Ba-Aretz # 11- "And they shall study war no more...."

Last week, at the end of Sukkot, we began to pray for rain. Every year from Sukkot until Passover, as part of every daily morning service, we Jews pray for rain. The long, dry summer in the Land finally ends during Sukkot and from now through spring, we ask G-d to bless the Land with abundant rain.

Our prayers were truly answered this week. It rained and thundered... with lightening! Children danced in puddles on street corners shouting "geshem" (rain), headlights are required when driving during the day, and all eyes are on the level of the Sea of Galilee - which went up 1.5 cm. Roads were flooded and the wadis in the Negev became running rivers. No coincidence that our Torah portion this week is Noah - the story of Noah and the Ark.

Earlier this week, I visited Sderot and the Jewish communities along the border with Gaza. Later in the week, they were attacked again - a kassam landed in Sderot yesterday, two anti-tank missles were fired at the IDF this morning near Kissufim... just meters from the spot the Israel Experience scholars stood, overlooking the Gaza Strip. Thank G-d, no one was injured. But it serves to remind us why the Torah portion reports that G-d decided to destroy the world back in the days of Noah and the Ark.

It was the wickedness of humanity that grieved G-d so... that caused G-d to regret the creation of humanity. Genesis 6:5 reads: "And G-d saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." When our evil thoughts and actions overwhelm the holy within us that calls us to good, what kind of people do we become? And, what kind of people allow evil to hold sway?

The same King James Version translation, with one word left in Hebrew, is interesting, perhaps instructive. "And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only HAMAS continually." HAMAS is the word usually translated as "evil". HAMAS is when evil takes over.

This week, our prayers were answered and it rained in the Land of Israel. And it rained so hard in Gaza that the streets and the tunnels used for smuggling weapons flooded. The rains that blessed our land brought them destruction and misery.

May our prayers that our neighbors in Gaza abandon evil come true. May they beat their kassams into plowshares and their anti-tank missles into pruninghooks and study war no more.

Shabbat Shalom -

Rabbi Jeff Kahn