If I Were Born Chinese, Japanese, Muslim, or Christian: 5 Points to Ponder

Breast Milk

A newborn has just arrived. What will it eat? How will it eat? It is utterly helpless, how will it manage? No worries, Hashem arranged that the newborn's nutrition would be readily and easily available in its environment. How? Through breast milk.

The newborn experiences a remarkable change: until now, it received its nourishment directly from the mother's bloodstream, through the umbilical cord. Now it must switch to a completely different mode of feeding - breastfeeding. The transition is not gradual; it happens all at once, without preparatory stages!

One cannot help but notice that this process is meticulously planned, with perfect coordination between two different systems! Allow me to elaborate:

• Accessible and Free: Breast milk is always available to a hungry infant, requires no special preparation like other milk substitutes, and costs nothing.
• Nourishing: The digestion system of a newborn is suited only to liquid nourishment and cannot digest solid food. Amazingly aligned, breast milk is rich in essential nutrients and provides all the nutritional needs of the infant.
• Immunization: Breast milk serves as a natural immunization for the newborn against infectious diseases that might be in its immediate surroundings.
• Planned Timing: The process of milk production begins in the mother during pregnancy due to the secretion of the hormone prolactin, so she can nurse her baby immediately after birth.
• Mutual Balance: Milk continues to be produced as long as the baby continues breastfeeding. In fact, the amount of milk produced depends on how much the baby consumes. When breastfeeding frequency decreases, prolactin secretion and milk production lessen accordingly.
• Milk Volume Depends on Baby's Suckling Rate: As the baby grows, its appetite increases, leading to more frequent feedings and increasing milk supply. If the flow had been strong from the start, the baby could choke. If weak, the baby would struggle with suckling and starve over time.
• Milk Composition Changes with Baby's Growth: The milk provides for the baby's changing needs at each stage of its rapid development.
• Physical Action with Emotional Significance: Breastfeeding contributes to forming an immediate bond between mother and baby, impacting the mother's emotions and bonding her to the baby.

Observe: The natural world is rife with independent and diverse systems, existing and functioning with such sophisticated coordination that it rules out any chance of accidental formation and development of each part on its own. Does this alone not suffice to understand that one Designer, one Creator, planned and created them all?

Who Notified the Ants?

As I walked on the sidewalk today, I suddenly noticed a dead insect, completely covered in ants. This scene intrigued me, and I wondered: what is the connection between the ants and the carcass? What are they doing there?

Each day, carcasses and remains accumulate in open spaces. This could be an ecological disaster and a source of disease and infection! It turns out that ants search for carcasses and remains, looking after the environment without us noticing.

Ants never leave an insect carcass without proper handling. They reach every corner of the land, where their role is to locate waste, drag it to their underground colonies, and break it down there. In other words, the waste is also the ants' food.

Even a brief glance at an ant caravan makes it hard not to notice the meticulous order prevailing there. You stand in awe of the long and winding line of ants, cooperating in transporting food to the nest.

Anyone observing the animal world realizes it is one of the most fascinating wonders of creation: how do ants find a carcass? Who told them there was a carcass in the area? Who taught them what to do with the carcass, how do they know to work collaboratively without collisions and mishaps? And how do ants find their way to their nest without a compass or a map?

There are countless wondrous examples from the animal world. I ask: can it be that in the tiny brain of an ant, there is the intelligence to understand its surroundings so sophisticatedly, or does this clearly indicate the Creator, who equipped it with all it needs and instilled the instinct to use it?

Against All Odds

The fact that the Jewish People exist is a miracle and wonder unsurpassed. The eternal existence of Israel is an illogical phenomenon, especially in light of three phenomena that exist in the Jewish People, which naturally should have led to their extinction and loss. These three phenomena, astonishingly, are prophecies foreseen more than 3,000 years ago in the Torah:

1) The Jewish People are small in number. In a small group, the chance of surviving exile and not assimilating into the culture of other nations is minimal. There is an explicit prophecy that the Jewish People will be small in number. It is stated thus: "And there you shall be left few in number despite being as numerous as the stars of heaven..." (Deuteronomy 28:62).

2) The Jewish People are scattered throughout the world. Had the Jews been exiled to just a few places globally, they might have had a chance to survive. But globally, their chances of survival without assimilation are almost zero. The Torah foresaw in advance that Israel would go into exile and be scattered all over the world, as it is written: "And Hashem shall scatter you among all peoples from one end of the earth to the other" (Deuteronomy 28:64).

