63% of Lake Michigan is frozen. Temperature this morning was -10 when I got up. Chicagoland has had 60+ inches of snow when the average is 36.7 at O’hare and only 19 inches in Elgin! This year even the pets have cabin fever. They want to go outside and run. Too cold!

So what do we do? We gripe about it, and while that gets old quickly we gripe some more. We plan trips away from Chicagoland to some warmer climate. That is expensive. We cook more soups and stews and comfort foods. That can cause weight gain. We learn winter sports–skiing, hockey, skating. And we watch the Olympics.

Every year I have children read the Wise Men of Chelm story “Snow Falls in Chelm”,about the diamonds that fall from the sky. Last year, my first year in Elgin, it was actually on the Illinois fifth grade standardized test. The kids thought I knew the test in advance. Then I have the kids write blessings for snow. There is not actually a blessing for snow in Judaism, although we have the word–shelig in Hebrew. The kids get it. They usually include things like thanking G-d for the beauty of the individualized snowflakes or for hot chocolate and sledding and snow days. They see the beauty and the wonder. (But then they don’t have to drive in it!)

I am not alone in this, both Rabbi Harold Kushner and Rabbi Larry Kushner describe similar phenomena in their Hebrew School classes.  During that first snowfall of the year, “As you might expect, there was suddenly great excitement in the room. “Look! It’s snowing outside! Winter is here!” And they all lept out of their places and ran over to the window, completely oblivious to the fact that the rabbi was trying to tell them a story….He realized that for the children, there was no reason to recite the blessing. Their spontaneous reaction, their excitement, was an even stronger affirmation of the wondrousness of nature than any adult’s blessing could ever be….There’s no way that adults can appreciate the wonders of snow as much as kids can.” As Rabbi Larry Kushner writes, “There are places children go that grown-ups can only observe from afar.”

According to the Midrash on Job 37:6, G-d made the Earth from snow. “From where was the dry land of the earth made? From the snow that is under G-d’s Throne of Glory.” According to Maharal, the 16th Century rabbi of Prague, snow is an illuminating force tantamount to spiritual light. (Wait until you see the picture at the end of this post!) “That is why God made the earth from snow, because people on earth need to be reminded of God’s involvement in man’s affairs,” Rabbi Boruch Leff wrote in 2001. “Snow descends and covers the grounds as if to shout, ‘Remember that it is God that is constantly covering the ground and providing everything in our life.'”

Rabbi Everett Gendler used to have a snow service once a year where he would add poetry about snow and beautiful photos from the American Museum of Natural History. A similar resource is Kenneth Libbrecht’s book of photography, The Snowflake. As a CalTech physicist, he has spent his entire career studying snow crystals and his photography is gorgeous.

This year my birthday got snowed out. No services. No party. No dinner out. Just snow. One of my Boston friends suggested I build a snow sanctuary. “Why not?” I said. We are in the middle of reading the directions for building the tabernacle in the desert. They had lots of sand. We have lots of snow as a natural resource.

So on Wednesday at Hebrew School, we built a mishkan out of snow. We looked at pictures and building plans. We shoveled out the courtyard. We made snow walls. We went on a treasure hunt in the building. We spray painted a cardboard box to make the Ark of the Covenant. We found the tablets of the 10 Commandments and a brass pot for the brazen laver. We found a seven-branched menorah in gold. We found a challah for the “showbread”. We put of a Tent of Meeting. We used purple, blue and crimson. We turned a tallit into the veil separating the Holy of Holies. We used a rock for the altar. We built a fire. Then we had hot chocolate and popcorn and we talked about inviting the Presence of the Divine to join us.

It was a good day. I think the kids will never forget the winter they built a snow sanctuary.