Ants, Lag BaOmer, and a Mind-Blowing Gematria You’ve Never Heard

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Hey, how are you? If you're wondering why I'm holding a napkin in front of the camera, I'm trying to show you my pesky little friend. There he is. Little ant. You know, this is one of those things that most of us have in our homes at some point during the year. And this is like the time of year. It's this spring, and the ants love to find these little nooks and crannies and crevices that make their way into the home. But today is Log Bomer, and I want to share with you why I think ants are actually one of the great deep secrets of Log Bomer. So I decided a couple months ago actually to try something and to take matters into my own hands. You see, I was annoyed at the ants that kept coming into the kitchen, the rummage on the floor for yogurt and for crumbs and what have you. And you know, you could try to squish them, but experts, I don't know who is an expert in ants, but experts say don't squish the ants because they'll radiate off some type of scent that other ants can smell. It's an alarming smell for them, and then it'll actually bring upon more ants. So best not to squish them. Okay, so what am I gonna do? Take all, you know, a hundred of them out with a napkin. Like, how am I gonna do that practically? And I was fed up and I decided that, you know what, if they're on the floor, okay. But once they get onto the kitchen countertops, that's it. We're done. Our relationship, they don't even pay rent, right? They don't do any chores, so let's get rid of them. So one day, um, there was an ant on the kitchen counter in our home, and I decided, you know what, I'm just gonna take matters into my own hand. And so I just decided I'm gonna end its life, and I tried to assassinate it. I swiped it off the counter with my hand. And it didn't happen in slow motion, although the drama of this situation almost felt like it should be in slow motion, and the ant fell to its well, I looked and it was alive and moving after it hit the floor. And I was perplexed, I was a little shocked, I was in disbelief. I'm like, it just fell off, I just knocked it off a counter. A counter is three foot, it's three thirty-six inches off the ground. An ant is on average between one millimeter to five millimeter in size. So if you take the difference between one millimeter in size to 36 inches, that means that that distance that it fell was about 200 times the size of the actual ant. Now, if a human being were to fall 200 times its size, that would be equivalent, let's say you take a six-foot person, so 200 times that would be close to 1200 feet. That's about as tall as the Empire State Building, maybe close to the a little bit taller, short, a little bit taller than Eiffel Tower. I mean, we're talking crazy. No human being without a parachute would have been able to survive such a fall. Yet the ant, after I swiped it off the counter, it was able to not only survive, but it wasn't even limping, it just kept crawling with the same speed as it did before. And I was perplexed, perplexed at this. Like, what is going on? And and I learned that ants have what we call, they almost have no, I mean, every thing that falls has something called terminal velocity, which is the greatest amount of speed that that particular thing can hit go as it travels down. So human beings can hit upwards to like 120 miles per hour, and that's why if they fall from a great height, then you know that could be bad news. But an ant, at best, at most hits about four miles per hour in terms of terminal velocity because of that the ant's low mass and because of the high, the high tension in terms of the air pressure, it creates like this cushion, it creates the soft cushion, it creates like a parachute for the ant, and it only hits about four miles per hour of going down. And so something amazing happens. It doesn't matter if you knock an ant off a kitchen counter 36 inches high from the ground, or you can knock an ant off from the empire state building. The ant is not going to die, it's going to survive, it's going to be okay. It's an amazing thing as a cut when it as it relates to ants, because they're just the the way that the Hashem made this creature is just unbelievable. And it's not so random that I'm sharing this with you today on Magbaimer. You know, Shloma Malach tells us in Mishlait, chapter 6, verse 6, he says, if you're a lazy person, go learn from the ant, because the ant is the opposite of lazy. The ant gathers together all of its uh food that it needs. It gathers in the summer for everything it needs in the winter. It gathers what it needs, even though it doesn't need as much, it doesn't need as much as it actually gathers. The Medris in Devarim, the Medris tells us, Medrish Rabbah chapter five, tells us an amazing thing that the ant has three homes, right? So an ant has like an ant hole. Within that anthole, there's three floors. There's the bottom, and there's the middle, and there's the top. The ant doesn't bring its produce, it doesn't bring its sustenance to the top floor because it's likely to get uh rainwater. And it doesn't bring its it doesn't bring its uh produce to the bottom floor because it could get wet from the mud. But the ant brings its produce to the middle floor, to the middle section. And the Madris relates that's going on. The Madris relates something fascinating. Although an ant only consumes over its six month long lifespan, it's very short, six months it lives, yet it collects enough food to last way past that amount of time. The ant's diet for his life of six months is about a kernel and a half of wheat, which is uh incredible that it prov that it gathers so much more than it needs. And the Medish picks up on that and asks, why? Why is that? And it says an amazing thing. I want to read it to you. Because the ant says to himself, perhaps Hashem will decree more life for me, perhaps Hashem will give me more life. And by collecting all this food, I'm going to have the provisions that I need to eat. The ant is a hopeful creature. The ant, even though, you know, think about there's trillions upon trillions of ants that walk the face of this planet, and they all have this short lifespan. Yet the Madrash relates that the ant still thinks. The ant says, you know what? Even though I only eat X amount, a kernel and a half of wheat, I'm going to collect way more than that. Because it could be, perhaps, maybe Hashem will give me more life. And if he does, what am I going to do then? I need to be ready. I need to be prepared. That's the opposite of laziness. That you, if you somebody's lazy, go learn from the ant, says Shloma'amelach. The