Thursday, January 15, 2026

hail, hail, the gang's all here.

 

Today I was feeling down about everything. So my rabbi put his hand on my shoulder and said: "HaOlam." That meant the world to me.


AES RS JAN 12 2026

     诪讬 讝讛? 诪讛 讝讛? 讗讬驻讛 讝讛?

 

            Dallas, Cincinnati, Oxygen,  Theodore Roosevelt, Lasagna,  yareach (moon),  Belin, Joe Biden,  Uranium,  Tallit,  Nuriah,  Water,  Cantor Brook,    Jazz,  Golda Meir,   Beytzim (eggs),   Tolkien,  BEijing,  Jerusaelm,   Aviv (spring),  Asher,  Yayin, Argentena,  Bricks,  Midrash,  Shocheyt,  Oaska,  cadur (ball).

 

 

 

 





1)     Hebrew 1- Me, mah Aipho

2)    Hebrew 2- Chatzi Kaddish

 

4)    Plauges- over the top!  No CGI- not a computer. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qofp7q7l0nI

The natural explanations-  Yul Brenner explains.

5)                        Quiz- TEAMS!

7)    Videos:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7Fgqj2KqpQ

(for Th only) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6JbU0dIq70E

8)    Chevrutah/Solo-  questions on BARAD/HAIL- SHEMOT/EXODUS 9:13-35

 

     诪讬 讝讛? 诪讛 讝讛? 讗讬驻讛 讝讛?

 

            Dallas, Cincinnati, Oxygen,  Theodore roosevelt, Lasagna,  yareach (moon),  Belin, Joe Biden,  Uranium,  Tallit,  Nuriah,  Water,  Cantor Brook,    Jazz,  Golda Meir,   Beytzim (eggs),   Tolkien,  BEijing,  Jerusaelm,   Aviv (spring),  Asher,  Yayin, Argentena,  Bricks,  Midrash,  Shocheyt,  Oaska,  cadur (ball).

 

 

 

 

 

Quiz on Hail-  Torah Portion Vaera- January 23rd, 2025

**Team quiz!  Only one can win!

 

 

 

1)     Which of these states almost never sees hail?

a.     California

b.     New Mexico

c.     Colorado

d.     Wyoming

e.     Alaska

 

 

 

 

2)    What is the name of the kind of storm that produces the largest hail?

a.     Hurricane

b.     Derecho

c.     Supercell

d.     Monsoon

e.     Kwyijibo

 

 

3)    Tornadoes are rated 0-5 on the EF scale.  What does EF stand for?

a.     Einstein-Fermat

b.     Enhanced Fujita

c.     Echo Focusing (radar)

d.     Easy Flowing

e.     Eschadoodle Ferengenar

 

4)    In Illinois,  the month with the most hail is usually

a.     March

b.     April

c.     May

d.     June

e.     October

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5)    The 1999 Bridge Creek–Moore tornado had the fasted winds ever recorded with radar,  with maximum wind speed of

a.     224 mph

b.     324 mph

c.     424 mph

d.     524 mph

e.     It’s  a, 224, but only in  kph.

 

 

6)    How close has Mar Hirsch ever been to a tornado?

a.     It was waaaaay of in the distance.

b.     I saw it from a safe distance.

c.     I saw it close…. Too close.

d.     I drove really close but didn’t see it.

e.     We drove right through one. Disappointing.

 

7)    A slow moving storm can dump a lot of hail in one place.  What is the record for inches of hail in the USA from Seldon, Kansas, on June 3, 1959,?

a.     4”

b.     6”

c.     11”

d.     18”

e.     Hail can’t get more than an inch deep, and there is no Seldon in Kansas.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

8)    The largest recorded hailstone in U.S. history fell on July 23, 2010,  and weighed just short of 2 lbs. How wide was it?

a.     5.9”

b.     8.1”

c.     13”

d.     17.5”

e.     Hail can’t get physically bigger than 2” before it falls.

