Where the Earth Drinks Its Rain From the Sky

And from where does the earth drink? Rabbi Eliezer says: from the waters of the ocean, as it is said, "and a mist went up from the earth" (Genesis 2:6). Rabbi Yehoshua said to him: but are not the waters of the ocean salty? He replied: they are sweetened in the clouds, as it is written, "which the skies pour down" (Job 36:28) - where do they pour them down? In the skies. Rabbi Yehoshua says: from the upper waters, as it is written, "and drinks water of the rain of heaven" (Deuteronomy 11:11). The clouds gather strength from the earth up to the firmament and receive the waters as from the mouth of a wineskin, as it is written, "they distill rain from its mist" (Job 36:27). And they sift it like a sieve, and not one drop touches its fellow, as it is written, "darkness of waters, thick clouds of the skies" (2 Samuel 22:12). Why does Scripture call them shechakim [skies]? Because they grind [shochakin] the water.