How Do Water Reach the Top of Trees? 5 Points to Ponder

How Do Water Rise from the Ground to the Tree Tops?

The sequoia trees of North America, the largest trees in the world, can rise to more than 100 meters. Water, which carries nutrients, needs to travel from the roots to the highest leaf.

Have you ever thought about how water overcomes gravity to reach such heights? How do giant trees, over 100 meters tall, manage to move water to such elevations? How do trees absorb water from the ground and distribute it to their various parts? How do they rise against gravity to reach the tree top?

To find the answer, notice what happens when you place a narrow glass tube in a dish of water. The water starts to climb up the tube. How does this occur? Water is known to be a polar molecule, meaning one side has a negative charge, and the other side has a positive charge. Consequently, water molecules create hydrogen bonds with other polar molecules, including the glass molecules that line the tube walls. Simultaneously, the bonds between the water molecules themselves pull the surface up and lift the molecules underneath, similar to links in a chain. These forces, adhesion and cohesion, also operate within trees.

Water climbs up the tree trunk through tiny tubes. Meanwhile, water evaporation from the leaves pulls up the whole chain of water molecules beneath. Together, these forces lift the water, carrying essential nutrients to every branch, twig, and leaf.

Inside the tree, there is a system that pushes water from the roots upward, overcoming gravity and friction within the tree. Everywhere around us, this amazing process quietly occurs in plants, from the smallest wildflower to the tallest tree. And they provide food and oxygen to humans and animals!

So who is the "plant engineer" that created such a marvelous and sophisticated system for water climbing from the ground to the tree top, overcoming gravity and water friction within the tree?

Electric Shocks

We are all familiar with the dramatic moment when a team of doctors begins intensive resuscitation, placing two electrically charged paddles on the chest of a patient whose heart is beating irregularly, and then the patient jumps - until he regains consciousness. After each electric shock, the patient is supposed to recover, and his heart rate should return to normal.

The heart contracts and pumps blood to all parts of our body in response to electrical signals generated by an electrical system within the heart. When this system malfunctions, a heart rhythm disorder can occur. A rhythm disorder is a change in the normal heart rate. The heart may skip a beat, or the heartbeat rate may be irregular: too fast or too slow.

One way to treat a severe heart rhythm disorder is electric cardioversion. This is an emergency treatment to prevent immediate death by administering an electric shock to the patient's chest. The purpose of the electric shock is to convert the patient's abnormal heart rhythm to a regular and normal heartbeat.

Amazingly, the human heart has a natural pacemaker called the SA Node - a cluster of unique heart muscle cells that generate electrical stimuli released to other parts of the heart. Its role is to regulate the heart's operation rate, ensuring that the chambers and atria contract at the right time and supply blood continuously to body tissues.

To this day, no scientist can explain what causes the "SA Node," that tiny spot in the heart, to release electrical pulses, but we know the Creator of the World commands that small point in our heart to stimulate the heart to keep beating.

"Master of the World, how does electricity get there?!" you ask yourself, having to admit there is something above nature, something ingenious that no human intellect can replicate or imitate...

(Photo: shutterstock)

Warning Light in the Car

Every driver has experienced at some point in their life behind the wheel the unpleasant feeling when a warning light flashes up in the car, not always sure of what exactly it means and what to do. The car's warning lights are divided into different types, indicating problems of varying urgency levels, with some allowing you to continue driving and visit the garage when possible, while others suggest stopping the car immediately by the roadside to prevent further damage.

However, we all understand that despite the inconvenience, the dashboard's warning light might save our lives.

(Photo: shutterstock)

Wait, if in a complex machine like a car, we all agree that a warning light is essential and life-saving, what about the most complex machine in the world - the human body? What "warning light" illuminates during a "malfunction" in our body? Is it possible there is no such light?

