Daily Bitachon

Welcome to Daily Bitachon on our Friday afternoon special Shabbat edition. The Sefer Yereim , written by one of the Rishonim, Rabbi Eliezer of Metz (Volume 2, Siman 410), teaches us that just as there is a mitzvah to fear the Beit HaMikdash , there is also a mitzvah to fear Shabbat. Now, as we know, there is no single definitive list of the 613 mitzvot in the Torah; while the Gemara tells us the total number is 613, many Rishonim count them differently. The Yereim specifically chooses to include the "Fear of Shabbat" on his list. What is his source? The Gemara in Yevamot 6a points to a comparison between Shabbat and the Beit HaMikdash , as it says in Vayikra 19:30 : " את שבתותי תשמורו ומקדשי תיראו " —"You shall keep My Sabbaths and fear My Sanctuary." Just as there is a mitzvah to fear the Sanctuary, so too there is a mitzvah to fear Shabbat. The Gemara continues by clarifying: " לא משבת אתה מתיירא " —"It is not Shabbat itself that you fear," " אלא ממי שהזהיר על השבת " —"but rather the One who commanded the Shabbat." This means there is a specific responsibility for Yirat Shamayim (fear of Heaven) on Shabbat, just as there is when one enters the Beit HaMikdash . Holiness in Three Dimensions The question arises: What is so unique about Shabbat that it warrants this special mitzvah? We have many commandments—like Tefillin—that God also commanded. Why is "fear" attached to this one? The answer, as we have mentioned many times, is that holiness ( kedusha ) manifests in three dimensions: Person, Place, and Time. The Kohen Gadol was the holiest person. The Beit HaMikdash is the holiest place. The Shabbat is the holiest time. In a sense, the Beit HaMikdash is our "Shabbat in space," and Shabbat is our "Sanctuary in time." We see this connection even in people; the Gemara says a Talmid Chacham is like the Beit HaMikdash . The Zohar even suggests that for a Talmid Chacham —who is immersed in Torah constantly—all seven days of the week are like Shabbat. Regarding the verse " את ה' אלהיך תירא " ("Fear Hashem your God"), the Sages teach lerabbot talmidei chachamim —this includes fearing the Torah scholar, who acts as a sanctuary where God dwells. God dwells in people, He dwells in places, and He dwells in time. The Atmosphere of the Day Once we understand this, the mitzvah to fear Shabbat becomes obvious. Just as you feel a sense of respect, sanctity, and decorum when you stand by the Kotel HaMa'aravi or enter a Shul, Shabbat demands the same. We must approach the day with dignity because its essence is kedusha . Entering Shabbat should feel like walking into the Holy Temple or into the presence of a great Gadol . I remember the sense of trepidation and awe when walking in to see the Steipler Gaon or Rav Shach. That same Yirat Shamayim is intrinsically woven into Shabbat. The Zohar even notes that the word "Bereishit" (In the beginning), when re-scrambled, spells "Yarei Shabbat" (Fear of Shabbat). This awe is the foundation of our entire Torah. A Gift from the Treasure House One commentary explains the famous Midrash where God says: " מתנה טובה יש לי בבית גנזי "—"I have a good gift in My treasure house [and its name is Shabbat]." What exactly is kept in God's treasure house? The Gemara says that the only thing Hashem keeps in His "storehouse" is Yirat Shamayim . Why? Because a person's treasure house usually contains the things most precious to them, often things they don't "possess" naturally. God "owns" everything, but there is one thing He doesn't "have" unless we give it to Him: " הכל בידי שמים חוץ מיראת שמים "—"Everything is in the hands of Heaven except the fear of Heaven." That fear is God's treasure. Every Shabbat, He gives us a "dose" of it from His private collection. He builds that awe into the very fabric of the day. The Natural Fear of the Day The Yerushalmi (cited by the Rambam in Hilchot Ma'aser ) brings down a fascinating concept regarding Terumot and Ma'asrot (tithes). Generally, the Sages did not trust an Am HaAretz (an unlearned person) regarding whether their produce was tithed. However, on Shabbat, if an Am HaAretz claimed the food was tithed, we believed him. Why? " אימת שבת על עמי הארץ "—"The awe of Shabbat is upon even the unlearned." The holiness of the day was so palpable that it would stop a person from lying or committing a transgression. While we may not feel that "natural" fear as instinctively today, it is something we are meant to work on. According to the Yereim , it is a direct commandment to maintain an extra sense of awareness and reverence for the sanctity of Shabbat

Daily Bitachon: The Structural Geometry of Plants Welcome back to our Sha'ar HaBechina plant series. Today, we look at what I found to be the most fascinating aspect of this research: the structural geometry of plants . The way leaves are arranged on a stem isn't random; it is mathematical. Most plants follow the Fibonacci sequence : $1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34...$ and so on. In this sequence, each new number is the sum of the two before it ($5+8=13$, $8+13=21$). The Efficiency of the Spiral Why does HaKadosh Baruch Hu put this math into plants? Because it is the most efficient way to survive. Imagine a plant growing leaves. If every leaf grew directly above the one below it, the top leaf would steal all the sunlight and rain, and the bottom leaves would die. By following a spiral based on these Fibonacci numbers, the plant ensures that each leaf is tucked into a gap where it can still see the sun. ![Illustration of leaf phyllotaxis showing Fibonacci spiraling] Packing Perfection Look at a sunflower or a pinecone. The seeds are packed so tightly there is no wasted space. This happens because the seeds grow in two sets of spirals that criss-cross. If you count the spirals going left and those going right, they are almost always two neighbor numbers from the sequence, like 34 and 55 . Lilies usually have 3 petals. Buttercups have 5 . Daisies often have 34, 55, or 89 . Pineapples have scales that form spirals following these exact counts. Binyan vs. Tzmicha: The Growing Building The late Rav Wolbe used to contrast Binyan (building) with Tzmicha (growth). A building is made of dead blocks following a blueprint; a plant grows organically. But the novelty here is that there is a "building" happening inside the growth! There is an architectural design working within the plant itself. It is a "growing building"—a structure that isn't happening randomly but according to a specific mathematical stamp of wisdom. The Golden Ratio: God's Favorite Recipe While the Fibonacci sequence is a string of numbers, the Golden Ratio ($approx 1.6$) is the relationship between them. It is a way of dividing things so they are perfectly balanced. Imagine a bar of chocolate. If you break it so the big piece is $1.6$ times larger than the small piece, and the whole bar is $1.6$ times larger than the big piece, you've hit the "Golden" proportion. ![Diagram of the Golden Rectangle and the Fibonacci Spiral] Why it Matters to Us Aesthetics: Humans find this ratio naturally pleasing. Your credit card, a standard index card, and even the Mona Lisa are shaped close to this ratio because it feels "right" to our brains. Art & Music: Artists place subjects at the "Golden Line" (about 60% across) to make an image feel stable yet dynamic. Some composers even time the climax of a song to hit at the "Golden Moment"—62% of the way through. The Universal Stamp This isn't just in plants. The same ratio appears everywhere: The Human Body: The proportion between your hand and your arm, or the features of a balanced face. The Cosmos: The spiral of a massive hurricane and the structure of the Milky Way galaxy follow this exact geometry. Microscopic Life: Even DNA molecules measure in a way that reflects this sequence. In the language of Bitachon , this shows us there is One Designer . He put His stamp on everything. As the Sha'ar HaBechina teaches, even though everything in creation looks different, there is a singular, divine similarity that runs through it all. This mathematical sequence is the "identity card" of the Creator, found in every corner of the universe.

Daily Bitachon: The Chemical Warfare and Social Media of Plants Welcome back to our series on Shaar Habechina . We often think of plants as helpless because they are rooted to one spot—unable to run from a hungry caterpillar or hide when a neighbor is attacked. However, Hashem has equipped them to be world-class chemists. Using a complex language of smells and underground signals, they fight back and share resources. As we discussed, a plant is a living laboratory; it is alive. The Plant as a Living Laboratory While its primary biology handles growing and eating, the plant produces secondary metabolites —special-force chemicals designed for specific missions: Deterrents (The "Get-Away" Chemicals): Many plants produce toxins or bitter compounds to stop predators. The heat in a chili pepper or the sting of mustard is the plant's way of saying, "Stop chewing!" Caffeine is actually a natural pesticide produced by coffee plants to paralyze or kill encroaching bugs. Attractants (The "Come-Here" Chemicals): These are the perfumes of the floral world, carefully designed to attract specific couriers—bees, birds, or bats—to carry their pollen. The Wood Wide Web: Nature's Internet Perhaps the most mind-blowing discovery in modern botany is that trees are not isolated individuals. They are connected by a massive underground internet made of fungi—a perfect symbiotic relationship . Tiny fungal threads called mycelium wrap around tree roots. The tree provides the fungi with sugar, and in exchange, the fungi scavenge the soil for minerals the tree cannot reach. Through this network, they send alerts. I remember working in a summer camp where an inspector would visit the kitchens. The first camp to get hit would immediately call all the other camps in the mountains to "get ready." Trees do the exact same thing! When a tree is attacked by a beetle, it releases warning chemicals into the fungal network. Neighboring trees receive the signal and immediately start pumping bitter toxins into their leaves to prepare for the attack before the beetles even arrive. There is even Chesed (kindness) in botany: older "mother trees" send extra sugar through this network to struggling saplings in the shade to help them survive. Calling the Police: Airborne Communication Plants also talk through the air. That distinct smell of fresh-cut grass? That is actually a distress signal . Some plants, when being eaten by a caterpillar, release a specific scent that attracts parasitic wasps. The wasps follow the scent, find the caterpillars, and remove them. The plant is essentially calling the police to handle the intruder. The Brain in the Roots The root system is a hidden mirror of the plant above. Roots are the plant's brain and sensory system: Gravity Sensing: Even in total darkness, a root knows which way is "down." Tiny starch grains act like weights, falling to the bottom of the cells to guide growth. Acoustic Navigation: Recent studies suggest roots can "hear" the tiny vibrations of water moving through pipes and will grow toward the sound. Selective Mining: Roots act as a sophisticated purification system, deciding which minerals to take in and which to block out. Masterpieces of Engineering: Seed Travel If a seed just falls straight down, it dies in the shadow of its parent. To solve this, Hashem engineered transportation devices that are masterpieces of physics: Aerodynamics: Dandelion seeds use "parachutes" to catch the breeze, while maple seeds are shaped like "helicopter" wings to spin and stay airborne. The Original Velcro: Burrs use tiny hooks to hitchhike on animal fur. This was the actual inspiration for Velcro! Organic Cannons & Bio-Boats: Some plants build up pressure until they literally explode, launching seeds away. Others, like the coconut, are waterproof "bio-boats" designed to float across entire oceans to find a new home. Everything we see—from the "Wood Wide Web" to the exploding seed—is a wonder of wonders designed for us to appreciate the infinite wisdom of the Creator.

The Wonders of the Plant: Xylem, Phloem, and the Growing Soul In our previous journey through Shaar Habechina , we explored the miracle of photosynthesis—how a plant manufactures glucose from thin air. But that process requires a constant supply of water. Without a mechanical heart, how do plants move water hundreds of feet upward against gravity? The Xylem: The Solar-Powered Straw The secret lies in the xylem . Think of it as a bundle of microscopic, hollow drinking straws running from the deepest root tip to the highest leaf. These tubes are made of dead cells, allowing pure physics—or as we know it, Hateva (Nature), which shares the Gematria of Elokim —to take over. Cohesion: Water molecules are naturally "sticky." They cling to each other like a long silver rope. The Solar Engine: The sun warms the leaf, causing water to evaporate through tiny pores called stomata . As one molecule leaves, it tugs the one behind it. This suction is strong enough to lift water to the top of a giant Sequoia. Root Pressure: While the sun pulls from the top, the roots push from the bottom. Through osmosis , the roots draw in water, giving it that initial upward nudge. An oak tree can "sweat" 40,000 gallons of water a year without spending a single calorie of its own energy. It is a hidden miracle of efficiency. The Phloem: The Intelligent Delivery Service While the xylem is a one-way street for raw water, the phloem is a multi-directional delivery service for the finished product: glucose. Smart Distribution: The phloem sends energy down to the roots, up to the flowers for nectar, and sideways into the fruit to make it sweet. The Pressure System: It works like a tube of toothpaste. By loading sugar into the tubes, water rushes in to dilute it, creating intense pressure that squeezes the sap exactly where the plant needs it most. A Living System: Unlike the xylem, phloem cells are alive . They require "companion cells" to act as life-support systems, managing sugar levels with incredible precision. Nefesh Hatzomachat: The Soul of Growth In Jewish thought, we call this the Nefesh Hatzomachat —the growing soul. As the Ramban explains (Bereishit 1:20), a tree isn't just a biological machine; it possesses a level of "life" that responds to its environment. The Midrash Rabbah (41:1) tells of a palm tree in Chamat that refused to bear fruit because it was "longing" for a palm in Yericho. Only after it was grafted with a branch from its "neighbor" did it produce fruit. We might think trees lack understanding, but as we see through these intricate systems of life and communication, there is a profound intelligence embedded in every leaf and root.

Our Journey Through Shaar Bechina: The Wisdom of Plants Welcome to our daily Bitachon session as we continue our journey through Shaar Bechina . We are currently exploring the unit on plants, where the Chovot HaLevavot instructs us to observe the botanical world, understand its myriad benefits, and contemplate the diverse natures of vegetation. He cites a powerful Pasuk from Melachim Aleph (5:13) regarding the wisdom of Shlomo HaMelech: "Vayeidaber al haetzim" —he spoke of the trees— "min ha-erez asher ba-Levanon ve-ad ha-ezov asher yetzei ba-kir" (from the great cedar of Lebanon to the hyssop that grows out of the wall). Simply understood, Shlomo HaMelech used his Divinely granted wisdom to analyze the intricate nature of plants. What is the "wisdom" hidden within a plant? To understand this, let's look at some of the general wonders found across the plant kingdom. 1. The Miracle of Photosynthesis The most profound wonder of the plant world is photosynthesis. Plants essentially live on "thin air" and light. Through this process, plants capture photons from the sun and convert water and carbon dioxide into glucose. As we know, glucose is sugar—the fundamental energy source we all need to survive. It is worth noting that every human invention—though Divinely inspired—finds its precursor in nature. Every leaf is a sophisticated solar panel, perfectly oriented to maximize sun exposure. While the plant "feeds" itself, it produces a byproduct: oxygen. This creates the very atmosphere that allows all complex life to breathe. The "Kitchen" of the Leaf To put photosynthesis in layman's terms, think of it like baking a cake. You need specific ingredients and a heat source: The Energy (The Oven): Sunlight. The Liquid: Water, drawn up through the roots. The Air: Carbon dioxide, breathed in through tiny pores in the leaves. Inside the leaves are millions of microscopic "factories" called chloroplasts , which contain a pigment called chlorophyll . Chlorophyll's job is to catch solar energy; this is why most plants appear green. The pigment absorbs red and blue lightwaves to power the factory and reflects the green waves back to our eyes. When sunlight hits the water inside the leaf, something incredible happens: the energy is so powerful that it splits the water molecule ($H_2O$) apart. The plant keeps the hydrogen to build its food and releases the oxygen as a "waste product." The plant doesn't need that oxygen for its own process, so it exhales it into the air—providing exactly what we need to breathe. Just as we learned previously that the sun "unlocks" the Vitamin D already inside us, the sun here "unlocks" the oxygen held within the water of the plant. 2. The Warehouse: From Glucose to Starch Once the plant has hydrogen from the water and carbon dioxide from the air, it uses its captured solar energy to assemble them into glucose . This is the plant's fuel. It uses some immediately for growth and stores the rest for later. However, there is a "packaging" challenge. Glucose is a simple sugar that dissolves easily in water—great for moving energy around, but too unstable for long-term storage. To solve this, the plant performs a sophisticated chemical "zipping" process: it links thousands of glucose molecules into complex chains called starch . Starch is like a compressed file; it is stable, doesn't dissolve easily, and packs a massive amount of energy into a small space. When we eat a potato or a grain of rice, our bodies simply perform the reverse: we break those starch chains back down into the glucose our brains and muscles crave. 3. Raiding the Vault vs. Accepting a Gift Plants store this extra energy in different ways, leading to two distinct types of "food" for us: The Tubers (The Vault): A potato is actually a swollen underground stem. The plant pumps it full of starch so that when spring arrives, the "eyes" of the potato have enough fuel to grow a new plant before they even reach the sunlight. When we eat a potato, we are essentially "raiding the vault," taking the fuel intended for the next generation. The Fruit (The Transaction): While tubers are for the plant's survival, fruits are designed to be eaten. This is Hashem's brilliant strategy for seed dispersal. While a seed is immature, the plant keeps the fruit sour, hard, and green. Once the seeds are ready, the plant converts starches into sweet sugars and changes the fruit's color to make it "pop" against the green leaves. This is a beautiful transaction: the plant pays an animal with a high-energy meal in exchange for the animal carrying the seeds to a new location and depositing them in natural fertilizer (manure). 4. The Ultimate High-Density Storage: Seeds Finally, we have seeds like beans, corn, and almonds. These are the ultimate "survival kits." Because a baby plant (the embryo) must grow its first root and leaf without any help, the parent plant packs the seed with a concentrated mix of starch, fats, and proteins. This is why nuts and grains are so calorically dense; they are the "first meal" for new life. Just as an egg contains a yolk to feed the developing chick, a seed contains the food for the plant embryo. When we eat these seeds, we are consuming the very sustenance God prepared for the next generation of growth.

Shabbat Creation and Yesiat Misrayim Welcome to the Daily Bitachon . Today on our Erev Shabbat series we speak of Shabbat . I saw a beautiful thought, real hashgacha pratit as it directly connects Sha'ar Bechina and Shabbat . The Sefer Neos Deshe written by the same author as the Avnei Nezer , a famous work. He asks the following question: Why is it that in Parshat Yitro and Ki Tissa , the reason for Shabbat given is to remember creation, and when it comes to Va'etchanan , the second Dibrot , it talks about zecher l'Yitziat Mitzrayim ? And he explains that there are two ways to recognize God. One of them is through creation, and the other one is through the miracles of Yitziat Mitzrayim . Now, which is the way to go? And he says they're both true. Looking into creation is a great way to recognize God, and he says that's what the Chovot HaLevavot bases himself on in Sha'ar HaBechina . But he says not everyone can do that and use that as a cause to recognize God. And therefore, we needed Yitziat Mitzrayim with all the wonders and all the plagues we saw with our own eyes in order that God's power and control should be seen openly to everybody. Further he says, the souls of yesteryear were very great souls, and they could see God just through creation, just through seeing the daily wonders. But the souls of later are not as powerful, their eyes are a little bit weaker, and if they don't see open miracles, they're not going to see it. But he says once a person has seen the miracles of Yitziat Mitzrayim and his vision starts getting clear, now he could see God in creation as well. And that's the additional work that we do now after we have Yitziat Mitzrayim . Explains the Gemara that says that in the future we will no longer talk about Yitziat Mitzrayim because the whole purpose of Yitziat Mitzrayim was only when we were weak and we needed to have those open miracles to see God. Once Mashiach comes and our vision will be clear, we'll go back to the pre-sin stage and be able to recognize God in creation. Now, hold on. If that's the case that we needed Yitziat Mitzrayim , then why is it the first set of commandments talk about Ma'aseh Bereishit and the second set of commandments go back to Yitziat Mitzrayim again? And he explains that after we got out of Egypt, we became purified and we were ready to see God through creation alone. But when we sinned the sin of the Eigel HaZahav , we dropped. And then we have to keep on reminding ourselves of Yitziat Mitzrayim first and then we can see God through creation. And he says therefore in Yitro and in Ki Tissa , which both were mentioned before the sin of the Eigel HaZahav , we talk about Ma'aseh Bereishit . We could see God through creation alone. After the sin of the Eigel HaZahav , we need to always start again with Yitziat Mitzrayim . We see God through Yitziat Mitzrayim . Everything's zecher l'Yitziat Mitzrayim . Pesach , which is coming soon, we work on Yitziat Mitzrayim . And therefore we can't do anything, even our Shabbat , without first going through Yitziat Mitzrayim because we need to have that clear understanding that we got from the open miracles to remove that layer from our eyes and now we're able to see things clearly and now once we see things clearly due to the message of Mitzrayim , we can once again start looking into creation and seeing God there. So it turns out that every single day of the year we talk about zecher l'Yitziat Mitzrayim in our Kriat Shema . We need that, and once we have that, then we can start going on to our Ma'aseh Bereishit which is our Sha'ar HaBechina . So all of our Sha'ar HaBechina work is important work. That's how Avraham Avinu got there. But in our times, we can't start with that. And that's probably why answers our question on the world, why don't we see the world spending their time on Sha'ar HaBechina ? And the answer is it's not so simple. Sha'ar HaBechina isn't so simple, but again it's important, that's the whole Chovot HaLevavot depends on that. That's the building. the building block of a person's personal search, but again it starts with the clear and open miracles of Yetziat Mitzrayim . That's a beautiful thought on Shabbat . Again, that's what we're talking about, that Shabbat has to be both Zecher L'ma'aseh Bereshit and once we get that message, we can go on to

