Daily Bitachon

Rabbi David Sutton
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  1. -17 H

    48 Daily Dose of Gratitude

    Bitachon: Sha'ar HaBechina – Biological Engineering and the Hand of Hashem Welcome back to our daily Bitachon series. We are continuing in Sha'ar HaBechina , looking at the wonders of Hashem's creations to strengthen our trust in Him. Today, we're going to look at some unbelievable structural and mechanical engineering in the world of reptiles—specifically how Hashem provides for them when conditions seem impossible. 1. The Marine Iguana: The Skeletal Alchemist Many of you have seen lizards in Florida, but there is a specific type in the Galapagos Islands called the Marine Iguana. This is the only vertebrate known to literally edit its own skeleton in response to its environment. The Crisis: When the ocean warms during certain seasons, the cold-water algae that these iguanas eat dies off. Suddenly, they have no food. Now, if you have no food, you have to eat less—but your body is a certain size and has a certain "minimum "requirement" to survive. We think of the rachmana litzlan situation of the hostages; they are fed just enough to live, but there's a limit to how long a body can survive on that. The Divine Solution: What does this iguana do? Its body releases specialized hormones that activate cells to reabsorb bone minerals back into the bloodstream. The Wonder: This isn't just weight loss; the animal actually gets shorter . By reducing its bone length and density, it lowers its metabolic rate. A smaller frame requires less blood to be pumped and fewer calories to maintain. It's like a small child needing less than an adult. The Reversal: This isn't permanent. When the cold, nutrient-rich currents return, the iguana's body reverses the process, depositing the minerals back and growing to its original size within months. A Point of Bitachon: Some animals migrate when food is scarce. But here, Hashem says, "Ha-yad Hashem tiktzar?" (Is the hand of Hashem too short?). He shows us He can feed this creature right where it is by physically changing its very structure. 2. The Florida Iguana: The Emergency Shutdown You don't have to go to the Galapagos to see wonders. People told me that this past winter in Florida, it got quite cold—under 30 degrees. This led to the famous reports of "falling iguanas." Cold Stunning: When the temperature drops to 40°F, these cold-blooded lizards enter a state called "cold stunning." The nervous system stops sending signals to the muscles, their feet lose their grip, and they tumble from the trees. The Shutdown: They look dead, but they aren't. It is a biological emergency shutdown. The heart rate slows to a few beats per minute, and breathing almost stops. By shutting down movement, the body diverts all remaining oxygen and glucose to the brain and the heart. The Resurrection: As soon as the sun comes out, the "frozen" iguana simply wakes up and walks away. Hashem, in His mercy, provided a "short-term hibernation" to keep them alive through the freeze. 3. The Egg-Eating Snake: The Internal Sawmill We'll end with a fascinating piece of mechanical engineering. There is a snake that eats only eggs. The Mechanical Challenge: An egg is a geometric masterpiece designed to resist external crushing. If you stand on an egg correctly, it won't break. For a snake, biting an egg is nearly impossible—it would just slip out of its mouth. The Internal Saws: This snake doesn't have traditional teeth. Instead, inside its throat are 20 to 30 bony spikes called hypapophyses . They are downward-pointing extensions of its spine, tipped with enamel harder than the snake's own jawbone. The Process: The snake swallows the egg whole into its neck, then undulates its muscles to saw the egg against these internal spikes. The moment the shell is breached, the pressure causes it to implode perfectly. The snake drains the liquid, folds the shell into a cigar shape, and coughs it up. The Reality of Design: Again, the "scientific" books say, "Evolution stripped this snake of teeth to make room for an industrial toolset." Think about that language! They speak of "Evolution" as if it's a conscious being with a plan. In truth, "evolution" is often just a word people use when they don't want to say the name of the true Architect: Hakadosh Baruch Hu. If Hashem goes to these incredible lengths to provide a "sawmill" in the neck of a snake—the very creature that caused the downfall of the world—imagine the care and detail He puts into providing for you .

