Who Wouldn't Grab an Abandoned Apartment in Central Tel Aviv? 5 Points to Consider

"As soon as he emerges into the open air, the closed parts open and the open parts close"

A baby is born. In an instant, the sealed opens and the open closes. Let me explain: in the womb, the fetus's openings are sealed. "Someone" closed those openings within the fetus's body.

In the womb, the fetus does not need to breathe through the nostrils, but lives in the amniotic fluid like a fish. It does not need to open its mouth for nourishment because it is fed uniquely. During pregnancy, there is a kind of tube called the "umbilical cord" that connects the mother's placenta to the fetus's body and serves to transfer food and oxygen from the mother to the fetus and waste/carbon dioxide from the fetus to the mother. Wait, what about the opening ofthe anus? In the womb, the fetus is not supposed to excrete waste. Excretion occurs only after birth! (Excreting in the amniotic fluid can cause the fetus and its mother to die).

(Photo: shutterstock)

During birth, when the baby emerges into the world, the parts that need to be open open, and those that need to be sealed are sealed...

During birth, the fetus exits the mother's body and detaches from the umbilical cord. The fetus, now a baby, begins to take its first breaths through its nose... and eats (feeds) through its mouth! Wait, what about the hole created in the middle of its belly? During birth, the fetus exits the mother's body and detaches from the umbilical cord. Then the fetus, now a baby, begins to take its first breaths. But who seals the hole in its belly after detaching from the pipe - the umbilical cord that connected it to its mother? Remarkably, a kind of scab forms in the area (about two weeks after birth, the scab falls off, leaving a dimple - the navel).

This wonder is described in the Gemara (Nida 30b): "Rabbi Samlai expounded: What is a fetus comparable to in its mother’s womb - to a folded notebook. Its hands on its temples ... and its mouth is sealed and belly button open, eating from what its mother eats and drinking from what its mother drinks and does not excrete waste lest it kill its mother. And once it emerges into the open air - the closed is opened and the open is sealed, for if the opposite occurred, it could not live even for one hour"...

Rabbi Samlai describes the physiological differences between the pregnant state and the post-birth state, emphasizing that the autonomy the newborn enjoys in eating and excreting post-birth could cause death during pregnancy!

This fact necessarily means that long before birth, the opening was planned to close permanently at birth. Who planned this? Who "closed" the opening at the critical and perfect moment to enable the newborn's life?...

Could such a miraculous process, which points to a guiding and caring hand, have created itself without a creator and planner?

Invitation to trial

One day, a messenger arrives at a person’s home with a letter from the court, telling him he is summoned to trial. The man reacts by beating and cursing the messenger.

The messenger asks him: "Why are you taking it out on me? I just work in deliveries; I didn’t summon you to court, I didn’t cause your distress; I’m just the messenger handing you the notification from the person who decided to sue you"...

The aggressor’s behavior is bizarre and illogical. Everyone understands the messenger is not part of the issue and shouldn’t be blamed. But we, too, in daily life, get angry at the "messenger"...

If you’re angry at your wife and think your wife is the source of your troubles, you’re simply angry at the wrong person. Instead, you should raise your eyes to Hashem and say, "Master of the Universe, You sent me these shouts from my wife today, why did you send them? I will correct my actions so this doesn’t happen again." Instead, you’re angry at the "messenger".

A woman who shouts at her children for not entering the shower at the time she requested gets frustrated. Woman, those shouts are directed at the wrong source. Instead, you’re angry at the "messenger".

A person who curses the bus driver who’s late, the driver who cut him off, the boss who fired him... such a person does not acknowledge the Creator of the World. He "forgets" about Him. Such a person is angry at the "messenger". Sadly, we all fall into this...

The Creator navigates our lives. Let us always remember: whenever we want something, make efforts, and it doesn’t work out, it means the Creator is preventing it from happening for our benefit and is guiding us towards a better path. He orchestrates everything, and everything is in His control. We must lift our eyes to Him and change our ways. He is the address for every problem we have and also the solution...

An abandoned apartment in central Tel Aviv

What many might not know is that for about 2000 years, while we were in exile, the land of Israel was desolate; no one succeeded in settling the land and making it flourish. But since the people of Israel returned to their land about 70 years ago, we have witnessed an unprecedented settlement and flourishing in the land of Israel!

Despite the attractive conditions of this region, when the people of Israel are not in their land, the land declares a "strike" and turns into a desert. No one manages to settle the land or love the desert! But when the Jews return to the land of Israel, the land of Israel returns to itself. As long as the people of Israel are in their land - the land of Israel blossoms and thrives.

How can this be?! What changed? Someone "took care" to preserve it.

Just as an illustration, if someone left an apartment abandoned in central Tel Aviv for a year, how many people would invade the apartment? All the more so an apartment abandoned for 20 years, not to mention 2000 years. Yet, the land of Israel, the most attractive piece of real estate in the world, though standing ownerless and unclaimed for 2000 years, remained deserted, empty, and desolate. This defies the laws of supply and demand! It's an incredible phenomenon!