The Platypus and the Kangaroo: A Daily Bitachon Class Welcome to our daily Bitachon class in our Sha'ar HaBechina series. We are exploring the wonders of the animal world, and today we're talking about the duck-billed platypus. I'll give you a second to think back to your elementary school days—do you remember why a platypus stands out from every other mammal? I'll give you three seconds... The answer is: it's the only mammal that lays eggs! But we aren't even going to talk about that today. We're looking at its "duck bill." We've discussed machines of endurance like the camel and machines of speed like the cheetah; now, we are looking at a high-tech submarine. Hashem equipped this creature with the world's most sensitive "metal detector," allowing it to navigate a world made of electricity. 1. The Electrical "Minesweeper" Imagine trying to find a single grain of rice hidden under mud at the bottom of a lake in total darkness while wearing a blindfold and earplugs. That is exactly how a platypus hunts. When it dives, it seals its eyes, ears, and nostrils completely shut. It is effectively blind and deaf to the physical world, yet it never misses its prey. The platypus's bill isn't hard like a bird's; it's soft, flexible, and packed with over 40,000 electrical sensors. The Bio-Electric Spark: Every time a living creature moves a muscle—even a tiny shrimp flicking its tail—it creates a microscopic spark of electricity. The Scanning Motion: As the platypus swims, it wags its head side-to-side. It is literally scanning the water like a minesweeper, picking up tiny voltage changes in the mud. It doesn't "see" its prey with eyes; it sees the electricity that the prey is leaking! 2. The Master Calculator: Flash and Click But seeing the electricity isn't enough. The platypus's brain is a master calculator that uses two different sensors to find the exact "GPS coordinates" of its dinner. It has an Electrical Sensor that picks up the "flash" of the muscle movement (which travels instantly through water, like light). It also has a Vibration Sensor that picks up the physical "click" or ripple of the movement (which travels much slower). By measuring the microsecond delay between the "flash" and the "click," the platypus knows the exact distance and direction of its dinner. It's like counting the seconds between a lightning flash and a thunderclap: Imagine you're in a dark football stadium. You're blindfolded, but you have a light sensor and a sound sensor. Your friend claps their hands. The light sensor goes off the millisecond the clap happens because light is the fastest thing in the universe. The sound of the clap takes a bit longer to reach your ears. If you perceive the flash and the clap at the exact same time, your friend is right in front of you. If there's a delay— one, two, three —you know they are way across the stadium. That is exactly how the platypus works! It feels the "spark" instantly, then waits for the "ripple." If they hit at the same time, it snaps its jaw—lunch is served. If there's a delay, its brain calculates: "The ripple took 0.05 seconds to get here, so the shrimp is three inches away." It's doing high-speed math without even thinking! 3. The Kangaroo: The Perpetual Motion Machine Now for our kangaroo. We know they jump and have pouches for their young, but let's talk about how they recycle energy. In the Australian Outback, food and water are scarce. If the kangaroo had to "pay full price" for every mile it traveled, it would burn out. Instead, it uses the laws of physics to travel for "free." In almost every other animal, going faster requires more fuel. But once a kangaroo reaches a certain speed, it actually uses less energy to go faster! It's like a biological hybrid car. The Secret: The Tendon Battery The secret is in the massive Achilles tendons. Think of the kangaroo's legs as giant, high-tension rubber bands. When a 150-pound kangaroo lands, its body weight stretches that "rubber band" to the limit. Instead of that energy being wasted as a "thud" against the ground, the tendon stores it as elastic energy. When the kangaroo jumps again, the tendon "snaps" back, flinging the animal into the air. The Result: 70% of the energy from the previous jump is "refunded" into the next one. The muscles barely do any work; the physics of the snap does it for them. The "Third Leg" We usually think of a tail as a rudder, but the kangaroo's tail is essentially a third leg. It's packed with more muscle and bone than a human leg! When moving slowly, the kangaroo uses its tail like a crutch to push itself forward. This saves the "high-performance" springs in its back legs for the long-distance travel. Don't think car makers are the only ones who know how to save energy; HaKadosh Baruch Hu did it first with the kangaroo. All of these are wonders of design!

Welcome to our daily Bitachon class. We are now talking about the wonders of Sha'ar Habechina and we're up to the camel. Now let's not look at a camel as just a regular old animal but as a high-tech biological machine engineered specifically for the most hostile environment on Earth. While we carry a water bottle that eventually runs dry, the camel is the water bottle and here's how it works. In humans our round blood cells are shaped like little red donuts if you ever took a science class and saw what they looked like under a microscope. If we get dehydrated our blood gets thick like syrup. Those round donuts get stuck in the pipes which are our veins causing a traffic jam that leads to organ failure and that's why people can lo aleinu die from dehydration. Camel blood cells are shaped like footballs. They're oval so even when the blood gets thick and sludgy from heat these footballs can slide through narrow passages more easily than round discs. Another interesting aspect is that when a camel finally finds water and drinks 30 gallons in one sitting its blood volume expands rapidly. A human's round cells would pop like overfilled water balloons. However the camel's oval cells are incredibly stretchy. They can swell up to two and a half times their original size to soak up the water without bursting. So that's why A they can last long without water and when they finally do drink they could store more water. Now every time you exhale on a cold day you see a cloud. That cloud is actually water leaving your body and it becomes gas for a moment and then disappears. That is not a very good thing in the desert to lose water. So the camel has a cooling sponge inside its nose. It's packed with bone and tissue that act like a massive sponge. As the camel breathes out this tissue steals the heat from the breath and because cold air can't hold as much moisture as warm air the water vapor turns back into liquid. It condenses right there in the nose and instead of breathing out the water into the desert air the camel's nose traps and sends it back into the bloodstream so it's essentially recycling its own breath to stay hydrated. Now another interesting fact is the hump. Of course the hump is not filled with water but the hump is fat and here's the genius of God's design. When the body burns the fat for energy it produces water as a chemical byproduct. It's like a backup battery that creates a tiny bit of juice as it drains and that's what's happening over here. The camel is built in a way to survive on less water. Next we'll talk about the cheetah which is the fastest on land animal that can go to a speed of 70 miles an hour. How does that work? Now what really's working is that the cheetah is a living slingshot we'll explain in a moment what that means. To contrast it to the camel where God built the camel for endurance and saving the cheetah's built for a single violent burst of energy. It's all about acceleration. Most animals use their legs like pistons in an engine. They push and the body moves. A cheetah uses its legs of course but it uses its spine as a second motor. Imagine a metal slinky. When you compress it it stores energy. When you let go it snaps open. When the cheetah runs its spine curves upward like a bow bringing its back legs past its front legs. Imagine that. The back legs are going in front of the front legs because the spine bends up. When the spine snaps straight again it flings the body forward. This allows the cheetah to cover 23 feet in a single leap. Because the spine is doing so much work the cheetah actually spends about half its sprint flying. It only touches the ground to reload the spring for the next jump. So that's the first aspect is that speed. Now it's chasing something. It has to make turns. If you try to turn a car at 60 miles an hour on a dirt track you spin and flip. So a cheetah has the same problem so what did Hashem do for it? He created a counterweight. The tail is surprisingly heavy and muscular so when the cheetah needs to make a sharp left turn to follow its prey it whips its tail hard to the right. This tail whip shifts the cheetah's center of gravity and creates a counterforce that pulls it back to the middle and saves it from this wreck. Other cats like lions and house cats have claws that can go in and go out. The cheetah cannot retract its claws. As they stay out all the time, acting like a track spike to provide permanent grip on the dirt. Now, you need to take in a lot of oxygen to give that energy. So its nasal passages are massive to suck in huge amounts of oxygen. Now, again, these are all very important things that don't have time and millions of years to mutate and then come back and all together. So you have to have that spring, because you need the speed, but if you had that speed and you didn't have the oxygen, you wouldn't make it. So you've got these two things working together nicely. It would have crashed into the wall without that heavy tail. So we've got the heavy tail, we have the spring, we have the turbo intake. But interestingly enough, it's a sprinter, not a marathon runner, because it can only hold this speed for 20 to 30 seconds because it's so fast, its brain would start to cook. So it knows to stop after that first burst and hopefully catches its prey on that one. So here we have two unbelievably engineered mammals, our camel and our cheetah.

Welcome to our daily Bitachon Shaar Bechina series. We have finished our journey through the world of fish, insects, and birds, and now we move on to the mammals. The Giraffe: A Masterpiece of Biological Engineering We often hear the theory of Evolution and Natural Selection used to explain the giraffe's long neck—the idea that taller giraffes reached higher leaves, survived, and passed those traits down. But when we look closer at the "wonders" necessary for that neck to actually function, we see a level of design that goes far beyond just "getting taller." The 25-Pound Engine: To pump blood all the way up that neck, a giraffe needs a heart far more powerful than a human's. It possesses a 25-pound heart that produces double the blood pressure of a human. The "Exploding Brain" Problem: Normally, when a giraffe dips its head to drink, the sheer force of gravity combined with that high pressure should cause its brain to explode. The Divine Solution: Hashem provided a pressure-dampening system —a cluster of highly elastic blood vessels that act as a biological surge protector. These vessels regulate blood flow so precisely that a giraffe can shift its head from 18 feet in the air to ground level in seconds without losing consciousness. The Expansion Tank: The skull contains a network of vessels that function like an industrial expansion tank. When the head is lowered, they expand to absorb the blood; when raised, they constrict to squeeze blood back to the brain so the giraffe doesn't faint. The Anti-G Suit: To prevent blood from pooling in its lower legs under such high pressure, the giraffe has exceptionally tight, thick skin. It works exactly like a fighter pilot's anti-G suit or compression stockings, forcing the blood back up the veins toward the heart. The Elephant: The Seismic Acoustic Radar Next, we look at the elephant, which possesses its own "secret language" and a sophisticated vibration-sensing system. The Subwoofer Effect: Elephants communicate using low-frequency rumbles. Like standing next to a giant subwoofer at a wedding, you don't just hear the bass; you feel it thumping in your chest. These rumbles flow around obstacles and can travel over 150 miles . Hearing with Feet: An elephant's foot isn't a hard hoof; it's a shock absorber filled with a gelatinous fat . These fatty pads act like magnifying glasses for vibration, catching tremors from distant storms or other elephants and funneling them through the leg bones to the ear. Biological GPS: With specialized nerve endings (Pacinian corpuscles) in their feet and trunks, they can detect a vibration as small as a microscopic hair moving. By comparing when a vibration hits each of its four feet, the elephant's brain triangulates the exact direction of the sound. The Purpose of the Design: This allows them to find water sources by "feeling" a thunderstorm days before it arrives and helps lost family members recognize a relative's specific "voice" through the ground from miles away. The Wisdom As we learn in Chovot HaLevavot , these are not random accidents of nature. They are extremely sensitive tools built by God to ensure survival. Just as He provided the giraffe with a surge protector and the elephant with a seismic radar, He surely provides us with the tools we need to find our "water" and our "missing mates" in life.

Welcome to our daily dose of Bitachon as we continue in Shaar Habechina in the wonders of the fish world and today we'll have a very interesting one: the flying fish. The wonder is it can fly for over 600 feet and reach heights of 20 feet above the water, and it could stay airborne for up to 45 seconds. It has an asymmetrical tail, the bottom lobe is longer, and oversized fins that function as a type of wing. What is the purpose of this? To escape fast-swimming predators by launching into a different medium where the predator's speed advantage becomes zero. Imagine you're just chasing a car and then it just disappears, well that's basically what the predator is feeling when it chases this flying fish. The flight doesn't start with wings, as we know it's underwater, so it can't start with its wings. It starts with a specialized engine. As the fish's body leaves the water, the long bottom lobe of the tail remains submerged. It vibrates its tail 70 times per second, acting like an outboard motor, continuing to accelerate the fish after its body is already in the air. By flying inches above the waves, the fish traps a cushion of air between its wings and the water surface. This ground effect provides extra lift and allows the fish to travel much further than it could in the open sky, saving vital energy during its escape. Now, there's another big problem that this fish should have because transitioning from water to air is difficult because light refracts differently in each medium. So flying fish have flattened corneas. This specialized eye shape allows them to see clearly both underwater and in the air. Most fish are effectively blind the moment they break the surface, but the flying fish maintains its situational awareness. Now let's keep reminding ourselves: these are multiple adaptations that are all necessary together in this fish. They can't develop separately. There's no reason to have flat corneas if you're staying underwater all the time. There's no reason to have a tail that vibrates 70 times per second. And another thing I left out is that they have enlarged fins that act as wings, which other fish don't have. So all these things are working in sync to create what's necessary. Again, evolution doesn't know how to do that, or quite anything. One of the most interesting fish is the deep sea anglerfish. The wonder is in a world where food is scarce, it doesn't search for prey. It brings them to its mouth. How so? It grows a fishing rod out of its spine that glows with a blue-green light. They use curiosity as a weapon, luring prey through the dark abyss towards its enormous needle-like teeth. So they're basically like the light that attracts flies. Now where does this light come from? I'm sure you're familiar with symbiosis, which is a phenomena where different creatures work together to help each other's survival. And the light is not made by fish. It is made by bioluminescent bacteria that live inside a specialized bulb on the fish. So the fish benefits from these bacteria because it gives it the light that it needs. So basically this specialized bulb is a high-tech apartment for the bacteria. Now what do the bacteria gain out of it? The fish provides the bacteria with oxygen and nutrients from its own blood. In exchange, the bacteria provide light through a chemical reaction. The fish can turn the light off by constricting the blood flow to the bulb, allowing it to vanish instantly if a larger predator appears. And again, symbiosis is a wonder of wonders how fish work in tandem. Why in the world would you need a fishing rod if it couldn't attract anything? And you have to have this bulb on top. Well how would you know that these bacteria would decide to rent space in this specialized bulb coming out of your spine? All of these things can. And maybe one day we'll dedicate some classes on the phenomena of symbiosis, how different creatures work together in synchronization

Welcome to our daily Bitachon and our weekly Shabbat message. As Purim approaches, we'll discuss our second class on the connection between Shabbat and Purim. The Megillah says bayamim hahem ("in those days") regarding the story of Esther. The Midrash Esther points out that this same phrase appears in Nechemia 13 , discussing chilul Shabbat (desecration of Shabbat), where Nechemia saw people pressing grapes on the holy day. The Midrash explains that during Achashverosh's party, the angels argued before God: "The Beis HaMikdash is destroyed, and this rasha (wicked man) is partying!" Hashem responded that the days of the party corresponded to the days the Jewish people had desecrated Shabbat. We see here that a root cause of the Megillah story was a weakness in Shabbat observance. The Shield of Shabbat It is interesting to note that when Amalek first attacked— Vayavo Amalek —the Gemara ( Shabbat 118b ) tells us that if the Jewish people had not desecrated Shabbat by attempting to gather the mann (manna), Amalek never would have come. Haman and Amalek are only empowered when the Jewish people falter in Shabbat. The Sefer Hago'os Vechidushim notes that on the seventh day of his party—which was Shabbat—Achashverosh intentionally brought out promiscuous topics. He wanted the Jewish people to sin specifically on Shabbat because he knew that is where their power lies. However, the Jewish people passed the test; while the Persians were acting lewdly, the Jews were busy with Divrei Torah and Divrei Tishbachos (words of praise). Esther's Seven Maidens The Gemara in Megillah 13a asks why Esther had seven maidens. Rava explains it was so she could keep track of the days of the week to ensure she never forgot Shabbat. Each maiden had a name representing a day—for argument's sake, we'll call Sunday's maiden "Sunny" and Monday's "Moonie." This allowed Esther to count, "Today is day one to the Sabbath... today is day two..." until the seventh maiden arrived on Shabbat. The Sefer Rei'ach Dudaim (from the Bnei Yissaschar) explains that Esther was so meticulous because she knew that if the Jewish people kept Shabbat, it would lead to the destruction of Amalek. This is why we read Parashat Zachor —the command to remember to wipe out Amalek—specifically on a Shabbat. Measure for Measure On that same Shabbat, Vashti was executed. The Gemara ( Megillah 12b ) notes this was mida keneged mida (measure for measure). Because Vashti forced Jewish girls to work on Shabbat while unclothed, she was ordered to appear before the King in the same manner, leading to her death. The Siftei Chachamim adds that both Achashverosh and Vashti were engaged in a "tug of war" to make the Jews sin on Shabbat. We fought back then—and we fight back now—by keeping Shabbat properly with Kiddush, Torah, and song. The Root of Emunah In Shemot 17 , we see the sequence: the people gathered manna on Shabbat, then they arrived at Rephidim and complained about water, asking: "Is Hashem among us or not?" Immediately after this question, Amalek attacked. Rashi famously compares this to a child on a father's shoulders asking, "Where is my father?" The father puts the child down, and a dog bites him. So, did Amalek come because they lacked Emunah (faith), or because they broke Shabbat? The answer is: both . If they had kept Shabbat, their Emunah would have been so fortified that they never would have doubted God's presence. The Navi Yechezkel ( Chapter 20 ) says God wanted to destroy the Jews in the desert because they desecrated His Sabbaths. Rabbi Yaakov Kaminetsky asks: wasn't it the Golden Calf or the Spies that caused that decree? He answers that the weakness in Shabbat was the "gateway" sin. Without the shield of Shabbat, their Emunah crumbled, leading to the Golden Calf, the Spies, and eventually the destruction of the Beis HaMikdash . Turning it Around To turn everything around, we need a chizuk (strengthening) in Shabbat. This is the opportunity of Shabbat Zachor . By strengthening our Shabbat, we provide the spiritual power to finally wipe out Amalek.

Daily Dose of Bitachon: The Master's Design Welcome back to our study of Shaar HaBechina . Today, we look at three marine creatures that appear physically vulnerable but are equipped with high-tech biological systems for survival. These examples highlight how the Creator balances a creature's weaknesses with extraordinary, "custom-built" strengths. 1. The Cuttlefish: The World's Most Advanced Camouflage The cuttlefish lacks a hard shell, making it a soft target. To compensate, Hashem gifted it the most advanced active camouflage system on Earth. Unlike a soldier's static uniform, the cuttlefish uses a multi-layered biological screen made of "pixels"—tiny sacs of pigment called chromatophores. Rapid Change: By contracting or relaxing muscles around these sacs, it can change its color pattern in less than 200 milliseconds —faster than a human blink. Texture Mimicry: It doesn't just change color; it changes its physical shape. Specialized muscles can transform smooth skin into a jagged, rocky texture to match granite or seaweed. To a predator, it doesn't just look like a rock; it feels like a rock. Hypnosis: It even uses its skin to hunt, creating rhythmic, moving waves of light that daze and hypnotize prey before it strikes. 2. The Box Jellyfish: The High-Pressure Defense The box jellyfish is 95% water and extremely fragile. Because its body would be torn apart in a physical struggle with a thrashing fish, it requires a "one-hit" solution: Instant total system failure of its prey. The Mechanism: Its tentacles are lined with millions of microscopic capsules that fire venom with the acceleration of a bullet . The Potency: It carries enough venom to kill 60 adult humans. This isn't "overkill"—it is a necessary biological deterrent for a creature that cannot afford to fight back. 3. The Electric Eel: The Mobile Power Plant The electric eel is a master of electrochemical engineering. It can generate a discharge of up to 860 volts —enough to stun a horse or power forty lightbulbs. What is truly remarkable is its dual-voltage regulation : Low Voltage: Used as a biological radar to navigate murky waters. High Voltage: Used for "remote control." The eel sends out bursts that force the muscles of hidden prey to twitch. Once the prey twitches and reveals its location, the eel strikes. Modern battery packs actually follow the same engineering principles that eels have used from the beginning of time. Conclusion: The Master Artist Whether we look at the cuttlefish's "photography," the jellyfish's "chemistry," or the eel's "electrical engineering", we see the same hand at work. Hakadosh Baruch Hu —the Master Artist and Engineer—provides every vulnerable creature with exactly what it needs to flourish.