  2. -1 J

    47 Daily Dose of Gratitude

    Bitachon: Shaar HaBechina – The Divine Artistry of the Reptile World Welcome to our daily Bitachon Shaar HaBechina series. We are following the directive of the Chovos HaLevavos to contemplate the various creatures of the world and uncover the wonders of Hashem. Ultimately, recognizing this intricate design is what builds and strengthens our Bitachon . Today, we look at the world of reptiles, specifically two vipers that showcase Hashem's mastery of deception and design. 1. The Spider-Tailed Horned Viper: The Biological Puppet Found in the rugged mountains of Iran, this snake possesses arguably the most specialized predatory tool in the entire reptile kingdom. At first glance, it appears to have a large, juicy spider crawling near its tail, but this is no separate insect. The Wonder: The "spider" is actually a cluster of modified scales that perfectly resemble an arachnid's abdomen, surrounded by long, hair-like scales that look like legs. The Strategy: The viper understands Causality —it knows that a bird's survival depends on a lightning-fast reaction to moving insects. The snake twitches these "legs" independently of the rest of its tail, creating a hyper-realistic imitation of a scuttling spider. The Divine Setup: Because the snake's body is colored exactly like the limestone rocks of its habitat, the bird's eye ignores the snake, seeing it as a mere boulder. It fixates entirely on the "meal." The viper's head is usually positioned in a "U-turn" fashion, resting just inches from the decoy, ready to intercept the bird mid-flight. As the bird dives for the spider, it is actually diving into the snake's open jaws. A Point of Bitachon: We must pause here. When you look this up in scientific books, you often see the kefirah (heresy) of "evolution." They claim that over billions of years, a tail just "decided" to turn into a spider-like decoy through random mutations. This is absolute craziness. How could a blind process "know" exactly what a spider looks like to a bird? This is the clear Hand of Hashem, who programmed the DNA to grow a masterpiece of deception to provide for the snake's sustenance. 2. The Gaboon Viper: The Master of 3D Geometry Next is the Gaboon Viper, which uses complex geometry to create a camouflage that is virtually perfect. The Depth Illusion: In the Chumash , when discussing Tzaraas , Rashi mentions the phrase "marehu amok min ha-or" —its appearance is deeper than the skin. It looks deep even though it is flat. Hashem built this exact optical illusion into the skin of the Gaboon Viper. The Ultra-Matte Surface: Most snakes have smooth scales that reflect light, but the Gaboon Viper has micro-textured scales that are "ultra-matte." They absorb light rather than reflecting it. This ensures that no matter how bright the sun is, the snake never "shines," which would otherwise give away its position. Mathematical Artistry: The patterns on its back are a series of interlocking triangles and rectangles. The lighter colors mimic sun-drenched leaves, while the dark purples mimic "negative space"—the deep, dark holes between leaves on the forest floor. The Artist of All Artists: The pattern is so precise that it creates a 3D illusion of depth on a flat surface. Think about that: how can a living creature grow in such perfect geometric and mathematical patterns? When we see a beautiful building, we know there was an architect and a blueprint. Here, the blueprint is in the DNA. The Gemara says, "Ein Tziyar K'Elokeinu" —there is no artist like our God. Hashem is the ultimate Tziyar ; He doesn't just paint on a canvas; He causes the image to grow with mathematical precision. He creates 3D depth on a flat skin to hide His creature in plain sight. The Lesson in Bitachon When we see the lengths Hashem goes to in order to "program" a snake with a spider-decoy or a 3D-camouflage suit just so it can find its food, we realize how much detail goes into the Parnassah (sustenance) of every living thing. If Hashem is the Architect of a snake's tail, surely He is the Architect of our lives and will provide for us in ways we cannot even imagine.

