We humans chase over the world to find things.

We climb high mountains,

we descend to the nethermost depths of the sea,

we trek to the wilderness

and to the desert.

There is one place where we neglect to search - our heart.

But it is there we will find God.

- Rabbi Tzadok HaKohen from Lublin

Presidents write their memoirs. Celebrities do documentaries. Senior citizens sit around and reminisce. There’s another way to look back on your life.

Hands.

When we are infants, we can’t appreciate the infinite complexity of hands. There are others who look at our hands for us. They appreciate their perfection, their softness, their fragrance, those beautiful dimples. When they are your child’s hands, you want to kiss them, smell them, press them to your cheek. They are as innocent as the child himself.

Before you know it, those hands are seeking your hands; your fingers to hold on to. The child wants to walk and knows that the support will come to them through your hands.

Soon after, those little hands will be holding a pencil and shaping out an “A” or a “B” or a “C” and writing 2 + 2 = 4. Their fingers are smudged with ink and markers.

It doesn’t take too long for those hands to grow. And then those hands will be reaching out to catch a football or hold a tennis racket and hit the ball where the opponent cannot reach it. Fingernails are chipped and scruffy.

Or they will be carefully applying lipstick and blush and combing their hair the way they’re sure to attract that special other person. The fingernails are carefully groomed.

There are famous song lyrics that say “Hands across the table while the lights are low”. A young man takes the hands of a young lady and the cycle begins again.

Now picture the hands of that beautiful, young lady grown old. Her hands have become misshapen by arthritis and life’s toils. The fingers are crooked and gnarled. The former white surface is covered with brown spots, red spots and blue veins.

They must be frightening for a youngster to look at. Imagine what a child must be thinking as he walks down the street holding on to “grandma’s” hands. He looks up to make sure he’s walking with grandma and not some unknown monster whose hands surely don’t look like his.

Hands change with us as we go from one stage of our lives to another. They bear the scars of our experiences. From a bricklayer’s hands to a pianist, from a farmer to an artist, they are God’s little signposts that tell others – I have lived a full life – just look at my hands.

Did you ever lose a contact lens?

First thing that happens is – you panic.

Oh no! How am I going to drive home? How will I finish my work? How can I talk to people with one eye closed? So you start searching for it.

Naturally, when people see you crawling on the floor, fingers spread out, patting around everywhere, their second reaction is that they have to help you find your contact lens. (Their first reaction usually borders on – uh-oh, I think s/he’s gone crazy).

And how do you feel when someone finally finds it for you? Your gratitude is boundless. It’s almost as if they saved your life. You’re ready to do anything for them just because they found your contact lens.

But imagine that you didn’t actually lose your contact lens. You intentionally hid it somewhere on the floor so that you would have the opportunity to show your appreciation to someone. Of course, THEY don’t know that you hid it, they just gratefully accept your gratitude when they find it.

God has 613 treasures, also known as mitzvah’s (positive and negative commandments of the Bible). And He’s hidden them in various places to be found at different times.

Every time we grab hold of one of them, it’s as if we are returning it to its Owner.

He’s told us what they are, but sometimes their purpose is not so easy to “find”. Don’t kill, don’t steal – make sense to us. Honor your parents – that one’s obvious but not so easy. Others like lighting Friday night candles or not mixing meat with milk might be difficult to “find”, but that just makes the reward for them even greater. And when you realize who the Owner is, that’s enough of a purpose to look for them.

God doesn’t wear contacts and He can’t lose anything. So everything, including mitzvah’s, must have been put here for our benefit. The more we search for and find, the greater the reward.

See?

Did you ever hear the expression, “I’ve got more brains in my little finger than you have in your whole body?”

Of course, it’s not true (unless you’re talking to someone who is REALLY dumb). But did you know that your little finger (and most other parts of your body) can do things that the world’s largest computer can’t?

In 1999, IBM undertook an initiative called Project Blue Gene. It cost over $100 million and the price tag is still growing. It was designed to imitate the process whereby a human body cell assembles amino acids into proteins in the exact sequence as directed by the body’s individual DNA and then bundles the protein into a coil. If successful, the program would help scientists understand how proteins develop and possibly lead to discovering the cures to many human diseases. A very noble cause indeed.

Each computer is the size of a refrigerator. Each contains a minimum of 1,064 individual computer nodes and, when completed, will be capable of performing a PETAFLOP (which is a whole lot different than performing in a Broadway flop). A petaflop is one quadrillion calculations per second (that’s a one followed by 15 zeroes) and is a whole lot faster than your old reliable Dell Pentium.

The first prototype was finally put into service in 2004. They began testing with one of the simpler proteins of the body containing only 300 amino acids. Normally, body cells will assemble about 600 amino acids into each protein component.

Why only half the average size?

As you can imagine, the more variables, the greater the permutations and the longer it would take to process.

When all was said and done, the simulation was accomplished. Problem is – it took 24 hours a day for 365 days (and that’s almost at petaflop speeds!).

By means of comparison, the cells of your little finger (and most everywhere else) do that in less than one minute. About 500,000 times faster than the world’s largest, fastest, smartest, costliest, man-made computer.

Seems like your IBM (In Born Miracles) can beat that other IBM hands down.