Daily Dose of Bitachon: Wonders of the Deep Welcome to Daily Dose of Bitachon. We continue in our Shaar HaBechina section, exploring the world of fish and the specific wonders found therein. Today, we'll look at three incredible examples of Divine design. 1. The Archerfish: The Underwater Sniper The archerfish is a true specialist. It uses a high-pressure jet of water to shoot down insects sitting on branches above the surface, hitting moving targets from six feet away with 100% accuracy. This presents a massive physics challenge: when looking from water into air, light bends ( refraction ), making an insect appear to be where it isn't. However, the archerfish's brain contains a built-in refraction correction program . Much like corrective lenses, its brain automatically adjusts for the visual distortion. To pull this off, the fish requires three synchronized systems: Binocular Vision: Eyes positioned specifically to see upward through the surface. The Blowgun: A deep groove in the roof of its mouth that, when pressed by the tongue and powered by the gills, acts as a barrel for a bolt of water. Rapid Calculation: The ability to calculate distance and light-bend in a split second. Evolution struggles to explain this; a "partial" blowgun or "partial" refraction correction offers no benefit. They only work—and provide survival value—if they function perfectly together. The answer is a Designer : Hakadosh Baruch Hu. 2. The Sailfish: The Liquid Shield The sailfish can reach speeds of 68 mph . At that velocity, the friction of the water would tear the skin off a normal fish. To survive, it uses micro-turbulence . Its V-shaped scales create tiny swirls of water that act like biological ball bearings, allowing the ocean to slide past with almost zero resistance. Furthermore, its famous sail isn't just for show. It acts as a stabilizer (like a keel) during turns, but the moment the fish strikes, it folds the sail into a specialized groove on its back. This transforms the fish into a perfectly smooth, drag-free torpedo. 3. The Great White Shark: The Biological Voltmeter While we rely on eyes, the Great White Shark possesses a sensory suit that detects bio-electrical signatures . It can sense a heart beating or a gill twitching in total darkness. Its snout is covered in hundreds of jelly-filled pores that act as voltmeters . This jelly has the highest proton conductivity of any biological material, allowing the shark to detect a gradient as tiny as five billionths of a volt per centimeter . It converts these electrical fields into nerve impulses, telling the shark exactly where its prey is located. The Song of Creation These aren't just "nature facts"—they are the wonders of God's design. This study is a profound spiritual exercise. In Tehillim 148 , when David HaMelech calls upon the world to praise Hashem, he begins with the heavens ( הללו את ה' מן השמים ). But when he turns to the earth ( הללו את ה' מן הארץ ), the very first thing he mentions is: "Tanninim vechol tehomot" — Sea giants and all watery depths. The ocean is the starting point for praising the Creator from the earth, and through these wonders, we see w

Welcome to Daily Bitachon We are currently exploring Shaar Habechina , discussing the incredible wonders of creation. Today, our journey takes us beneath the waves as we talk about the world of fish. Before we dive into specific species, let's look at the "engineering" Hashem granted to aquatic creatures in general. 1. The Challenge of Buoyancy The first challenge of underwater life is stability—maintaining a specific depth without constantly burning energy to keep from sinking or floating away. To solve this, Hakadosh Baruch Hu created a gas-filled sac called a swim bladder . By precisely adjusting the gas inside this organ, a fish achieves neutral buoyancy, effectively becoming weightless at any depth. Hashem even lined the organ to make it perfectly gas-tight and positioned it near the spine—the ideal "sweet spot" to ensure the fish remains upright automatically. It's the same principle a submarine uses with ballast tanks, but Hashem embedded this technology directly into the fish's anatomy, allowing it to remain perfectly still while resting or waiting for prey. 2. The Gills: A Masterpiece of Efficiency The next challenge is extracting oxygen from water, which is far denser and contains significantly less oxygen than the air we breathe. To overcome this, Hashem designed a counter-current exchange system . In the fish's gills, blood flows in the opposite direction of the water flowing over them. This brilliant arrangement ensures that oxygen-poor blood is always encountering oxygen-rich water along the entire length of the gill. Without this "opposite-flow" system, fish would receive only half the oxygen they need to survive. It is an unbelievable piece of Divine design. 3. Navigation Without Waze How do you know where you're going in the vast, trackless ocean? Similar to what we see in birds, fish possess tiny magnetic crystals in their brains that act as an in-born compass , sensing the Earth's magnetic field. Furthermore, they have an incredibly sensitive sense of smell. They can detect the unique chemical signature of their "home river"—a scent imprinted on them when they were tiny fry—allowing them to return exactly to where they came from after traveling thousands of miles. 4. Seeing in the Dark In the murky depths, sight isn't always enough. Hashem created a series of fluid-filled canals along the sides of the fish's body containing sensory hairs. This system allows the fish to detect minute pressure waves . They can literally "feel" the vibration of a predator or the movement of prey from a distance, even in total darkness. The Acoustic Engineer: The Blue Whale To see this wisdom in action, let's look at one fascinating creature: the Blue Whale . A Blue Whale's call is louder than a jet engine and can travel over 1,000 miles underwater. To put that in perspective, that's like someone in New York having a clear conversation with someone in Florida without a telephone. But it's not just about volume; it's about understanding the environment. Imagine the ocean as a multi-story building. Usually, sound spreads out in every direction and fades quickly. However, between 2,500 and 4,000 feet down, there is a "sweet spot" where temperature and pressure hit a perfect balance. In the warm upper layers, sound travels too fast and scatters. In the crushing bottom layers, it doesn't work either. But in that middle layer, sound creates a natural lane that traps noise. Instead of fading, the sound bounces back into the center of this layer, like shouting into a long, smooth hallway. When a Blue Whale wants to find a mate a thousand miles away, it doesn't just sing anywhere. It dives down until it hits that specific "hallway" and lets out its 188-decibel call . Because the sound is trapped in that layer, the energy stays focused, allowing another whale on the other side of the ocean to hear the "ping" as if they were standing right next to each other. The Lesson in Bitachon It is fascinating to realize two things: The Design: G-d created an "underground telephone line" within the very physics of the ocean. The Instinct: The whale has the "understanding" to find that line and use it to communicate. Everything we see in modern science is just a replica of the technology Hakadosh Baruch Hu naturally embedded into creation from the very beginning.

Purim & The Shabbat Connection Welcome to our daily Bitachon series, and specifically to our special Erev Shabbat edition where we discuss the holiness of the day. As Purim approaches, it is the perfect time to explore the deep connection between Shabbat and the miracle of Purim. The Megillah tells us: "On the seventh day, when the heart of the king was good with wine..." (Esther 1:10). The Gemara is immediately bothered by this. This was the seventh day of the elite Shushan party, which followed 180 days of worldwide celebration. Why, only on day 187, was Achashverosh finally "content" with his wine? The King of the World The Gemara explains a fundamental rule of the Megillah: Whenever it says the word Hamelech (The King) without the name Achashverosh, it can be understood as a reference to God, the King of the World. We even see this in "Hamelech Megillot," where the top of every column begins with that word. Another famous example is "On that night, the sleep of the King was disturbed" (Esther 6:1). This doesn't just mean Achashverosh couldn't sleep; it means the King of the World "awoke," so to speak. Does God Sleep? The Midrash points out a contradiction in Tehillim. One verse says: "Behold, the Guardian of Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps." Yet another verse cries out: "Awake! Why do You sleep, O Lord?" The Gemara explains that this "sleep" depends on us. When we aren't keeping the mitzvot, God is kavyachol (as it were) asleep; He hides His face. This is why Haman said of the Jews, "Yeshno am echad" —there is a certain nation. The word Yeshno can be read as Yashen (sleeping). When we sleep spiritually, God remains in Hester (hiddenness)—the root of the name Esther . But when we awaken ourselves through Teshuvah , God "awakes" for us. Through the repentance of the Jewish people in Shushan, the King's "sleep" was disturbed, and the salvation began. The Contrast of the Seventh Day The Gemara in Masechet Megilla explains that "the seventh day" refers to Shabbat . On that day, the King of the World was "happy with wine." Which wine? The wine of the Jewish Kiddush . God looked at the contrast. The Midrash says that when the Persians celebrated, they spent their time in drunken, crude arguments about whose women were more beautiful. Achashverosh eventually said, "Bring Vashti to show everyone." The rest is history: she refused, she was executed, and the door opened for Esther. The salvation of Purim was birthed on Shabbat because God saw how we celebrate versus how the world celebrates. He saw us sanctifying the day with Kiddush while others were descending into debauchery. The "Et Ratzon" of Shabbat This isn't just a Purim story; it happens every week. The Tur explains that during Shabbat Mincha, we say: "As for me, may my prayer to You, Hashem, be at an auspicious time (Et Ratzon)..." Why is Mincha time on Shabbat so auspicious? The preceding verse in Tehillim mentions those who "sit and drink beer." King David is highlighting a contrast: What do other nations do on their day off? They are in the bars or rolling in the gutters. But what do the Jewish people do? Yes, we ate; yes, we drank; yes, we slept—but here we are, back in Shul for Mincha. When God sees us turn a "day off" into a "holy day," it creates a massive Et Ratzon in Heaven. That is the secret of Purim and the power of every Shabbat. By choosing to use our rest for praise and holiness, we arouse God's presence and bring about our own salvation.

Class #50: The Supersonic Engineer and the Neurological Wonder Welcome to our daily dose of Bitachon . We are currently in Sha'ar HaBechina , observing the breathtaking wonders of Hashem's creation. Today, we will look at two creatures that seem "lowly," but possess engineering that leaves scientists speechless. I. The Mantis Shrimp: The Supersonic Engineer First, let's look at the Mantis Shrimp. This creature doesn't just punch its prey; it manipulates the laws of physics. The Mantis Shrimp has a club-like arm, but it doesn't move it with muscles alone—muscles would be far too slow for this level of speed. Instead, Hashem designed it like a high-tension crossbow . The Spring: The shrimp uses its muscles to slowly pull back its club, locking it into place with a physical latch while compressing a saddle-shaped piece of its exoskeleton. This acts as a powerful spring, storing a massive amount of potential energy. The Trigger: When it spots its prey, it releases the latch, and all that stored energy is dumped into the strike instantly. The acceleration is 10,000 Gs—roughly the speed of a .22 caliber bullet. But the strike is only half the wonder. Something "magical" happens next. Imagine pulling a plunger out of a sink very fast; for a split second, there's a gap—a vacuum—behind it. The shrimp's arm moves so fast it leaves a "hole" in the water. In physics, water boils for two reasons: high heat or extremely low pressure . Because the pressure in that "hole" is so low, the water turns into a vapor bubble instantly without any heat. This is called a cavitation bubble . Within microseconds, the surrounding ocean pressure crushes that bubble. When it collapses, the energy is focused into a tiny point, and for a fraction of a second, the temperature reaches 8,500 degrees Fahrenheit —nearly as hot as the surface of the sun! Even if the shrimp's physical club misses the snail or crab, the resulting shockwave and heat are enough to stun or kill the prey. It is mind-boggling: Hashem made this tiny shrimp not just a master boxer, but a supersonic engineer. As the Chovos HaLevavos teaches us, Hashem provides every creature with the exact, sophisticated tools it needs to survive. II. The Star-Nosed Mole: The Speed of Thought Next, we look at the Star-Nosed Mole. Moles live underground in total darkness. They can't see, and to us, they might look like "ugly" or "lowly" creatures. But how does Hashem allow them to "see" their food? The answer is Touch-Vision . The Sensory Array: The mole has 22 pink tentacles on its snout. These aren't for grabbing; they are biological sensors. Each tentacle is packed with 25,000 microscopic receptors. To give you an idea of the sensitivity, this tiny nose has more sensors than the entire human hand . It doesn't just feel a worm; it feels the microscopic texture of the worm's skin. The Scan: Just as we scan a room with our eyes in quick jumps, the mole "scans" with its nose, tapping it against the mud 13 times per second . Each tap sends a massive burst of data to its brain. The mole's brain is so specialized it can identify if an object is food or dirt in just 8 milliseconds . To put that in perspective, it takes about 10 milliseconds for a single nerve impulse to even travel through a human body. The mole is making life-or-death decisions faster than electricity can move through a wire . The entire process—detecting, identifying, and eating—takes about 120 milliseconds. The human blink of an eye takes 300 milliseconds. This means the mole can decide and eat three times before you can finish a single blink. Closing Thought We see from here that Hashem's "hidden" wisdom is everywhere. Whether it is a shrimp in the depths of the ocean or a mole in the dirt beneath our feet, Hashem has invested incredible "computational power" and "engineering" into every inch of creation. If He cares this much about the "vision" of a mole, imagine how much He is overseeing every detail of our lives.

Wonders of the Desert: The Namaqua Chameleon & The Gaboon Viper Welcome to our daily Bitachon series. We are continuing in Shaar Bechinah , looking at the wonders of the reptile world. Today, we have two incredible examples of how Hashem provides every creature with exactly what it needs to survive, even in the most extreme conditions. 1. The Namaqua Chameleon: The Living Solar Panel In the Namib Desert, the temperature is a roller coaster. At dawn, it's a freezing 32°F , but by noon, it's a blistering 140°F . How does a small lizard stay alive? Hashem gave it a "smart skin" that acts like a biological thermostat. The Crystal Shield: Its skin contains layers of tiny crystals. By stretching or relaxing its skin, the chameleon changes the distance between these crystals. This literally changes the color of its skin to either absorb or reflect heat. The Split-Body Trick: In the freezing morning, the chameleon does something mind-blowing: it divides its body in two down the spine! The Sunny Side: Turns carbon black to soak up every bit of heat. The Shady Side: Stays light-colored to keep that heat from escaping. The Noon Shield: When the sun is at its peak, the chameleon turns bright white . Just like a white car stays cooler than a black one, this reflects the infrared radiation, acting as a heat shield to keep its internal organs from "cooking." 2. The Gaboon Viper: The Retractable Needle Imagine having to carry two long kitchen knives in your mouth all day. If they were always sticking down, you could never close your mouth! The Gaboon Viper has the longest fangs of any snake— two inches long —but Hashem designed a perfect solution. The Pocket-Knife Design: Its fangs are on hinges . When its mouth is closed, the fangs fold back flat against the roof of its mouth, just like a folding pocket knife. The Spring Action: Only when it opens its mouth to strike do the fangs "spring" forward into a vertical position. The Benefit: This allows the snake to look harmless until the last second, reach through thick fur or feathers, and still swallow its food comfortably because the "needles" simply tuck out of the way. The Lesson in Bitachon We have to reiterate this: This is not "evolution." A chameleon wouldn't have ten days to "evolve" a cooling system—it would be roasted by noon or frozen by dawn on Day One. These systems had to be perfect from the very start. As we often say, "Evolution" is just the word used by some to avoid saying Hashem . Even the snake, which was cursed in the Torah, is provided for with an unbelievable system. If Hashem puts this much detail into the skin of a desert lizard and the fangs of a viper, imagine the Hashgacha (Divine Providence) He has over each and every one of us.

Bitachon: Sha'ar HaBechina – Biological Engineering and the Hand of Hashem Welcome back to our daily Bitachon series. We are continuing in Sha'ar HaBechina , looking at the wonders of Hashem's creations to strengthen our trust in Him. Today, we're going to look at some unbelievable structural and mechanical engineering in the world of reptiles—specifically how Hashem provides for them when conditions seem impossible. 1. The Marine Iguana: The Skeletal Alchemist Many of you have seen lizards in Florida, but there is a specific type in the Galapagos Islands called the Marine Iguana. This is the only vertebrate known to literally edit its own skeleton in response to its environment. The Crisis: When the ocean warms during certain seasons, the cold-water algae that these iguanas eat dies off. Suddenly, they have no food. Now, if you have no food, you have to eat less—but your body is a certain size and has a certain "minimum "requirement" to survive. We think of the rachmana litzlan situation of the hostages; they are fed just enough to live, but there's a limit to how long a body can survive on that. The Divine Solution: What does this iguana do? Its body releases specialized hormones that activate cells to reabsorb bone minerals back into the bloodstream. The Wonder: This isn't just weight loss; the animal actually gets shorter . By reducing its bone length and density, it lowers its metabolic rate. A smaller frame requires less blood to be pumped and fewer calories to maintain. It's like a small child needing less than an adult. The Reversal: This isn't permanent. When the cold, nutrient-rich currents return, the iguana's body reverses the process, depositing the minerals back and growing to its original size within months. A Point of Bitachon: Some animals migrate when food is scarce. But here, Hashem says, "Ha-yad Hashem tiktzar?" (Is the hand of Hashem too short?). He shows us He can feed this creature right where it is by physically changing its very structure. 2. The Florida Iguana: The Emergency Shutdown You don't have to go to the Galapagos to see wonders. People told me that this past winter in Florida, it got quite cold—under 30 degrees. This led to the famous reports of "falling iguanas." Cold Stunning: When the temperature drops to 40°F, these cold-blooded lizards enter a state called "cold stunning." The nervous system stops sending signals to the muscles, their feet lose their grip, and they tumble from the trees. The Shutdown: They look dead, but they aren't. It is a biological emergency shutdown. The heart rate slows to a few beats per minute, and breathing almost stops. By shutting down movement, the body diverts all remaining oxygen and glucose to the brain and the heart. The Resurrection: As soon as the sun comes out, the "frozen" iguana simply wakes up and walks away. Hashem, in His mercy, provided a "short-term hibernation" to keep them alive through the freeze. 3. The Egg-Eating Snake: The Internal Sawmill We'll end with a fascinating piece of mechanical engineering. There is a snake that eats only eggs. The Mechanical Challenge: An egg is a geometric masterpiece designed to resist external crushing. If you stand on an egg correctly, it won't break. For a snake, biting an egg is nearly impossible—it would just slip out of its mouth. The Internal Saws: This snake doesn't have traditional teeth. Instead, inside its throat are 20 to 30 bony spikes called hypapophyses . They are downward-pointing extensions of its spine, tipped with enamel harder than the snake's own jawbone. The Process: The snake swallows the egg whole into its neck, then undulates its muscles to saw the egg against these internal spikes. The moment the shell is breached, the pressure causes it to implode perfectly. The snake drains the liquid, folds the shell into a cigar shape, and coughs it up. The Reality of Design: Again, the "scientific" books say, "Evolution stripped this snake of teeth to make room for an industrial toolset." Think about that language! They speak of "Evolution" as if it's a conscious being with a plan. In truth, "evolution" is often just a word people use when they don't want to say the name of the true Architect: Hakadosh Baruch Hu. If Hashem goes to these incredible lengths to provide a "sawmill" in the neck of a snake—the very creature that caused the downfall of the world—imagine the care and detail He puts into providing for you .

Bitachon: Shaar HaBechina – The Divine Artistry of the Reptile World Welcome to our daily Bitachon Shaar HaBechina series. We are following the directive of the Chovos HaLevavos to contemplate the various creatures of the world and uncover the wonders of Hashem. Ultimately, recognizing this intricate design is what builds and strengthens our Bitachon . Today, we look at the world of reptiles, specifically two vipers that showcase Hashem's mastery of deception and design. 1. The Spider-Tailed Horned Viper: The Biological Puppet Found in the rugged mountains of Iran, this snake possesses arguably the most specialized predatory tool in the entire reptile kingdom. At first glance, it appears to have a large, juicy spider crawling near its tail, but this is no separate insect. The Wonder: The "spider" is actually a cluster of modified scales that perfectly resemble an arachnid's abdomen, surrounded by long, hair-like scales that look like legs. The Strategy: The viper understands Causality —it knows that a bird's survival depends on a lightning-fast reaction to moving insects. The snake twitches these "legs" independently of the rest of its tail, creating a hyper-realistic imitation of a scuttling spider. The Divine Setup: Because the snake's body is colored exactly like the limestone rocks of its habitat, the bird's eye ignores the snake, seeing it as a mere boulder. It fixates entirely on the "meal." The viper's head is usually positioned in a "U-turn" fashion, resting just inches from the decoy, ready to intercept the bird mid-flight. As the bird dives for the spider, it is actually diving into the snake's open jaws. A Point of Bitachon: We must pause here. When you look this up in scientific books, you often see the kefirah (heresy) of "evolution." They claim that over billions of years, a tail just "decided" to turn into a spider-like decoy through random mutations. This is absolute craziness. How could a blind process "know" exactly what a spider looks like to a bird? This is the clear Hand of Hashem, who programmed the DNA to grow a masterpiece of deception to provide for the snake's sustenance. 2. The Gaboon Viper: The Master of 3D Geometry Next is the Gaboon Viper, which uses complex geometry to create a camouflage that is virtually perfect. The Depth Illusion: In the Chumash , when discussing Tzaraas , Rashi mentions the phrase "marehu amok min ha-or" —its appearance is deeper than the skin. It looks deep even though it is flat. Hashem built this exact optical illusion into the skin of the Gaboon Viper. The Ultra-Matte Surface: Most snakes have smooth scales that reflect light, but the Gaboon Viper has micro-textured scales that are "ultra-matte." They absorb light rather than reflecting it. This ensures that no matter how bright the sun is, the snake never "shines," which would otherwise give away its position. Mathematical Artistry: The patterns on its back are a series of interlocking triangles and rectangles. The lighter colors mimic sun-drenched leaves, while the dark purples mimic "negative space"—the deep, dark holes between leaves on the forest floor. The Artist of All Artists: The pattern is so precise that it creates a 3D illusion of depth on a flat surface. Think about that: how can a living creature grow in such perfect geometric and mathematical patterns? When we see a beautiful building, we know there was an architect and a blueprint. Here, the blueprint is in the DNA. The Gemara says, "Ein Tziyar K'Elokeinu" —there is no artist like our God. Hashem is the ultimate Tziyar ; He doesn't just paint on a canvas; He causes the image to grow with mathematical precision. He creates 3D depth on a flat skin to hide His creature in plain sight. The Lesson in Bitachon When we see the lengths Hashem goes to in order to "program" a snake with a spider-decoy or a 3D-camouflage suit just so it can find its food, we realize how much detail goes into the Parnassah (sustenance) of every living thing. If Hashem is the Architect of a snake's tail, surely He is the Architect of our lives and will provide for us in ways we cannot even imagine.