  3. -4 J

    Shabbat is the Hanukat HaBayit

    Shabbat is the Hanukat HaBayit Welcome to Daily Bitachon , today a Friday edition lechovad Shabbos . For those of you who've been listening, we've been talking about Sha'ar HaBechina for quite a while. There's a beautiful Midrash Tanchuma that says that Shabbos is like a chanukas habayis when somebody buys a new house and invites guests and shows them the house. Similarly, God created the world in six days and rested on the seventh day and on the seventh day He invites everyone into the home to see the house. And that repeats itself every single week because every single week God created the world and rested on Shabbos and we go through that same cycle. And what are you supposed to do when you come to someone's new house? You're supposed to say wow, what a beautiful house. Notice all the beautiful woodwork and the furniture and the moldings and the kitchen and the living room and the dining room and the couches and the throw pillows and all the details of the house. So too Hakadosh Baruch Hu when He invites us into His house, we're supposed to ooh and aah over all the things that are going on. And with that Rabbi Yitzchok Isaac Sher explains two very interesting things about our tefillah . One of them is the mizmor in Tehillim of מזמור שיר ליום השבת where if you read through it, it's a song of Shabbos , it doesn't tell you anything about Shabbos . You think מזמור שיר ליום השבת should say the thirty-nine melachos and we go to shul and we eat. It doesn't say that. מזמור שיר ליום השבת starts tov lehodos lashem . It's a good idea to thank Hashem . כי שמחתני ה' בפעלך במעשה ידיך ארנן. I'm excited and thrilled about Your handiwork. And then I go and I say hold on, I don't understand some things, what's going on over here? The wicked are flourishing, the wicked are prospering. We have an answer for that. What does that have to do with Shabbos ? And the answer is we're going into the chanukas habayis and we're looking around saying wow, ooh, ah, wait a minute, I don't understand what that knob is doing over there, I don't understand what that bump on the ceiling is doing. Oh that happens to be a smoke alarm, you don't know about smoke alarms. Oh that's a dummy pad that we're going to use for sconces that are coming soon that aren't on order. You don't know and you have questions. But you see that the house is immaculate and there's a great wonderful architect, so you know everything's good. And that's exactly what's going on in our world. There's a great architect called God and He knows how everything's supposed to be. And if there's something that doesn't make sense, it's because I don't understand it. And that's the job of מזמור שיר ליום השבת and that's our job every Shabbos , to appreciate the house. And that's really what Sha'ar HaBechina is all about, appreciating Hashem in creation. And he said there's two things that he points out. That's one. The second beautiful thing is that all year, all week long we say יוצר אור ובורא חשך ending with yotzer hame'oros . We talked a lot about the sun. Every single day we make a bracha on the sun. Suddenly on Shabbos we have א-ל אדון על כל המעשים, we go through a whole added piece on the sun. And in the middle of the yotzer hame'oros we start talking about Shabbos . What's going on over here? Why are we talking more about the sun on Shabbos and why are we talking about Shabbos when we're talking about the sun? Where does that fit in? It's a great question. I understand you want to say the amidah of Shabbos is different, good. But we don't change Krias Shema , we don't change Baruch She'amar . What are we suddenly changing our daily yotzer or bracha and intertwining Shabbos in there and adding more about the sun? And his answer is because it's chanukas habayis day. And as we talked about one of the greatest things we have is the luminaries. לעושה אורים גדולים כי לעולם חסדו. That's the source that God is constantly renewing creation, it's all from the luminaries. It's like wow, what a chandelier God. Five thousand seven hundred and eighty-six years and it's still glowing. You didn't change the lightbulbs once. No electricity bill. It's unbelievable. So since Shabbos is the day of the chanukas habayis , we talk about Shabbos with the sun and we enhance the sun on Shabbos because that's what we're supposed to be doing on Shabbos , talking about and appreciating creation. That is the job of Shabbos , tov lehodos lashem . And it's really our responsibility. All that we've been doing. You could print out all your notes that we have from the past few weeks. You want to talk about a turtle or a snake or a crocodile, that's Shabbos talk because you're saying wow, look at that beautiful... Faucet on the sink, look at those unbelievable, beautiful flowers, look at the wondrous pictures on the wall, that's every alligator, every frog, every crocodile, every lizard. Those are the wonders that HaShem made and that's what's to be talked about at the Chanukah table.

