Suppose for a moment you were blindfolded and escorted into an empty room.  When the blindfolds were removed, you sensed that you were wearing a pair of glasses.  When you looked around you, everything appeared to be pink.  How would you know if the walls themselves were pink or only appeared to be pink because you might be wearing a set of pink glasses?  If you couldn’t remove the glasses for whatever reason and you couldn’t cheat by looking out of the sides of the lenses, you would never know the real color of the walls.

This might seem like an unusual experience, yet in a somewhat similar manner, an element of uncertainty enters into all of our knowledge of the world.  In order for us to know something, we first have to perceive it and then pass along the sensations to our brains for understanding.  But this understanding is based on the structure of the human mind and therefore we can’t necessarily assume that what we perceive is a true reflection of the real nature of the world.  (Are the walls pink or do we see them as pink?)

Looking at more walls won’t help because we would be using the same standard of comparison that may not have any basis in fact in the first place.  The problem is that our minds have a natural tendency to assume that all of the phenomenon of the world can be explained rationally.  The laws and principles of science are based on the way scientists perceive the likely effect of a set of causes.  But because these results are being analyzed by a human mind, we can still never be sure why a ball falls to the ground or if, in fact, it will continue to do so 100% of the time.

Rabbi Shimshon Raphael Hirsch, one of the most brilliant writers and educators of the 19th century wrote,

“Without the belief in the spiritual aspect of the universe, scientists could never be sure that they are not deducing dream from dream and proving dream by dream.”

According to this, the reason we perceive a universe is because everywhere we look, in everything we sense, God fills in the blanks.  He allows us to feel, hear, see and smell only those things that He wants us to experience.

The conception of an orderly and meaningful existence, therefore, can only be based on the view that there is an all-powerful, all-knowing Creator and Ruler of the universe, Who sees true reality.  Scientists only assume that there is a rational world for us to experience, but they can’t prove it because, hey, they’re only human.

I don’t mean to get personal, but when was the last time you thought about your kidneys?  That’s okay, most people don’t.  They filter about 1,000 pounds of blood every day removing all the waste material and eliminate it from the body through the urine.

When was the last time you changed the filter in your kidneys?  In your car you have to change it every 3,000 miles.  How come you don’t have to change anything in your kidneys?

Speaking of cars, when they’re running low on gas, the “Low Fuel” indicator lights up.  When we’re running low on fuel, the sensation or hunger takes over and we know it’s time to refuel.  In a car, when it’s low on water, the engine’s temperature gauge moves to “Hot.”  Humans just realize they’re thirsty and gladly shell out a buck and a half for a cold bottle soda.

And speaking of temperature gauges, did you know that even when the thermometer says you’re body temperature is 98.6, you have organs that are normally hotter and others that are normally colder.  The body automatically self-regulates both the temperature and the blood pressure of every organ individually.

To do this, the body has a system of glands that secrete hormones that have to be perfectly measured, or the organ and the body cease to function.  The thyroid, for example, that regulates blood calcium, heart rate and digestion, produces only one teaspoonful of thyroxine per year and it has to be released in exact measured doses.  And for most people for most of their lives, that is done perfectly.

Ever have to fix your car and you didn’t have the right tool?  You know what substitutes for pliers, hammers and screwdrivers?  Our hands!  And they’re are also capable of writing, sewing, drawing, soothing, scratching and expressing our innermost, animated thoughts (especially if you’re Jewish).  Our hands are more highly developed than those of any other living creature and are the most marvelous and versatile of all our features.

This wondrous machine, our body, has been entrusted to us for 80, 90, or 100 years, to enjoy the pleasures of this world, to help make the world a better place and to use it in the service of God.

And just as it says in that last clause on a typical car lease, we’ve got to return it back to the Original Manufacturer in good condition (except for normal wear and tear).

At first, the scientific world believed that the universe was eternal. Then in 1978, the director of NASA’s Goddard Space Center, Dr. Robert Jastrow, published a piece in the New York Times Magazine outlining the overwhelming evidence that our universe inexplicably burst into existence, and concluded saying:

“This is an exceedingly strange development, unexpected by all but the theologians. They have always accepted the word of the Bible: In the beginning God created heaven and earth… For the scientist who has lived by his faith in the power of reason, the story ends like a bad dream. He has scaled the mountains of ignorance; he is about to conquer the highest peak; as he pulls himself over the final rock, he is greeted by a band of theologians who have been sitting there for centuries.”

On the one hand, these constant reversals prevent the scientific community from speaking with any real authority. On the other hand, it is fascinating to note how the reversals in recent years have more often than not bolstered the Torah perspective. The writings of many of today’s top astronomers, chemists, biologists and physicists are entirely consistent with our tradition. And even in the words of those who despise religions and religious values, and who would never consciously offer support for God’s existence, we can often detect inadvertent arguments for our perspective.

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‘Tis the season when most Americans, and possibly others, gather together to say thank you. This is the time of the year when people take time out from their busy shopping schedules to thank their Creator, their families, their bosses and their country for all of life’s blessings.