Shabbat is the Hanukat HaBayit Welcome to Daily Bitachon , today a Friday edition lechovad Shabbos . For those of you who've been listening, we've been talking about Sha'ar HaBechina for quite a while. There's a beautiful Midrash Tanchuma that says that Shabbos is like a chanukas habayis when somebody buys a new house and invites guests and shows them the house. Similarly, God created the world in six days and rested on the seventh day and on the seventh day He invites everyone into the home to see the house. And that repeats itself every single week because every single week God created the world and rested on Shabbos and we go through that same cycle. And what are you supposed to do when you come to someone's new house? You're supposed to say wow, what a beautiful house. Notice all the beautiful woodwork and the furniture and the moldings and the kitchen and the living room and the dining room and the couches and the throw pillows and all the details of the house. So too Hakadosh Baruch Hu when He invites us into His house, we're supposed to ooh and aah over all the things that are going on. And with that Rabbi Yitzchok Isaac Sher explains two very interesting things about our tefillah . One of them is the mizmor in Tehillim of מזמור שיר ליום השבת where if you read through it, it's a song of Shabbos , it doesn't tell you anything about Shabbos . You think מזמור שיר ליום השבת should say the thirty-nine melachos and we go to shul and we eat. It doesn't say that. מזמור שיר ליום השבת starts tov lehodos lashem . It's a good idea to thank Hashem . כי שמחתני ה' בפעלך במעשה ידיך ארנן. I'm excited and thrilled about Your handiwork. And then I go and I say hold on, I don't understand some things, what's going on over here? The wicked are flourishing, the wicked are prospering. We have an answer for that. What does that have to do with Shabbos ? And the answer is we're going into the chanukas habayis and we're looking around saying wow, ooh, ah, wait a minute, I don't understand what that knob is doing over there, I don't understand what that bump on the ceiling is doing. Oh that happens to be a smoke alarm, you don't know about smoke alarms. Oh that's a dummy pad that we're going to use for sconces that are coming soon that aren't on order. You don't know and you have questions. But you see that the house is immaculate and there's a great wonderful architect, so you know everything's good. And that's exactly what's going on in our world. There's a great architect called God and He knows how everything's supposed to be. And if there's something that doesn't make sense, it's because I don't understand it. And that's the job of מזמור שיר ליום השבת and that's our job every Shabbos , to appreciate the house. And that's really what Sha'ar HaBechina is all about, appreciating Hashem in creation. And he said there's two things that he points out. That's one. The second beautiful thing is that all year, all week long we say יוצר אור ובורא חשך ending with yotzer hame'oros . We talked a lot about the sun. Every single day we make a bracha on the sun. Suddenly on Shabbos we have א-ל אדון על כל המעשים, we go through a whole added piece on the sun. And in the middle of the yotzer hame'oros we start talking about Shabbos . What's going on over here? Why are we talking more about the sun on Shabbos and why are we talking about Shabbos when we're talking about the sun? Where does that fit in? It's a great question. I understand you want to say the amidah of Shabbos is different, good. But we don't change Krias Shema , we don't change Baruch She'amar . What are we suddenly changing our daily yotzer or bracha and intertwining Shabbos in there and adding more about the sun? And his answer is because it's chanukas habayis day. And as we talked about one of the greatest things we have is the luminaries. לעושה אורים גדולים כי לעולם חסדו. That's the source that God is constantly renewing creation, it's all from the luminaries. It's like wow, what a chandelier God. Five thousand seven hundred and eighty-six years and it's still glowing. You didn't change the lightbulbs once. No electricity bill. It's unbelievable. So since Shabbos is the day of the chanukas habayis , we talk about Shabbos with the sun and we enhance the sun on Shabbos because that's what we're supposed to be doing on Shabbos , talking about and appreciating creation. That is the job of Shabbos , tov lehodos lashem . And it's really our responsibility. All that we've been doing. You could print out all your notes that we have from the past few weeks. You want to talk about a turtle or a snake or a crocodile, that's Shabbos talk because you're saying wow, look at that beautiful... Faucet on the sink, look at those unbelievable, beautiful flowers, look at the wondrous pictures on the wall, that's every alligator, every frog, every crocodile, every lizard. Those are the wonders that HaShem made and that's what's to be talked about at the Chanukah table.

Welcome to our daily dose of Bitachon series. We're now in Shaar Habechina and we're going to go into the world of reptiles as the Chovat Halevavot gave us a directive to look into the things that crawl and slither. Let's look to the signs of wisdom in general before we go into the specifics. The first one is their thermal engineering. Unlike birds and mammals that must burn food constantly to stay warm, reptiles are engineered as ectotherms. We'll see what that means in a minute. A reptile's metabolism is designed to be switched off or slowed down to a fraction of a mammal's rate and they use the sun as an external battery. This allows a large reptile like a crocodile survive for months or even a year without a single meal while a mammal spends ninety percent of its energy just maintaining its body's temperature, the reptile is a masterpiece of energy conservation. It only spends its energy when it's absolutely necessary for the hunt. Parenthetically, that's why they're known as cold-blooded versus hot-blooded. Mammals are hot-blooded, we have to constantly heat up our bodies. That's one very interesting thing about the reptiles. The next one is their ability to see. Many reptiles live close to the ground or hunt in the dark and therefore they possess sensory tools that go beyond the five human senses. They have what we call chemical sight. When a snake flicks its forked tongue, it isn't tasting the air, it's collecting chemical molecules and delivering them to an organ in the roof of its mouth. The fork shape allows the snake to smell in stereo. It can detect if a scent is stronger on the left or the right, providing a chemical map of its surroundings. Other snakes have thousands of heat-sensitive nerve endings on their faces. This allows the snake to see the heat signatures of warm-blooded prey in total darkness. They can detect temperature changes as small as .003 Celsius. So they basically have a built-in night vision provided by Hashem himself. Now one of the things we're supposed to look into is their special form and structure, the snake which lacks legs as we Jewish people know as a punishment for the sin of the original snake, yet God in his mercy is going to let them have a different locomotion of moving without limbs. How does this work? A snake's spine can have up to four hundred vertebrae to give a perspective, humans only have thirty-three. Each of these vertebrae has a pair of ribs attached to powerful muscles. This allows for rectilinear locomotion where the snake moves in a straight line by rippling its belly scales like a conveyor belt. It can climb, swim, and burrow all without a single limb. So whereas God on one hand limited their ability to walk but God created a different path of function which is this type of serpentine movement. That's why it has the term serpentine movement because it's the movement of a serpent. That's our little introduction to the world of creeping, crawling reptiles and creatures. Many of them lizards and we will get to more of it.

Welcome to our daily Bitachon . We're in Shaar Habechina , looking into the wonders of creation, and we're talking about insects now. There's a certain wasp that's called a jewel wasp that is almost like a neurosurgeon. It turns a cockroach into a zombie to serve as a living, fresh food source for its larvae. How does this happen? It delivers a precise sting directly into the cockroach's brain, targeting the exact cluster of neurons that controls the escape reflex. So this disables the host's will to move while keeping it alive and walking so it could be led to a burrow like a dog on a leash. Now, there's more wisdom than just sticking the needle in, because it has to be a probe. As the stinger enters the cockroach's head, the wasps use sensors on the tip to feel for the brain, and once it's in there, it has to find a certain part of the brain and gives a dose of venom that targets the dopamine receptors inside of the cockroach's brain. And therefore it loses its motivation to run. It can still walk but it can't run. And actually the wasp is saving energy by walking its prey home rather than carrying it. And this is not the only creature that God gave this ability to, so to say, hijack another animal and turn it into a zombie. This is really a subject on its own. There are many, many examples of this. We'll give you one other example. There's a type of hairworm which can grow up to four times longer than its cricket hosts. It begins life as a microscopic larva that the cricket accidentally consumes while drinking water. Once inside the cricket's body, the worm develops over several weeks, eventually occupying most of the host's body cavity. The infected cricket continues to behave normally for most of this period. But as the worm nears maturity, something sinister occurs. The parasite begins producing proteins that affect the cricket's nervous system, compelling the normal insect that is used to being on the ground to seek out water sources. When the cricket reaches a pond, stream, or even a swimming pool, it plunges in despite being unable to swim. Once in the water, the mature worm bursts from the cricket's body and begins its aquatic reproductive phase. The cricket, now fatally injured and waterlogged, typically drowns. Science has discovered that these worms can alter their host's behavior so precisely that infected crickets are three times more likely to jump into water than healthy ones, even when presented with the same environmental cues. So this is again a wonder of wonders. In order to keep this hairworm continuing to reproduce, Hashem gave it the ability. Again, it's got to get back to the water. It starts in the water. The cricket drinks it as a larva in the water. It grows in the cricket and then brings the cricket back to the water for it to once again start its reproductive system. So we have two zombie examples where one creature takes over the brain of the other one. And there are many such examples, but this is just a little flavor of what God can do. We will now talk about the flea. Everyone heard of the statement: if you lie down with dogs, you get up with fleas. What are fleas? There are actually 2,500 species of these small flightless insects that live as external parasites on mammals and birds. Fleas live by ingesting the blood of their hosts. They lack wings as we said, they are flightless insects. So if they lack wings, how do they move around? We'll get to their hind legs that are very well adapted for jumping. We'll get there in a minute. But they have special skin-piercing parts in their mouth and they're great at sucking blood. They carry disease and they're responsible for a famous disease called the bubonic plague. It was responsible for the Black Death that swept through Asia and Europe and Africa in the 14th century and killed an estimated 50 million people. This is all the different plagues that happened over the years. So what makes the flea so deadly is you can't swat him. He just moves so fast. He jumps 200 times its body length at tremendous speed. Now, how do they jump? What gives him the ability? Muscles alone couldn't do it. So what does it do? In the flea's knee joint is a pad of resilin, which is an elastic protein. The flea cocks its legs and locks them with a latch, which compresses this resilin pad. When the latch is released, the energy is put into this jump in a fraction millisecond creating a launch speed that no muscle could achieve. So, again, this flea needs blood. He's got to move around. So and he's got to be swat free. He's got to be unstoppable to get around. And that's the flea, this common flea that's on dogs and all over the place. He has to have this special design to make him successful. And we continue with

Welcome to Daily Bitachon , we're now in our Sha'ar Bechina going through the wonders of creation, and we're in the world of insects, and today we're going to talk about the dragonfly. The dragonfly is the most successful predator on earth with a hunting success rate of over 95%. It doesn't chase prey; it intercepts it by calculating where the mosquito will be in the future. It's a famous hockey saying, I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been. Well, the dragonfly made that up. How does that work? Its eyes contain 30,000 individual facets, giving a nearly 360-degree view, and it can move each of its four wings independently. The dragonfly's nervous system calculates the prey's velocity and trajectory instantly. The results, it meets its prey at a future point in space, similar to how a quarterback throws a ball to a running receiver. As we said, each one of its four wings is powered by its own set of muscles, which allows the dragonfly to flap the front and back wings out of sync, even flap one wing while the other stays still. And therefore can hover, fly backwards, and make high-G turns that would snap the wings of an ordinary bird. Again, God gave this tremendous wisdom to this little creature. Another famous one, the firefly. It is a master of bioluminescent efficiency, outperforming every light bulb ever made by man. A firefly's light is 100% efficient. It produces cold light with zero heat loss. It utilizes a chemical reaction between luciferin and oxygen, regulated by an enzyme called luciferase. The purpose of this color is to create a visual light language for mating, identification, obviously without the risk of the insect's body catching fire. And as we said, it's 100% efficient. In a standard light bulb, 90% of the energy is wasted as heat; in a firefly, 0% is wasted. The chemical reaction is so perfectly tuned that every bit of energy is converted into a photon of light. This allows the insects to glow brightly for hours without draining energy it reserves or overheating its internal organs. One more for today, the water strider. The water strider is a physicist that treats the surface of a pond like a solid trampoline. It glides across the water at speeds of 100 body lengths per second without ever breaking the surface. Its legs are covered in thousands of microscopic hairs that trap air bubbles. So it never actually touches the water; it touches a layer of air. And these hairs are grooved to trap air, which creates a cushion that prevents the water from wetting the leg. The bird-like light frame stays suspended on the water's surface tension, using the dimples in the water to push off like a sprinter off a starting block. So this way, it can exploit a habitat where it's safe from land predators and can detect the vibration of drowning insects. So as we're seeing, every single one of these insects is given a wondrous tool in order for its survival specifically in its habitat. And again, wonders of wonders of our Creator.

Daily Bitachon: Shaar HaBechina (Insects) Welcome to our daily Bitachon. We continue in our Shaar HaBechina series, following the directive of the Chovot HaLevavot to look deeply into the different parts of creation. This week, we are discussing insects, and we'll start with the spider. The Master Chemist: The Spider Spiders are master chemists, producing up to seven types of silk from specialized glands. Let's talk about its strength: spider silk is thinner than a human hair but stronger than steel. It is even stronger than Kevlar , the synthetic fiber used to reinforce tires, helmets, and vests. If a spider strand were as thick as a penny, it could hold a 747 airliner . That is truly remarkable. There is also a brilliant architecture behind their webs. They are engineered to "localize" damage; if one section breaks, the rest of the structure remains intact, allowing for an easy repair rather than a total rebuild. And look at Hashem's wonders in how He allows spiders to live underwater. There is a "diving bell spider" that acts like a scuba diver. It spins a silk bell between plants and hauls air bubbles from the surface to fill it. It even possesses water-repellent body hairs that trap a thin layer of oxygen, acting as a portable scuba tank when it leaves its bubble to hunt. Some spiders build life-sized decoys of themselves using bug corpses and silk; predators like wasps attack the dummy 90% of the time! Others, like garden spiders, weave zigzag patterns of non-sticky silk that mimic the patterns of flowers. This tricks pollinators into flying directly into the web, increasing the catch rate by 50%. To finish the job, they have advanced weaponry to pierce the hard armor of other insects. Their fangs are reinforced with metal atoms—copper, magnesium, iron, and zinc—essentially making them built-in hypodermic needles. The silk itself is a liquid inside the body that instantaneously solidifies upon contact with air. A baby spider, without any instruction, can engineer a mathematically precise web in under thirty minutes. The spacing and tension follow sophisticated architectural principles to ensure the threads don't snap when a fly struggles. And that is just one little insect. The Chemical Engineer: The Bombardier Beetle Next, we have the Bombardier Beetle , a master of chemical engineering and pressure management. When threatened, it shoots a boiling spray at enemies with a literal gunshot sound. How does it work? It stores two harmless chemicals separately, mixing them only in a reinforced combustion chamber when under attack. If they weren't stored separately and the chamber wasn't protected, the beetle would kill itself. This deterrent is so hot and painful that even much larger predators retreat instantly. The beetle's abdomen is a biological lab. It has two storage tanks—one for hydroquinone and the other for hydrogen peroxide . On their own, they are inert. But when squeezed into the reaction chamber, the beetle adds specialized enzymes that act as a detonator. The reaction is so violent it reaches 100°C (212°F) instantly. The beetle doesn't just explode; it aims. Its exit valve is highly flexible, allowing it to swivel the nozzle and hit a predator precisely. The Navigator: The Honeybee Now for something more common: the Honeybee . A honeybee can fly from its hive, visit thousands of flowers, and return home with pinpoint accuracy. This is a "traveling salesman" before we ever had GPS! They utilize a sun compass and can see polarized light, allowing them to know the sun's position even on overcast days. To do this, they have complex eyes that detect the vibration of light waves. Even if the sun is hidden by clouds, they see the patterns. And like many other creatures, they communicate. One single bee can recruit hundreds of others to a specific patch of flowers miles away. That's why you know that when one bee enters your sukkah , many others are likely to follow—they share the good news! The Mathematician: The Desert Ant Finally, consider the Desert Ant . He needs to get home fast because the desert heat could kill him in minutes. How does he find his way? Scientists found that these ants have a pedometer —they count every step—and a built-in compass to track every turn. He might zigzag all over the desert looking for food, but the moment he finds it, he heads home in a perfectly straight line. He kept track of every direction and every step. Scientists proved this by putting "stilts" on an ant to lengthen its legs. When the ant tried to go home, it overshot its nest! Because its legs were longer, 100 steps took it much further than usual, but its internal computer told it that it hadn't reached home yet. Every creature, whether a bird or an ant, has a system built in by Hashem to get them home. We talk about humans having a "good" or "bad" sense of direction, but we have no sense of direction at all compared to the desert ant!

Shabbat: Zecher l'Yetziat Mitzrayim Welcome to our daily Bitachon. Today, Friday, we have our special Shabbat Dvar Torah. It is interesting to note that in this week's Parashah, Parashat Yitro, we find the Aseret HaDibrot where one of the Ten Commandments is זכור את יום השבת לקדשו —"Remember the Sabbath day to sanctify it." We also know that in Parashat Vaetchanan, we read the second version of the Dibrot , which says שמור את יום השבת —"Keep the Sabbath day." The main difference between the two—besides Zachor and Shamor —is that the first Dibrot tell us to remember Shabbat vis-à-vis Maaseh Bereishit (the Creation). God is the One Who created the world; therefore, we work for six days and rest on the seventh to remember that He, too, created the world in six days and rested on the seventh. The second Dibrot , however, speak about remembering Yetziat Mitzrayim (the Exodus). Now, it is quite obvious what Maaseh Bereishit has to do with Shabbat—it's the six-and-one pattern. But what exactly about Shabbat causes us to remember the Exodus? This is a simple but vital question, because every Friday night in Kiddush we mention both: Zecher le'Maaseh Bereishit and Zecher l'Yetziat Mitzrayim . The Power of Association Remembering something means that a specific trigger sparks a memory—an association of sorts. For example, if I say the word "orange," what do you think of? Some might say the color, some the fruit, and some might think of Florida. That is an association. If I say the word "mask," what does that mean to you? It could mean Corona; it could mean Purim. The word triggers a specific memory. In that sense, a mask could be Zecher l'Corona or Zecher l'Purim . So, when I hear the word "Shabbat," why do I think of Yetziat Mitzrayim ? It is an important question because the Torah places it right in the Ten Commandments and we repeat it in our Kiddush. Two Reasons for the Connection We will offer two reasons, though I am sure there are many more: Ownership of Time: The simplest reason, cited by most Rishonim , is that a servant does not own his own time. A slave cannot simply decide to take a rest; they are subjected to backbreaking work. If you are in a slave labor camp, you don't just take a nap in the middle of the day. If you can take a nap, it's an indication that you are in charge of your own time—you are the boss, not the slave. Therefore, when we rest on Shabbat—when you take your Shabbat afternoon nap—think to yourself: "I have the right to take a nap. I own my time." That only happened because Hashem took us out of Mitzrayim. The Scrolls of Faith: Many of us know that even before the Exodus, Shabbat existed for the Jews in Egypt. When Moshe was a newly appointed prince, he asked his stepfather, Pharaoh, to give the workers a day off, arguing they would work better with rest. The day he chose was Shabbat. On those days, Moshe distributed scrolls which the people would read to strengthen their Emunah . When we take that day off today, it reminds us of the Shabbat we had in Mitzrayim, and how we used that time to strengthen our Emunah and Bitachon . Rabbi Yaakov Kamenetsky notes that if you read Mizmor Shir L'Yom HaShabbat (Tehillim 92), it doesn't actually talk about Shabbat. So why is it the "Song for the Sabbath Day"? He explains that starting from Tefillah L'Moshe (Tehillim 90), there are eleven chapters written by Moshe Rabbeinu. These were the very scrolls he gave out to the slaves in Egypt to give them chizuk . Mizmor Shir L'Yom HaShabbat contains the concept of Tzaddik Katamar Yifrach —that the righteous will blossom while the wicked are cut down—and concludes Tzuri Velo Avlatah Bo , that God is our Rock and there is no iniquity in Him. That was the chizuk they practiced in Mitzrayim on Shabbat. Deepening the Experience So, we have two ways Shabbat triggers the memory of the Exodus: Remembering that we are free people who own our time. Remembering the spiritual preparation we did while still in slavery. I also saw a beautiful thought from the Alter of Kelm regarding how we can maintain excitement for Shabbat week after week. He says you have to delve deeper. You have to really think into these topics—think into Maaseh Bereishit and Yetziat Mitzrayim . The more you delve into them, the more you will appreciate and gain from the day. Shabbat Shalom.