  4. -5 J

    46 Daily Dose of Gratitude

    Welcome to our daily dose of Bitachon series. We're now in Shaar Habechina and we're going to go into the world of reptiles as the Chovat Halevavot gave us a directive to look into the things that crawl and slither. Let's look to the signs of wisdom in general before we go into the specifics. The first one is their thermal engineering. Unlike birds and mammals that must burn food constantly to stay warm, reptiles are engineered as ectotherms. We'll see what that means in a minute. A reptile's metabolism is designed to be switched off or slowed down to a fraction of a mammal's rate and they use the sun as an external battery. This allows a large reptile like a crocodile survive for months or even a year without a single meal while a mammal spends ninety percent of its energy just maintaining its body's temperature, the reptile is a masterpiece of energy conservation. It only spends its energy when it's absolutely necessary for the hunt. Parenthetically, that's why they're known as cold-blooded versus hot-blooded. Mammals are hot-blooded, we have to constantly heat up our bodies. That's one very interesting thing about the reptiles. The next one is their ability to see. Many reptiles live close to the ground or hunt in the dark and therefore they possess sensory tools that go beyond the five human senses. They have what we call chemical sight. When a snake flicks its forked tongue, it isn't tasting the air, it's collecting chemical molecules and delivering them to an organ in the roof of its mouth. The fork shape allows the snake to smell in stereo. It can detect if a scent is stronger on the left or the right, providing a chemical map of its surroundings. Other snakes have thousands of heat-sensitive nerve endings on their faces. This allows the snake to see the heat signatures of warm-blooded prey in total darkness. They can detect temperature changes as small as .003 Celsius. So they basically have a built-in night vision provided by Hashem himself. Now one of the things we're supposed to look into is their special form and structure, the snake which lacks legs as we Jewish people know as a punishment for the sin of the original snake, yet God in his mercy is going to let them have a different locomotion of moving without limbs. How does this work? A snake's spine can have up to four hundred vertebrae to give a perspective, humans only have thirty-three. Each of these vertebrae has a pair of ribs attached to powerful muscles. This allows for rectilinear locomotion where the snake moves in a straight line by rippling its belly scales like a conveyor belt. It can climb, swim, and burrow all without a single limb. So whereas God on one hand limited their ability to walk but God created a different path of function which is this type of serpentine movement. That's why it has the term serpentine movement because it's the movement of a serpent. That's our little introduction to the world of creeping, crawling reptiles and creatures. Many of them lizards and we will get to more of it.

  5. -6 J

    45 Daily Dose of Gratitude

    Welcome to our daily Bitachon . We're in Shaar Habechina , looking into the wonders of creation, and we're talking about insects now. There's a certain wasp that's called a jewel wasp that is almost like a neurosurgeon. It turns a cockroach into a zombie to serve as a living, fresh food source for its larvae. How does this happen? It delivers a precise sting directly into the cockroach's brain, targeting the exact cluster of neurons that controls the escape reflex. So this disables the host's will to move while keeping it alive and walking so it could be led to a burrow like a dog on a leash. Now, there's more wisdom than just sticking the needle in, because it has to be a probe. As the stinger enters the cockroach's head, the wasps use sensors on the tip to feel for the brain, and once it's in there, it has to find a certain part of the brain and gives a dose of venom that targets the dopamine receptors inside of the cockroach's brain. And therefore it loses its motivation to run. It can still walk but it can't run. And actually the wasp is saving energy by walking its prey home rather than carrying it. And this is not the only creature that God gave this ability to, so to say, hijack another animal and turn it into a zombie. This is really a subject on its own. There are many, many examples of this. We'll give you one other example. There's a type of hairworm which can grow up to four times longer than its cricket hosts. It begins life as a microscopic larva that the cricket accidentally consumes while drinking water. Once inside the cricket's body, the worm develops over several weeks, eventually occupying most of the host's body cavity. The infected cricket continues to behave normally for most of this period. But as the worm nears maturity, something sinister occurs. The parasite begins producing proteins that affect the cricket's nervous system, compelling the normal insect that is used to being on the ground to seek out water sources. When the cricket reaches a pond, stream, or even a swimming pool, it plunges in despite being unable to swim. Once in the water, the mature worm bursts from the cricket's body and begins its aquatic reproductive phase. The cricket, now fatally injured and waterlogged, typically drowns. Science has discovered that these worms can alter their host's behavior so precisely that infected crickets are three times more likely to jump into water than healthy ones, even when presented with the same environmental cues. So this is again a wonder of wonders. In order to keep this hairworm continuing to reproduce, Hashem gave it the ability. Again, it's got to get back to the water. It starts in the water. The cricket drinks it as a larva in the water. It grows in the cricket and then brings the cricket back to the water for it to once again start its reproductive system. So we have two zombie examples where one creature takes over the brain of the other one. And there are many such examples, but this is just a little flavor of what God can do. We will now talk about the flea. Everyone heard of the statement: if you lie down with dogs, you get up with fleas. What are fleas? There are actually 2,500 species of these small flightless insects that live as external parasites on mammals and birds. Fleas live by ingesting the blood of their hosts. They lack wings as we said, they are flightless insects. So if they lack wings, how do they move around? We'll get to their hind legs that are very well adapted for jumping. We'll get there in a minute. But they have special skin-piercing parts in their mouth and they're great at sucking blood. They carry disease and they're responsible for a famous disease called the bubonic plague. It was responsible for the Black Death that swept through Asia and Europe and Africa in the 14th century and killed an estimated 50 million people. This is all the different plagues that happened over the years. So what makes the flea so deadly is you can't swat him. He just moves so fast. He jumps 200 times its body length at tremendous speed. Now, how do they jump? What gives him the ability? Muscles alone couldn't do it. So what does it do? In the flea's knee joint is a pad of resilin, which is an elastic protein. The flea cocks its legs and locks them with a latch, which compresses this resilin pad. When the latch is released, the energy is put into this jump in a fraction millisecond creating a launch speed that no muscle could achieve. So, again, this flea needs blood. He's got to move around. So and he's got to be swat free. He's got to be unstoppable to get around. And that's the flea, this common flea that's on dogs and all over the place. He has to have this special design to make him successful. And we continue with

