One of the first things I remember learning in my university course was the concept of Pathetic Fallacy—when a writer uses the weather to reflect human emotions. The past couple days have been the backwash of summer: a warm breeze tinged with claustrophobia and menace. The transition period where summer is holding onto its last rays as the night moves forward to erase them.
Today, it rained in Jerusalem.
The first rain of the season, and I broke down. We have all broken down. The film between the sky and the land, and my pupils and tear ducts disintegrated. The rain was the collective tears of our country, our people, and our God. As if the floodgates could bear no more weight, and unleashed a downpour of tears. The summer was hastily bid farewell, and a typically welcomed rain of fertilization was received, but its message was stained.
I think of Noah and the flood, the rainbow, and the column of smoke following the Israelites through the desert. God reflects his emotion in the heavens, and I can’t help but think his rumbling of thunder is his mighty reaction to the current evil we are experiencing.
I think of the children, the broken families, and the many bereaved. The tears shed in the past three weeks will soak our soils for years to come. This, however, will not be in vain. The tears shed for the true heroes will water the seeds of our nation. For now, we weep, we fight, and we storm Gods’s gates in prayers for mercy. The streets run with Jewish blood, and our tears flood the earth. However, the spring of hope and revitalization will come again, and we will prevail.
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