3) Throughout history, the Jewish People have been persecuted, tortured, massacred, and greatly suffered. Naturally, there is no chance for a persecuted and tortured people to survive. The Torah of Israel foretold the persecution of the Jewish People by the nations in advance: "And among the nations, you shall find no respite, nor shall there be rest for the sole of your foot..." (Deuteronomy 28:65).

And yet, despite being a small, persecuted, tortured, and globally dispersed people, the Jewish People survive to this very day!

How could it be that the Jewish People survive against all odds? This supernatural phenomenon was already foreseen in the Torah more than 3,000 years ago: "Yet even then, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them nor abhor them to destroy them, to break my covenant with them, for I am Hashem their God" (Leviticus 26:44).

Hashem guarantees to the Jewish People that even if their situation becomes very dire, to the point where enemies threaten their existence, He will never abandon them to extinction. Who can commit to such an illogical and paradoxical prophecy?! And who can keep and fulfill this promise?! Only the Creator of the world and Ruler of history can do so.

Why Do We Faint?

Have you ever awakened to see a circle of worried people above you, not knowing what just happened? If so, you probably fainted. What is fainting, and why do we fall to the ground when we lose consciousness?

It is certainly an unpleasant experience. It usually occurs after a blood test or donation, following prolonged hunger, thirst, or other medical conditions. Vision blurs, the body weakens, dizziness quickly arrives, and the body falls to the ground.

Due to various reasons, including excitement, fear, stress, a blood test, dehydration, hunger, or other conditions accompanying different diseases, a drop in blood pressure occurs in the body leading to a lack of oxygen supply to the brain for about seven seconds.

The brain, the most oxygen-sensitive organ, acts quickly to command increased delivery of oxygenated blood to its cells. Why? Because when brain cells do not get oxygen for more than 5 minutes, they die, causing irreversible damage to a person.

To meet the brain cells' demand and mainly to protect them from oxygen deprivation, the body makes us fall to the ground, placing us in a horizontal position allowing maximum blood flow to the brain. The rest of the body's muscles relax so as not to use oxygen. Now a large amount of blood rushes to the head, brain cells are re-oxygenated, and within seconds, we regain consciousness.

Thus, the fainting, and the subsequent fall, these two alarming phenomena, are actually designed to save us and ensure the optimal functioning of the body.

Could such an extraordinary process, indicating a guiding and caring hand, have occurred on its own without a Creator and Designer? By observing the human body, one can recognize it as the work of a superhuman creator with infinite genius and enormous power.

The Blessing of Not Being Made a Gentile

No one asked us or consulted us before we came into the world. Our birth into this world where we reside is not self-evident. I came into the world and was "placed" in a certain family, in a certain place, under certain conditions. Yet, some are "placed" in places and conditions that, upon reflection, reveal just how much we should constantly thank the Creator for His kindness towards us.

I have the privilege of being born a free person, free to act as I wish and determine my daily routine, rather than being born a repressed and miserable slave, subject to another's power in one of the African countries. For neither the slave nor I were asked where we wished to be born, yet I was the fortunate one to be free...

I have the privilege of being born and residing in our ancestral homeland - the Land of Israel, a land long dreamt of by our forefathers, yearned for as they sought to ascend to it - rather than being born in those underdeveloped countries, third-world countries like India or Ethiopia. For neither the Indian nor I were asked where we'd like to be born, yet I have the privilege of living in Israel...

I have the privilege of being born a Jew; to experience once a week the Shabbat - a spiritual and uplifting day, a day of transcendence and sanctity, which a stranger will never understand; to be moved by my wife anew each time, as when she first entered the chuppah; to elevate myself in the service of Hashem, rather than being born a Muslim or a Christian idolator, bowing to emptiness and vanity... For neither the Muslim, Christian, nor I were asked where we'd like to be born, yet I am fortunate to possess a Jewish soul, to be the son of a king, a servant of the world's Creator...

In the world, there are billions of Chinese, Japanese, Indians, etc., who have no Torah and mitzvot, no Temple, and no resurrection of the dead; I could just as easily have been one of them. But the Creator took pity on me and chose me from among them, granting me a soul and birthing me to Jewish parents, to live in the Land of Israel and be blessed with all the true and eternal goodness. Thank God, who made me not a Gentile!