Kommentar zu Dewarim 28:24

מטר ארצך אבק ועפר [GOD SHALL MAKE] THE RAIN OF THY LAND POWDER AND DUST, through “a wind that comes after the rain” as the Talmud says (Taanit 3b); rain will fall but not as much as is needed, so that there will not be sufficient of it to lay the dust; the wind will come and blow the dust about and cover the leaves of the vegetation which are still wet from the water and it will adhere to them and so become mud which will afterwards become dry, and they will rot (Taanit 3b).

מטר ארצך, an expression describing anything descending from the sky, as in Genesis 19,24 when Sodom and Gomorrha were showered with sulfur and fire. Psalms 11,6 also uses the word מטר in that sense.

When the wind follows a rainfall, etc. This is the expression of the Gemora. Rashi is answering: How can it say that rain will turn into dust and soil which are two opposites, and to have two opposites in one situation is impossible! Therefore he explains, “When the wind follows, etc.”

V. 24. מטר ארצך אבק ועפר. Statt des Regens und eben durch gänzlichen Mangel desselben wirbelt der Wind Staub und Erde in die Höhe und diese fallen vom Himmel auf Felder und Wiesen zum Verderben der Pflanzen herab. So Taanit 9 b אבק ועפר מן השמים היכי משכחת ליה אלא כיון דמדלי להתם מן השמים קרי ליה. Daselbst 3 b wird das יתן ד׳ מטר ארצך אבק ועפר dahin erläutert, dass unmittelbar nach Regen ein heftiger Wind Staub und Erde aufwirbelt und damit die noch feuchten Pflanzen zu ihrem Verderben bedeckt werden.

אבק ועפר, “powder and dust;” the strong winds which normally bring rain from the sky, will instead be sandstorms originating in the tops of the mountains so strong that they turn the trees’ roots upside down.

Not enough to settle the dust, etc. להרביץ is similar to the expression (Shmos 23:5), “Lying (רובץ) under its burden.”

אבק ועפר, the letter א has the vowel kametz under it.