ant is always stands ready. It it takes and it gathers way more than it actually needs. But then the Madrash brings a teaching from the Hila Gitana, Rab Shimon Bariachai. Ribshim Bariachai says, and I want to read it to you. Ribshim Barchai says like this it once happened that people found 300 core, a core is a very large amount, that people found 300 core of grain in an ant's hole from what it brought from the summer for the winter. An incredible amount of food that one ant brought, right? And what does the major say in the name of Ribbishimbarekai? Therefore, Slomamelach said, Leichal namalah, go to the ant and become wise, meaning you too should similarly prepare for yourselves mitzos from this world for the world to come. How amazing is that the ant gathers much more than it needs, and the ant therefore becomes a model for us of how to approach and how to live in this world, to take everything that we could get, to amass the spiritual wealth that we are meant to amass, to hop around and not to be an utcel, not to be lazy, but to live with us, to live with the bren, to live with the fire, to take advantage of the moment and every single moment, to be like the ant that always stands ready to act, that always stands ready for what's next, that doesn't just live in the moment, but lives thinking about the future and how we in our lives can do the same, uh doing as many mitzvahs, studying tyra, being the best people, being the best yidin that we can be. It's an amazing thing that we can learn from these ants. But what does that have to do with Lagbaumir? You know, Lag Baumer is the name Lag, when rearranged, spells gal to reveal what's being revealed. You know, everybody on Lag Baumir, we dance around and sing around a fire. And you look at the fire with your eye, and as you anything as anything, as it always happens when you look with your eye, it reflects and it comes and it enters into you. And the looking at the fire reminds that, hey, there's actually a fire inside. It doesn't mean that I have a potentiality to for a flame, for a fire. No, no. The the flame of Langbaima reminds us that there's already a fire that already exists inside. Our Chila Galoika, our Nishama, that part of us that's constantly on fire, that's constantly yearning, the part of us that's not an Utzel, that's not lazy, the part of us that's like an ant, the part of us that prepares provisions for the future, the part of us that lives with integrity, the part of us that lives with passion, the part of us that chaps, the part of us that constantly wants more and more connection and more divagis and wants closeness. That part of us is the part that we're looking at. We look at that fire and we're reminded of that fire that exists within, and that's lag miloshem gao, right? To reveal, revealing that which is already there, to reveal and uncover something that already exists inside, because deep down we all have that inside. Every single one of you has an element inside of you, that ant that's not antsel, that's not that's not just depressed, that's not just downtrodden, but there's a part in you that that lives with Zrezus, like that ant, which is that icon for Zrezus. Zrezus represent movement, represent passion, represent fire, represent chamimus, represent warmth, represent connection to Akharish Barakhu. That's what that is. And it's an amazing thing. I have to share this with you. I I plugged in some numbers, and you wouldn't believe this. Rabishiman Bariachai is Gematria 915. There's only one pasuk in all of the Tire, in all of Tanakh, rather. There's only one Pasuk that has that exact Gematria. And that's the Pasuk in Mishlay, chapter 6, verse 6. The pasuk of Leichel Numallah Utsel, go to the ant, you lazy one. Ree Duracha Dirachha Vechem, and see its ways and become wise. And it's an amazing thing of Shimbra Echai is the one who taught us that he's the one who quotes this pasuk of Leichal Numalah. He's the one who tells us this becomes a model. This this imagery of an ant becomes a model for us to chap around mitzus on this world, to take advantage of this world, not to be lazy, but to gather as much as we can. For all we all have an allotted amount of time here on this world, just like the ant, and the reads of Shem should be longer than six months. But everybody has an allotted time, and our job is to chap around and to gather as much as we can and to connect with fire and to connect with that passion and to connect to that internal ant inside of us. By the miraculum, what happened, right? The miraclim, they said, oh my gosh, they they overheard the giants talking that there was Namolim. They were being compared, they themselves, right? They heard the giants talking about them as Namolim, as ants in the form of human beings. And they viewed it, oh my gosh, we're so small, we're like ants. But perhaps the miraculum dinner. It's an amazing thing to be like an ant. Yes, they're small, but they're not limited by their size, right? Ants, they they can fall by, they can fall crazy high distance and they can survive. They can carry more than 10 times its mass. Ants are beyond measure, they're almost immeasurable, they're beyond like the normal, they're they're beyond the norm. And this is Klaw Esau, this is the Jewish people. We're like the Namalan, Leichel Namalah, go to that ant because realize you have an element of this ant inside of you. And I perhaps this is one of the messages of Lagba Imra. Again, Ribbishim Barekai, the same Gematri as Leichel Namullah, Otsal Ray Dorcha Vechachim. Because our connection with Ribishiman, Ribishima is teaching us go to the ant, realize that you don't have to live a depressed type of life. You can live with a brand, you can live with a passion, just connect to that inner ant, that ant that knows no bounds, that ant that's immeasurable, that ant that can fall but always survives, that ant that gathers more than it needs, that ant that chobs everything that it can get. Because if when we connect to that notion, when we connect to living like an ant, then who knows how much we can do, then who knows how much we can accomplish. And perhaps this becomes the Avoida of Lag Balimar on some level, to connect to the inner ant that we all have within. Let's go to that ant and let us appreciate and not realize, oh my gosh, the big giants of the world, they're calling us ants, and that's a negative. No, it's not a negative, it's a positive to be like an ant and may we live with Zrizus with a passion. Let's take the fire of Lagba'imer and be Gal, reveal that and and and elevate ourselves, our families, and Amirzashem of the world around us, wishing you a lichtaga Lagba'imer, an amazing rest of your day.