The Hidden Miracle Inside You – Asher Yatzar Explained | Prof. Daniel Nessim

Okay. Shalom. Yesterday we heard that uh from Rabbi Sher that some people take as a cabala the yatsar to learn about this and maybe what we can do today is try to learn a little bit about this magical bara. I remember something like 30 years ago when I was in England and I didn't know as much as I know today and um the the English u um groups of synagogues had gave a little booklet with kind of the basic things of synagogue and I was remember reading it. I hate to say it. I was reading in the bathroom and in said in there it said that Jews when they finish going to the bathroom they do a blessing. And I thought it was a funny something really funny was uh you do a a blessing after you go out of the bathroom. That's uh and then I thought and said that maybe there is something and I remembered when I was a kid in the house of my grandparents shalom there was a little ceramic with printed in Italian the following a ceramic of a toilet of anla. It was written in there meaning translation we sit down heavy and boiling and we stand up light and happy and in fact it's true we ate too much the stomach is full we don't feel good and then we go to the bathroom and after that wow we're a new person we come out and everything that we ate that was not good was kind of a uh our chemical factor inside took what he was needed what was not needed was thrown out and we are a new person. This is such an amazing benai uh has many pages on it and he took inspiration on the science from the sephit some of the things uh with the knowledge of science today may have evolved but the big points are in there and the beneshai marveled at the inside workings of the human body to describing this. So let's look at the bar for a second. It starts with the blessing to Hashem king of the world that created the man men with wisdom. What wisdom I assume is the wisdom who created an amazing being that also has wisdom. We have we might do this and what I would like to do with you is to glimpse at some of these amazing wonders of the creation that we call the human body. And in fact says very fast immediately he says about halim means holes and halim means conduits but here holes means something very special you know a hole we think it's a hole but really a whole can have variable dimension can whole can be small or big and in fact when it says navim I think it's really refersing to what we call in mechanics valves meaning things that can be opened or closed or can be in between. So in fact uh we have many um entrances actually. Let's think for example about the final exit when we go to the bathroom. It can be opened or closed and we can control that opening. It's an opening that can be opened or closed or there is an entrance to the stomach that can be controlled open or closed. Um but those holes and those conduits and those tubes, what does it have to do with the bathroom? So let's uh let's have a look at this. Um I got an answer to this question uh something like uh roughly 20 25 years ago when I was in Boston and the brother of my rabbi rabbi Harona Maui his brother who was a doctor maybe he's still a surgeon in the mymonis hospital in New York came to give give the dasha of sudashit and he said all the surgeries he had performed in his whole career from beginning to end with no exception were always because something that should have been opened was closed or something that should have been closed was open which is exactly what the aeras is is saying. So but the first question is okay openings. How many openings we have? We don't have so many. Well, we have two holes in the nose, we have a mouth, the ears, two holes when we go to the bathroom. And and and what more? Well, our 4 kg of skins for an area of almost two square meters has an estimated 5 million pores. 5 million pores from where we know that we can sweat. What is sweat? Sweat is a mechanism to help the body to cool down. By the way, we have an internal regulation system of temperature which is absolutely amazing. A story I heard unbelievable was of a child that every time this child was at home was sick and when the child came to school he was healthy. So what why sick at home healthy? The story was that the parents didn't have many means and so they didn't have air conditioning at home. So the home was hot and when you came to school there was air conditioning so it was more moderate temperature. And the problem with this kid, the system regulating the temperature of the body, which we take for granted, was not working properly. So when the kid was home, he overheated and he was sick. And when he was at school, everything was okay. We never think about this, but all this goes in the background. And in fact, thinking about the whole process from eating to uh to bathroom like we'll see in in a few minutes. Uh basically except for the eating except for going to the bathroom everything else is automatic with without our control is the autonomous nervous system that takes care of everything. We don't think about breathing uh blood flowing heart pumping. You never put time on your schedule to say okay now I need breathing now right or uh some uh heart beatings from 2 to three. No we don't we never do this right? The sweating, by the way, we