  6. 10 FÉVR.

    44 Daily Dose of Gratitude

    Welcome to Daily Bitachon , we're now in our Sha'ar Bechina going through the wonders of creation, and we're in the world of insects, and today we're going to talk about the dragonfly. The dragonfly is the most successful predator on earth with a hunting success rate of over 95%. It doesn't chase prey; it intercepts it by calculating where the mosquito will be in the future. It's a famous hockey saying, I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been. Well, the dragonfly made that up. How does that work? Its eyes contain 30,000 individual facets, giving a nearly 360-degree view, and it can move each of its four wings independently. The dragonfly's nervous system calculates the prey's velocity and trajectory instantly. The results, it meets its prey at a future point in space, similar to how a quarterback throws a ball to a running receiver. As we said, each one of its four wings is powered by its own set of muscles, which allows the dragonfly to flap the front and back wings out of sync, even flap one wing while the other stays still. And therefore can hover, fly backwards, and make high-G turns that would snap the wings of an ordinary bird. Again, God gave this tremendous wisdom to this little creature. Another famous one, the firefly. It is a master of bioluminescent efficiency, outperforming every light bulb ever made by man. A firefly's light is 100% efficient. It produces cold light with zero heat loss. It utilizes a chemical reaction between luciferin and oxygen, regulated by an enzyme called luciferase. The purpose of this color is to create a visual light language for mating, identification, obviously without the risk of the insect's body catching fire. And as we said, it's 100% efficient. In a standard light bulb, 90% of the energy is wasted as heat; in a firefly, 0% is wasted. The chemical reaction is so perfectly tuned that every bit of energy is converted into a photon of light. This allows the insects to glow brightly for hours without draining energy it reserves or overheating its internal organs. One more for today, the water strider. The water strider is a physicist that treats the surface of a pond like a solid trampoline. It glides across the water at speeds of 100 body lengths per second without ever breaking the surface. Its legs are covered in thousands of microscopic hairs that trap air bubbles. So it never actually touches the water; it touches a layer of air. And these hairs are grooved to trap air, which creates a cushion that prevents the water from wetting the leg. The bird-like light frame stays suspended on the water's surface tension, using the dimples in the water to push off like a sprinter off a starting block. So this way, it can exploit a habitat where it's safe from land predators and can detect the vibration of drowning insects. So as we're seeing, every single one of these insects is given a wondrous tool in order for its survival specifically in its habitat. And again, wonders of wonders of our Creator.

  7. 9 FÉVR.