The wonder amplifies when realizing it's a promise from Hashem to the people of Israel - that during the long period of exile, the land will be desolate and not give its produce to the enemies of Israel (Leviticus 26:32-34). On the other hand, Hashem also promises that the people of Israel will return to their land and that the desolate land of Israel will return to bloom and bear fruit when its children return to it at the end of the days of exile (Ezekiel 36:8).

Consider this: who can commit to such an illogical and paradoxical prophecy? And who can uphold such a promise and fulfill it?! Only the Creator of the world and the ruler of history can do this, may His name be praised forever.

The oxygen path

Breathing is one of the most important processes in our body. It supplies the body's cells with oxygen which serves as essential fuel for the cells to stay alive and function properly.

To transport oxygen to the cells, we must inhale air into the lungs, carry it in the blood, and deliver it to the body's cells. For oxygen to reach the body’s cells from the air, it must dissolve in the blood and travel through it to every cell in the body!

Wait, how does the oxygen we inhale reach every single cell in the body?

Air enters the lungs through the respiratory system. The lungs are made of millions of small balloons called "alveoli," and they are surrounded by tiny blood vessels called capillaries.

When the air we breathe fills the alveoli, only the oxygen within it penetrates and diffuses through the "walls" of the alveoli into the surrounding capillaries and bloodstream. "Red Blood Cells" (RBCs), or alternatively "Erythrocytes," in the capillaries carry the oxygen to all the body cells.

Red blood cells are well-suited to carry oxygen thanks to hemoglobin molecules present in them – molecules adapted for binding oxygen. Hemoglobin is a molecule in red blood cells that carries oxygen from the lungs to the body’s cells. Each red blood cell contains many hemoglobin molecules.

As an oxygen carrier, hemoglobin must be able to modify its affinity for oxygen according to its role, as apart from carrying oxygen, it also releases it. Hemoglobin releases oxygen when red blood cells travel through capillaries in tissues where oxygen levels or pressure are low.

Hemoglobin gives the blood cells their red color, and in its absence, the cell's color is pale, leading to anemia. The red blood cells play a crucial role in the breathing process - they bind to oxygen from the lungs (using hemoglobin) and transport it to body tissues, absorb carbon dioxide from various body cells, and released back to the lungs. The carbon dioxide follows a reverse path from oxygen: from the body's cells, it diffuses into the blood, then to the alveolar air, and finally expelled out.

A proper level of hemoglobin is vital for adequate oxygenation of all body cells. With the help of oxygen, cells produce the energy necessary for various actions, allowing us, for instance, to activate muscles or think.

Besides this marvelous route, how were hemoglobin molecules designed with such ingenuity? Who programmed them to "know" when to absorb oxygen and when to release it so our body functions as it should?

But why?

Recently, the nation of Israel has endured shocks and tragedies hard to digest.

The tragedy at Meron on the night of Lag B'Omer, where due to overcrowding and suffocation, 45 men and children perished. The Karlin tragedy, the tragedy at the synagogue in Givat Ze'ev, a mass casualty event occurring during the entrance of the Shavuot holiday, where due to the collapse of a tribune, three people were killed, and around 220 were injured. The Miami building collapse, where a 12-story residential building collapsed, resulting in the deaths of 98 Jews.

(Photo: David Cohen/Flash90)

These events are incomprehensible to the human mind, and people ask "Why?", "How does this happen to observant Jews? How does it happen at all to human beings?" People ask, question, and seek answers to why Hashem brings us such disasters? And the question can be extended to private misfortunes. Why does a baby of three months pass away? Why hasn't a lovely couple been blessed with children for 30 years? Why hasn't a modest and virtuous woman married? And many more...

But I've stopped asking! Why? Because there's no answer that can truly satisfy me. I understand my mind is limited, and I cannot comprehend it. Although many explanations are offered for disasters and suffering, such as Hashem wanting to make us stronger and more resilient, cleanse and purify a person of their sin stains, rectify past lives, and there are many other reasons and motivations, all of which are for the good. But in my humble opinion, despite the range of explanations, our human intellect cannot truly understand it. Illustrated by the fact that after each disaster, doubts resurface, and questions rise again and again...

What can it be compared to?

To a three-year-old child whose father takes a chocolate snack from his hand after he just finished another. The child cries, screams, sometimes even accuses the father, and I ask: Is there really any explanation that can satisfy the three-year-old? We all know the father has enough good and rational reasons, all for the child’s benefit, such as preserving dental health, wanting the child to eat nutritious things, and more... No explanation, in any form, will satisfy the child because his understanding is limited.

So are we in relation to Hashem. We are like a three-year-old child. We cannot truly grasp our Father, the Creator of the World, and that’s why it’s hard for us. Therefore, rather than seeking explanations repeatedly that will satisfy us, we must accept that we do not have the capacity to truly understand it. So what can be known? Continuing with the same analogy, it must be internalized and known that no matter what, there is no father who cruelly and vengefully treats his child. On the contrary, everything our Father does is for our good, and in this, we must strengthen ourselves. This is the thought I try to adopt in dealing with disasters, difficulties, and obstacles, and it gives me the strength to cope!

"Father, I don’t understand anything, and I really cannot comprehend your considerations and actions. But I do know you do everything for my benefit...".