Shaimos…
Holy Schach
The Chasam Sofer did not accept a student into the yeshiva in Preshburg, because he noticed that the young man stepped on some schach that was on the floor after Sukkos and that showed him that the young man lacked yiras shomayim.
Shmitta/Agriculture…
Amazing Little Country
Date palms have grown in the Middle East for centuries. The average tree is about 18-20 feet tall and yields about 38 pounds of dates per year. However today, an averge date tree in Israel yields 400 pounds of dates per year and is short enough to be harvested from the ground or by using a short ladder!
Nisuch HaMayim…
Wonderful Water
• Roughly 70 percent of an adult’s body is made up of water.
• There is no scientific evidence that people should drink 8 glasses of water a day. While it’s important to stay hydrated, nearly every food or drink item provides some water to the body.
• The total amount of water on the earth is about 326 million cubic miles of water.
• The United States uses about 346,000 million gallons of fresh water every day.
• Honeybees are disappearing at an alarming rate and experts still cannot figure out why! This problem, named Colony Collapse Disorder, has affected over 60-70% of bee colonies in the U.S.
• Honeybees fly 50,000 miles to collect enough nectar for one pound of honey.
• Bees navigate by using the sun as a compass.
• Honeybees annually pollinate over $14 billion worth of seeds and crops (1/3 of our country’s food supply)!
• Honeybees produce 4 things: honey (kosher), royal jelly (accepted as not kosher), beeswax (kosher) and bee propolis (kosher).
• Why do we dip apples in “honey” on Rosh Hashanah? Davash – honey has the same numerical value as Av Harachamon – Merciful Father = 306.
• Many leading rabbis would bless each other and their congregations with a sweet new year, because just like sweet honey is obviously good to all (even to small children), so too, all that happens to us next year should be clearly and openly good.
PLEASE NOTE: Doctors recommend that children under 12 months of age should NOT be fed honey.
On the Esrog…
Why does an esrog need to be absolutely complete?
Esrog (Alef Tov Reish Gimel) is an acronym for four things that always need to be complete – the first two are things that a person has to give to Hashem:
Emunah Shleimah (Alef) – Complete Faith, and
Teshuvah Shleimah (Tov)– Complete Repentance.
And in return, Hashem gives:
Refuah Shleimah (Reish)– Complete Healing, and
Geulah Shleimah (Gimel)– Complete Redemption.
It is important to be humble about the quality and
hiddur of your esrog.
Esrog is also an acronym for “Al t’vi’eni regel gaiva” – One should not boast about his esrog.