Welcome to
our daily Bitachon series. We continue to talk about Sha'ar
HaBechinah. And as we said in the past, it relates to Sha'ar HaBitachon
in a very strong way. There's a Midrash that says there was a Kohen
who was going on a business trip.
And before
he left, he wanted to tell his wife different laws about how to figure out Tzara'at,
leprosy. And he told her in his discussion that only one hair grows out of one
follicle and two hairs do not grow out of two follicles. She told him if every
hair has a follicle and God could sustain the hair, don't you think he could
sustain you? Why do you need to travel? And he didn't. So let's talk a little
bit about hair follicles and you'll appreciate what a hair follicle is and how
God takes care of a hair follicle, and he can take care of you.So a hair
follicle is actually a dynamic organ found in mammals.
It resides
in the dermal layer of the skin, that means it's on the top of your skin. And
it has 20 different cell types, each with distinct functions. The hair follicle
regulates hair growth, that means who decides how fast your hair is going to
grow. And it's a complex interactions with hormones, neuropeptides, and immune
cells.
That's why
sometimes people that have a immune, autoimmune disease, their hair falls out,
because there's something wrong with the immunity. And there are different
types of hair on different parts of your body. It means the hair on your head
and the hair on your beard and the hair on your stomach or the hair on your
back are all different kinds of hairs. And we'll get to another interesting
point soon.
And the hair
growth also happens in stages. First is it actively grows, then it's at a
resting stage, then it regresses, then it sheds, and then it's empty for a time
till the next stage goes on. Interesting enough. Then we have a gland called a
sebaceous gland which is a microscopic exocrine gland.
That means
it's a type of gland in the skin that opens into the hair follicle. It means
you have the hair follicle and there's a little tube, microscopic, that enters
the hair follicle. And what's its job? It secretes an oily or waxy matter which
lubricates the hair and the skin.These glands are in the greatest number in the
face and the scalp. That's why your face gets oily and your scalp gets oily.
But it's on
other parts of the body as well, except for your palm of your hands and the
sole of your feet because we don't want the palms of your hand or the soles of
your feet to be slippery. And this gland secretes an oily, waxy substance. And
it's a lot of chemicals go into that. We're not going to bore you with the
details.
It also
helps in our thermoregulatory cycle. That means it helps depending on the heat
and the cold. In hot conditions, the secretion emulsifies the sweat. And that
way the sweat is not easily lost and it stays on the body.
It's
important to delay dehydration. In colder conditions, it becomes more lipid and
it causes rain to be repelled.It also serves as a shield against
microorganisms. So there's it secretes an acid, and this slightly acidic film
on the surface of the skin is a barrier to prevent the microbes that might
penetrate the skin. Now this is an unbelievable one.
During the
last three months of fetal development, the sebaceous gland of the fetus
produces a waxy white substance that cover, that coats the skin to protect it
from amniotic fluid. Wild. That means out of the 120 years you're alive, for
three months the gland decides to secrete a different type of substance that
specifically will protect the embryo from the amniotic fluid. Wonder of
wonders.
And this is
one of the things the Chovot HaLevavot says in Sha'ar HaBitachon
where God's taking care of me in the womb is protecting me. How? In this wild
concept.Now, there are also glands in the eyelids that secrete a different form
of sebum onto the eye that slows the evaporation of tears. It also serves to
create an airtight seal when the eyes are closed and prevents the eyelids from
sticking together. They attach directly to the follicles of the eyelashes which
are arranged vertically within the eyelids.
This is
wonder of wonders. More than that, as we said, all these different type of
glands produce different types of wax and oil. My father's a dermatologist told
me once that there's something called lice. We don't want to know about those
lice.
You have to
clean your hair for lice and and so on. But there's different lice that do grow
on different parts of the body depending on the type of secretions there are
and oils and waxes, they have different habitats, just like different habitats
of the world have different animals living on them. Different habitats of your
body, because man is called an olam katan, a mini world. So you have the
Amazon jungle in your hair where you have rhinoceroses like to hang out there.
Then you
might have on your stomach some other type of jungle and so on and so forth
throughout your body. And different animals and different creatures like those
habitats. These are wonders and wonders, and this is just about the hair
follicle. And again, shaar bechinah is about appreciating these wonders
and saying, wow, if Hashem could take care of the hair follicle.