“Next!”
“Good morning.”
“Morning. Whaddya got?”
“It’s an egg.”
“A what?”
“An egg.”
“What’s that?”
“There’s a baby chicken inside.”
“A baby chicken INSIDE there?”
“Yeh!”
“You gotta be kiddin’. How’d you do that?”
“I don’t know. But for the last few mornings, I’ve been laying these things. And after I’ve been around them for a few days, a baby chick comes out. And it looks just like me!”
“And you don’t know how it happens?”
“No, but I can do it again everyday. So I’d like to patent it.”
“Sure. Wow, this is great. Do me a favor, fill out these papers and come back and see me. You don’t have to wait on the line. Just come back to the front.”
“Okay.”
“Next!”
“Good morning.”
“Morning. Whaddya got?”
“It’s an egg.”
“Wait a minute. What are you talking about? Did you just get it from that chicken?”
“I’m an alligator. I don’t talk to chickens.”
“So where’d you get it?”
“From me. For the last few months, I’ve been laying these things. I didn’t think anything about them. Then after a few days, baby alligators came out. And they all look just like me!”
“And you don’t know how it happened?”
“No. So I’d like to patent it.”
“Well, it’s certainly bigger than a chicken egg and the shell is much thicker. But I’m afraid an egg is an egg and, buddy, you’re too late. Charlie the Chicken over there already applied.”
“Darn it. Just my luck.”
“Next!”
“Good morning. Ossie the Ostrich here.”
“Morning. Whaddya got?”
“I know you won’t believe it. I’ve never seen anything like it before. I call it an egg. There’s actually a baby ostrich in there.”
“Oh yeah? Tell me about it.”

Fish, fowls, reptiles and insects. Unrelated species. Unrelated genus. Many of them lay eggs. Each one packed with the nutrients the baby needs to develop inside until its strong enough to make its way into this world. Each shell – not too thin, not too thick. Just right to withstand the pressure of “egg-birth” but not too thick that the baby can’t peck its way out.

How did it all happen? Multiple accidents of nature or planned parenthood by God?

In the 1860’s, the British and French first began thinking about building a 30-plus mile tunnel under the English Channel to connect their two countries. The engineering companies estimated that it would cost over $10 million (U.S.) to complete– not a small piece of change 150 years ago.

A little old Jewish man heard about their plans. He approached the Commissioner of Transportation and said he would do the job for $50,000.

“How’s that possible?” he asked.
“Listen, my son will start digging from one end, I’ll start digging from the other end and we’ll meet in the middle.”
“What happens if you miss?”
“So,” he shrugged, “You’ll have two tunnels.”

He didn’t get the job.

In a recent study of embryonic science, it was discovered that when the eye begins to form in an unborn fetus, protruding from the back of the eyeball is the optic nerve containing over 50,000 individual nerve fibers.  “Coincidentally”, the brain also starts developing the other end of the optic nerve, also with 50,000 nerve fibers. In terms of actual measurement, the distance between the two ends is less than 3 inches. In cellular size, that’s the equivalent of millions of miles. Over a short period of time, the two ends find each other amidst the myriad of other nerves of the body, join each other seamlessly, accurately matching all 100,000 fibers.

The English Channel Tunnel (dubbed, the “Chunnel”), was finally completed in 1994. It took six years to build, required sophisticated, heavy equipment and computerized monitoring, cost almost $10 billion and came in 80% over budget. It still has its occasional problems but overall, it works fine.

There are over 6 billion people in the world with untold numbers of animals, fish and birds. We all, more or less, share the same physiology of the eye. (One notable exception being the octopus, but, then again, they have a lot more limbs to worry about).

In almost every instance throughout the world, throughout history, the eye-brain connection has worked flawlessly. No heavy equipment, no $50,000 and no two tunnels.

A marvelous bit of engineering from the Supreme Engineer.

Rabbi Eliyahu Dessler records the following dramatic scene in his famous trilogy, “Strive for Truth”.  He describes what he once witnessed as a young man as he was running through the forest in pre-World War II Europe. A pack of ravenous wolves were searching for food.  When they came upon the carcass of a small, dead animal, they all pounced on it with unbelievable ferocity.  Their hunger overwhelmed them as they fought bitterly to see who would finally claim the prize.

Rather than focusing on their prey, they attacked each other until they all lay bleeding in the snow. When one finally got up to grab the dead animal, several of the others lunged at him once again to attack.  In the end, only one was strong enough to fight off his foes, grab the carcass in his jaws and run away, leaving a trail of his own blood dripping behind him.

A daily occurrence in the animal kingdom?  Very likely. The strong survive, the weak perish.  But at what expense?  The vanquished lay on the ground bleeding, hungrier than they were before and now without a hope of supper in sight.  The victor, he himself weak and bleeding, was left to enjoy his bitter-won victory until the next battle comes his way.

Sound familiar?

It is also an all too common experience in the life of man.

We are constantly confronted with our drives to achieve material goals that are equally coveted by so many others – fame, fortune, success.  The more distant and ephemeral, the more we strive to acquire them. The easier they are to attain, the less desirable they become.

The Talmud makes a very bold statement - “No man ever leaves this world with half of his desires fulfilled. If he has one hundred (dollars), he wants two hundred. If he has two hundred, he wants four.”

Seems like the Talmud is making a slight mathematical error on its way to teaching us an important lesson.  If I have one hundred and want two hundred, then I am halfway there.  Same thing with two hundred and four hundred.  Sounds like 50% to me!

The commentaries very aptly point out a fundamental truth about human nature. The one hundred I DON’T have is worth a lot more to me than the one hundred I DO have.  The more I seek, the more I desire.  Almost exponentially.

There can be only one Gold Medalist in the Hundred Yard Dash.  One person wins, the rest of the pack loses.  Instead of running through life trying to grab the prizes for ourselves, by helping others to achieve their goals, we all become victors in a much more serene game of life.