 

 

 

 

9)    In where was the largest hailstone found?

a.     Vivian, Nebraska

b.     Vivian, South Dakota

c.     Vivian, Illinois

d.     Vivian, Oklahoma

e.     Vivian , this is a trick question, it was found in Quebec, Canada.

 

 

10) How many people have died from hail injury since 2000?

a.     1

b.     2

c.     3

d.     4

e.     Nobody has died from hail- that would be ridiculous with modern forecasts. 

 

 

 


 

YET  it can hail in  Egypt.   Freak storms, anti-cyclones dropping across Europe and spilling in the med basin.  2013-   snowed in cairo Friday, December 13, that the local media claimed to be the first in 112 years

Oct 26, 2022- snow, hail, thunder in Cairo

Jan 1 2022- Hurgada in the east,  snow and hail.

And when they get big and globby, like the size of a baseball,  they’re not falling at the dainty 20 mph of the small pea-sized hail bits we usually see.  The larger stones hit  the ground at velocity around 105 mph.  To use a sports metaphor, the first is the speed at which a cubs   pitcher usually throws, and the second is just a bit faster than what the rest of the major league pitchers do for a fastball.

That said,  anything golf ball sized hail can cause serious injury,  and once we enter baseball sized hail, we are talking about stones that can kill.  Deaths from hail in the US are beyond rare, with only 4 people killed by hail since 2000,  but in the rest of the world, there have been hailstorms that have killed hundreds,  most notably in Uttar Pradesh, india, where on  April 30th, 1888 the deadliest hailstorm in modern history hit Moradabad.  The deadly storm killed 246 people with pieces of hail as large as “goose eggs, oranges and cricket balls.”

-So while rail, really large Hail can be lethal. And it can hail in Egypt.  But what would it take to get a drecheo, supercell or other severe storm form in a desert climate? It would take the most extreme and rare conditions.  There is a hint of this fact in the Torah.  Moses goes to warn pharaoh in the morning.  It is hours later before pharoah calls him back and moses dispels the plague. Hailstorms are normally brief, limited events. A storm can produce dangerous hail for few minutes,  or copious amounts of small hail for a few minutes.   This particular plague kept going from the morning onward for what appears to have been hours. For moses to come to Pharoah it must have been a pause of some kind,  but continuing waves hail storms?  Waves of severe weather?



 

BIG, COLD ROCKS FALLING FROM THE SKY:

BARAD/HAIL- SHEMOT/EXODUS 9:13-35

Then Adonai said to Moses, "Early in the morning, go to Pharaoh and say to him, 'This is what Adonai, God of the Hebrews says: Let my people go to worship Me.  Now I will send plagues that will affect you as well as your servants and your people. This is how you will know that there is no one like Me anywhere on earth.  By now I could have sent forth my hand against you and your people with a plague that would have erased you from the earth.  But I have spared you for this reason: I will show you My power and make My name famous throughout the earth.  Yet you are still holding yourself over My people and have not sent them out.

“So, at this time tomorrow I will send the worst hailstorm that has ever happened in Egypt from the day it was founded until today.  Now, send [servants] to bring your livestock and everything else you have indoors. All people and animals still outside and not brought in will die when the hail falls on them.'" Those members of Pharaoh's court who listened to Adonai's warning brought their servants and cattle indoors quickly.  But those who didn't take Adonai's warning seriously left their servants and animals out in the open.

Then Adonai said to Moses, "Lift your hand toward the sky, and hail will fall on people, animals, and every plant in the fields of Egypt."  When Moses lifted his staff toward the sky, Adonai sent thunder and hail, and fire struck the earth; and Adonai made it hail on Egypt. 

 It hailed, and fire flashed within the hail. There had been no storm like it in all the land of Egypt since it had become a nation.  All over Egypt the hail knocked down everything that was out in the open. It struck down people, animals, and every plant in the fields and destroyed every tree in the fields.  The only place it didn't hail was the region of Goshen, where  Bnai Yisrael lived.

