On all sides you could see nissim and niflaos in nature. On all sides Hakadosh Baruch Hu has left simanim to recognize His handiwork, His plan and purpose in the world. I was walking today with a young man, and we saw a peach pit lying on the sidewalk. I said, “Look at that, a miracle!” He said, “What? It’s a peach pit.”
No, it’s proclaiming its Creator. First-of-all there's nothing in the peach tree as hard as a peach pit. It's the hardest material in the whole thing because it’s purpose to protect the seed. It’s a remarkable material; lignin and cellulose, the same tough substances that make up wood and bark.
Also, it’s composed of two halves that fit together exactly. But try to pull them apart; in most cases you'll fail. You can't do it. Because they’re pasted together with a cement; a special formula that’s extremely strong. But if you take the peach pit and put it inside the ground and it opens up by itself! Because that cement-material yields to the bacteria and the fungi in the soil.
So, here's the peach pit with the two halves exactly fitted together with a cement that resists your efforts to pull it apart, and still when it’s in the soil it cracks open by itself. Eventually, moisture seeps in, and the embryo inside swells, builds pressure, and cracks the pit open from the inside. And now the seed is ready to begin producing another peach tree. So here you see now it’s not just a peach pit. It’s a message from Hakadosh Baruch Hu. You can’t just walk by and ignore it. Stop and look at it. Hakadosh Baruch Hu is talking to you: “I'm giving you another opportunity to gain emunah,” He says.
Reprinted from the current Devorim 5785 email of Torah Avigdor.
