started raining. Chassidut explains that there are different levels of tzaddikim that are mamshich, that bring down rain in different ways. But basically one thing is clear, that rain is a bracha, and therefore whenever it rains, it's a bracha. Sometimes it might be a little bit inconvenient, you can't go out, that's why the best bracha is if the rain comes in the right time. That's why it says ונתתי גשמיכם בעתה, we'll give you the rain in its time, but whenever rain comes, it's a bracha. And that's why it says that rain is compared to תחיית המתים. תחיית המתים is the biggest berachah a person could have, that we could all expect. And even though usually תחיית המתים is connected to tal, to dew, it says Hashem will revive the dead with a certain dew, the טל תחיה. By מתן תורה, it says when the Jews heard the עשרת הדברות, they got so scared that after every statement, every commandment, they died, their neshamot flew out, and Hashem revived them using that dew, that same tal. So we see תחיית המתים connected to tal, and still we say that the day of rain is like the day of תחיית המתים. Why? Because the time of תחיית המתים, which is the, the climax of the coming of Mashiach, we will all recognize the truth of Hashem, that's what rain is supposed to bring into us. So when it rains, you're supposed to be happy and thank Hashem for the berachah that He gives us, and utilize the berachot for everything. We also know, just to end off with one word, I used to say that when you go to a tzaddik, you go to a Rebbe and ask for a berachah, you should realize it's like rain. Why is a berachah like rain? Because just like rain, if you don't plant, you don't plow and you don't plant, and it'll rain, nothing will help. If you do everything to prepare, you need the rain, when it rains it'll make it grow. Same thing, you come for a berachah, if you don't prepare yourself, you don't do things to accept the berachah, then the Rebbe could give you the berachah, but it doesn't help because you're it's raining on a place that's not ready. So you have to prepare yourself and then we accept the berachah. So the Eibershter should help we should prepare ourselves, and the berachah should come, like it's raining now, the berachah should come, and this should not be just like תחיית המתים, but it should be zocheh to תחיית המתים במהרה בימינו. Amen. All right. Yes. In Chumash we find that דברי תורה is compared to rain. Haazinu says your words are like rain. It's the שר, שר, the angel in the office of rain, that's his name. I don't know if it says, maybe it does. Yes. Yeah, okay. Good question, that we see that when Hashem punished people at the time of the flood, he did rain, he used rain. But the truth is, it wasn't just a punishment. That could be used as a proof or a continuation to what I was saying before. It says, why did it rain for 40 days? Because just like a mikveh, a mikveh is made of 40 se'ah, that's the measurement of the amount of water you have to have in a mikveh, the mabul was also like a mikveh, it cleansed the world. The מבול cleansed the world. So really, even though it looked like a punishment, but really it was a mikvah. It was metaher, it brought a taharah, it brought a purity to the world. And how was the purity? It came through water. An interesting Midrash, the Midrash says that just like in the beginning of the creation of the world, it was full of water all over, the first on the first pesukim in Chumash, it says, בראשית ברא אלקים את השמים ואת הארץ. Open a Chumash. And it says, והארץ היתה תהו ובהו וחשך על פני תהום ורוח אלקים מרחפת על פני המים. The spirit of Hashem was floating on top of the water. Everything was water. So finally later Hashem said, \"Let there be a separation, and let some water turn into ocean and some water go up.\" But till then, what was the whole world? Full of water. And that was the beginning of the time when everything was pure. There were no people yet, there were no animals yet, there was nothing to destroy it, nothing to make it impure. It was only, like it says, יום אחד, the time when only Hashem. And what was it? Only water. So at the time of the מבול, the Midrash says it came back to that state, that it was all full of water because it was cleansed and turned back to the state of purity. And that's all through water. And that's what happens by rain. When rain comes down, it brings down that purity, it cleanses us. And it's all connected to this idea that when it rains, it makes you realize more about Hashem, which is also connected to the idea that many times when it rains, it thunders and you see lightning. And the Gemara says, why is there thunder and lightning? Why did Hashem make thunder and lightning? So it says, expression in the Gemara is כדי לפשט עקמומית שבלב. That means to straighten out the crookedness of the heart. It gets people scared. What it does is it shows them that, you know, Hashem is doing something here. So when it rains hard, it also reminds Hashem is doing something. I remember when we were kids we always used to say when it rains the malachim are pouring water. It reminds us of Hashem and it brings us closer to Hashem, and that's with thunder and lightning along with it. So this is the idea of the מבול, that the מבול also was a good cleansing to the world. The ground. Same thing, like now, what happens to the rain? Besides the sewer system, but it seeps into the ground. So it seeped in, and then it evaporated, that's why it took so long. It came out of the ground and then it went back, and some of it evaporated into the air. Huh? That's underground, yes. Okay.