JewishPress.com:
It was just easier to post the page - pictures and all, as they tell the story.
Kabbalistically, snow is the gevurah of chesed. It means two things:
The chesed is huge - and bound by din, i.e. until spring [Passover] when the beracha flows. [Ramchal]
Also the highest chesed is when it is in a Kli of din, like a cup of water, instead of licking it out of a pool. It is different than Rachamim, as it is still chesed, just within a Kli.
Lets hope for both!
Jerusalem, Tzfat, under Snow (Images)
Published: January 10th, 2013
The Old City Wall under heavy snow.
Photo Credit: Yonatan Sindel/Flash90
Photo Credit: Yonatan Sindel/Flash90
Jerusalem and many parts of Judea and Samaria are under a blanket of snow this morning. School is out in most of these municipalities. Israel is experiencing unusually low temperatures. The ski site on the slopes of Mt. Hermon up north are covered in snow.
Now enjoy the pictures…
Yonatan Sindel/Flash90
The Jerusalem Light Train on Jaffa Street. Photo: Miriam Alster/FLASH90
Ben Yehuda Street. Photo: Miriam Alster/FLASH90
Snow covered standers in front of the Western Wall. Photo: Flash90
Yonatan Sindel/Flash90
Tzfat, up north, under snow cover. FLASH90
Frosty at the Kotel
Posted in: Israel
3 comments :
Baruch HaShem!!!
Beautiful!!
Aaaaahhhhh!
The recent snow in Eretz Yisroel reminded one of how "He spreads snow like wool" (Tehillim 147). Snow supplies vital nitrogen to the soil and is literally a blanket capturing the air and insulating the roots and valuable insects which hibernate in the earth which would otherwise be killed by the cold. The white colour of snow repels the sun's rays retarding its melting which is instead gradually and fully absorbed, allowing more water to reach the new season of vegetation than rain which runs off: "One snowfall is better than five rains!" (Ta'anis 3).
"The Earth was originally fashioned from the snow from under the Kissei Hakovod" (Pirkei d'R.Eliezer 3). The moloch in charge of snow (sheleg) is named Shalgiel (Ovos d'R.Noson). "Praise Hashem from the Earth.... fire and hail, snow and vapors, stormy wind, doing His bidding (Tehillim 148). Its whiteness symbolises moral purity: "Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow" (Yeshaya 1)."She fears not the snow for her home, for her household is clothed with scarlet" (Mishle 31). "Cleanse me with hyssop and I will be clean; wash me and I will be whiter than snow (Tehillim 51). Sheleg is the origin of the words "sludge" and "slush" (see "The Word - The Dictionary that reveals the Hebrew source of English", p.160, Isaac Mozeson 1989).
Har Chermon is known as Tur Talga ("Mount of Snow") and Snir (Devarim 3) - "snow in the languages of Ashkenaz and Canaan" (Rashi, c.f. schnee, most Germanic peoples being of Canaanitic origin (see "Lost Israelite Identity", Yair Davidy 1996). Tikkun gilgul sheleg was a Kabbalistic form of teshuva performed by rolling in the snow nine times.
"Did you ever penetrate the treasuries of the snow (a snow flake is a beautifully artistic perfect hexagon, yet no two have ever been alike, this itself being a treasure hinting at the infinite thoughts of its Designer) or seen the repositories of the hail, which I have reserved for the time of trouble, for the day of war and battle?" (Iyov 38). The hail that decimated the Egyptians, the Canaanites and in the future the hordes of Gog and Magog; and the snow that defeated Napoleon and Hitler in Russia. "Rule number one of war: do not invade Russia (because of its snow). Rule number two: do not invade Russia!" (British Field Marshal Montgomery).
When the Baal Shem Tov saw komrim cutting tzlovim out of the snow he exclaimed "From here we learn that kaltkeit in Avodas Hashem leads to Avodah Zoroh!"
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