Daily Bitachon Series: Shaar Habechina Welcome to our daily Bitachon. We are in Shaar Habechina now, delving into the wonders of the birds. Today, we are going to talk about the telescopic eye of the Eagle . The eagle is like a high-altitude plane designed for visual dominance over its territory. 1. The Eagle's Telescopic Vision An eagle can spot a rabbit moving from over two miles away. If a human had eagle vision, they could read a newspaper from across a football field or see an ant crawling on the ground from the roof of a ten-story building! Hashem made it so that their retina has five times more light-sensing cells than ours. They have deep telescopic lenses that magnify the center of their field of view. Their lenses are set up to give them the equivalent of what we have on our phones as a "panoramic view," but they can also lock in on a specific target with binocular depth perception at the same time. And, of course, like the woodpecker, they have a "third eyelid." This additional membrane blinks down to clean the surface of the eye and keep it moist without the eagle losing sight of its prey for even a millisecond. While we have to lose our vision in the "blink of an eye," the eagle can blink and still see, even while making a dive at a hundred miles an hour! 2. The Periscope of the American Woodcock Another example where Hashem gave an animal the exact eyesight it needs is the American Woodcock . This bird is designed for life on the forest floor, where danger can come from any direction. Hashem made it so that the Woodcock can see in a complete 360-degree circle without moving its head. It sees behind itself as clearly as it sees in front! Its eyes are set so far back and high in the skull that the visual fields overlap in both the front and the back. This "periscope design" allows the bird to keep its beak deep in the mud searching for worms while simultaneously watching the entire sky for predators. 3. The "Upside-Down" Brain In order to position the eyes correctly, the brain had to be shifted. Because the eyes are moved to the top of the skull, the brain was literally pushed down and tilted. It is essentially "upside down" compared to other birds. As we know, the eyes must connect to the brain through the Optic Nerve —that high-speed fiber-optic cable that transmits electric impulses from the retina to the visual processing center. In our bodies, the brain sits above the eyes (which is why we have a forehead), but for this bird to see the way it does, its brain had to be flipped. This is clear evidence of a plan and purpose. Evolutionists don't have billions of years for these things to "work themselves out," because all the Woodcocks would have been eaten by predators long before the eyes and brain moved into the right place! 4. The Tweezers in the Mud Now, we have a problem: if the eyes are on top of the skull, how does the beak find food? It is essentially searching blindly in the mud for a needle in a haystack. Wonder of wonders: The Woodcock's beak is loaded with nerve endings that detect the vibrations of earthworms moving underground. It can "feel" its prey through the mud and grab it like a pair of tweezers. Hashem even made the tip of the beak flexible so it can open independently of the rest of the beak to snatch the worm. The unique beak abilities and the unique eye abilities converge perfectly in this one wonderful creature. It is mind-boggling. We must sit here and contemplate this great wisdom, remembering that Hashem, whose rachamav al kol ma'asav (mercy is on all His works), takes care of them—and surely takes care of us.

Daily Bitachon Series: Shaar Habechina Welcome back to Daily Bitachon. We are continuing our series on Shaar Habechina from the Chovot HaLevavot , seeking out the wonders of our Creator through His flying creatures. Today, we look at the Emperor Penguin , a bird that survives the most brutal conditions on Earth—Antarctic winters where temperatures drop to minus 76 degrees and winds reach 125 miles per hour. If you think your winters are tough, you haven't seen anything yet! How do they spend months on the ice without a single meal, all while keeping an egg warm atop their feet? The Penguin's Survival Suit First, their feathers are the most densely packed of any bird—100 per square inch. Beneath the outer waterproof layer lies a thick layer of downy plumes that trap a layer of air against the skin. This air is warmed by the body and acts as a barrier, preventing the sub-zero external air from ever touching the penguin. They can even ruffle their feathers to vent heat or flatten them to create vacuum-sealed armor against those 125-mph winds. A Masterpiece of Engineering The penguin also utilizes a counter-current heat exchange system in its legs. This means the warm blood flowing down from the heart warms the cold blood coming up from the feet, ensuring the core temperature never drops. To conserve even more energy, they huddle together, taking turns standing on the freezing edge of the group, which reduces heat loss by up to 50 percent. The penguin doesn't build a nest of sticks; it uses its own body as a "portable cradle." Under a fold of abdominal skin, it has a brood patch —an area rich in blood vessels. The male balances the egg on his feathered feet and drapes this patch over it, maintaining a consistent 88 to 95 degrees Fahrenheit, even while his exterior is encrusted in ice. This is a wonder of wonders: the egg stays nearly 140 degrees warmer than the outside air! The Master Architect: The African Social Weaver Next is the African Social Weaver . While most birds build temporary nests for one season, this "civil engineer" builds a permanent, multi-generational mega-structure. These are the largest nests in the world—up to 25 feet wide, weighing over a ton, housing 100 pairs of birds, and lasting for an entire century. The nest is a masterpiece of thermal regulation: Thermal Comfort: The inner chambers stay warm during freezing desert nights, while the outer chambers stay cool during the scorching day. Security: Entrances face downward, making it nearly impossible for snakes or hawks to enter. Zoned Materials: They use thorny twigs for the outer security layer and soft, fine grass for the internal living chambers. Divine Wisdom By building one massive, shared roof, the colony reduces the material each pair needs while providing a foundation that outlasts any single bird. This is wisdom beyond belief. Man uses architects and advanced tools to build skyscrapers, but these birds never went to school. We call it "instinct," but instinct is just another word for the wisdom of Hashem. Kullam bechochma asita —Everything was done with wisdom. They don't even understand why they do what they do, but Hashem, in His mercy ( rachamav al kol ma'asav ), ensures they are protected. The point of all this learning is simple: If Hashem takes such meticulous care of a bird, imagine what He does for us.

Daily Bitachon Series: Shaar Habechina Welcome to our daily Bitachon series. We are currently in Shaar Habechina , discussing the wonders of the bird kingdom. Today, we'll explore a lesser-known bird called the Bar-tailed Godwit . Migration in general is a "wonder of wonders"—how birds know exactly how to return to their place of origin. But this bird flies from Alaska to New Zealand, a distance of over 7,000 miles, without stopping once. It does not eat, drink, or sleep for eight to nine days straight. How is that possible? Two incredible things happen. First, the bird undergoes a biological transformation: it shrinks its internal organs to save weight and expands its heart and chest muscles. It essentially becomes a flying fuel tank. Second, it utilizes unihemispheric sleep, where one hemisphere of the brain stays awake while the other enters a deep sleep. It maintains full awareness in one half while the other rests, switching back and forth to sleep and fly simultaneously. To the evolutionists who claim this developed over billions of years: the birds that fell asleep and landed in the ocean wouldn't have survived to pass on those traits. It is simply ridiculous. What makes it even harder is that, unlike seabirds, Godwits cannot soar or glide for long; they must flap their wings continuously. They cannot land on water because they can't swim and their feathers aren't waterproof. Yet, after leaving Alaska, they find tiny islands in the middle of the Pacific by utilizing an internal compass to see the earth's magnetic fields. Our second bird is the more familiar Owl , the silent hunter. Most birds make a "whooshing" sound due to air turbulence, but an owl is completely silent. This is vital so it can fly inches above a mouse without startling it. We have to thank Hashem that mosquitoes make noise, so we know to swat them, but the mouse receives no such warning from the owl. Think of a fly swatter; it has holes so it doesn't create a wind current that would alert the fly. Similarly, an owl's wings have a comb-like fringe that breaks the air into tiny micro-turbulences, and the rest of the wing is covered in soft down that muffles any remaining sound. This velvety "acoustic muffler" absorbs the sound of feathers rubbing together and dampens all vibration. Finally, we have the Common Swift . While the Godwit is known for migration, the Swift can stay in the air for ten months straight without ever touching the ground. They eat "aerial plankton" (tiny insects in the upper atmosphere), drink raindrops in mid-air, and even mate in flight. Like the Godwit, they use unihemispheric sleep, ascending to 10,000 feet at night to take power naps while gliding. Why did Hashem create birds like this? For one reason: to tell us "Kullam bechochma asita" —You have made them all with wisdom. None of this could happen by itself. Without these complex systems fully developed from the start, these birds would have fallen out of the sky a long time ago.

Daily Dose of Bitachon: Shaar HaBechina – The Woodpecker and the Hummingbird Welcome to our daily dose of Bitachon. We are in Shaar HaBechina (The Gate of Reflection), and as we promised, we are going to go through the different types of creatures as delineated by the Chovot HaLevavot . The first category is flying creatures, which we will refer to as birds. Each one has something special beyond the overarching mechanics of flight. The Woodpecker: A Feat of Engineering Let's start with the woodpecker. The woodpecker hammers its beak into a tree at a rate of twenty times a second, creating a tremendous force. If this force impacted a human being's brain, it would kill them instantly. This force is measured in "Gs." When you sit down, you feel your normal weight—that is 1G. If you felt twice your weight, that would be 2Gs. A fighter pilot experiences 9Gs during a high-speed turn. The woodpecker, however, experiences 1,200Gs . For a human, that would be like crashing into a wall at high speed dozens of times a minute. How does the woodpecker survive? Hashem provided it with perfect tools: The Shock Absorber: Its "hammer" is actually connected to its tongue, which has a long, elastic structure that wraps all the way around the back of the skull. When the bird strikes, this bone absorbs the vibration, spreading the force around the skull rather than into the brain. Flexible Skull: Its skull is not rigid like ours; it is made of a flexible material similar to the styrofoam inside a bike helmet to absorb the blow. The Offset Beak: The lower beak is slightly longer than the upper one, which helps direct the energy of the impact downward toward the body instead of straight back into the brain. Safety Goggles: To protect against flying wood chips, a "third eyelid" closes a millisecond before impact. This acts as a shield and a "seatbelt" to keep the eyeballs stable and in place. What is the benefit? The woodpecker is looking for wood-boring pests—that's his supper. But those pests would otherwise destroy the forest. It's as if you had an exterminator who happened to love eating squirrels and banged away at your walls to get them out! Furthermore, the holes he creates provide homes for other birds that cannot build their own. When we put on our "Bitachon glasses," we see the wonder of wonders . If Hashem created all these specific tools for the woodpecker's needs, don't you think He will give you all the tools you need for your Parnassa (livelihood)? The Hummingbird: The High-Octane Helicopter The hummingbird is the only bird in the world that can fly backwards and hover in one place—it is the helicopter of nature. The Engine: Its wings beat up to eighty times a second. This requires a metabolic rate so high that if a human had the same metabolism, our body temperature would rise to 725 degrees and we would catch fire. The Heart: To power those wings, it has the largest heart-to-body ratio in the animal kingdom. Its heart beats at 1,200 beats per minute . (Compare that to a human's 60–100 BPM!) The Cooling System: To keep from cooking its own organs, it has patches of bare skin to let heat out, and its wings act like fans—similar to an "air bike" where pedaling cools you off. The Miracle of Torpor: Because it burns so much energy, the hummingbird is always just hours away from starvation. If it slept normally, it would be dead by morning. Therefore, it enters a state called torpor . It turns its "life switch" to the lowest setting: its heart rate drops from 1,200 BPM to just 50 BPM, and its temperature plummets. It appears dead to the touch, all to preserve energy until it can eat again the next morning. Reflection The woodpecker and the hummingbird are perfectly designed for their specific needs. To suggest that millions of woodpeckers died of concussions until one finally "evolved" these features is the most absurd thought one could have. The world might believe such nonsense because it's "comfortable" to avoid the responsibilities that come with acknowledging God. But what they don't realize is that life is much better when you rely on Him. He takes care of us. Stay with that Bitachon, even with the responsibilities. Tomorrow, we will continue with more wonders of creation.

Welcome to Daily Bitachon. We are now in our Sha'ar HaBechina series, finding oneness in creation, and today we are talking in general about what the Chovot HaLevavot calls the swimmers. The Physics of Buoyancy Aquatic creatures face a very interesting challenge: maintaining a specific depth without constantly exerting energy to keep from sinking or floating away. So, how do they maintain that stability? We have a wonder called the swim bladder. The Engineering: Most bony fish possess a gas-filled sac called a swim bladder. By adjusting the amount of gas inside this organ, a fish can achieve neutral buoyancy, effectively becoming weightless at any depth. Now, you could try this yourself; I learned this in camp. The best way, if you are stuck in the ocean and don't want to exert energy swimming, is to tilt yourself backwards and take a deep breath. Your lungs will fill with oxygen, creating your own little "swim bladder." That will keep you exactly above water. You hold your breath for thirty or forty seconds, then take another deep breath and just lean your shoulders back, and you have a way to stay afloat without swimming. Now, why they taught us that in camp—what the odds are you'll be stuck in the middle of the ocean—I don't know, but every once in a while, when I'm swimming in the pool, I'll do that. It's just fun. You relax and fill up the air in your lungs, so we also have that option. However, since the fish's organ is designed by Hashem specifically for this, it has certain chemicals that make it gas-tight, and it's positioned near the spine, which places the fish's center at the exact spot of buoyancy. Like I said, a person's lungs are not made for that; they aren't in the center, and therefore it doesn't quite keep you steady—your legs still dangle. Everything in human technology is just mimicking what God put into the wisdom of creation. Just as a submarine has ballast tanks, the fish maintains its upright and stable position automatically, remaining perfectly still in the water while waiting for prey or resting. Oxygen Extraction: The Counter-Current System The next big challenge is: how do you get oxygen out of the water? It is much easier to get oxygen out of air than out of water. Water is much denser and contains significantly less oxygen than the atmosphere. Inside a fish's gills, blood flows in the opposite direction to the water flowing over them. This is known as a counter-current exchange system. This arrangement ensures that the oxygen-poor blood always encounters oxygen-rich water along the entire length of the gill. If the blood flowed in the same direction as the water, the fish could only extract about fifty percent of the oxygen. With this reverse-flow design, a fish can extract up to eighty to ninety percent of the oxygen from the water. Navigation and Senses Another interesting thing about fish is their ability to migrate. We all know about the salmon that spends years in the open ocean, traveling thousands of miles, yet returns to the exact same stream where it was born to procreate. How do they do this? Magnetic Compass: Like birds, they have tiny crystals of magnetite in their brains that allow them to sense the Earth's magnetic field, acting as a compass. Wonder of wonders! Chemical Signature: As they get close to land, they use their incredibly sensitive sense of smell to detect the unique chemical signature of their home river, which they imprinted on themselves when they were just little baby fish. This is God's "programmed genius," what we call instinct. No human could find their way across an ocean to a specific backyard creek without a map and a satellite, yet the fish does it with a brain the size of a pea. Finally, how do you see through water? Light does not travel far in water, and it's pretty dark down there. So, fish have a sense that humans do not possess. Running down the side of a fish's body is a series of fluid-filled canals containing sensory hairs called the lateral line . This system allows the fish to detect minute pressure waves in the water. It can feel the movement of a predator or the vibration of prey from a distance, even in total darkness. They aren't just seeing; they are sensing vibrations. This is effectively "touch at a distance," allowing fish to swim in massive, tight schools without ever colliding, as each fish feels the pressure change of its neighbor instantly. These are the general points of wisdom regarding fish before we go into the specifics.

Welcome to Daily Bitachon. Today, in our Erev Shabbat series, we are exploring our Friday night Tefillah . We say of Shabbat: berachto mikol hayamim (You blessed it more than all days) and kidashto mikol ha-zemanim (and You made it holier than all times). There are two distinct concepts being referred to here: days vs. times , and blessing vs. holiness . The Source in the Torah The Tefillah brings a source: ve-chein katuv be-Toratecha (and so it is written in Your Torah). Where exactly? Bereishit (Vayechulu): "God blessed the seventh day ( vayivarech... et yom hashvii ) and made it holy ( vayekadesh oto )." Yitro (The Ten Commandments): "God created the world in six days and rested on the seventh day... therefore He blessed the Shabbat day and made it holy." In both places, the "day" is blessed, and "it"—referring to the time—is holy. Day vs. Time What is the difference? Usually, a "day" is just a unit of the 354 days in a year. Most holidays are connected to a date (a time), not a specific day of the week. For example, the 1st of Tishrei or the 15th of Nissan. We participate in setting that time, which is why we say mekadesh Yisrael veha-zemanim (Who sanctifies Israel and the times). Shabbat is different. It is the day itself —the seventh day of creation. It is non-negotiable and inherent. Every seventh day carries a uniqueness because it is the day God rested. The Two Qualities of Shabbat Shabbat possesses two distinct powers: The Day (Blessing): As a "day," Shabbat is the ultimate receptacle for beracha . While Tehillim 68:20 says, "Baruch Hashem yom yom" (Blessed is God day by day), Shabbat is berachto mikol hayamim —more blessed than any other. It is the mekor habracha , the source of all blessing. The Time (Holiness): "Time" in Judaism has a "flavor." Sukkot is the time of our Joy; Pesach is the time of our Freedom. Shabbat's flavor is kedusha (holiness). It is palpable. While all holidays are called mikrae kodesh (calls to holiness), Shabbat is kidashto mikol ha-zemanim —the holiest of them all. We call it techilah le-mikrae kodesh , the "first of the holy convocations." This is because the very first time the word "holy" appears in the Torah, it is in reference to Shabbat. In Torah thought, the first appearance of a word is the root and source of that concept. Creating the Vessel Let us appreciate these two powerful qualities built into the very fabric of the day. Shabbat is the source of all blessing and the ultimate source of holiness. As Rav Wolbe famously taught: Heaven can pour down blessing and holiness, but you must provide the vessel to catch it. Through the way we act and conduct ourselves on Shabbat, we create that vessel to receive all the beracha and kedusha available to us.

Welcome to Daily Bitachon, we are now in our Sha'ar HaBechina series, going through the different types of creatures. We started with the fish, and now we move on to the creeping creatures and insects. They all possess a specific design and form; while birds utilize hollow bones for flight, insects utilize an external armor that provides structural integrity while remaining nearly weightless. The Engineering of the Exoskeleton This exoskeleton is made of chitin, a fibrous substance that is incredibly durable yet flexible. This design provides a massive surface area for muscle attachment, giving insects superhuman strength relative to their size. An ant can carry 50 times its body weight because its external frame distributes the load far more efficiently than an internal skeleton would. This is something very interesting—and sorry to get gory—but that is why when you step on a cockroach, you hear a "crunch." Its bone is on the outside, not the inside. Furthermore, the exoskeleton is coated in a microscopic layer of wax, which prevents the insect from drying out, allowing it to survive in harsh, arid environments where other creatures would perish from dehydration. One significant limitation of an exoskeleton is that it cannot grow along with the animal because it is a rigid shell. Eventually, the animal becomes too big for its armor. To grow, the animal must undergo the process of molting, where it secretes enzymes to loosen the old shell, crawls out of it, and waits for a new, larger exoskeleton—formed underneath—to harden. During this time, the animal is soft and highly vulnerable to predators. Many insects, such as ants, beetles, bees, and grasshoppers, go through this molting, as do spiders, scorpions, crabs, lobsters, centipedes, and millipedes. The Divine Purpose of the Purposeful Let's pause on this for a moment. Midrash Tehillim 18:12 records an episode where Eliyahu HaNavi met the great Tana, Rav Nehorai, and asked him: "Why did God create these crawling creatures?" Rav Nehorai answered: "Because when Hashem sees that the people are sinning, He looks down and says, 'Why am I keeping these people going? They are sinners; there is no purpose for them.' But then God looks at the sheratzim , these crawling creatures, and says, 'I am keeping these creeping creatures alive and they seemingly have no purpose. The Jewish people might be sinning now, but eventually they will do teshuvah , so I should surely keep them in the world until they turn around and something special comes of them.'" In this way, the sheratzim cause Hashem to have mercy and patience with the Jewish people. The Chida writes that this adds special weight to the Torah's prohibition against eating insects. If a Jew eats an insect, the insect provides nutrition, thus negating the claim that insects have no purpose. This, in turn, would dismantle Hashem's argument for maintaining the sinning Jewish people in the world. Ironically, insects serve a vital role in Hashem's plan precisely as the epitome of a creature that seems to have no purpose. They are what He points to when He needs to find merit for His erring nation. In Perek Shira , the song of the sheratzim is: "Let Israel exalt in its Maker, let the children of Tzion rejoice in their King." This adds even more impact to the mercy God has on these insects—that He provided them with this exoskeleton, a layer of wax, and the ability to molt. Advanced Sensory Systems Many insects also possess a 360-degree camera. Unlike the human eye with a single lens, many insects have eyes with tens of thousands of hexagonal lenses, providing an unbelievable panoramic view. Another fascinating detail is the way their eyes process motion. We see fast motion as a continuous blur, but a fly sees the world in slow motion. That is why it is so difficult to swat a fly; to the fly, your hand is moving in slow, predictable intervals. Look how God is protecting even the fly! Finally, insects fly differently than birds. While birds have nerve impulses that tell muscles to beat, many insects use a single nerve impulse to trigger a vibration that causes the wings to beat hundreds of times a second. This is just a brief opening to the general topic of insects before we dive deeper.

