"And You Shall Rejoice in All the Good" – Can Emotion Be Commanded? 5 Points to Ponder

Accelerated Pulse

Have you noticed that the smaller the animal, the more frequently its heart beats? The heart of a whale (the largest mammal) beats 9 times a minute, an elephant's 25 times, a human's around 70, a mouse's about 500, and so on.

I wondered: why does a small creature's heart always beat faster? Even a baby’s heart beats faster than an adult’s!

The main explanations for the difference in heart frequency according to animal size are accelerated metabolism and body heat maintenance. A fast metabolism requires a large supply of blood, and since the heart's job is to pump blood, it must work hard and beat rapidly. Considering body heat maintenance – larger creatures find it easier to conserve it, or rather, it's harder for them to lose it, so they don't need to circulate as much blood and can let their hearts rest.

And I ask myself: who is the maker of hearts, producing and installing the right type of heart for each species? How does this "maker" know the anatomy of all the animals in the world? Isn't it a wonder that there exists a perfect production line for hundreds of thousands of types of hearts, and there isn't even a single defect – each animal received the most suitable one for it?!

Lightning Rain

Every child learns early in life that electricity and water are a dangerous combination, as water conducts electricity. Recently, a tragic case was published about a young woman who was electrocuted to death in a shower in an apartment. Apparently, she operated an internal electric water heater in the bath.

Yet a wonder occurs in nature: lightning is a powerful electric spark created within a rain cloud. However, although lightning in the sky occurs on cloudy days rich with rain and hail, miraculously, this phenomenon doesn’t end in disaster!

Isn't it astonishing to see lightning with rain? Lightning as fire and water do not extinguish it? A fierce lightning storm accompanied by heavy rains – and everything passes smoothly?!

Science cannot explain the exact way lightning forms within a rain cloud, but we know who created this phenomenon: King David, when describing the greatness of the Creator of the world (Psalms 135), begins with the depiction of His wonders: "For I know that Hashem is great, and our Lord is above all gods:" "Whatever Hashem desired, He did, in the heavens and on the earth, in the seas and all the depths… He makes lightning for the rain..."

Suffering Cleanses

My little daughter had a rash in the groin area and suffered significant pain because of it.

The doctor asked us to wash the area 3 times a day and apply ointment. Yet, every contact with water and applying the ointment caused screams of pain and terrible physical resistance on her part.

My wife and I held the child tightly, trying with force to wash the area and apply the ointment, because the child stillreally resisted us, moving non-stop, screaming! And our heart? Our hearts were breaking from pain, but we understood there was no choice and that we had to continue these actions despite the sorrow and pain it caused her (and us), not once, but several times a day for a week.

This may sound cruel, but knowing it was for her good and the desire for her recovery gave us the strength to continue the cleaning and healing actions, despite the sorrow it caused.

Anyone who reflects can learn an immense moral lesson from this story, how to accept suffering with love. How so?

If you understand and internalize that all the suffering the Creator of the world gives you is only to improve you, like a father who needs to treat his daughter in a painful treatment meant for her good...

Just as one feels secure when in the hands of a doctor treating them, so should we feel that everything happening to us is for our ultimate good. Just as you thank a doctor after treatment, let's thank Hashem for both the good and what seems less good...

Friends, we don’t know the calculations of the heavens, but how great is one who can thank the Creator of the world despite the suffering and difficulties, to see the light within the darkness and to find merit inside the pain.

"And You Shall Rejoice in All the Good Which Hashem Your God Has Given You"

There is a commandment from the Torah to rejoice in everything Hashem has given you. At first glance, this commandment seems puzzling: how can one command emotion? But if the Torah commands us – it is possible.

How so? Rabbi Zamir Cohen explains that the answer to this question is found in the continuation of the verse: "Which Hashem your God has given you" (Deuteronomy 26:11).

What is it similar to? A struggling American citizen who attended the inauguration ceremony of the US President. The whole nation is impressed and excited, including this person standing near the president. He turns to someone beside him and asks: "Do you have some water? I'm thirsty..." The simple citizen's words reached the president's ears, and he stops everything and personally gives him a bottle of water!... Can you imagine the immense excitement that grips the citizen at that moment, and even long afterward?

This person goes home, and what does he do with the bottle? He excitedly tells everyone about the bottle of water he received personally from the president. He keeps the bottle in a cabinet and shows it to every guest who comes to his home. This gift has a completely different significance.

All the more so when we consider: from whom do we receive all the gifts we have in life? Not from a flesh-and-blood king, but from the King of Kings! Hashem, who created the world, gives us an abundance of gifts. Usually, a person focuses on what they don’t have, while what they do have seems obvious. But when a person looks around at all they have and understands that everything is a gift from Hashem, they naturally reach joy and love of Hashem.

You have eyes, teeth, hands, feet – you are rich! The very life of a person is a gift from the Creator of the world. Let's focus on them, not everyone is granted this. When we understand it as a gift we received from the King of Kings, we will reach a state of "And you shall rejoice in all that He has given you."

And when there is joy, all systems work. A person is healthier, happier - closer to the Creator of the world.

"But Fossils Were Found"...

In my discussions with non-believers about evolution, they often bring up the argument without understanding: "But fossils were found to prove it"...

First, let's explain what fossils are: A fossil is essentially a hardened skeleton of an animal, buried in sand or mud, and over the years, more layers of hardening sand covered it. The skeleton itself decomposed over time, but it left its imprint on the rock, and that's the fossil.

In truth, no series of fossils has been found to support even one of the imagined lines of evolution. Darwin, the theorist himself, wondered: Why don't we find fossils of the intermediate stages, fossils of transitional forms, for example, of an ape and a human together? He himself recognized this problem and replied that he believed these fossils would be found eventually, following further investigations...

About 180 years have passed since this "prophecy," and during this time, intensive searches for fossils have been conducted worldwide, and indeed countless fossils have been discovered, yet "transitional forms" are still missing. According to the founder of the theory, the world should have been full of millions of transitional forms, since according to his method, these stages occurred over millions of years. Where did they all disappear?

Not even one complete form has been found!

Incidentally, in 1912, the scientific community was abuzz with the discovery of a fossil that allegedly represented the transition stage between ape men and humans. They claimed skull and jawbone remains were found belonging to that creature: the skull was human and the jaw had a distinctly apelike shape. However, in 1953, this was revealed to be the greatest and best-known hoax in the field of fossil research ("Piltdown Man").