    43 Daily Dose of Gratitude

    Daily Bitachon: Shaar HaBechina (Insects) Welcome to our daily Bitachon. We continue in our Shaar HaBechina series, following the directive of the Chovot HaLevavot to look deeply into the different parts of creation. This week, we are discussing insects, and we'll start with the spider. The Master Chemist: The Spider Spiders are master chemists, producing up to seven types of silk from specialized glands. Let's talk about its strength: spider silk is thinner than a human hair but stronger than steel. It is even stronger than Kevlar , the synthetic fiber used to reinforce tires, helmets, and vests. If a spider strand were as thick as a penny, it could hold a 747 airliner . That is truly remarkable. There is also a brilliant architecture behind their webs. They are engineered to "localize" damage; if one section breaks, the rest of the structure remains intact, allowing for an easy repair rather than a total rebuild. And look at Hashem's wonders in how He allows spiders to live underwater. There is a "diving bell spider" that acts like a scuba diver. It spins a silk bell between plants and hauls air bubbles from the surface to fill it. It even possesses water-repellent body hairs that trap a thin layer of oxygen, acting as a portable scuba tank when it leaves its bubble to hunt. Some spiders build life-sized decoys of themselves using bug corpses and silk; predators like wasps attack the dummy 90% of the time! Others, like garden spiders, weave zigzag patterns of non-sticky silk that mimic the patterns of flowers. This tricks pollinators into flying directly into the web, increasing the catch rate by 50%. To finish the job, they have advanced weaponry to pierce the hard armor of other insects. Their fangs are reinforced with metal atoms—copper, magnesium, iron, and zinc—essentially making them built-in hypodermic needles. The silk itself is a liquid inside the body that instantaneously solidifies upon contact with air. A baby spider, without any instruction, can engineer a mathematically precise web in under thirty minutes. The spacing and tension follow sophisticated architectural principles to ensure the threads don't snap when a fly struggles. And that is just one little insect. The Chemical Engineer: The Bombardier Beetle Next, we have the Bombardier Beetle , a master of chemical engineering and pressure management. When threatened, it shoots a boiling spray at enemies with a literal gunshot sound. How does it work? It stores two harmless chemicals separately, mixing them only in a reinforced combustion chamber when under attack. If they weren't stored separately and the chamber wasn't protected, the beetle would kill itself. This deterrent is so hot and painful that even much larger predators retreat instantly. The beetle's abdomen is a biological lab. It has two storage tanks—one for hydroquinone and the other for hydrogen peroxide . On their own, they are inert. But when squeezed into the reaction chamber, the beetle adds specialized enzymes that act as a detonator. The reaction is so violent it reaches 100°C (212°F) instantly. The beetle doesn't just explode; it aims. Its exit valve is highly flexible, allowing it to swivel the nozzle and hit a predator precisely. The Navigator: The Honeybee Now for something more common: the Honeybee . A honeybee can fly from its hive, visit thousands of flowers, and return home with pinpoint accuracy. This is a "traveling salesman" before we ever had GPS! They utilize a sun compass and can see polarized light, allowing them to know the sun's position even on overcast days. To do this, they have complex eyes that detect the vibration of light waves. Even if the sun is hidden by clouds, they see the patterns. And like many other creatures, they communicate. One single bee can recruit hundreds of others to a specific patch of flowers miles away. That's why you know that when one bee enters your sukkah , many others are likely to follow—they share the good news! The Mathematician: The Desert Ant Finally, consider the Desert Ant . He needs to get home fast because the desert heat could kill him in minutes. How does he find his way? Scientists found that these ants have a pedometer —they count every step—and a built-in compass to track every turn. He might zigzag all over the desert looking for food, but the moment he finds it, he heads home in a perfectly straight line. He kept track of every direction and every step. Scientists proved this by putting "stilts" on an ant to lengthen its legs. When the ant tried to go home, it overshot its nest! Because its legs were longer, 100 steps took it much further than usual, but its internal computer told it that it hadn't reached home yet. Every creature, whether a bird or an ant, has a system built in by Hashem to get them home. We talk about humans having a "good" or "bad" sense of direction, but we have no sense of direction at all compared to the desert ant!

