"Why is This Happening to Me Now, Just as I'm Getting Closer to the Creator?" 5 Points to Ponder

"Cleaning! Open your mouth, please!"

There are numerous cases of extreme collaboration in nature between predator and prey.

A similar cooperation occurs in the ocean, with the cleaner fish (Labroides). The cleaner fish is a small fish with very specific colors that lives in an amazing symbiosis with larger fish. The cleaner fish approaches without fear towards the larger fish, many of which are predators, and it eats leftovers and dead cells from between their scales and even from their mouths.

It seems the cleaner fish does not fear picking food from between the scales of large fish, knowing they won't harm it.

The predatory fish don't even think of devouring the small creature dwelling in their mouths. They actually stop when they see it, opening their mouths as if knowing the cleaner fish has come to clean them. If that's not enough, the cleaner fish signals "clients" with special movements, and they stop for dental treatment one after the other. Predators recognize the cleaner fish by its unique colors.

We must remember these are instincts. The fish act on innate properties and are unaware of the process they are part of. The predator fish is not considering the hygiene of its mouth, and the cleaner fish is not offering itself to clean larger fish. What is there to say about such a mechanism that combines separate entities working in perfect harmony, like predator and prey? Isn't this enough to understand that everything was created by one Designer?

The "Body's Laboratory"

Food provides energy for our body. The body "consumes" the essential nutrients for its continuous functioning, while it "knows" how to excrete waste.

What organ is responsible for sorting the absorbed components in the digestive system so perfectly? Meet the liver.

The liver absorbs chemicals, vitamins, minerals, and other substances needed by the body. Meanwhile, it also removes toxins harmful to the body, essentially acting as a filter and supplier of essential materials for our functioning.

(Photo: shutterstock)

In medicine, the liver is called the "body's laboratory." However, compared to human-made labs, this is a super lab, beyond human comprehension, and certainly cannot be replicated.

The liver was designed with supreme genius; human hands played no part in its creation. Even top doctors couldn't produce a single liver despite all their equipment. Only a being with supreme intelligence and unlimited ability could be the creator of something so sophisticated...

"Though I Fall, I Will Rise; Though I Sit in Darkness, Hashem Will Be a Light to Me"

There are people who experience a fall or crisis just as they strengthen and advance in their service to Hashem. "Why is this happening to me?" they wonder disappointedly, "I'm getting closer to the Creator – I've started keeping Shabbat, I'm putting on tefillin – so why was I just laid off from work?"

But all this could hint at a great principle in serving Hashem, that when we aspire to reach a high place, human nature draws us as close as possible to the above. However, then one becomes limited, and cannot rise higher. Only when they descend can they actually have the ability to reach truly high places, much higher than those they could have reached before.

This puzzling concept can also be learned from the laws of physics. When trying to launch a spring far, the more you bend it downward, the farther it will fly. So too, when one wants to jump high, the lower they bend, the stronger their momentum will be. If one tries to jump without bending first, it will be very difficult, and they won't reach any height at all. They might think it's better to stretch and stand on tiptoe to start from a better launching point, but the opposite will happen, and they won't succeed in jumping at all. It's the descent downwards that brings momentum and the ability to reach great heights.

We imagine a seed planted in the ground. The seed starts to rot gradually, and just when it reaches its maximum decay point – when the seed seems ruined and spoiled – that's exactly when it begins to sprout.

Similarly, the darkest moment of the night signals the dawn about to appear.

This is a great spiritual principle to always remember. It's precisely from the falls and crises that salvation sprouts, as it's said, "Though I fall, I will rise; though I sit in darkness, Hashem will be a light to me" (Micah 7:8). From the fall – the rise!

The Flight of the Starlings

It looks like a UFO or a flying saucer, but it's just a flock of starlings (small birds) flying for pleasure in the sky, artistically, in stunning unity and without collisions!

The flight of the starlings is an astonishing spectacle. Anyone who has happened to sit under a flock of starlings in flight can attest that it's one of the most amazing and wondrous phenomena in nature. Hundreds of thousands of birds gather into an aerial structure and fly as one organism. The hallmark of these flocks is their surprising direction changes and the stylized shapes they create.

The sharp turns and sudden changes performed by hundreds of thousands of individuals in perfect synchronization begin with the flap of a wing, a single bird movement. Once one bird makes a movement in one direction, the nearby birds mimic the movement, and the message spreads through the flock at a speed of 20 - 40 meters per second.

This message passes at a uniform speed, creating a flow in the movement, appearing as if controlled by one brain... Who do you think is this "one brain" that planned it?

These are the Ten Plagues...

Last week, an excited secular acquaintance approached me at work and told me she watched a program on the "National Geographic" website about the ten plagues, where, to her astonishment, "experts" claimed that the ten plagues occurred in reality and are not an invention of the Torah! They also "explained" that the plagues happened naturally, not miraculously.

She began detailing the explanations of these "researchers," and eventually, I asked her:

"Could there be such perfect timing for the parting of the Red Sea in the form of a natural ebb just when the Israelites needed to cross it? Could there be such perfect timing for the tide that drowned the pursuing Egyptians, occurring just after they entered the sea chasing the Israelites? It is clear there's a guiding hand that controls nature, causing the water to split and close at the exact necessary times!"

Concerning this testimony of the ten plagues and the parting of the Red Sea – it's interesting that all over the world, even among those trying to oppose the Torah, no one dares deny their occurrence. They only try to explain how they happened: "How did the Nile turn to blood? It's not blood – there's a type of algae that colored it red..." "How was the parting of the Red Sea? – A strong wind blew and caused the waters to part."

But how did it happen exactly at the required time? How did the wind know to blow, and how did the waters know to split when the Israelites arrived there, allowing them to cross and escape from the pursuing Egyptians?! They attribute it to chance, but we know that everything was done by the Creator of the world!

Moreover, if they want to deny the Torah, why don’t they say that the entire story of the ten plagues and the parting of the Red Sea "never happened"? But they, too, know they cannot deny history. The testimony of millions of people, handed down through generations about events of such significance, cannot be denied. While they accept it happened, they attempt to twist what happened with all their ridiculous excuses. But anyone who knows there is a Creator knows that there is no problem splitting the sea and administering the ten plagues.

Finally, I asked her: "Now that you understand the ten plagues happened as described in the Torah, what does it mean to you?" She replied, "It's an interesting fact, nothing more..."

Every additional word is excess.