For more than a hundred years, anyone who learned Likkutei Moharan I:159 had to take on faith the unusual idea that Rebbe Nachman teaches, that Tal, precipitation, can either be life-giving or hazardous. (Specifically he says that it can sometimes be unhealthy even bring plagues on livestock) After all, what can be harmful in normal healthy precipitation? It's water and it's freshwater at that.
In the past few months, scientists have come forth with the discovery that a large amount of precipitation, both snow and rain, contains live bacteria within it. The explanation works something like this: In order for rain drops or snow flakes to form, they need to gather around a sort of seed. We assumed in the past that they spawned around a dust particle, but it turns out that more often than not, they spawn around a particle of bacteria.
Most bacteria are harmless and some even beneficial, but some bacteria can be extremely harmful to plants, animals, or people. What seemed at first an outlandish statement by Rebbe Nachman has been proven scientifically possible 200 years later.
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