Pharaoh sent and had Moshe and Aharon called and said to them:
“This-time I have sinned!  Adonai is the one-in-the-right, I and my people are the ones-in-the-wrong!  Plead with Adonai,  for enough is the God-thunder and this hail!   Let me send you free—do not continue staying here!”

 

Moshe said to him: “As soon as I have gone out of the city, I will spread out my hands to Adonai; the thunder will stop and the hail will be no more—  in order that you may know that the land belongs to Adonai.  But as for you and your servants,  I know well that you do not yet stand-in-fear  before the face of Adonai God!”

 

—Now the flax and the barley were ruined, for the barley was in ears and the flax was in buds,  but the wheat and the spelt were not ruined, for they are late-ripening.— 

 

Moshe went from Pharaoh, outside the city, and spread out his hands to Adonai,  and the thunder and the hail stopped, and the rain no longer poured down to earth.  Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunder had stopped,  so he continued to sin: he made his heart heavy-with-stubbornness, his and his servants’.  Pharaoh’s heart remained strong-willed, and he did not send Bnei Yisrael free,  as Adonai had spoken through Moshe.

 

What is new to you here? What dialogue or comments are not familiar to you?   

 

 

Who listens to the warning God gives through Moses?  Who does not?  And what is the result?

 

Hail is a natural phenomenon. What makes this a plague? 

What, if anything described here makes the plague miraculous or supernatural? 

 

 

 

 

How does Moses trigger the plague?  And how does he end it?  Is there any difference?

 

At the very start of the story, God tells Pharaoh By now I could have sent forth my hand against you and your people with a plague that would have erased you from the earth.”  Why didn’t  God do that?


 

 

 

Commentators on Exodus 9:24

 

Rashi France, 11th century,  often focusing on Midrash and Aggadic (legendary/non-legal)  parts of the Talmud:

诪转诇拽讞转 讘转讜讱 讛讘专讚 [AND FIRE] FLASHING UP AMIDST THE HAIL — a miracle within a miracle! Fire and hail mingled, although hail is water! But in order to perform the will of- their Creator they made peace one with the other (Exodus Rabbah 12:4).

 

Chizkuni,—Hezekiah Ben Manoach, 13th century French commentator who compiled his work from over twenty other commentators:

 

讜讗砖 诪转诇拽讞转 讘转讜讱 讛讘专讚, “and fire was contained within the hail stones,” it is clear that after the hail had hit the ground, that this fire started conflagrations. Otherwise who would have known that there was fire inside the hail stones?

 

Sforno —16th century  Italian rabbi, Biblical commentator, philosopher and physician.  

讜讗砖 诪转诇拽讞转 讘转讜讱 讛讘专讚. Driven by the immense velocity and pressure of the descending hailstones. The heat generated in the atmosphere resulted in unnatural sounds being heard everywhere. Both hard and soft plants were destroyed by the hail. Verse 25 spells all this out in detail.

 

Or HaChaim , Morocco, 16th century, Talmudist and kabbalist.  Torah commentary is from the weekly lessons he taught his daughters .

讜讬讛讬 讘专讚 讜讗砖, there was hail and fire simultaneously, etc. The word 诪转诇拽讞转 is used to inform us that though water and fires are opposites, one of which is bound to prevail over the other in any encounter, in this instance they demonstrated the ability to co-exist. This was possible since both were performing God's will by so doing.

 

 

Cassuto,  Italy, 20th century Moshe David Cassuto  was an Italian historian, a rabbi, and a scholar of the Hebrew Bible and Ugaritic literature,[1] in the University of Florence, then at the University of Rome La Sapienza, and then Hebrew University of Jerusalem.


The term Eish Mitchalechet/flashing fire is also found in Ezekiel 1:4 ( “I looked, and lo, a stormy wind came sweeping out of the north—a huge cloud and flashing fire”) also there in the description of a storm. Fire: that is the lightning, which is called flaming because it does not go in a straight direction, but in a diagonal way, and as if it takes itself from time to time to go back or turn to the side, [like a flame].


 

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