Shaaallooooom swwweeetest friends!!!!
With great pleasure I would like to wish mazel tov to my parents and mother-in-law on the birth of a beautiful new granddaughter!!!! A special mazel tov to the mother [my wife] and the new baby's five siblings!!!
I am a strong believer that men and women are different but equal and therefore I have 3 boys and 3 girls [as if I had any say in how many children I have and what their genders are...].
The sfarim say that when one relates the kindness of Hashem and His wonders - he/she brings upon oneself more kindness and more wonders [see Beirach Moshe - Shlach]. So I will take the liberty of recalling His wonders...
1] I spent my first hour as one cell. I have since developed a hundred trillion or so.
2] If it were removed from the body, the small intestine would stretch to a length of 22 feet. Thank you Hashem for my small intestine. Couldn't manage without it:-).
3] In my eyes I have 127,000,000 cells called rods and cones that line up in rows as the “seeing” elements that receive light and transmit messages to the brain. These rod cells are so sensitive that the smallest measurable unit of light, one photon, can excite them.
Our brains do not receive photographic images of anything. Rather, some of the 127,000,000 rods and cones get “excited” by light waves and fire off messages into the 1,000,000 fibers of the optic nerve, which coils like a thick television cable back into the recesses of the brain. Impulses from the retina race along the fibers of the optic nerve, fan out in the brain, and finally slam into the visual cortex, stimulating the miracle of sight.
The cortex has no easy task, since one billion messages a second stream in from the retina.
Wonder Of Wonders! I love seeing. Thank you Hashem for my eyes!
4] My blood!!
1. Blood enters the heart through the inferior and superior vena cava.
2. It enters the right atrium and passes through the tricupsid valve into the right ventricle.
3. Once blood is in the right ventricle, blood is quickly pumped through the pulmonary valve and into the pulmonary artery.
4. The blood enters the lungs through the pulmonary artery, picks up oxygen, and enters back into the heart through the pulmonary vein.
5. Oxygen-rich blood travels through the pulmonary vein and into the left atrium.
6. Next, the blood travels from the left atrium, through the mitral valve, and into the left ventricle.
7. The blood is quickly pumped out of the left ventricle through the aortic valve, and finally into the aorta.
8. Finally, the oxygen-rich blood travels out of the heart through the aorta, and delivers oxygen to the rest of the body.
All this with no GPS to direct it. Pilei Plaos!!
5] ELBOWS!! Imagine going a day without having elbows. Try eating or brushing your teeth.
6] Teeth. Amazingly, we are born without teeth [would make nursing quite a painful experience] but afterwards develop superstrong teeth that enable us to bite into the hardest piece of steak. One of my children once gave me a tooth that had fallen out and asked me to cut it with a knife. I took a VERY sharp knife and was unable to cut it. מה רבו מעשיך השם!!
7] Sleep!!! I get so tired at night sometimes that I just can't function anymore. אויס מענטש! Unfailingly, I wake up some hours later a refreshed man!! ברוך הנותן ליעף כח.
8] There are millions and billions of chasodim that we are surrounded by daily. It is just a matter of opening up our [very-very complex] eyes and appreciating them. Then singing שירו לה' שיר חדש - Singing a new song for every new second of chesed we experience. For every parcel of food we eat. For the oxygen in the atmosphere. [A fellow once went to Mars and ate at a restaurant. He said that the food and service were very good but there was no atmosphere]. For the pleasure of the sound of music. For the "cushions" we have in between our legs and back that make sitting so comfortable. For our two hands that can accomplish so many tasks without even having to think about it. For the shoes on our feet which make walking so easy. For our sweat which cools off our bodies when overheated. For our saliva which has enzymes that enable us to digest food, For antibodies which constantly battle disease. For our incredible memories, which store everything we have ever seen and heard and then access the information in a milli-second. So I see a friend from second grade that I haven't thought about in 30 years and immediately all of his information streams into my mind. Where he lived, that he liked peanut butter, that his sister liked my friend Marvin etc. Li-havdil - I learn a gemara that I have learned before and I say to my chavrusa "Ahhhh - we have to see the Maharsha here". I last saw the Maharsha on a Friday morning 22 years ago when I was munching on Potato chips. But it's all there.
On a personal level I have to thank Hashem so incredibly much. I have been married for 20 years. For 18 years I was living on an extremely low income [how low? Lower than my rent...:-)]. For the last couple of years I have been living on NO income. But I am here and so are my wife and [now] Baruch Hashem 6 children. We are all well fed, dressed and have a roof [and a few rockets] over our heads. It would be remiss if I would neglect to thank a few most beloved Jews who have kept my family alive and nourished during this time. I write "Jews" but they are really angels in the guise of people. They will not get their name on a building or be honored at fancy dinners but in Hashem's book - they are tops. Tzdaka li-shma. I assume they wish to remain anonymous so I will keep them that way.
I thank Hashem for all of the chesed of the past and ask for the future that I and my wife have nachas from our children, that I continue learning and teaching Torah in Eretz Yisrael, that I complete the sfarim on which I am working and write many new ones and that most of all... we should be zoche speedily to Moshiach Tzidkeinu b'mheira biyomeinu!!!
May we always share in simchos together and Hashem should fulfill all of the wishes of your hearts li-tova....:-)
A short thought on the parsha: The Jews asked for pens for their animal and then for cities for their children. Rashi says that they were more "concerned" [חסים] with their possessions than with their children and their priorities were wrong. The kids must come first. The medrash Rashi based himself on writes slightly differently - that they "loved" [חיבבו] their possessions more than their children. Rashi complements the medrash. They were more concerned and worried about their possessions [as Rashi says] and therefore they loved them more [as per the medrash].
[Heard last night from the Rebbe Shlita]
Sweetest friends!! How often do we lose sight of what is most important to us. A spouse, our children etc. always must come first. Clients can wait. They don't need you as much as your family does.
We also sometimes sacrifice our spiritual principals for fleeting material pleasures. Nobody would die to watch a Yankees game on a Sunday afternoon [especially since Reggie retired many fortnights ago. Where have you gone Joe DiMaggio
?!!] But for Torah we have willingly given up our lives for thousands of years. How shocked I am on Sundays in America when I walk into empty Batei Medrash. I feel that the prioirties are sometimes out of place....
May we all be zocheh to lichtige, yiddishe kinder that spread light to the whole world and hasten the geula!
Bi-ahava:-),
Me
