Headstand for Several Months? 5 Points for Thought

Headstand

Anyone who tries to stand on their head and remain upside down for a prolonged time might cause themselves great harm, sometimes irreversible. A few hours might still be possible and good, but what would you say if I told you there is a human creature that can do it, and even enjoy it, not just for a few hours but for several months?

A fetus in its mother's womb!

Most fetuses position themselves during the last trimester of pregnancy with their heads down. The most common position during birth is when the fetus's head is pointed towards the opening of the birth canal, as if it is doing a headstand inside the womb.

So, have you asked yourselves, how is it possible for a fetus to remain for several weeks with its head down in its mother's womb?

Our bodies have special mechanisms to regulate blood pressure, designed to deal with the more common situation where we are lying down, so that blood does not concentrate on the side we are lying on. It is an amazing and simple mechanism of one-way valves, which do not allow blood to flow towards the head when the head is down. These valves also operate in our mother's womb.

Additionally, the fetus's body is small. All the damage that might be caused by an increase in brain pressure comes, among other things, from the height difference between head and feet (which is why giraffes should be at great risk, but the Creator in His wisdom and kindness equipped their bodies with a valve system that regulates their blood pressure). When this difference is small, as in the case of the fetus, the pressure increase is also small.

And I ask: how does a fetus in the womb "know" to turn on its head, exactly in the position that leads it towards passage through the birth canal, the optimal position for an easier birth? Who gives it the order to do so?

"Who Comes to Daddy?"

If we pay attention, we can learn ethics and proper conduct in the service of Hashem not only from great rabbis but also from babies!

On Shabbat, we stayed at my mom's. On Friday night, my brother and I returned from the synagogue and entered the house. My nine-month-old daughter saw us coming in and began crawling quickly toward us. I was very excited to see her happy to come to me, but suddenly there was a twist in the plot: She crawled quickly towards my younger brother and extended her little hands for him to lift her! Ouch... not pleasant!

Wait, why didn't she run to me? I am her father! Every night I get up several times for her! I feed her, play with her, take her for walks, buy her formula, diapers, clothes, and more, and in the end, she crawls towards my brother?! Although my brother also gives her lots of warmth and love, what about me? What a disappointment...

Friends, from this amusing story I understood how much a moral lesson can be learned about our service of Hashem. How so?

The Creator of the world, our Father in heaven, gives us so much at every moment: Eyes to see, a beating heart, and legs to walk, provides us with livelihood, gives us a wife and children, a roof over our heads and more and more, and instead of turning to Him every day, seeking His closeness and thanking Him, we "forget" Him, and prefer to give thanks to the boss who gave us a significant promotion at work, to the eye doctor who gave us a remedy for inflammation, the midwife in the hospital who delivered our baby, to the contractor who renovated our house.

When we behave like this, how do you think the Creator of the world "feels" about us? There is no doubt that it "hurts" the Creator that His children, despite all the good He gives them, forget Him and prefer to "crawl quickly towards someone else", when He is right here beside us, extending His hand to us...

It is indeed important to recognize and thank everyone, but at the same time we must not forget who actually "pulls the strings" – the Creator of the world, our Father in heaven, the source of abundance and blessing!

May it be His will that we remember the Creator of the world in all our actions, that we merit to thank Him for the wonderful life He has given us, and that we always seek His closeness. Amen!

Sleep with One Eye Open

All mammals in the world must sleep.

Wait, dolphins are sea mammals (not fish), and their breathing is not an automatic function like other mammals. Since they cannot breathe underwater, they have to come to the surface every few minutes and breathe.

Since breathing continues during sleep, sleep can be extremely dangerous for dolphins. So, how do they sleep in the water without drowning to death?

To resolve this issue, the Creator equipped dolphins with a marvelous brain system and unique sleep mechanisms, which allow the dolphin to sleep in the water without drowning. Take note:

The brain of all mammals is divided into two parts. The right part and the left part. The dolphin sleeps with only half of its brain, while the other half remains at a low level of awareness. The half standing guard "reminds" the dolphin to come up to the surface every few minutes and breathe. In addition, the awake half of the brain guards against predators: The dolphin sleeps with one eye closed and one eye open. After some time, the roles switch: The half that stayed awake goes to sleep, and the other half wakes up.

This marvelous system unequivocally testifies to an all-powerful Creator, who has equipped the dolphin with everything it needs to survive...

How Much Effort?

Many people stand baffled by the question: how much effort should I make to find a suitable match? What is the right balance for me between belief that Hashem alone will send me my match and the practical efforts needed to find a match? Is it enough to pray deeply from the heart for a match without practical effort, such as signing up for "Seven Blessings" (a matchmaking site)? Should I do both? How do we know where to invest our efforts?

We'll explain with a parable:

When we give charity on the street, in most cases we will give a trivial amount, one or two shekels. Even if we are extraordinarily generous and decide to pamper that poor person with 20 shekels, we need to ask ourselves: Do we really think that this person can live on this? We clearly understand that he can hardly buy a lunch with it. What about the other meals? What about non-food needs? What will he eat tomorrow? At this moment, we don't think about all that, because we rely on there being other donors besides us, or that he will manage somehow on his own. Our role is not to set him up fully, but just to help a little.

But what happens if that poor person knocks on our door, and we discover he is a needy person, who nobody else knows about his situation, and he relies only on us and pleads with us to save him? This time, we will certainly take better care of him, and not settle for just a few shekels. When this person depends on us, we must give him food, clothing, a place to stay, and everything he needs, otherwise, we are effectively murdering him.

This is what happens with us as well, and this determines the level of material effort necessary for us. Our common aspiration should be complete trust in the Creator, to cast our burden on Him with faith that only He can save. If we trust Him to take care of all our needs, He indeed will do so, according to the degree of our faith. But if in addition to faith in the Creator we also rely on ourselves or on others, then the Creator will leave us to manage accordingly.

In other words, the greater our faith, the less effort we need to make. If we understand that it is only the Creator of the world that there is none else besides Him, and all those around are merely His emissaries for our benefit, then He will keep us close to Him, we will depend only on Him, and He will take care of all our needs...

Wireless Communication Between Trees

As surprising as it sounds, even trees communicate among themselves!

Botanical research shows that certain trees do indeed communicate with each other and can transmit messages: if various pests, such as insects, harm a tree (a damaged plant or tree is one whose leaves are deformed or eaten, fruits are infested or with holes, or there is harm to the blossom or a hole in the trunk), it starts to secrete chemical substances to protect itself and repel the intruder. Some of these substances are volatile and are carried by the wind to neighboring trees. Thus, they "hear" about the danger and immediately begin to secrete their protective substances, even though they have not yet been damaged themselves.

This amazing phenomenon occurs not only among individuals of the same species but also between different species growing close together.

The existence of this "communication" among trees is significant for our lives, as trees are responsible for one of the most vital processes in the living world – photosynthesis, a process that eventually releases the oxygen we breathe! Without the warning communication between the trees, pests might wipe out all tree populations. The ability of trees to send and receive messages in response to a difficult situation gives them an advantage, ensures their continued existence despite lurking dangers, and allows us to breathe!

How do plants "process" all this information, and how do they "decide" to act despite lacking a nervous system or brain?