A few more examples from Parshas Bereishis. Number four: Hakadosh Baruch Hu told Adam Harishon ִ י לָכֶם הִנֵּה נָתַ ת – “Behold I have given you food” (Bereishis 1:29). Hashem was introducing mankind for the first time to the idea of eating and He says, וֹ פְרִ י ָל הָעֵץ אֲ שֶׁ ר ב עֵשֶׂ ב זוֹרֵ עַ זֶרַ ע ... וְאֶת כ עֵ ץ ז ֹ רֵ עַ זָ רַ ע – “I’m giving you herbage that produces seeds and fruit that have seeds in them” (ibid.)
So there are superfluous words there. Hashem says “I have given you food to eat, yes, but why mention ז ֹ רֵ עַ זָ רַ ע, that it has seeds in it? At Creation when Hashem said וֹצִא הָאָרֶ ץ... עֵץ ת וֹ פְּרִי ... אֲשֶׁר זַרְעוֹ ב – “The earth should produce trees with seeds in it” (ibid. 1:11), so we understand why it was necessary to say it then. That was the command of Creation and He wanted that fruits should have the ability to continue to reproduce forever. But here, He’s telling Adam to eat – was it necessary to mention that there are seeds in the fruit?
The answer is this. The Torah is telling us how to eat fruit. When an adam eats, he has to think about the seeds. Not only the pulp and the juice is beneficial to you, but your mind is going to gain a great benefit from looking at the seeds.
Our Book and the Orange
It means that our Book tells us how to eat an orange. While you’re chewing you’re thinking, וֹ אֲ שֶׁ ר זַ רְ עוֹ ב – every fruit of the tree and every fruit of the ground, all have seeds inside of them. “So what about it?” you say.
What about it?! How did it happen? Let’s say you found a quarter inside a watermelon, you’d be very happy, wouldn’t you? How did a quarter get in?! A miracle!
But a quarter is nothing. A quarter is a dead thing. It has some information on it; a few pictures, a date, some words but it’s nothing compared to a seed. An orange seed has millions and millions of bits of information inscribed on the helix of the DNA molecule. And it’s a live thing. Not only the information it has but also all the machinery to make a new orange tree.
Their Book and the Orange
That’s what our Book says about eating an orange. Now let’s listen to what the other books say. The Department of Agriculture in Washington once published an article and the author was marveling at the fact that an orange pip is bitter; by some chance, over millions of years, he wrote there, in ways not yet understood by us, somehow, the orange seed developed a bitter taste – in order to discourage people from eating it, it became bitter.
You hear that? It happened by chance. What our Book tells us to look at and marvel at the Hand of the Creator, the books of the world say we should marvel at “natural selection”. ‘In ways not yet understood by us’!
But our book tells us! We do understand. It was ָרָ א !אֱלוֹקִים בְרֵ אשִׁ ית ב Elokim did it! And it’s טוֹב מְ אֹ ד, it’s for our good! And because we’re tzelem Elokim it was done for us, so that we should study the fruit and become greater and greater, bigger and bigger maaminim. So as you’re in the street and you’re passing a fruit stand, you’re thinking, וֹ אֲ שֶׁ ר זַ רְ עוֹ ב! Apples! וֹ אֲ שֶׁ ר זַ רְ עוֹ ב! Watermelons! וֹ אֲ שֶׁ ר זַ רְ עוֹ ב Cantaloupes! אֲ שׁ ֶ ר זַ רְ ע ו ֹ וֹ ב! That’s a person living with his one sefer, his one instruction manual.