The human body is a marvelous and complex machine whose parts work in perfect coordination with each other. Many jaw-dropping systems, such as the circulatory system, where blood vessels extend over our small body in an intricate network of tubes measuring around 100,000 kilometers! No malfunctions, with every single blood vessel "knowing" its place and its role!; the endocrine system, responsible for regulating the body's chemical processes and coordinating actions, does its job through the circulatory and lymphatic systems; the visual, auditory, tactile, olfactory, and gustatory systems allow the organism to be aware of its surroundings and navigate them; the digestive and respiratory systems ensure the body's energy supply. The urinary and respiratory systems eliminate toxins that the body produces; the immune system defends against invaders, while the skeletal system facilitates movement and stabilizes the body, and the reproductive system ensures the continuation of the species, and so on...

These bodily systems function through groups of different organs possessing a shared role. Each system has a central function in maintaining the human body. Among the different bodily systems, there is interdependence, as none can function properly without the other, and there is coordination among them, enabling compensation and execution of various physical processes that require more than one system.

All these marvelous systems are composed within one small body, with everything coordinated perfectly among them!

Notice, when something goes wrong, in His abundant kindness, Hashem "programmed" the nervous system to alert us with pain, and we begin to feel discomfort. Although it's not always easy to diagnose the source of the problem, thanks to this signal, a person can seek medical treatment, blessed be Hashem.

If you ever wondered why the Creator did not choose to give us pain instead of a red dot on the body to warn us, like a car's warning light? The answer is simple - because severe pain prompts us to act faster, solve the malfunction, and return to robust health.

So, physical pain is unpleasant– but it can also save lives... Praise His name forever!

"Hashem Will Help." Really?

I met a friend who told me, with a sorrowful face, that he was fired from his job, finishing sadly with the phrase "Hashem will help."

I said to him, "I sympathize with you, and with Hashem's help, everything will turn out for the best. But something doesn't add up for me. You're contradicting yourself. Why? Because if you truly believe Hashem will help you, why the sad face? Why the sadness? On the contrary! A person who truly knows that Hashem will help should be joyful, jumping with happiness, no?

Friends, when we encounter a certain difficulty or face a seemingly very challenging task, we must remember and internalize that Hashem, who can do anything and loves us, will help us, so there is no need to fear anything...

Hashem loves us. Like any father, who, despite his anger, loves his son and desires to hear and fulfill his son's wish, even if he sinned against him. We only need to strive and take another step toward our goal - bring effort, even a small step, as the eye of a needle. And He will help and open the way for us as the opening of a hall.

Just One Day in Life

The human body contains a blood clotting mechanism necessary to stop bleeding and prevent blood loss. Without this mechanism, the wounded would continue to bleed unstoppably, risking life.

Wait. If I take a bag and fill it with blood and then make a small hole in it, will "the meeting" of the blood with the air cause it to clot and seal the bag? Or will the blood continue to trickle out without end until the bag empties? The answer is clear, the blood will flow out unstoppably, and in our terms, "the bag would die." In contrast, when it comes to our body, if a person gets cut somewhere in their body and blood starts to trickle, after a few minutes, "someone" would command the blood: "Close the cut before the person dies!" And then the blood dries up, completely sealing the cut, saving the person's life.

Apparently, what is the difference between the bag and the body? What makes blood clot only when it exits the human body?

Moreover, the Torah instructed us to perform circumcision on the eighth day. And everyone asks why on the eighth day? Let's do the brit after half a year, when the baby is stronger. What's the rush? After all, at eight days old, the baby is so small and fragile!

But the Torah always knows better, though sometimes it takes us about 3,000 years to understand it. The Torah says that on the eighth day, every Jewish boy should be circumcised. Medical studies reveal another wonder related to the clotting mechanism: In the first days after birth, a baby's body has a significant deficiency in clotting agents. A small cut on their body could cause major blood loss and endanger life. But the baby's body quickly and gradually recovers to the extent that on the eighth day, the clotting agents multiply. They reach a level of 110%, an all-time high! Afterward, they return to a normal level of 100%.

In other words, there is one day in the baby's life, not two days! Just one day that they receive an additional 10%. 110% blood clotting, only on the eighth day of the baby's life! This day is chosen by the One who created the clotting factors and linked this chosen day, when clotting factors reach their highest levels in the blood, precisely with the day of the mitzvah of circumcision. Who knew this around 3,000 years ago, that there is just one day in any man's life when he gets an extra 10% blood clotting? Is this a coincidence? I don't think so...