For us as Jews, we use every day to thank Gd.  We start early each morning as soon as we open our eyes – Modeh Ani Lefanechah – I give thanks before you. We continue all day through with blessings of thanks for the food we eat, the ability to eliminate the food we eat from our bodies and for the various commandments we fulfill each day.

There are many big things for all of us to be thankful for, Jew and non-Jew alike. Life, liberty, health, a home, a job, family.  Yet for some who are lacking these bigger things in life, it often becomes difficult to say thank you.  The loss of a job or a loved one, not having a family surrounding them, lack of health, religious or physical persecution. Then it becomes time to look at the little things in life and say, what would life be without them?

For those of you who may lack the micro-focus, here are some of those wonders and conveniences of life that still make life pleasurable:

Snooze alarms, white-out, paper clips, calculators, calendars, toys, disposable diapers, paper plates, umbrellas, non-slip bath mats, the little light on the toaster oven so that you know it’s still on, pajamas, sunsets, screen doors, dollar bills, matching forks, knives and spoons, nail clippers, rocking chairs, cell phones (well, you can decide about that one), Sweet ‘n’ Low, the remote control, the first winter snow, toilet paper, post-it notes, yellow highlighters, dishwashers, matches (the ones made in China or in Heaven), allowance, weekends, retirement, hugs, toothpaste, micro-chips, commuter buses and trains, dictionaries and shopping bags.

(I may have left out a few, so be sure to fill in some of your own favorites).

So, before you gobble down your turkey dinner or savor the tasty pumpkin pie, take a look around you and realize what you have.  Some have more, some have less, but the truly rich person is the one who takes pleasure in his lot (Ethics of the Fathers, 4:1). It’s never too late to stop and smell the roses.

“If we had lived in the second millennium BC, the millennium of Abraham, and could have canvassed all the nations of the earth, what would they have said of Abraham’s journey? In most of Africa and Europe, they would have laughed at Abraham’s madness and pointed to the heavens, where the life of earth had been plotted from all eternity ... a man cannot escape his fate. The Egyptians would have shaken their heads in disbelief. The early Greeks might have told Abraham the story of Prometheus ... Do not overreach, they would advise; come to resignation. In India, he would be told that time is black, irrational and merciless. Do not set yourself the task of accomplishing something in time, which is only the dominion of suffering. On every continent, in every society, Abraham would have been given the same advice that wise men as diverse as Heraclitus, Lao-Tsu and Siddhartha would one day give their followers: do not journey but sit; compose yourself by the river of life, meditate on its ceaseless and meaningless flow.”

“The Jews started it all—and by ‘it’ I mean so many of the things we care about, the underlying values that make all of us, Jew and Gentile, believer and aethiest, tick. Without the Jews, we would see the world through different eyes, hear with different ears, even feel with different feelings ... we would think with a different mind, interpret all our experience differently, draw different conclusions from the things that befall us. And we would set a different course for our lives.”

- Thomas Cahill, The Gifts of the Jews: How a Tribe of Desert Nomads Changed the Way Everyone Thinks and Feels

see also Mark Twain and the Jews and the Jewish impact on the world

“I will insist the Hebrews have [contributed] more to civilize men than any other nation. If I was an atheist and believed in blind eternal fate, I should still believe that fate had ordained the Jews to be the most essential instrument for civilizing the nations ...

They are the most glorious nation that ever inhabited this Earth. The Romans and their empire were but a bubble in comparison to the Jews. They have given religion to three-quarters of the globe and have influenced the affairs of mankind more and more happily than any other nation, ancient or modern.”

- John Adams, Second President of the United States
(From a letter to F. A. Van der Kemp [Feb. 16, 1808] Pennsylvania Historical Society)

see also Mark Twain and the Jews and the Jewish impact on the world

”...If statistics are right, the Jews constitute but one percent of the human race. It suggests a nebulous dim puff of stardust lost in the blaze of the Milky way. properly, the Jew ought hardly to be heard of, but he is heard of, has always been heard of. He is as prominent on the planet as any other people, and his commercial importance is extravagantly out of proportion to the smallness of his bulk. His contributions to the world’s list of great names in literature, science, art, music, finance, medicine, and abstruse learning are also away out of proportion to the weakness of his numbers. He has made a marvelous fight in this world, in all the ages; and had done it with his hands tied behind him. He could be vain of himself, and be excused for it.

The Egyptian, the Babylonian, and the Persian rose, filled the planet with sound and splendor, then faded to dream-stuff and passed away; the Greek and the Roman followed; and made a vast noise, and they are gone; other people have sprung up and held their torch high for a time, but it burned out, and they sit in twilight now, or have vanished. The Jew saw them all, beat them all, and is now what he always was, exhibiting no decadence, no infirmities of age, no weakening of his parts, no slowing of his energies, no dulling of his alert and aggressive mind. All things are mortal but the Jew; all other forces pass, but he remains. What is the secret of his immortality?” 

- Mark Twain
(“Concerning The Jews,” Harper’s Magazine, 1899)