Rabbi Yitzhak Zilberstein, a leading haredi rabbi, said in a Torah class on Saturday that the lack of rain this year stems from a lack of acknowledgement of the miracles taking place in Israel.
"G-d brings clouds, and even those who are not professionals can see that the black clouds are chock-full of water, but in practice only a few drops fall on us, and they do not make up the lack," he said. "The public wishes to know what needs to be improved."
"And here, if we pay attention to how many missiles and shells are fired towards the Land of Israel, and almost none of them hit a person. A bit here, a bit there, but of all the tens of thousands of missiles and weapons of destruction which have infiltrated Israel, there have not been people who suffered fatal injuries, and the monetary damage is very little.
"This is an outstanding and amazing miracle! And anyone who does not remember the Gulf War, during which Saddam Hussein fired dozens of missiles into the Land of Israel, and not a single one hurt someone .... So much so that people started to think that maybe those missiles were made of paper ... and really unable to cause harm.
"Until there was one missile which was fired at a US military camp, and killed 28 US soldiers! So then we understood it all - that these are very deadly missiles, and it was the kindness of G-d that, miracle of miracles, none of the Jews of the Land of Israel were hurt."
Rabbi ZIlberstein stressed the importance of recognizing and giving thanks for the miracles: "And when we do not thank G-d for the miracles that He does with us, G-d does not continue His chain of kindness, and does not bring down rain for us."
"And this is similar, really, to a child whose father does many good things for him, and if the child gets used to saying, 'thank you,' the father is encouraged by this and continues to do things for his son. But if he sees that the son is receiving the good things that he does for him as things which are self-understood, he stops doing favors for him."