Welcome to our daily Bitachon. We are currently in our Sha'ar HaBechina series, going through the four different areas of contemplation the Chovot HaLevavot instructs us to examine: the ones that fly, the ones that swim, the ones that crawl, and the ones that walk on fours. Today, we're going to talk about birds in general. The Physics of Flight It took a long time until the Wright brothers figured out how to fly a plane—even Leonardo da Vinci had his ideas—but everything ultimately came from the birds. Let's look at the engineering. Pneumatized Bones Bird bones are not just "empty"; they contain pockets crisscrossed with internal struts. This design is identical to the "truss" system used in bridge and skyscraper construction. It provides maximum strength to withstand the G-force of takeoff while remaining incredibly light. In many species, the bird's entire skeleton weighs less than its feathers! God made these bones light and hollow yet remarkably strong. Another fascinating point: these hollow bones are part of the bird's breathing system. They act as extensions of the lungs, allowing oxygen to circulate throughout the skeleton, which keeps the bird cool during the intense "engine work" of flapping. Feather Architecture Consider the "zipper mechanism." A feather is composed of a central shaft with hundreds of branches called barbs. Each barb has microscopic barbules with tiny hooks. These hooks lock together like a zipper to create a solid, airtight surface for flight. If a feather is "unzipped" by wind or a predator, the bird simply uses its beak to zip it back together, ensuring the wing remains perfect at all times. Navigation: The Internal Compass The ability of a bird to fly from the Arctic to the tip of South America and return to the exact same tree is one of the greatest hidden wonders of creation. How does it work? Scientists have discovered that many birds have cryptochromes in their eyes—special proteins sensitive to the Earth's magnetic field. These birds can actually "see" the magnetic field overlaid on their vision. They also have tiny clusters of magnetite (iron-rich crystals) in their beaks, acting like a GPS receiver that tells them their exact coordinates. This brings us back to Iyov, when it asks: "Is it by your wisdom that the hawk soars, spreading its wings toward the south?" This refers to an innate, hardwired migratory genius that no human teacher could have taught. The Raven: A Lesson in Providence You look at a bird and think it's simple, but it is not. Iyov specifically told us to look at the raven. The Midrash tells us that because the raven sinned on the Teva (the Ark), it was punished. One of the results is that the raven is suspicious that its young are not its own, leading it to ignore them. On a practical, biological level, we see this reality: raven hatchlings are covered in a sparse, pale down that looks like white fuzz. Because the parents are black and the chicks are white, the parents initially distance themselves. Furthermore, ravens are scavengers that must travel vast distances to find food, leaving the nest abandoned for hours. So, how do the chicks survive? The Gemara tells us that Hashem provides for them via gnats. The raven's nest is built with a thick lining of mud, hair, and decaying organic matter which attracts flies and gnats. These insects swarm the nest, and the chicks simply open their mouths by reflex. The food literally flies or crawls in—it is "Amazon Prime" delivered directly to their mouths! There is a vital moral here: even when the natural source of sustenance—the parent—is absent, Hashem creates a way to provide for the vulnerable. That is our short introduction to birds. We have much more to discuss on this topic, but this serves as our starting point.

Welcome to our daily Bitachon. We are currently in the midst of our Sha'ar HaBechina series, recognizing the wisdom of God in creation. Now, in the fourth chapter, the Chovot HaLevavot charges us with the responsibility to examine seven areas of wisdom in the natural world. For the next little while, we will focus on the fourth area: the wisdom of God found in living creatures, whether large or small. He breaks these living creatures into four categories: The ones that fly: Birds and insects. The ones that swim: Fish and aquatic mammals. The ones that crawl and slither: Reptiles and creeping things. The ones that walk on fours: Land mammals. In these four areas, he wants us to understand their specific form (physical structure and anatomy), their qualities (specific traits), their functions (how they operate), the tools they use, their pleasures (how these functions benefit them), and lastly, their purpose—how they benefit the world and the role they serve in the greater ecosystem. This approach should not be strange to us; Iyov did the very same thing. In the final chapters of the book of Iyov , he recounts many things he saw in creation and derived lessons from them. It starts with the lion. We are now at the end of Chapter 38 of Iyov . I will be reading some Pesukim with light commentary where God challenges Iyov: "Will you trap prey for a lion or fill the needs of lion whelps?" —whelps being a word for baby lions— "When they hunch over in their lairs, lie low in their den and wait?" The challenge to Iyov is clear: Do you provide food for the wildlife, or does Hashem instill in them the instinct to catch their prey? Lions and other carnivorous animals instinctively possess the patience to lie in wait until they can pounce. This is wisdom number one that God instilled in the lion. The next challenge to Iyov: "Who prepares nourishment for the raven when its young ones call out to God, helpless without food?" As we will see later, the Chovot HaLevavot notes that even when raven parents fail to provide, the chicks cry out to God and find food. If even the most "cruel" or neglected bird is fed, a person should realize he is never abandoned. God takes care of the raven's children in wondrous ways. Next: "Do you know the time when the mountain goats give birth or anticipate the labor pains of the gazelle? Did you count the months as they come to term to know the moment of their birth? They crouch and expel their offspring, they rid themselves of their agonies." The Radak explains that mountain goats give birth in steep, dangerous places where the newborns are at risk of falling to their deaths, but Hashem protects these helpless kids. God knows the exact moment of every birth when His intervention is indispensable. Similarly, the gazelle has a narrow birth canal, yet God arranges for it to give birth safely. Could Iyov know these moments or intervene to prevent loss of life? Clearly, it is God's hand at work. Next, God asks: "Who set the wild donkey free and who loosened the bonds of the wild donkey? To whom I designated the desert as his home, his habitat in arid lands." These wild donkeys, unlike their domesticated cousins, do not submit to a master. They could be fed generously if they submitted to man, but they prefer the freedom of the desert where they must scavenge. God then turns to the wild ox, an animal much stronger than a donkey and just as resistant to human domination. Then, He contrasts the stork and the ostrich. The stork has a powerful wing that enables flight, while the ostrich, when attacked, simply runs away and ignores its young. The ostrich lacks the instinct to protect its eggs, yet Hashem protects them so they can hatch. Once again, Iyov is being taught from the wild how Hashem cares for everything. He continues with the horse— "Did you give the horse his strength?" —and the hawk and eagle: "Is it by your wisdom the hawk hovers... Is it by your command that the eagle soars and makes its nest on high?" Finally, He speaks of the Behemoth and the Leviathan . All of this serves to prove the point of the Chovot HaLevavot : God wants us to look into creation, analyze it, and learn from it. That is what we will be doing, be'ezrat Hashem , in these upcoming lessons—following the command to look into creation as he has broken it down for us.

Daily Bitachon: The "Fiction" of Gravity Welcome back to our Sha'ar HaBechinah series. Over the past week, we've been discussing why everything in our world stays in its place—why oxygenated air stays down here, and why the water stays in the ocean. Our "hero" throughout this story is gravity. Everyone knows the schoolbook version: Isaac Newton was sitting under a tree, an apple fell on his head, and lo and behold —gravity! But let's look deeper. What is Gravity, Really? The word comes from the Latin gravitas , meaning "weight." If you look in an encyclopedia, gravity is described as a natural phenomenon where all things with mass—planets, stars, and even light—are drawn toward one another. It's what gives objects weight and causes the moon to affect our tides. Scientists say gravity has an infinite range. But what would happen if we had a "gravity shortage"? If gravity disappeared for just five seconds, the result would be catastrophic. People, water, and unsecured objects would fly into space due to the Earth's rotation. The atmosphere would vanish, causing instant suffocation. When gravity suddenly returned, everything would come crashing down with such force that it would trigger global earthquakes and tsunamis, ending life as we know it. Thankfully, we've never had a gravity shortage. You might have an internet shortage or an electricity shortage, but gravity is always there. Fact or Fiction? Science tells us that gravity is both a "fact" and a "theory." They say the effect is a fact because we experience it, but the explanation is just a theory. Wait a minute—isn't that the most ridiculous thing you've ever heard? If we can't see it or fully explain it, how is it a "fact"? The outcome is a fact (things stay down), but we don't actually know how it works. We came up with this term "gravity" to explain the unexplainable. In a way, gravity isn't a proven physical thing; it's a scientific "fiction" created to fill a gap in our understanding. The Scientific Hypocrisy There is a great hypocrisy in the scientific world. Many claim we cannot talk about God because He isn't "visible" or "measurable." Yet, they speak about gravity as an absolute truth! What causes gravity? Some scientists propose particles called "gravitons," but these have never actually been observed. Others talk about "gravitational waves," but these are incredibly elusive. Essentially, "gravity" is just a scientific placeholder for a force they cannot fully grasp. The True Hero Let's go back to our earlier questions. If the sun is so important, why don't we make a bracha (blessing) on it? The answer is: we do— Yotzer Or V'Borei Choshech . If the seasons are so important, where is the bracha ? It's in Meshaneh Itim . So, why is there no bracha on gravity? The answer is: Because "gravity" doesn't exist as an independent power. What we do say every morning is: רוקע הארץ על המים —"[Blessed are You...] Who spreads the earth above the waters." This bracha acknowledges that God is the one keeping the earth in place and preventing the oceans from overcoming us. Gravity is simply the name science gives to God's constant, active Will holding the universe together. We know that if God stopped willing the world to exist for even one moment, everything would cease. "Gravity" is just God holding you down so you don't fly away. Next time you take a step and stay firmly on the ground, appreciate the real Hero of the story.

Daily Dose of Bitachon: The Treasure Houses of the Deep Welcome back to our Sha'ar HaBechinah series. We are currently in chapter four, where Rabbeinu Bachya encourages us to look into the roots and foundations of the world. He quotes a pasuk where Hashem speaks to creation and says: "Come until here and go no further" ( עד פה תבוא ולא תוסיף ). The Midrash Tanchuma discusses this, explaining that when Hashem created the oceans, the waters asked, "Should we all mix together—the sweet waters and the salty waters?" Hashem replied, "No. Each of you should remain in your own area." As it says in Tehillim : Noten b'otzarot tehomot —He places the depths into "treasure houses." This means that each type of water is its own distinct treasure house. The Miracle of the Human Face How is it possible to keep these waters from mixing? Hashem says: Look at the human face. Within just a few inches, there are several different "wellsprings," and they never mix. The water of the eyes is salty, the ears have wax, the nose has its own fluids, and the water of the mouth is sweet. If Hashem can create distinct, unmixing wellsprings in the small space of a face, He can certainly do it in the vastness of the ocean. The Science of Separation How does this work in the ocean? Even though it's one body of water, it contains different temperatures and levels of saltiness. These distinct masses don't blend—much like oil and water, but far more complex. Density: Cold water and salty water are denser, so they sink. Warmer, less salty water rises to the top. These differences in density act as barriers that slow down mixing. Silt and Rivers: Rivers carry silt, creating a cloudy, less dense layer that doesn't immediately mix with the clear, salty ocean water. This often leads to visible lines in the water where the colors don't blend. The "Layer Cake": Between currents, circulation, and different nutrients, the ocean is like a giant seven-layer cake. Each layer has its own "flavor" defined by its specific characteristics. Tailor-Made Habitats What is even more fascinating is that different fish live in different parts of the ocean. The secular scientific approach claims these fish "evolved unique adaptations" over millions of years to survive the pressure, salinity, and temperature. But that is clearly backwards. If a fish doesn't have the ability to live in salty water, it will die immediately; it doesn't have billions of years to "work it out." The truth is the opposite: HaKadosh Baruch Hu created every specific ecosystem and then created the fish perfectly suited for it. We see this everywhere in nature: Polar Bears: Created for the cold with thick fat and heavy fur. Desert Animals: Created with the specific qualities needed to thrive in the heat. Mammal Milk: As Rabbi Avigdor Miller, zt"l, once beautifully pointed out, the milk of every mammal is perfectly formulated for the specific environment in which that animal lives. The Takeaway The ocean isn't just one uniform tank of water; it is a vast collection of diverse habitats, each supporting species uniquely suited to their conditions. Hashem created an ocean with multiple "seas" existing within it simultaneously. This is another "wonder of wonders" from our Borei Olom , showing us that every detail of our world is precisely designed for life to flourish.

Daily Bitachon: The Roots and Foundations of the World Welcome to Daily Bitachon. We are currently in Chovot HaLevavot , the fourth chapter of Sha'ar HaBechina , where Rabbeinu Bachya analyzes seven areas where Hashem's wisdom is revealed. The first area he explores is what he calls the "roots and foundations" of the world. Deep down, there are fundamental structures that hold our world together. The Generator at the Core As we know, the Earth has a core with many layers. Let's look at the depths of the Earth, where there is a liquid outer core of flowing iron and nickel surrounding a solid inner core. The movement of this liquid metal acts like a massive spinning electric generator, creating a strong magnetic field around our planet. Why is this important? This field deflects harmful radiation and charged particles from the sun, preventing them from stripping away our atmosphere or harming living things on the surface. Right aroundour world, Hashem placed a powerful shield. The Moving Crust Furthermore, the Earth's outermost layer—the crust where we live—is broken into large pieces called tectonic plates . These pieces float on a softer, putty-like mantle below. It is interesting how often we assume things are one solid piece when they are actually not. We've spoken before about the human skull; it looks solid, but it's actually made of many pieces that slowly solder together after birth. In the same way, God made the world with separate plates. The intense heat from the core causes slow-moving currents, which keep these plates drifting. Now, why is this movement necessary? Pressure Valves: Earthquakes and Volcanoes We often think of earthquakes and volcanoes as simple disasters, but they serve a vital purpose. Earthquakes are the way the planet releases the immense stress built up from the movement of the plates, preventing the Earth's crust from tearing apart uncontrollably. Volcanoes act like a pressure valve, releasing internal heat, gas, and magma. Think of a pressure cooker with that little valve on the lid—you see the steam escaping to relieve the pressure so the pot doesn't explode. That is our core: a solid center, a bubbling outer core, a putty-like mantle, and the crust on top. The Balance of the Elements Next, the Chovot HaLevavot tells us to pay attention to the perfect arrangement: the Earth is in the middle, the water is above it, the air is above that, and the heat is above that. Everything exists in exact measurement and balance. Each element stays in its assigned place and follows its boundaries. As it says in Iyov , Hashem told the elements: "Until here you shall come, and no further" ( ואמר עד פה תבוא ולא תסיף ). The Force of Gravity Where does this stability come from? It comes from good old gravity , which holds everything down and creates the necessary pressure and density in our air and water. We know that when you go higher up—to the mountains in Vail, for example—there is less oxygen. You can compare this to a stack of acrobats: the person at the very bottom feels the most weight. Because gravity pulls the air down, the air near the surface is denser and contains the oxygen we need to breathe. The key force driving all of this is gravity, and B'ezrat Hashem , we will return to the wonders of gravity in our next segment.

Daily Bitachon: The Wonder of White Snow Welcome back to Daily Bitachon. Today, we are exploring the wonders of the seasons—specifically, the winter season and the magnificent beauty of snow. Snow is white, and it is stunning. But before we look at how Hashem made it white, we must first understand the incredible benefits of that whiteness. The Purpose of the "Giant Mirror" If snow were a dark color, it would absorb an immense amount of heat. Instead, white snow acts like a giant mirror, preventing the ground from soaking up the sun's energy. We see this in our daily lives: if you touch a black car in the sun, it's much hotter than a white one because white reflects the heat away. If snow absorbed heat instead of reflecting it, the ground would warm up rapidly, melting the snow instantly and creating a "feedback loop" where the Earth would get hotter and hotter every year. The Protective Blanket White snow also acts as a protective blanket. By reflecting the sun's rays, it prevents the top layer from melting and refreezing into solid ice. This keeps the snow fluffy and full of air. Just like a down comforter, that trapped air provides insulation, keeping the ground temperature steady. This protects plant roots and hibernating animals from freezing to death. Preventing the "Flash Melt" Because snow is white, it melts slowly and intentionally. If snow were dark, it would absorb solar energy and "flash melt" the moment the sun came out, causing massive flooding every spring. Because it is white, the melting process is gradual. This allows the water to soak deeply into the soil and refill underground rivers, providing a steady supply of water for months to come. How Hashem Makes Snow White Now that we understand the benefits, let's look at the science. What is snow actually made of? It is made of clear ice crystals. Under a microscope, a single snowflake looks like a tiny piece of glass. If you melt it, it turns into clear water. So why does a pile of clear crystals look white? It all comes down to how light bounces: The Pinball Effect: When light hits a flat surface like a window, it passes straight through. But snow is a jumbled pile of hundreds of tiny, jagged crystals pointing in every direction. Scattering: Sunlight hits the first crystal, bounces to the next, then the next. The light gets tossed around like a ball in a pinball machine until it finally bounces back out toward our eyes. The Rainbow Mix: Sunlight contains all the colors of the rainbow mixed together, which our brains perceive as "white." Objects usually look colored because they absorb some colors and reflect others (a red apple absorbs everything except red). The Reflection: Snow is a "fair" reflector—it doesn't prefer any specific color. It bounces all colors of the rainbow back to us equally and simultaneously. When your eyes receive all those colors at once, you see white. Think of a clear sheet of glass: it's transparent. But if you smash that glass into a pile of tiny shards and dust, the pile looks white. The material hasn't changed; you've just created thousands of new surfaces for the light to bounce off of. The Message This is a wonder of wonders—how Hashem uses the physics of light to create such a beneficial and beautiful reality. All of this is made possible through the cycle of the seasons, the tilt of the Earth's axis, and the power of the sun. It is a constant reminder of the precise design embedded in our world.

The Wonders of Brown Fat and the Seasons Welcome to our daily Bitachon as we continue in our Shaar Habechina series. We are discussing the seasons right now, and today we explore a very interesting advantage of the changing weather: how seasons affect our brown fat. What is Brown Fat? Most of the fat in our body is referred to as white fat. That is what stores extra energy and calories—the stuff we usually don't like. While it is good to have reserves for the future, most of us aren't living in times of starvation, so we just keep those reserves for long periods. Brown fat, however, has a different job: it burns that extra energy from the white fat as fuel to produce heat. The Furnace vs. The Warehouse Think of it this way: White Fat: Your storage warehouse (usually found in the stomach or thighs). Brown Fat: Your furnace. It pulls fatty acids out of storage and into your bloodstream to burn them. Brown fat is highly sensitive to the change in seasons—specifically the drop in temperature and the change in daylight. When the weather turns cold, your body receives signals to recruit more brown fat. In fact, brown fat activity can be four times higher in January than in July. Individuals with active brown fat burn about 15% more calories compared to those with very little of it. The Problem with "Thermal Monotony" The problem is that modern humans live in a state of thermal monotony . We keep our houses at a steady 70°F year-round, which makes our brown fat lazy. To counter this, it is good to embrace the cold: Spend a few hours a day in the 62°F to 66°F range. Sleep in a cool room at night. End your shower with a 60-second cold blast. The shock of cold water on your upper back and neck—where most brown fat is stored—tells the brain to ignite the furnace. The Big Chiddush: Cold vs. Heat Here is the big chiddush (innovation): Exercise already helps convert white fat, but if you go for a run or a walk, try doing it when it's cold outside. If you exercise in a hot gym, your body focuses on cooling you down through sweating. But if you exercise in the cool air, your body gets a double hit: it burns energy from the workout and burns energy to maintain your core temperature. Despite the old wives' tales, wearing a sweatsuit to lose weight is a mistake. Sweating itself doesn't make you lose weight, burning calories for energy or heat does. Next time you go out, wait a few minutes before putting on your heavy jacket. Let yourself feel that brisk air to tell your body to recruit more brown fat. A Wonder of Creation Newborn babies are born with a lot of brown fat (5% of their body weight) because they aren't strong enough to shiver to stay warm. As we get older, we lose much of it because we gain the ability to shiver, but seasonal cold exposure helps keep what we have active. The Benefits of Brown Fat: Metabolic Boost: It burns blood sugar and fat molecules to create heat. Insulin Health: It "eats" sugar to fuel heat production, stabilizing blood sugar levels. Heart Health: It can help lower blood pressure. It is truly a "wonder of wonders" what God has going on inside of us. And the hero behind it all? That "one-two punch" of the sun and the axis tilt of the Earth.

Daily Bitachon: Shaar HaBechina Welcome to Daily Bitachon in our Shaar HaBechina series. We are now exploring the benefits of the seasons. The Blessing of the Cold Let's start with the cold. Who likes being cold? Well, there are actually incredible benefits to it. Cold acts as a natural form of pest control. Sustained freezing temperatures kill off large numbers of insects, like mosquitoes and ticks, and bacteria that would otherwise multiply out of control and spread disease. Winter also prevents overgrowth; it stops the spread of invasive plants, giving native ecosystems a chance to maintain their balance. In many wonderful warm places, you have malaria and all kinds of diseases from mosquitoes because the forests are simply overgrown. We need a break—a time to "turn everything off"—and that is the beauty of the winter. Nature's "Slow-Release" Battery Another aspect is the "freshwater battery." Seasons are vital for the world's water supplies. In the wintertime, the mountains act like giant batteries, storing water in the form of snow. Then, there is a slow release. You know those slow-release pills you take? Well, God created the original slow-release system. If it rained all year instead of snowing, the water would wash away immediately in floods, as happens in many places that don't have seasons like ours. Because of the seasons, the snow melts slowly in the spring and summer, providing a steady, reliable stream of fresh water to rivers and lakes during the hottest months. It is beautiful how Hashem is literally storing it for later. It is one of the wonders of how Hashem worked it out: it rains and snows in the winter so that we have our luscious summer fruit—the plums, pears, and juicy watermelons. When it's hot outside and you need that hydration, we are using water from the winter that Hashem "put into" the plum of your summer. It's the snow of the winter creating fresh water in the rivers exactly when you need it most. Unbelievable. Atmospheric Churning The change of seasons also cleans up the atmosphere. How so? Seasonal changes drive global wind patterns. As the temperature shifts between summer and winter, it creates large-scale atmospheric churning. This movement helps disperse pollutants and circulates fresh air across the globe, preventing any one area from becoming a stagnant pocket of smog. Think of it like having a little smoke in the kitchen, you open the windows and turn on the fan to let the air blow through. That is what God does naturally, and it's the seasons that create that "churn" of air. Global Circulation This creates massive movements of air and water as different parts of the earth heat up and cool down. As we mentioned, temperature differences create pressure changes that drive global winds. These winds carry moisture to inland areas that would otherwise be dry. We know the water in the ocean is heated by the sun, turns into clouds, and goes into the atmosphere. That's great if you live near the ocean, but we need to get that moist air to the interior of the continents. The wind patterns created by the seasons drives those global winds. That's how weather reports work—by tracking those patterns to predict where the moisture will end up. It also helps the ocean currents. Seasonal changes power the "global conveyor belt" of ocean currents, which move nutrients and heat around the world, supporting massive marine ecosystems. The Great Design This is a phenomenal concept that God put into the world. And where is this all coming from? Let's pause to remember our "good old friend," the sun. But the sun couldn't do it alone; it requires the global tilt. God designed the sun and the earth's tilt to work together, which is why in the Beracha (blessing) of the sun, we speak about Meshane Itim (He who changes the seasons). It is the sun, the global tilt, and the moon keeping everything in balance. This is the magical teamwork of Creation.