can sweat up to 3 to four liters per hour, up to a maximum of 10 liters. So, we're talking about something translating in weight, 3 to 4 kilos or up to 10 kilos. And the sweating of the breathing of the skin is so important. There was an example that is amazing that I heard when I was a student in France. There's a they said the professor said uh in the 30s the stockings, you know, garbonyim came up with nylon. They were they used to be all silk and silk is a beautiful material but it's very expensive and breaks tears very easily. So when the nylon stockings came up in the states the ladies went crazy. There were lines at the at the stores to buy those nylon stockings. The problem was that the nylon at least the first formulations of nylon were very flammable. So some of them unfortunately caught fire. And when they catch catch fire, what they do, they stick to the to the to the skin. So they block the pores. And what happens is there were ladies that died or they had their lower limbs in very very bad shape. And uh so we see now we talked about this. We talk about we talk about um for example conduits. We have 100,000 kilometers of veins, arteries and capillaries in our body. Some of them are as small as 8 microns meaning 8,000th of a millimeter in the brain. So you can imagine if any of them is blocked and especially in the brain that's what we call a stroke lenu right. So you have and 100,000 km is 2 and a half times the tour of our uh the circumference of our of our planet. And when you think about this in in fact you may think how long how long does it take for the blood to go through all of this? Well, it's less than a minute. A absolutely amazing. And when we talk about blood, we know that blood connect blood to life because a body without blood cannot leave. And it's a very special liquid. One example is blood clotting. Uh everybody got a cut and after a while it starts forming a crust and then uh it it heals, right? But this is an amazing process. something like a dozen of enzyatic processes in cascade and without them we could not survive and in fact you know there are people loeno we call it hemophilic meaning when they get a cut then the blood continues gushing out and it's it's very problematic do we have other holes well in our lungs we have something like 70 square m of alve alvoli which means molecular sized holes for how many something like 600 100 million. What happens in those holes is where the oxygenation of the blood happens. It's where there is osmotic exchange between the oxygen and the blood for oxygenating uh the the the blood. We talked about valves, things that open and close. Well, the first one we know is the epiglatus. When we eat, you know, we want the food to go through the w to the the foot pipe and not the wind pipe. And this is a valve. And you know that if sometimes we we we we don't it doesn't go to the right way with I'm joking. Right. This is this is a a valve. Another one that we perfectly know is is the heart. The heart is a 300 g pumps pump that will pump you know how many times in a lifetime? Over 3 billion beats in a lifetime. 3 billion beats in a lifetime. And it has something like four valves. uh two on the left right side, two on the left side and if any of them misfires, we know it's a huge huge problem. Also to understand the complexity of a human body, we have something like 11 systems, digestive systems, respiratory system, cardiovascular system, muscular system, lymphatic system, endocrine, uh reproductive, etc. 70 kilometers of nerves, 86 billion neurons with 100,000 billion connections between them. And we have something like 30,000 billion cells. So often I ask people, you know, if I put you all the material of a human body, I put you here a roll of 100,000 km of veins, arteries, etc. I put you 70 square meters of lungs, two square meters of skin, and I put you here a stomach and here in a heart, etc. Please put all this thing together. It's amazing. It reminds me because that's was more simple when when I was a kid and we had to go on vacation. We have to put all the luggage in the trunk and I was the one responsible for this because I had really developed a skill on how to maximize the amount of of of bags that you can put on the trunk of a car. Imagine here is is is a complexity uh not not far more. And with this understanding of beauty and complexity and perfect synchronizations of all these phenomena that happen in our body, now we can better appreciate the um theatar. And um now that we understood with this principle of things that should be opened should be open that open that one should be open and closed when should be closed. Now we can better understand uh the side and what I would like to do with you now is that we'll follow the food in its path into the body and see some of the miracles that occur inside us. First we eat dig first digestion we all learned in school starts in the mouth. Now the question is when we digest there are basically three uh elements that are key in here. The teeth, the tongue and the saliva. And in fact if one of the three malfunctions or is missing we cannot eat. Well no teeth is obvious that it's very difficult to eat without teeth. Um the the tongue we non think about this but when you if you pay attention when you eat something your tongue