Rainfall

I heard once that God purposefully gave the Jews a land with rainfall issues, to make them conscious of the fact that rain comes from God, to force them to turn to God in prayer for rain and thus to form meaningful relationships with Him - which I am using because English has no gender-neutral pronoun.

A few nights ago, I was babysitting. It was raining, and the boy was so excited - we spoke about the prayer "veten tal u matar" (and give dew and rain) and about how Hashem had answered our prayers for rain.

I think in general, Israeli culture is more resource-conscious than American culture. There is this concept that water is precious and should not be wasted, and a concsiousness of water levels and the importance of rain. In the US, there is always electrically-produced hot water in middle class households/upper-middle/upper class households. Israelis - even middle/upper-middle class - use the sun for hot water in the summer, instead of electricity, and only turn on the electric hot water half an hour before showering, to heat up water for their shower. They don't have their pipes producing hot water and wasting electricity all day - in part because electricity is expensive. There is also a consciousness to shut off lights and appliances when not in use that I think many Americans lack.

This consciousness of resources and lack of wastefulness is something about Israeli culture that I admire. I think this consciousness is due in part to Israel's waterfall issues, though it does also stem from the state's socialist, bare bones beginnings - which were dependent on agriculture that depended on rainfall.