A friend forwarded me a clip from Rav Avrohom Nass’s weekly shiur on Chovos Halevavos. Rav Nass was speaking about how we stop noticing Hashem’s kindnesses because we see them every day. Then he told his listeners what had happened to him that week. A minyan for Maariv was made after second seder, and as he walked from where he davened back to his seat to learn, he passed a book lying on a table.
“It was Awaken Your Emunah, by Yaakov Astor. It’s based on the teachings of Rav Avigdor Miller. So I flipped open the cover.
“The whole book is about all the different things that were created on the different days, and in great detail, the intelligent and unbelievable design that goes into the Briah around us. I was mamash enamored.
“I think the first page I opened to was water. Besides everything water does for people, for animals, for all living things, water spreads minerals around the planet. It flows over the rocks, picks up the minerals and carries them everywhere. The viscosity of water, its thickness, is just low enough. Imagine you poured honey down a mountain over rocks. It wouldn’t get into all the nooks and crannies. It would move down in chunks, so it couldn’t pick up all those minerals. And if it were even thinner, like a gas, it wouldn’t work either. Water is just perfect to carry out this function. Who would have thought? Who would have imagined such a perfect world?
“Definitely highly, highly recommended. I was just blown away. Such detail. He’s an excellent writer.”
“I think this book is such a kiddush Hashem.”
Rav Avrohom Nass, shlita
At the end of the shiur, after wishing everyone a good week, he came back to the book on his own:
“That book, it’s mind-blowing. The pictures are so detailed.
“It also gave me a tremendous chizuk. When I saw this book, I realized this is the same person who, I think, started the Zman magazine. The Zman has beautiful, in-depth articles. He took that koach and put it into this book. Impeccable English, an excellent way of explaining. The taam of the whole book, at least the parts I read, is so beautiful. It’s not boring. It doesn’t get too scientific, but it gets scientific enough to appreciate what it is.
“It gave me an appreciation of how a person can use his kochos to serve Hashem. I think this book is such a kiddush Hashem. I really love this taam.”
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