The Creature That Rebuilds Itself

There is a small creature, a Mexican salamander called the axolotl, that possesses an ability that seems like science fiction. If it loses an entire leg, it grows back. No scar, no stump. A completely new leg, perfect with bones, muscles, and nerves. And it doesn't stop at the leg. The axolotl is capable of regenerating almost any organ, tail, heart, eyes, spinal cord, and even parts of the brain in perfect completeness [music] without any scar. The secret is a structure called a blastema. Mature cells near the wound revert back to a stem cell state and then rebuild exactly what was lost as if the injury never happened. Listen closely. And here is where the real miracle lies. Scientists have discovered that humans carry almost exactly the same genes. The difference is not that we lack the equipment, but that this ability simply isn't activated in us. The potential for complete regeneration, to rebuild what was broken, is embedded within us. It is just waiting to [music] be awakened. Friends, how many of us look at what is broken within us, a past wound, betrayed trust, a part of the soul that was hurt, and are convinced that it is lost forever? That a permanent scar will remain, a dead area that will never function again. We come to terms with the break, convinced that what is lost is lost. But right now we are in the days of Bein Hametzarim, and at the end of the book of Lamentations, which is read during these days, there appears a stirring request. Return us to you, oh Lord, and we shall return. Renew our days as of old. Listen to the precision here. Not fix us, not patch up the break, but [music] renew. Build us completely anew. And as of old, like we were originally in the initial wholeness, like Adam in the Garden of Eden. The sages explain that repentance is not repairing an old vessel, it is rebuilding a new as if we were just now created, clean, whole, without a scar, exactly like the axolotl. We don't just cover the wound. We rebuild the organ in its entirety as if [music] it was never injured. Nothing that is broken within us is lost forever. The potential to rebuild ourselves in complete wholeness is embedded within us, just like in the axolotl. What has been damaged can grow back. What has been broken can be rebuilt whole. We are not doomed to live with eternal scars. [music] We have the ability to renew our days as of old, to return to our original wholeness as if we were just now created. So, the next time we look at what is broken within us and think it is lost forever, let's pause. [music] Let's remember the axolotl. Let's remember to renew our days as of old. Let's not settle for the scars because within us lies the ability to rebuild ourselves in wholeness.