Finding God in the Seasons: The Divine Tilt In our Sha'ar HaBechina series, we are exploring how to find God within creation. The Chovot HaLevavot teaches us to look for signs of wisdom in the world, specifically pointing to the seasons . He notes that the seasons require additional thought to fully appreciate their benefits, and then he leaves us to ponder it. Where is the Blessing for Seasons? Rabbi Yeruchom Levovitz once asked: "If the sun is so important, why don't we make a beracha (blessing) on it?" His answer was that we do—every day in the prayers of Yotzer Or and Yotzer HaMeorot . We can ask the same of the seasons. If they are so vital, where is their blessing? We find it in the evening prayers of Arvit , in the blessings surrounding the Shema : "... משנה עתים ומחליף את הזמנים " "...Who changes the seasons and alternates the times." The Sefer Iyun HaTefillah explains the nuance: Meshaneh (changes) is used for Eitim (seasons) because they transition progressively (1 to 2 to 3 to 4). Machalif (switches/alternates) is used for Zemanim (times) because day and night simply swap back and forth. The Origin of Seasons: Two Approaches The source for seasons appears in God's promise to Noach after the flood: "As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night shall not cease" (Bereishit 8:22). Rashi's View: The seasons always existed, but the sun and moon ceased to function during the Mabul (Flood). After the flood, they simply returned to their normal cycle. The Sforno's View: Before the Mabul , there were no seasons. The earth stood straight, creating a perfect, eternal spring. This perfect climate led to long lives, but also overindulgence and sin. After the flood, God tilted the earth's axis to create seasons, making life harder to curb man's impulse to sin. The "Perfect" 23.5-Degree Tilt As we know, the globe is tilted at 23.5 degrees. This tilt is the engine of our seasons: Summer: The hemisphere is tilted towards the sun, creating a high density of solar rays. Winter: The hemisphere is tilted away , resulting in a lower density of rays. Crucial Fact: Summer and winter are not caused by our distance from the sun, but by the angle of the tilt. If the Earth stood perfectly upright (0° tilt), the equator would bake into an uninhabitable desert, and the poles would be permanently frozen. Our 23.5-degree tilt acts as a giant heat distribution system, sharing the sun's energy across the planet. The "Big Whack" vs. Divine Design Science calls the origin of this tilt a "colossal cosmic accident" occurring 4.5 billion years ago. The "Giant Impact Hypothesis" (or the Big Whack) suggests a Mars-sized planet named Theia struck Earth with a glancing blow, knocking us off-center to exactly 23.5 degrees. Furthermore, they say that to keep the Earth from wobbling or flipping over, we need a stabilizer. That stabilizer is the Moon, whose gravity keeps the tilt steady. And where did the moon come from? The theory claims the "Big Whack" knocked a chunk off the Earth, which just happened to settle in the exact right spot to provide the necessary gravitational balance. To believe this happened by chance is like saying a man with a hunchback and no teeth got hit by a car, and the impact perfectly straightened his spine while the flying debris became his new teeth. It's far more logical to see the hand of Hakadosh Baruch Hu (The Holy One, Blessed be He) designing a perfect system for life.

Welcome to Daily ביטחון. We continue in our שער הבחינה talking about the benefits of the sun. We've also been talking about till now the vitamin D that's in your skin in a early stage that needs the sun to trigger it to be released. There's another important chemical that's in our skin naturally, but it's only a earlier stage, and that's called nitric oxide. Nitric oxide helps relax blood vessels, increasing blood flow and therefore lowering blood pressure. So sun is good to lower your blood pressure. That's another important fact about sun. Now, how does that work? So again, similar to the vitamin D, we have nitric oxide that's in our skin in what's called photolabile stores. That means these are early stages that's found naturally in human skin. It's stable under normal conditions but is broken down by light and this releases the nitric oxide into the skin, which then enters the bloodstream and acts as a vasodilator, which it means it causes dilation of the veins and relaxes the blood vessel. And this is something besides the vitamin D synthesis, which helps cardiovascular health, which we discussed yesterday. Now, this is again, as we said, God's gift of this nitric oxide that we need. Now, I'm sure if you've heard a little bit about pharmacology, when people have chest pain, they give them something called nitroglycerin. And what really does, this medicine rapidly is converted into nitric oxide in the body to relax the coronary arteries. So for those people that don't get enough sunlight, and that's why people that get older and sedentary and stay in the house and they don't get the sunlight, that's going to be a reason for heart attacks לא עלינו and strokes, which is caused from the high blood pressure, and that's why we have to take the artificial nitroglycerin. Another important aspect of sunlight is that the morning sunlight tells your body to stop producing melatonin. Melatonin is the sleep hormone, and we don't want to have melatonin during the day, and we want to have it at night so you'll fall asleep better and faster at night because your melatonin is working at night and not during the day. And what tells your body to turn on and turn off melatonin? The sunlight again. Now, again, although this might sound like a science class, we're trying to keep it as simple as possible. And again, a lot of my basic knowledge come from the fact that my father is dermatologist, and as remember as a kid one of the things that he installed in the office was a light box. People could go and get suntans in the office but that wasn't the reason why he had the light box. The light box was people with severe psoriasis which is a very difficult skin disease. People that have psoriasis know it's flaky, it's red, it's inflamed. And these light boxes are really doing what the sun does for psoriasis. And again, it's the sunlight that can help with psoriasis. And again, it's very complex how it works exactly, but interesting enough, it has to do with triggering the release of nitric oxide and this activates some other cells which causes the slowing down of these overactive inflammatory responses. So again, we can go on and on and on with what the sun does for us. And this is all besides what we're talking about for the physical body. Forget about what it does for plants and for the world and for heating the world and keeping us, the atmosphere going. We're not, that hasn't been our discussion at all. We've been sticking to how sunlight helps your body. Hopefully, after this short dose of science classes, we will appreciate the sun more. And there's a very important rule which we cannot overstress, which is that we believe in our religion that when you appreciate things, they work better for you. For example, דוד המלך did not respect his... his clothing, his clothing didn't work for him. Rabbi Miller says the same is true with everything. So look at all the great things the sun does for us, strengthens our immune systems, strengthens our bones, gets rid of bacteria, helps with our blood pressure, helps with our moods, helps with our sleep. But you have to appreciate the sun. So next time the sun comes up in the morning, look at that and say, Sun, I appreciate you. But not I appreciate you, I appreciate HaKadosh Baruch Hu that created you and your shemesh is the same word as shamash , the servant. It's God's great servant that he's using to bring all these wonderful benefits upon us. So print out these sheets and read it all the time and refresh your memory on the wonderful benefits that God gave us through his trusted servant.

Welcome to Daily Bitachon as we continue to explore the benefits of the sun. We're continuing with our theme that the sun releases vitamin D that's already existing in our skin. What else does vitamin D, our hero, do besides helping with our serotonin, helping with our immune system? It also helps the bones. It strengthens our bones by boosting calcium absorption in your gut. That means you can have all the calcium in the world that's necessary for bone building, as we all know calcium is good for bones, but what causes the calcium to end up in your bones? It needs to have certain other minerals that help it be absorbed. Without enough vitamin D, you will not absorb the necessary calcium. And vitamin D is this key that unlocks your intestines to absorb the calcium more effectively and increases the absorption from 10 to 15 percent to 30 to 40 percent. More than double the absorption of calcium happens because of vitamin D. That's absorbed. After it absorbs, the vitamin D helps transport the calcium to your bones, integrating them into your bone structure to make them hard and strong. Now besides helping your bones, this vitamin D, you're really going to appreciate vitamin D and again, it's all part of the sun. Vitamin D also helps maintain muscle strength, which improves balance and reduces the risk of falls and prevents fractures. The vitamin D interacts with receptors in your muscle tissue to aid contraction and growth, producing thorosynthesis, sorry, protein synthesis, reducing inflammation and supporting muscle repair and regeneration. Now what's very interesting about our vitamin D, people after a workout they'll take protein or carbohydrates post-exercise because there is a certain window of when it's going to help. But vitamin D builds up in your system over time and therefore there's really no need to take it right after a workout, which is also very beneficial. So a little bit more on our vitamin D, who's our hero. It helps with heart function by keeping your arteries flexible and can even possibly regulate your blood pressure. It supports insulin sensitivity, which is important for not developing diabetes. So vitamin D, as we said, is really our hero and that's why, as I said a few days ago, the USDA changed their requirements of vitamin D so that when you go to the doctor, they will tell you you're low on vitamin D. It's a very expensive blood test for this to see your vitamin D. That's why not all insurance plans even okay it every year. So once they realize you don't have enough, they just tell you take your vitamin D. And some signs for low vitamin D is frequent colds and flu, like we said, it lowers your immune system, persistent fatigue or bone pain because your bones are not going to be great, slow healing wounds, low mood or irritability because we said your SSRIs are not going to be right, muscle weakness or cramps. So if I were you, I would say I got to start taking more vitamin D. And of course, this all started from the natural source of vitamin D is our sunlight. So Hakadosh Baruch Hu gives us everything that we need in the sun and as we said, due to our lifestyle changes, we might need to take supplements. Now for those people that say well is there anything natural besides sunlight and I don't want to take supplements, so certain types of fatty fish, salmon, tuna, mackerel are good for that. Egg yolks are good for it and if you look at the side of your different types of food, milk, cereals and things like that, they say fortified with vitamin D and that's the beautiful government trying to help us and putting vitamin D into our food so without realizing it, we're taking vitamin D and that is going to be the end of our vitamin D discussion for this series currently. Tomorrow we'll continue with some other

Welcome to Daily Bitachon as we continue to discuss Shaar Habechina in the benefits of the sun. There are a lot of misunderstandings on how the sun is beneficial to us. People always think that you catch a cold in the winter and even the term catch a cold means well it's cold outside so I caught the cold. Cold is not the problem, the enemy is not the cold. Why do we get sick in the winter and not in the summer? It definitely has to do with sunlight more than cold and we'll explain. And we go back to our hero vitamin D. That again as we explained yesterday, sunlight causes vitamin D to be released by your skin. Vitamin D strengthens your immune system helping fight infections. It activates immune cells and produces antiviral peptides to fight germs. It modulates inflammation to prevent overreaction and creates a defense system against the germs. So it's not that in the cold there's some kind of poison in cold, it's the lack of vitamin D that does not give your immune system the ability to fight. That's one reason why we catch a cold in the winter and not in the summer, but there's another important reason. And that is, and again, this is all wonder of wonders, we have to just be so excited by what Hashem has done for us from millions of miles away from the sun all the way up there, somehow gets all the way down here. So big powerful God is able from all the way up there, not the sun, that's God, who's sending down rays to create vitamin D in your body. Now what does sunlight also do? It kills bacteria. Ultraviolet rays have radiation. We know radiation, we'll see, we know in a moment that radiation's not a great thing. Radiation causes mutations. It damages your DNA, RNA. Too much time in the sun, chas v'shalom , can cause cancer. That's true. But sunlight also kills out germs because germs are alive, they're real. They also have DNA and RNA and they also would replicate. But the sun reduces the germ population over time and it makes surfaces cleaner and reduces infection risks indoors as well. So wonder of wonders we have a one-two punch in the summertime. The sun raises our immune system and the sun gets rid of germs. So therefore people don't get as sick in the summertime and get sicker in the wintertime. Nothing to do with the cold. Now the way this works again, everything is on, this is another one of the things the Chovot Halevavot tells us to always be conscious of, everything's happening on a very small microscopic level that this, these lights create energy that's absorbed by the DNA and RNA in the bacteria and it causes certain lesions in this, microscopic lesions in the bacteria and that damages the genetic code which stops them from reproducing. Now this type of mutation and damaging is also dangerous as we said for skin cancer and cells have repair mechanisms to fix them. And that's why there is always a constant balance. My father is a dermatologist and as we said, the USDA raised their need for vitamin D, but we always have this tug of war which is on one hand too much sunlight can cause cancer, but too little sunlight you don't have enough vitamin D. That's why many doctors are believe in vitamin D supplements versus the sun due to the cancer risk. Now I want to make this clear that Hashem created a perfect world and if we would spend the right amount of time in the sun we'd have the perfect balance. Now we don't really do that. We don't work outdoors in the fields and stay outdoors. We stay indoors and then we go and sit on the beach. And the truth is, this is interesting, that once you reach the amount of vitamin D you're supposed to have in your skin, extra time in the sun doesn't give you more vitamin D. We don't have a vitamin D thermometer to tell us when and that's why, like I said, my father is a dermatologist suggested vitamin D supplements because that's measurable, you know the exact dose that you can take every single day and Hashem gave us that advantage now. Now that he knows how our lifestyles have changed, he gave us vitamin D supplements. I have a theory that is if you dressed more modest, you probably get the right amount of sun that you're supposed to get, but that's just my theory. Anyway, getting back to our story, in our appreciation of sun, that's this week's theme, we further appreciate our sunlight for protecting us from germs with the one-two punch of helping our immune system and getting rid of germs. And also an important thing to know is that even sunlight through the windows will get rid of germs. That's why, open up the shades in the summer, in the wintertime, to let the sun in is a very smart idea. And we're not going to get into getting ready for bris milah when the kid has too much bilirubin, leaving them in the sunlight helps the skin because sunlight causes chemical reactions and so on. So this is the wonder of wonders of all these triggers that are happening due.

Welcome to our daily Bitachon. Today is a special class for Asarah B'Tevet. As we know, today is a fast day—a significant day commemorating the siege laid against Yerushalayim and the eventual destruction of the first Beit HaMikdash. I use the word 'commemoration' loosely, because today isn't just about remembering the past; it's about taking action in the present. It is interesting to note the other readings that coincide with Asarah B'Tevet every year. In Parshat Vayigash , we always read about Yosef and his brothers reuniting. Furthermore, in last week's Haftarah , the prophet Yechezkel received a message from God to perform a miracle: Take one piece of wood and write 'Yehudah' on it. Take another and write 'Yosef.' When you hold them together, they will miraculously fuse into one. When the people ask for the symbolism behind this, tell them that in the future, the house of Yehudah (representing the Davidic line) and the house of Yosef (representing the ten tribes who separated) will finally be reunited when Mashiach comes. Where did this division begin? While the Gemara attributes the destruction of the first Temple to the three cardinal sins—idolatry, immorality, and bloodshed—the fundamental 'rupture' started earlier. After Shlomo HaMelech passed away, his son Rechavam took the throne. However, Yerovam ben Nevat, from the tribe of Ephraim (descended from Yosef), broke away to start a separate kingdom. This split was the true beginning of the downfall of the Jewish people. As the Gemara in Shabbat 56b notes, the people would not have turned to idolatry had it not been for this division; it was Yerovam who introduced the two golden calves to solidify the split. This breakdown happened in Shechem. Rashi points out that Shechem is a place predestined for tragedy: it is where Yosef was sold by his brothers and where the kingdom eventually fractured. This is why Asarah B'Tevet always coincides with these Torah portions. While Tisha B'Av marks the actual destruction and the later sin of sinat chinam (baseless hatred) during the second Temple, Asarah B'Tevet focuses on the beginnings . The siege began today. The first cracks in our foundation appeared today. And those cracks were rooted in a lack of brotherly love. The Yaarot Devash notes a fascinating calculation: the day God decreed that Kayin would be a wanderer for killing his brother, Hevel, was Asarah B'Tevet. This day has been rooted in the theme of exile due to broken brotherhood since the dawn of history—from Kayin and Hevel to Yosef and his brothers. Therefore, Asarah B'Tevet is a time for introspection. Ask yourself: How can I work on my 'brotherly love'? Which family members am I disengaged from? Which relationships can I repair? This fast is not just about abstaining from food; it is about examining our deeds and fixing our connections with one another. Have a tzom kal (an easy fast)."

Welcome to daily bittachon . We're in חובות הלבבות שער הבחינה, Chapter 3. And he now tells us that the signs of wisdom in creation show up in three types of areas. Area number one is signs that are quite apparent to everybody, and even the fool pick up on them, surely the wiser people. And his example is the sun. The power of the sun to light up the lands, to heat up the lands. And he quotes pesukim to that effect. The sun comes up, the sun goes out, people go to work, and this is wonders of wonders. And Rabbeinu Bechaye points out something very interesting. He says, we only think about the sun if we have a vegetable patch. That was his mashal . Or I'll add, we think about the sun if we have a wedding, especially an outdoor wedding. I don't want it to rain, I want a nice sunny day. Or I'm going on vacation, I want there to be sun. Hold on, that's all you care about is your vegetable patch and your wedding? Do you not realize that without the sun, everything in the world would cease to exist? We would freeze to death. There'd be no plants growing without the photosynthesis. Sun is extremely important, yet we don't think about it at all. Point number one. Rabbeinu Bechaye made another point, where he asks his students: Why don't we make a berachah on the sun? If the sun is so important, we should be making a berachah every single day. We should say just like borei pri ha'etz , borei et hashemesh . We should thank Hashem for the sun. Voice said, "Hey, that's a great question." And his answer was, "We do! יוצר אור ובורא חושך." Every day we talk about the light and the darkness. Yotzeir hame'orot . God created the luminaries. It's in our daily prayers. How many people think about that? Just like I'm taking an apple and take a bite out of the apple, I make a berachah first. Take a bite out of the sun every morning. I'm appreciating the sun, I'm taking a berachah for it. But again, not only don't we appreciate the sun, Rabbeinu was adding, we don't even appreciate the blessing on the sun that we make to remind us of the sun. So we have a lot of hard work to do in appreciation of the wonders that Hashem made. And we'll be talking some time about the sun. Now again, for those people that are not science buffs and are not interested in these things, there are a lot of great shiurim to listen to, but if you're interested in, then we'll talk about it. So first of all, what is the sun made out of? What is the sun exactly? It's very large, it's the source of all energy and life on earth. It's 109 times the size of the earth. And what's it made of exactly? It's made of 73% hydrogen, 25% helium, with some other small quantities of oxygen, carbon, neon and iron. And this, these gases are constantly burning. Now I was bothered by a question when I was preparing this class because you're supposed to be curious. How does this mass of gas just stay together? Why doesn't it just dissipate? If you have gas, what's holding it together? Good question. And to come to the end of the story, the sun is really a self-sustaining furnace where gravity holds the fuel in place and the energy from burning that fuel creates the pressure needed to counteract gravity. What's that mean? That means gravity holds it together, that's why it doesn't spread out, but then the energy that's burning causes it to go against gravity and that's why it shines. If the gravity would hold it in, it would never shine. So it's this interesting effect of the gravity holding it in and the heat created allowing the sun's energy to shine out. Let's say it in a little bit more scientific terms: the gravity pulls it inward, and the nuclear fusion in the core creates the outward pressure, and this stable balance is called hydrostatic equilibrium that prevents the gas from dissipating and allowing the fusion to occur in the hot dense plasma. And this self-regulation has been going on for thousands of years. Now what is gravity pray tell? This inward pull? What is that? What does that mean? Gravity? And the answer is, gravity is another way of saying Hashem . That's what gravity is. The sun is another way of saying Hashem . Ham'ir la'aretz . God is the one that shines the sun. And this is an unbelievable thought that the Maharsha ... The Maharsha says. We're all familiar with the story of the great רבי מאיר בעל הנס. Where he made a miracle. What was the miracle? The miracle was he was going to redeem his the daughter of רבי חנינא בן תרדיון who was taken captive. And he paid somebody off and gave him the ability to withstand whatever pressure he had and he said if you get stuck say the following words: Elaka D'Meir Aneini . The God of Meir answer me. Now this is very strange. Rabbis don't go bragging and saying the God of Meir, me. And we say Elaka D'Meir Aneini , at least many people say that without saying Elaka Di'Rebbi Meir . Are you calling him by his first name just because he said Elaka D'Meir Aneini ? And the Maharsha says Meir does not mean Rebbi Meir . Meir means God who is Meir , God that causes the sun to shine. That's what it means: Elaka D'Meir Aneini . God is the one that makes the sun shine. So you see the sun shining on you, God's shining on you because there is no explanation why these gases stay together and don't just dissipate into the atmosphere. It's a wonder of wonders. There's no ball in the middle, you think oh the sun's like this hard ball in the middle and it's a hot hard ball, no it's not. It's all gas. There's no if you'd have a plane that would be heat resistant it would fly right through the sun, there's nothing there. I don't know how many people think about that. The sun has nothing there, it's not like the earth that has a hard mass. There's nothing there. It's just gas staying together with gravity and having this self-regulation and burning for thousands of years. Wonders of wonders.

