The Hand of G-d that brought the flood

Thursday, September 01, 2005
Tropical Depression 10 formed on August 13, Erev Tisha Ba'av. As the Jews who were loyal to their G-d, their people and their land prayed and fasted, meterologists watched it unconcerned. They reassured the public that the storm would go north of them. Hurricanes very rarely go south.As the preperations were underway by the Sharon regime to evict the Jews from their land and an army of expellers were assembled, the storm built. As the Bush administration and its Arab allies relished the first of many surrenders of Israel to the enemy, the storm grew.Motzei Tisha Ba'av, the date set for the expulsion of Jews from their homes across Gush Katif, came and the storm seemed to fade away. Meterologists were certain it was no further threat much like the people of Gush Katif. Day after day families were evicted from their homes, crying children sent out into tent cities, mothers and fathers forced into buses and denied sanitary facilities.

On August 23 Israel completed the planned expulsions at Homesh and Sa-Nur. The gates were battered down by soldiers waving clubs and the doors of homes shattered. Limor Har-Melech, whose husband Shuli was killed by terrorists three years ago moved from one group of soldiers to another, preaching, crying and begging, to no avail.George W. Bush congratulated Sharon for this act of ethnic cleansing on that same day and committing to in his own words, "rebuild the settlements for Gaza -- for the people of Gaza." Meaning that the destroyed towns would be rebuilt for the terrorists who with the aid of his efforts to secure them a state would now settle there.On August 23, Tropical Depression 10 merged with another disturbance and became Tropical Depression 12. Air Force Reserve squadron planes began flying through the eye every three hours, moving 105 miles from one end of the storm to the other, dropping cylinders that took snapshots of the storm as they fell 2,000 feet per minute.On August 24th, the State Department warned Israel against extending the security fence to Maaleh Adumim and warned against any further 'settlement activity.' On the 24th Katrina was upgraded to a tropical storm and turned west, instead of going north as hurricanes usually do, defying the natural weather systems. On the next day Katrina made landfall for the first time in Florida killing eleven and cutting power off to millions.On August 27th, Bush delivered a radio address to the nation celebrating the deportation of thousands of Jews. On August 27th Katrina became a Category 3 storm with winds of over 145 miles an hour. That same day Bush had to declare a State of Emergency in Louisana.On August 28th embodened by Israel's retreat for the first time in a long time terrorists carried out a succesfull suicide bombing. On August 28th,

Sharon defied the decision of the Rabbis and stated that the synagogues left behind would be demolished and a decision was finalized on uprooting the graves of the dead. On August 28th Katrina was declared a Category 4 storm and mayor of New Orleans called for the evacuation of the city.Soon familiar scenes were being reenacted. An evacuation that was poorly managed was scheduled resulting in chaos and misery. Evacuees were sent to hotels only to be forced to leave shortly. Belongings were left behind and lawlessness and looting broke out combined with police incompetence. As in Gush Katif and Homesh, residents were being pulled from rooftops. Fires burned in the streets of New Orleans as they had in the streets of the expelled towns.Graves had to be dug up as they had in Gush Katif and homes were destroyed. The oil refineries of the oil industry that has caused America to sell out Israel to the Arabs were severely incapacitated. As a casino had been planned to be constructed on the ruins of Gush Katif, the Mississipi gambling industry was shattered.On August 30th Sharon declared that yet more towns would be evacuated in the West Bank at an unspecified date. On August 30th the levees broke flooding most of New Orleans and rendering the city uninhabitable. It was not the weakest levees that broke but the section that had been repaired and worked on the most as if to say that it did not break because it was weak but because a higher force willed it. As the last of those expelled departed from their tent city in Tel Aviv they had been expelled from, the complete evacuation of New Orleans was declared.As it had been declared that no Jew would remain in Gush Katif and it would be given over to murderers and thieves, so too no one will be permitted to remain in New Orleans and it has been given over into the hands of looters and armed gunmen. It is said that it will be months before New Orleans is rebuilt, while others debate if it is worth rebuilding at all.

Who would have said a month ago that a major American city would lie empty and in ruins? Who would have believed it possible? What greater warning could there be than for a city on the southern coast of the United States to be rendered an uninhabited wasteland full of demolished buildings and human jackals picking among its ruins after towns in Israel were rendered into uninhabitated wastelands with terrorists and thieves picking among their ruins.Many wish to call what has happened and what is happening, a 'Mikra', a chance happening. Yet Tanach tells us that there cannot be a catastrophe in a city unless Hashem wills it. Still others have protested that G-d does not behave in this way. In Yirmiyahu 18:8-9 we see otherwise."At one instant I may speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up and to break down and to destroy it. but if that nation turn from their evil, because of which I have spoken against it, I repent of the evil that I thought to do unto it."It is incumbent on us to recognize and investigate the ways and doings of G-d. Those who argue that we should class all events as unknowable are ignoring the fact that G-d sends warnings. The goal of those warnings is to bring people to repentance and change. Not merely Jews but non-Jews as well. Does he mean these warnings not to be understood? Does he mean us to simply dismiss them as unknowable?In the absence of living prophets we may not be certain of things but is it incumbent on us to explore and to try to understand the ways of G-d and when messages are being sent, we may not ignore them either. By ignoring the warnings, we are ignoring G-d. Ignoring the warnings that are recieved will only cause the next warning to be more severe. If we do not recognize that Yad Hashem, the Hand of G-d did this we are denying the role of G-d in this world and it will be affirmed till we can deny it no longer.

The NOAA/ National Weather Service has raised the 2005 atlantic hurricane season outlook warning that the bulk of this season's storms are still to come.