is always all the time going and putting the food exactly where it should be. So this head we choose so it sends it back to the back to the mers. This one has to cut so it sends to the front. So the tongue and sometimes you know if we we we don't manage properly bit my tongue right what is bit my tongue is that the tongue was doing a million things and then something went wrong in there right so we need we need to be to be to be careful of this and the tongue has something like 2,000 to 8,000 taste buds so just to give you an idea uh and and and these alo of course have interaction with the food saliva we have six major salivary glands. Hundreds of minor salivary glands. All these are in the mouth and they produce between half a liter to one and a half liter of saliva every single day. Half a liter to one and a half liter. I saw a program where they demonstrated without saliva we cannot we cannot eat. There's no way the food does not doesn't work. If you don't we don't have the saliva we would not be able to eat. There is a demonstration out there somewhere. And then we swallow up to here, it's cao under our control. Okay? But from then on until it gets to the very end, that's it. It's an automatic pilot. It's what we call the the autonomous nervous system that takes care of it. The whole digestion, you know, have you ever stopped thought, oh, maybe I should digest now. No, you don't have on your planning digestion time. No. Right. We don't we don't we don't realize but all these things are going on when we breathing by the way or heart pumping. Did you ever say oh now I have to pump on my heart. So this these are all things that happen in in automatic. This is this is a pill. We swallow and this kind of mix of food chewed with saliva goes down along the 20 to 30 cm long esophagus. And then it reaches the stomach. The stomach has two valves. Valves means holes. It has two holes, but holes that can be open or closed. One at the top, it's called the lower esophagus sphincter. And then one at the end called the poricid sphincter before it goes to the intestines. And I think you may have on your on your drawings, you have the the stomach. So basically the the opening on top is one and then you have one at the bottom. The stomach is something unbelievable. Unbelievable. It's a pouch uh waterproof well acid proof inside. Inside inside it has something which is a combination of strong hydrochloric acid, digestive en enzymes like pepsin, mucus and other substances. So just to give you an uh an idea, I I worked with this when I was university. Hydrochloric acid, you don't want to get close to it. Hydrochloric acid. You pick put a p piece of metal in there and it melts. You put your finger and I don't know what comes out if the finger is still there. So this is hydro we have hydrochloric acid inside ourselves. And the obvious question is one second. The hydrochloric acid would eat the stomach itself. Well, yes it would if there was it was not for something else. And an amazing miracle that is a thick alkaline mucous layer that lines the stomach completely. By the way, lines but not lines because there are at the same time you have places where it sprits the hydrochloric acid and the rest is where the the mucus is. So it's unbelievable combination of putting the acid and protecting from the acid right at the same time. and and it neutralize this acid and it makes a physical barrier for the acid not to go out. If something goes wrong with this lining, you know how we call it a stomach ulcer. a stomach ulcer it means the protection is not there and so the acid starts eating up the stomach and so once now you have this food mixed with saliva saliva grinded went down now went through hydrochloric acid and then after that it goes into this thing whatever remains of this goes into the um small intestine small intestines is a whole conduit weights that makes 5 to 7 m wrong. So, you know, I sometimes I ask questions to people. I say, "Listen, I'll put you on the table here. 100,000 km of veins, arteries, 70 km of nerves. I'll put in here some 7 m of small intestines and 1.5 large intestines. And I'll put you two square meters of skin. And I'll put you, you know, 10 kg of of bones and please rebuild a human being. You know, the puzzles that you, you know, I remember when I was a little kid, we're going on vacation. was in charge of putting the luggage in the trunk because there's an art to put luggage in the trunk. It's you have to fix this. You have and then you try and everything fits. Unbelievable here. But if I put you all the pieces on a table, there was no way that you can do it. It's absolutely unbelievable. So anyway, it goes to this and on the on these small intestines, you have something like 10 to 40 little hairs, tiny hairs that are called intestinal villies. Uh and there are something like sorry not there there are millions but there they are 10 to 40 per millimeter square inside you have every millimeter square you have 10 to 40 of these little hairs what they do the little hairs they take the nutrients from the food they pass it to the blood and what is not a nutrient will go out in a toilet so think about this you eat 50 grams of bamba you have 0.01 01 grams maybe of nutritional value in there and the stomach and the whole system makes