Welcome to our daily Bitachon . We're back on track with our Sha'ar Bechina . We left off talking about a principle that everything that we have in the world is made of smaller building blocks that are built up and then they are broken down into their particles and start the cycle again. And he asks of us to analyze this. And I'd like to give a very simple example. Again, these are things that for those that are not interested in science class, this might not be for you. But it's a responsibility for all of us to look into these things. Anyone that ever listened to Rabbi Miller knows that he was intoxicated with the concept of an apple. And he spoke about an apple a lot. We're going to talk about something. I didn't hear it directly from him, but I'm sure he would be happy with this as well. So what happens when you eat an apple? How does your the apple go in your mouth and get absorbed in your system? And here's the journey. It starts in the mouth. In the mouth, we start with what we'll call the mash, like a mashed potato, mashed apple. There's throughout this system, which is very interesting, there's a physical component and a chemical component. And I'll explain. The physical component is you chew the apple and break it into smaller pieces. That's physical. There's a chemical component, which is your saliva has enzymes, one of them known as amylase, which starts to break down some of the apple's carbohydrates into simple sugars in your mouth already. It means your saliva is a separate discussion that Chovot Halevavot talks about about the multiple tasks of given things that we have in our system. Besides the saliva lubricating your mouth and helping the food go down and you don't have another fact you don't have a dry mouth and your palate sticking to your tongue, the saliva also contains these enzymes. That's the first step. Then it goes to the stomach, which we'll call the acid bath. And again, there's something physical that the stomach muscles churn the apple pieces mixing it with the digestive juices, similar to your washing machine that spins around. And then, and that's sometimes you have cramps in your stomach because your stomach is churning. And then we have the chemical aspect, which is there's glands in your stomach lining. That means it's a washing machine that releases detergent at the same time. Wonder of wonders. The glands that are in your stomach lining release strong acid and enzymes. And this creates this acidic semi-liquid mixture called chyme, spelled C-H-Y-M-E. At this point, the apple's fiber and some of the other parts remain intact. So it's the first stage. Then we go on to the small intestine, which we'll call the nutrient factory. Again, there's a physical aspect, the contractions of the small intestine move the chyme through the intestine, mixing it thoroughly. We know that this contraction is called peristalsis, which is a wonder in itself that you can stand on your head and the food will still go in the proper direction. It's not gravity, but it's the muscle contractions that move it down. And then we have a chemical aspect as well. The pancreas and liver send in more juices. That means this is not coming from the stomach lining, this is coming from an outside factory. And powerful enzymes, and they break down the apple's carbohydrates and proteins and fat components back into their basic building blocks. And this is our key point. We are now getting into the basic building blocks, the glucose and amino acids. And then, once we've broken it down into these tiny nutrient molecules, they're absorbed through the intestinal walls into your bloodstream, which carries them to your body's cells for energy. So this is important. This is where the real breakdown happens. We get things into the microscopic size and they could be absorbed. Our next step is the large intestine or the colon, which is the waste collector. The leftover material, the undigestible fiber that and other parts that resisted earlier digestion, now move into the large intestine. Again, there's a chemical aspect. There's trillions of gut bacteria in the colon that ferment the fiber, breaking it down in a process similar to brewing, like you brew beer. And it produces beneficial byproducts that help you keep your gut healthy. And again, there's more absorption, this time mostly the remaining water, which helps solidify the waste. And finally, the elimination where the solid waste material that is not digested is moved into the. final area and it's expelled from the body. Wonder of wonders what just happened to a simple apple? And when you say borei pri ha'eitz and בורא נפשות רבות וחסרונם there's what to think about. And again this is what we need to do in sha'ar habechina . It's beautiful if you think about it to appreciate all these different things that are happening on a daily basis and it's happening without us even thinking about it. I can't say without exerting energy. It does exert energy, not energy that you're feeling like lifting weights, but there's energy that's why you burn calories when you digest things. That's why we all know that you can't go running after you ate because the blood is necessary and the energy is necessary for the digestive system. So without you knowing while you're sleeping all this digestion is happening and beautiful things that you don't even

Welcome to daily Bitochon . I'd like to share with you a beautiful story that connects the concept that we spoke about previously called Nechama , which means the ability to look at a situation and give it a different outlook, different perspective. The story I heard from my father-in-law, Rabbi Nussen Sherman, who heard it from the protagonist, the Bluzhover Rebbe . The Bluzhover Rebbe was a great Chasidic Rebbe who passed away at age 99. And he went through slave labor camps, concentration camps, his whole family was wiped out. He eventually came to America and rebuilt his Chasidus . In the following story happens in one of the slave labor camps, Chanukah time. Some of the inmates came and said we want to light the Menorah . He said we don't have the materials, and they said we'll figure it out. He says, okay, if you if if we have people that want to do it, we'll do it. And part of the camp, they made uniforms for the Nazis and they smuggled out some of the threads used for the sewing of the uniforms and those would become the wicks. And they had a ration of margarine that they would get on their dry bread, and they used the margarine as the oil. On the night of Chanukah , the Jews gathered in the barracks together, risking their lives, and the Rebbe was the one that lit the Menorah . He made the bracha l'hadlik ner , he made the bracha she'asa nisim , and finally he made the bracha of Shehecheyanu . There was maybe a hundred people there. They quietly sang Ma'oz Tzur so they wouldn't be caught and be punished or killed by the Nazis for performing a religious act. And then everybody scattered back to their bunks, bunkers. And there was one man that stayed behind. He had a long Russian name, let's call him Drematrovsky. I don't remember exactly what the name was. And after everyone dispersed, he went over to the Rebbe and said, I don't understand you. This man was a became a communist before the war. The Nazis didn't care who you were, he was not religious. And he says, you want to celebrate Chanukah , okay. But you're going to say the word Shehecheyanu ? God kept us alive for this day? Who wants to be alive? We'd rather be dead. It's it's it's a mockery. It's hypocrisy. How could you say Shehecheyanu that we're happy to be here alive? And the Rebbe answered and he said, you're right, we'd rather be dead. But here we are, that in the darkness of a concentration camp, we have a hundred or so Jews that are willing to risk their lives to light the Menorah ? That's the reason to say Shehecheyanu . That God kept us alive for this moment of bravery and courage. And that's the end of part one of the story. Part two of the story, the Rebbe , many years later, had a Chasid , we'll call him Mr. Frankel. And he went back to Communist Russia or Poland to visit the graves of his ancestors. And on this pilgrimage, he meets a Russian man. And the Russian man asks him where he's from. He says he's from America. Do you know Rabbi Shapiro who was the Bluzhover Rebbe ? And the man said, yes, he happens to be he's my rabbi. He said, tell him the following message. Tell him that Drematrovsky told you that the words you told him gave him the strength and the will to continue living and to survive the war. He said, what what are you referring to? He says, don't worry. You just tell him that and he'll know what I'm referring to. And he was referring to that reframe that the Rebbe had given him. When he had despaired and given up everything and wanted to die, the Rebbe found a glimpse of light in the darkest of times and even then, he said it warrants saying a Shehecheyanu . What a beautiful story. Have a wonderful day. beautiful story on how a great man is able to turn around a extremely negative situation.

Welcome to Daily Bitachon , we're continuing from yesterday's class where we spoke about the lesson from Rabbi Mattisyahu Salomon connecting Chanukah and the story of Yosef and the brothers. They both have one theme, which is that while things are happening they might seem like a comedy of errors but it's really being planned from the beginning. It's not a coincidence and then we save you at the end, but actually everything that was happening was the goal was to save you. Now we find the connection in that area between Shabbat as well. Before that, let's explain a part of Al HaNissim that I never understood. We end after we thank Hashem for the miracles, the wonders, the salvation, we thank Hashem for the nechamos , for the, simply it means comforts. What is the nechama of Chanukah ? I know there's nechama in Shabbat Nachamu , the Shabbat after Tisha B'Av , but what is the nechama in Chanukah ? First we have to understand what does nechama mean? People translate it as comfort or console, but the way to understand the word is always to look in the Torah especially the first time a word shows up and the first time the word shows up is at the end of Bereshit where God is upset with creation before he brings the Mabul and it says Vayinachem about Hashem . Hashem was minachem . Now he wasn't comforted by the tragic downturn of society, rather Rashi says Vayinachem means he had a change of heart, a change of mind, and he says anytime the word Vayinachem shows up that's what it means. So when we use it as the word comfort it's because the way you comfort someone is by changing their way of looking at things what we call a reframe. That's what a nechama is and based on what Rabbi Mattisyahu Salomon told us the nechama of Chanukah was that we saw when the miracle of Chanukah came out like Rabbeinu Yonah says in Shaarei Teshuva from the Midrash it's not that I was in the darkness and then God lit up the light night for me but rather if not for the darkness there would be no light. I went into the darkness to create the light and Chanukah showed that to me and that was the nechama of Chanukah to realize that the darkness is purposeful. If I didn't fall I wouldn't get up. If I wasn't in the dark I would not have been in the light. That's the nechama of Chanukah . That's also connected to Shabbat . How so? The Midrash in Pirkei D'Rabbi Eliezer chapter twenty says that when Adam HaRishon sinned he was sent out of Gan Eden and he was sitting on Har HaMoriah . He was sent out on a Friday and he spent the entire Shabbat there, Friday afternoon, Shabbat , he spent there on Har HaMoriah till the end of Shabbat . For those hours starting from Chatzos on Friday till Motzei Shabbat which is thirty-six hours the hidden light was lit. There was no darkness. Darkness descended on the world when Motzei Shabbat came and that's why we do Borei Meorei HaEish , we light the candle on Motzei Shabbat because that's when we needed fire for the first time. So Adam HaRishon is sitting outside Gan Eden on Shabbat and it says that the Shabbat was protecting him. Nothing went wrong. He watched the Shabbat and Shabbat watched him. That's what the Midrash says: כי אשמרה שבת אל ישמרני. I watch Shabbat , Shabbat watches me. Shabbat was protecting Adam and it says Shabbat was comforting Adam . Shabbat gives nechama . He was sitting outside and he was full of thoughts and confusion and Shabbat was comforting him. And the Midrash says a Pasuk shene'emar : ברוב שרעפי בקרבי תנחומיך ישעשעו נפשי. When I have a lot of thoughts in my head, a lot of turbulence in my head, your words tanchumecha , your comforting words cause me to be delighted and take me out of my depression. That's my source that Shabbat gave nechama to Adam HaRishon . And the commentaries ask where do I see that in the Pasuk ? And they say it's a chida , an earlier rabbi that brings this mnemonic even the Arizal . Sarapai , Tanchumecha , B'rov sarapai tanchumecha , the letters of Shabbat . Shabbat brought the nechama . Shabbat is a time that gives us the ability to look at things in a different light, to reframe situations. We see this in מזמור שיר ליום השבת. מזמור שיר ליום השבת which doesn't talk about Shabbat was written by Moshe Rabbeinu on a scroll when the Jews were still in Mitzrayim to read on Shabbat to give them nechama , to give them comfort, to look at things in a different way. What's the different way? בפרוח רשעים כמו עשב. Why is it that the wicked are blossoming like grass? And the answer is l'hishamedam adei ad , to destroy them. Grass is there for the lawnmower. The wicked that are sprouting will eventually be taken down. The Egyptians are successful but eventually taken down. So Shabbat was a time of nechama . Shabbat gave them comfort and that is an important Shabbat and Chanukah connection especially when... of the superpower when Shabbat and Chanukah come together. It's a time to look back on situations that are difficult, in the current situations that we're in that are difficult and to be able to find nechama there, to be able to find comfort and understand and look at it differently. I'll give you one little example of what a nechama type thought is. This story happened a few years ago to one of my nieces. She wanted to go to a certain seminary in Israel and she didn't get accepted. And they used all different kind of pulls and connections and nothing worked. She had to go to her second choice seminary and she wasn't very happy about it. All her friends were going to the other seminary, the one that she was going to she didn't know anybody, she ended up with a roommate that she didn't know and at the time I remember she wasn't really very happy. Lo and behold, the new roommate that she meets likes this young lady, my niece, and eventually suggests her for her cousin and they get married. If not for that second seminary, she would not have met her husband so to say. So what looked like a bad event of not going to the seminary that you wanted, really God was actually plotting and planning your shidduch . And this is everything in life. And to end on a global level, the מדרש פסיקתא דרב כהנא says about the Jewish people: Don't you see, don't you get it? I knocked out the Romans- I'm sorry, I knocked out the Babylonians, I knocked out the Medians, I knocked out the Greek, I'm in the middle of knocking out the final galut of Edom , and you're complaining? Don't you know I'm going someplace, I have a goal? And that's part of the miracle of Chanukah to tell us al hanechamot to realize that just like Chanukah , all those trials and tribulations created the miracle of Chanukah , so too all that we're going through, goal is to create that big miracle of the times of Mashiach .

Welcome to daily bitachon , a bitachon related thought on Chanukah . This comes from Rav Matisyahu Salomon's sefer Matnas Chaim on the topic of Shabbat . And there he discusses the concept that the readings that we read during the year match with the holidays that happen during that time. And when we read a parsha , it arouses a certain energy. We read about Yosef HaTzadik and his brothers and the lessons there, that's a certain energy. When Chanukah occurs, there's a certain energy, and it's not a coincidence. So what is the connection between the story of Yosef and the brothers and Chanukah ? Rav Matisyahu brings out a beautiful thought, and he says that when we read the story of Yosef and the brothers, he lists many events that are seemingly mistakes. Firstly, it says that Yosef was a naar , he was a lad, he was a teenager. The Sforno says the fact that he was acting the way he acted and causing jealousy with his brothers was a teenager's actions coming from someone that wasn't fully mature. Seemingly, mistake number one. Mistake number two is that the brothers are wrongly accused by Yosef for whatever sins he thought they did, which we're not going to get into, but we know that they had reasons for what they did. Yaakov Avinu favors Yosef over the other brothers, and he makes him a special coat. And the Gemara even says that we learn from Yaakov that you shouldn't single out one son over the other son, which means what Yaakov Avinu did is not something that should be done. Another seeming mistake. Furthermore, Yosef shares his dreams with his brothers. Why would you do that and further instigate them to hate you? Yaakov sends Yosef down to his brothers after he knows that the brothers don't have a particular fondness for Yosef . Why would he put Yosef in danger like that? So these are all seemingly mistakes. But says Rav Matisyahu Salomon, as we know, this is all God turning the wheels because we need to get Yosef down to Mitzrayim , and we need for there to be a viceroy there setting things up before we get there. So this is all orchestrated by God. And this, he says, is the lesson that sometimes we see what might look as a comedy of errors, but it's really being orchestrated for a specific reason to make things need to happen. And he says that is the lesson of Chanukah as well. How so? When we were going through the story of Chanukah , we see many events, many challenges, trials, tribulations, tragedies, and they're seemingly, again, just a bunch of mishaps and sad events. In the end, it produced the miracle of Chanukah , which gives us a light for generations. And he says it's a mistake to think that there's a problem and God has to save us because of the problem. He says a tremendous chiddush , that all the problems that God's making were there to create the miracle, to necessitate the miracle. The end goal was the miracle of Chanukah . Everything that happened 'til then was getting towards that miracle. It wasn't the opposite where we have all these problems that somehow we got stuck into, we don't know how, and God comes in after the fact to save us. God was the one that was setting everything up before that because he was trying to create the miracle. And that's the story with Yosef and the brothers, and that's what's going on with us right now. It's not going to be that Mashiach's going to come to save us after all that we're going through now. No, all we're going through now is to set us up for that Mashiach . And that's the correct way to look at life's events. So that's the story of Yosef and the brothers, and that's the story of Chanukah , and that's the story of the Jewish people at large, and that's the story with every individual with their own personal challenges. The situations that are happening are just setting it up for God's

Welcome to our daily bitachon . We're going to be talking about Chanukah for the next week. The Ben Ish Chai tells us the first night of Chanukah , hopefully you'll be listening to this on the first day of Chanukah which still has that force, we make three b'rachot : l'hadlik to light the candle, she'asa nisim God made miracles, and shehecheyanu because it's a mitzvah that comes from time to time. He says there's a siman for this: עשה לך שרף ושים אותו על נס וראה אותו וחי. It's talking about the story where the Jewish people were in the desert and God sent the snakes against them, and Hashem told Moshe to make a copper snake, put it on a pole, and whoever looks at it will live. Aseh l'cha saraf , make for yourself a fiery serpent, that's fire is l'hadlik to light the candles. Place it on a pole, a nes , which is a pole because it's high up like a miracle is announced from afar, that's she'asa nisim . And finally, whoever looks at it will live, that's shehecheyanu . The obvious question is what exactly is the connection between this copper snake and the miracle of Chanukah . First we go to the sefer Bnei Yissaschar on the topic of Kislev in his second essay, letter 11, where he tells us about the dream that Daniel had, and in that dream it goes through different kingdoms, and it uses copper as a hint to the Greeks. And we see a specific connection at the end of parashat Terumah , the last word is nechoshet , which as we said hints to Yavan . And the next word is parashat Tetzaveh where it says ויקחו אליך שמן זית, take for yourself olive oil, which is the miracle of Chanukah . And one of the Rishonim , the Rokeach , gives a hint from here that the Greeks will attack the menorah . And nechoshet , copper, is rashei teivot נר חנוכה שם תדליקו, Chanukah candle there you should light it. So this copper snake is the force of the Greeks. The Greeks were the ones that said כתבו לכם על קרן השור, write for yourselves on the horn of the cow, אין לכם חלק באלקי ישראל, you don't have a portion in the God of Israel, which means the Jewish people aren't special, they don't stand out, there's no God of Israel, there's no special divine supervision on Jewish people. That was one of the Greek messages. You have your wisdom, we have our philosophy, you're no better than we are. Yaft Elokim l'Yefet , we have the beauty, Yefet is the Greeks, and we can take you head to head. Our job is to look above the snake. As the Mishnah in Masechet Rosh Hashanah tells us on this pasuk , aseh l'cha saraf , make a serpent, v'sim oto al nes , and whoever is bitten will look at it and live. Asks the Mishnah : וכי נחש ממית או נחש מחיה? Do snakes kill or snakes give life? Rather to tell you that as long as the Jewish people look above, they look above the snake and they subjugate their hearts their father in heaven, they would be healed and if not they would be they would shrivel away. Aviham shebashamayim , it's our father in heaven. We look at the snake, he looks fierce, he looks scary, and we pick our heads up above the snake and see that God's in charge and He's taking care of us. The sefer Nefesh HaChaim in his third gate, twelfth chapter, explains why they had to look at the snake. Just forget about the snake. Why look at the snake? Look up to heavens. Doesn't say that, says look at the snake. And he says look at the snake, look how powerful the snake is, and with all the power of the snake, annul it in your heart and don't pay attention to the force of the snake, and now subjugate your heart to heaven, and that will fix the problem. And this he uses the term is the concept of אין עוד מלבדו, that's what he's talking about. He used the term המתקת כוחות הדינים בשורשם. You could fix the negative forces from their source. What does that mean? When you look at the negative force and you see the source is ultimately coming from God, it looks scary, but all it is is a manifestation of God's will and He's doing it because He wants to bring us back closer to Him and He wants us to eventually come closer to Him. And that's why it's happening. So when you see all the evil and realize that all of it is really rooted in God, and he's sending it, he's the cause of it, then it disappears and it won't hurt you. The Ohr HaChaim HaKadosh on this pasuk tells us why didn't God make it that the snakes disappeared? Doesn't say that. He allowed them to continue biting and they had to look up and be healed. He said, because Hashem wants us to connect to him. And that's why he doesn't just get rid of the problem, he gives us the problem and he is the solution. And that's where we stay constantly connected to him. And that's this message of Chanukah . Chanukah is all about realizing HaKadosh Baruch Hu is taking care of us in a hidden way. The miracle of the light is really not the main miracle. The miracle of the milchama is the main miracle. We won the war. But that war was done in a natural way. So therefore, Hashem needed us to, needed to show us a miracle that would reveal what was really going on. And that's our chizuk of Chanukah on the first day. As we light, make three brachot to remind us of aseh lecha saraf , make for yourself a fiery serpent. That's the first bracha , lehadlik . Put it on a nes , she'asa nisim . Whoever will be bitten will look at it and will live, that's our shehecheyanu , reminding us of that little incident, and that's all the negative force of nechoshet of Yavan , of the Greeks, that wanted us to think that we're disconnected from God and remind ourselves and reconnect through the problem.