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    Shabbat: Zecher l'Yetziat Mitzrayim

    Shabbat: Zecher l'Yetziat Mitzrayim Welcome to our daily Bitachon. Today, Friday, we have our special Shabbat Dvar Torah. It is interesting to note that in this week's Parashah, Parashat Yitro, we find the Aseret HaDibrot where one of the Ten Commandments is זכור את יום השבת לקדשו —"Remember the Sabbath day to sanctify it." We also know that in Parashat Vaetchanan, we read the second version of the Dibrot , which says שמור את יום השבת —"Keep the Sabbath day." The main difference between the two—besides Zachor and Shamor —is that the first Dibrot tell us to remember Shabbat vis-à-vis Maaseh Bereishit (the Creation). God is the One Who created the world; therefore, we work for six days and rest on the seventh to remember that He, too, created the world in six days and rested on the seventh. The second Dibrot , however, speak about remembering Yetziat Mitzrayim (the Exodus). Now, it is quite obvious what Maaseh Bereishit has to do with Shabbat—it's the six-and-one pattern. But what exactly about Shabbat causes us to remember the Exodus? This is a simple but vital question, because every Friday night in Kiddush we mention both: Zecher le'Maaseh Bereishit and Zecher l'Yetziat Mitzrayim . The Power of Association Remembering something means that a specific trigger sparks a memory—an association of sorts. For example, if I say the word "orange," what do you think of? Some might say the color, some the fruit, and some might think of Florida. That is an association. If I say the word "mask," what does that mean to you? It could mean Corona; it could mean Purim. The word triggers a specific memory. In that sense, a mask could be Zecher l'Corona or Zecher l'Purim . So, when I hear the word "Shabbat," why do I think of Yetziat Mitzrayim ? It is an important question because the Torah places it right in the Ten Commandments and we repeat it in our Kiddush. Two Reasons for the Connection We will offer two reasons, though I am sure there are many more: Ownership of Time: The simplest reason, cited by most Rishonim , is that a servant does not own his own time. A slave cannot simply decide to take a rest; they are subjected to backbreaking work. If you are in a slave labor camp, you don't just take a nap in the middle of the day. If you can take a nap, it's an indication that you are in charge of your own time—you are the boss, not the slave. Therefore, when we rest on Shabbat—when you take your Shabbat afternoon nap—think to yourself: "I have the right to take a nap. I own my time." That only happened because Hashem took us out of Mitzrayim. The Scrolls of Faith: Many of us know that even before the Exodus, Shabbat existed for the Jews in Egypt. When Moshe was a newly appointed prince, he asked his stepfather, Pharaoh, to give the workers a day off, arguing they would work better with rest. The day he chose was Shabbat. On those days, Moshe distributed scrolls which the people would read to strengthen their Emunah . When we take that day off today, it reminds us of the Shabbat we had in Mitzrayim, and how we used that time to strengthen our Emunah and Bitachon . Rabbi Yaakov Kamenetsky notes that if you read Mizmor Shir L'Yom HaShabbat (Tehillim 92), it doesn't actually talk about Shabbat. So why is it the "Song for the Sabbath Day"? He explains that starting from Tefillah L'Moshe (Tehillim 90), there are eleven chapters written by Moshe Rabbeinu. These were the very scrolls he gave out to the slaves in Egypt to give them chizuk . Mizmor Shir L'Yom HaShabbat contains the concept of Tzaddik Katamar Yifrach —that the righteous will blossom while the wicked are cut down—and concludes Tzuri Velo Avlatah Bo , that God is our Rock and there is no iniquity in Him. That was the chizuk they practiced in Mitzrayim on Shabbat. Deepening the Experience So, we have two ways Shabbat triggers the memory of the Exodus: Remembering that we are free people who own our time. Remembering the spiritual preparation we did while still in slavery. I also saw a beautiful thought from the Alter of Kelm regarding how we can maintain excitement for Shabbat week after week. He says you have to delve deeper. You have to really think into these topics—think into Maaseh Bereishit and Yetziat Mitzrayim . The more you delve into them, the more you will appreciate and gain from the day. Shabbat Shalom.

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    Rabbi David Sutton
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