you have all your bumpers goes there and the vill is taking the 0.01 01 g of nutritional value. It exchanges with the blood to go in the blood and the rest toilet. Unbelievable. It's it's chemical factory. Then after that it reaches the 1.5 m long large intestine we call the colon where this is just the one before uh uh this and the the digested food moves along. There's something called the peristatic movement. Peristic movement. They basically it pushes and the foot goes down and he pushes here and he goes down and he pushes here go down. It's um and all this automatic right up to the only control we have is the final what we call the anal sphincter which is the last valve where we have a certain level of control by the way um okay we'll talk about that urine. So there's also all the liquids that we need to expel 1.4 lit of urine per day up to 2. So, and by the way, the stools is something like half a kilo. So, half a kilo of stool and there's something like 1 and 1/2 liters of urine per day and we urinate 6 to eight times a day, which gives a lot of opportunities for saying this, by the way. Okay, so that's uh and we um okay, the it's not interested. Basically, all these liquids and all these solids that come out are all the bad stuff that the body did not want. And it's amazing how especially when you think about today, you know, in the old times they were eating a little healthy. Today you have a rugala and a bamb and a dorito and a Coca-Cola and basically you have all these poisons, one poison after the other and and the body is taking what is needed and throwing all the other junk out. It's and and we went well and in fact yes. Um so the the the the the final as I said the final one is the anal sphincter and by by the way you may know there's something it's very very sad when someone we call it incontinence incontinence means cannot control the final valves either for urinating or for going for the stool and uh I have a colleague in in in Italy he invented the device that basically you can insert on the on the for before urination with a mechanical valve with a magnet and then when you go to the bathroom you take a magnet you put it close by so it opens and then you take the magnet out and it closes something of this kind we don't need a magnet we don't need a magnet now to give you an idea of how amazing all this thing is I remember Dr. Bar Gando saying something unbelievable of an etsa for that would have that was the idea was for making a diet well I will confess I didn't try otherwise I wouldn't be as overweight as I am so but the the he gave was the following every time so take a bin plastic bin you know the garbage plastic bin every time you eat or drink something put the same amount in the bin so I eat a sandwich in the bin I eat a Doritos Doritos in the bin Coca-Cola Coca-Cola in the bins. Then at the end of the day, look at the bin. Well, probably you cannot we will not be able to be to to to to take the smell of the bin, right? Because it will be stinking like crazy and you have this mess in there of a bunch of things that are there maybe doing chemical reactions between themselves. I have no idea what comes out from there from that thing. So this is the thing and and the body takes care of this. Um once I had to do the well you know uh you may have heard about something called endoscopy and gastroscopy. I I I thought it was it was I said I thought it was I met at that point but another thing that I had to do was the camera peel. That's that's a nicer thing. Camera pill is amazing technology that in one camera you have battery radio transmission LED and video camera. And basically you swallow the pill. You have attached a little thing that you will carry for your own day for the day. And basically it films everything that it it encounters going down. So from the esophagus and then the stomach and then the small intestine, the big intestine and then at the end it goes to the toilet. And I found it in the toilet. It's and it was still flashing. In fact, for a few days it was still flashing this thing. So and then they can so they can see with this they can see what so I I had the view of what's what's in there another and of course it's all all this thing is is absolutely unbelievable uh recently I had another experience uh it's called a kidney stone a kidney stone uh when I went there uh after hatal to share the doctor there said is So it's a the pains are as close as poss can be as they can be to woman delivery which I don't know what pain it is but I know what the kidney stone pain is. Um and what is a kidney stone? You know in the kidneys the kidneys are involved basically in filtering the the different liquids before it goes to um to the urination part. And basically in fact I was involved in a project where we wanted to do an artificial kidney. At the end it didn't work out and I was sure it would not work out honestly but and what because the kidney what he does it takes liquids takes some ions ions are are atoms that have lost or gains electrons and then he throws some out and then he takes them back. It's an amazing chemistry, the chemistry that goes on in this. And in fact, in fact, there is a friend of mine here who is a doctor. He said he did the shuva when in medical school he started learning about the kidney