Readers who need an infusion of faith should hop a plane and head for the Western Wall.
Last Thursday’s mass prayer rally for rain did indeed rip open the heavens with the cries of the Jews: within 48 hours, the first raindrops had already begun to spatter the countryside in northern Israel.
By Sunday, snow had begun to fall on Mount Hermon and rain was steadily moving its way across the Golan Heights and the Galilee.
In the wee hours of Monday, the wet stuff had started to move south and a steady downpour was making tracks for the Negev by 8 am.
Meteorologists measured 15 millimeters of rainfall in Haifa in barely two hours’ time, but there was a total of 40 millimeters in recent days; swamping the sewer system and flooding neighborhoods around the city.
First responders were call to rescue people in cars who were stranded in huge flooded areas; in one case, a student’s car, parked near a drainage ditch, was swept out to sea in the city’s Student Beach. Luckily the driver – who was in the car at the time – was able to get himself out in time.
In the Galilee and the Golan Heights, 30 millimeters of rain fell in the morning hours. Fifteen centimeters (3 inches) of snow fell on the upper slopes of Mount Hermon.
Rain fell as far south as the Negev, with flash flood warnings in the streams of the Judean Desert, at the Dead Sea and around the Negev.
In the forecast there is still a risk of flash flooding in the eastern and southern wadis, and on Tuesday and Wednesday, light scattered showers in the northern and central regions.