Rain and Wind

In the Musaf prayer of Shemini Atzeret we begin saying “He causes the wind to blow and the rain to descend.” This can be connected to the coming of Mashiach:

The phrase “He causes the wind (ruach) to blow” uses the same word as the verse “The spirit (ruach) of G-d hovered on the surface of the waters,” and our sages say “This is the spirit of King Mashiach.”

“He causes the rain (geshem) to descend” means that the coming of Mashiach actually occurs, in physicality (gashmiut-related to geshem). Not only “the spirit of Mashiach,” but a soul in a body, i.e. Mashiach in the simple, literal sense in this physical world.

Moreover, “geshem” has the numerical value of 343, and this is connected to the prophecy that in the Messianic future “the light of the sun will be seven-fold as the light of the seven days.” Rashi paraphrases this as “seven sevens as the light of the seven days, i.e. forty-nine sevens, equalling three hundred forty-three.”

(Sichat Leil Simchat Torah 5746)