cuz he saw how complicated the thing is. That's unbelievable. And lenu kidneys don't work. Dialysis and it's they don't they don't you know one of the biggest part of diialysis they don't know where to poke because they have poked all over the place and they cannot poke anymore. So they have so all this so let's go back now after all this overview we can go back to the and we have here it concludes with a twofold praise to Hashem he said um [Applause] all this is basically the whole process of going to the bathroom is and and the kafet say is amazing sigula for healing. Uh, and one thing I forgot to say on the kidney stone, uh, when I had it at the beginning, I was in a terram in Jerusalem. I didn't know it was a kidney stone. I was bent into two and of course the lady said, "So, you have to have the because otherwise they don't look at you and and uh and and I was I thought I was dying." And uh and basically and at the end I wanted to go to the bathroom to say and I tried and nothing comes out and I try at the end one drop never had something like this one tiny drop you can say. So I went there I said I honestly I was crying and it was because I was in pain and you can believe me or not believe me. I finished theats the pain I don't say stopped but became manageable. I was not bent into two like I was a few seconds before with and in fact that same evening there was an event Kinyan Meta here and we had a whole thing I had called already the the Gabara telling him sorry I don't think I'm going to come tonight because I'm I'm a wreck. uh and then in fact pain went off and with my wife we went we attended that things the evening after that was not so nice and the Sunday was shed but that was another story um and in fact when you talk about siga for healing a greater sigah raid miller zal he had a on a sheet he was writing all the problems that people gave and then he was reading and say oh hashem I don't have this hashem I don't have this hashem I don't have this Right. And I had the similar experience uh other times going to shed for example and you go at the elevator and you have the list of the departments I'm not on oncology I'm not there on respiratory I'm not on cardiovascular I'm not there there's only one department that may be nice is the delivery for babies but besides that one all the others were not there and then the second he says what Mafila at the physical level is we have a body which is a container which has gases and liquids inside and nothing comes out. Isn't that amazing? When you have a balloon and you fill it with something, you know, if you make a a hole on it, everything goes out. Hashem, we don't lose anything, right? Except when we want and we go to the bar of Hashem, we have control. We go to the bathroom and we and we send out the things we don't want. But you usually we don't deflate, right? Um that's a but the other more important kavana on this is is that the mafi the pelle the the wonder is that you have a a physical goof with a spiritual shama that are coexisting together that's what the say this is just to conclude so b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b basically is the best health insurance that one can have. And I'll tell you an I got from one of my gun always recite it from a text. So there are those little portable aviat you can buy for five shekel that you can leave in the pocket and when you have and it changes completely to read it. Today I don't I have it in the pocket and I barely use it because then you go and you have those nice glass thing you know dedicated by who knows what paid a lot of millions for it and oh here we go. But but when you're good at the other ones there are nice glass written in black and and you can there and you can verbalize and blah blah blah blah blah think about this. So now when you you say you can think about you know wow the 30 km esophagus and then the hydrochloric acid and then the the something like 9 m of different intestines we have and the millions of intestinal villies and and the exchanges osmotic exchanges that happen in in the lungs and inside the the intestines and all this and I don't need a magnet and uh and and even all the me stinky mess in the bin It's in my stomach and everything is taken care of. With all this we can say uh and basically I would say to conclude so with and then you'll understand ah now you can oh one one one more thing so now you can open and uh I didn't want you to open before because you have a summary of all the key points. So it has gone fast. You may not have remembered everything. So I tried to put in there the key points that were on the talk. So if you look at at this sheet in there, you have uh by the way uh if you are you're still recording Aaron still recording. Okay. I want just another thing in case you're interested. Uh I have an email uh and I have also a WhatsApp group that are sent some things on this. So the email is very simple. It works in English and in French. It's science [email protected] and in French is arobasmail. So it works on both sides and then there is a a phone number in case you want some if you are missing or you want a sheet like uh this one that I gave to everybody with a summary just email me. I'll email it to you. >> Do you need this? >> Of course. This you can keep. Thank