If all the fish looked like goldfish, we'd get bored. We’d be lulled into inattention; we would be bored by the monotony and we wouldn’t pay any attention. But now if the trout doesn’t get your attention maybe the carp will. And if you’re still sleepy then He made for you the rainbow fish. The rainbow fish! That has to wake you up!
If all of the birds looked like chickens, we wouldn’t pay any attention. But now there are all kinds of birds, so if you didn’t notice the robin, you’ll notice the crow. If you didn’t notice the crow, you’ll notice a parrot in a cage. Or at the seashore you’ll notice the seagull. Or in the zoo you’ll notice a stork or an ostrich.
And so when people see different kinds of creatures in the world, it wakes them up. It causes them to see Hashem and to call out to Him in songs of awareness.
The Sleepwalker
Now, that’s an important point, the singing. Because all of this variety is intended to wake you up but the question is what are you waking up for? Just to notice the variety in a superficial way? No, that’s not enough.
You know, some people wake up to the variety in Creation but they miss the entire purpose – that it’s there to remind you of the Creator. Don’t you see sometimes a person will say, “Ahh! Isn’t the wildflower a beautiful thing! Ah yah yay!” Someone might even join an Audubon society and become enraptured over birds, over the various beaks and wings and colors. He notices but he’s still sleeping!
He’s still sleeping because he doesn’t understand that the purpose is kevod Hashem. If your awareness stops with the birds or the red roses or the wildflower, then it’s nothing; it’s a big zero. Because all of that variety that we’re talking about now is intended not only to wake you up, but to wake up your thoughts; to spur you to see the great complexity, the great chochmah, in His creations.
The Beis Medrash Shop
You know, I used to take yeshivah boys into fruit stores. I told them beforehand that a person can shteig very much in a fruit store if he’s willing to think about what’s doing there. “It’s a beis medrash,” I told them, “a place where you learn emunah; you learn yiras Hashem. You’ll see chochmas Hashem. It’s tremendous!”
So when we walked in, we were prepared already. We were prepared to make use of the variety for kevod Shomayim.
“Look,” I said. “Red apples. Golden oranges. Green peppers. Blue grapes. All different colors, all different tastes. Look at the niflaos haBorei!” The variety of colors wakes us up from our sleepwalking.
But now that we’re awake we have to start thinking. How did such beautiful things come into existence? From a little seed! Each one has seeds in it! Inside the apple, there are seeds. Inside the orange, there are seeds. Inside every kind of fruit, there are seeds. Think about that.
Computers in the Fruit Store
How did the seed get inside?! If you’d find a quarter inside, you’d be surprised, wouldn’t you? A quarter inside the fruit! But a seed is a million times more important than a quarter. A quarter is nothing. It’s a dead thing; it has no life in it. A seed, on the
