“And water all” – Rabbi Elazar said in the name of Rabbi Yosei bar Zimra: Everything is blessed [when it rains]; commerce is blessed, and the merchants profit. Rabbi Yoḥanan bar Levi said: Even those afflicted with boils benefit [from the rain]. Rabbi Ḥiyya bar Abba said: The ill also benefit, and their limbs become light for them. Avimai, one of the scholars, used to visit the ill when the “permeation” rain fell.
Rabbi Ḥiyya bar Abba said to him: ‘How are they doing?’ He said to him: ‘They feel relief.’ Rabbi Abba says: Even a gemstone senses it [the rain].47The rain causes their quality to increase. The Rabbis say: Even the fish sense it.48Though they live underwater.
Rabbi Pinḥas said: There was an incident near Akko in which they caught a fish and, [based on its size], they estimated that it would weigh three hundred pounds, but they weighed it at two hundred pounds. There was an elderly fisherman there, who said to them: ‘It is because the “permeation” rain has not yet fallen.’ After it fell, they caught a fish and estimated that it would weigh two hundred pounds, but they weighed it at three hundred pounds.