The Hovot HaLevavot continues explaining the important concept of סיבות sibbot- Causes. G-d works with causes.
Causes/Sibbot don’t really do anything, they’re just there to cover the miracles. And he proves it. He says, how could someone believe that any Sibba, a product or item is the one responsible for success?
He says we should look at how a tiny seed gives forth thousands of kernels wheat. And out of those kernels, more and more come. Could you possibly fathom that seed by itself is so powerful? That it can do so much? And what about a person, or a gigantic whale that starts off the size of a dot? Can the dot cause that?
Where does it all come from? This goes for whole concept of DNA as well.
Trees too. Look at all the different trees! I remember once being in Florida while we were learning the sugya of Palm Trees (it had to do with Berachot.) I noticed all the different palm trees around. Some were smooth, some had ridges, others had cracks. There are about 1000-2000 different types of Palm trees!
And even on Ocean Parkway we see many different types of tree trunks and leaves on all types of trees. Every one of these, with all this programming and information lies in a seed?
This goes for people too. A tiny seed holds generations of information. Hair color, hair thickness, eye color, height, weight, complexion, mental state, IQ all of it and more.
How is it all in there? That little seed decides all these things?
The answer is, it doesn’t. Not really. Of course, scientifically it look like it does, but all the proteins, amino acids- even scientists don’t understand exactly how it all happens.
Rabbi Miller used to say that you can take 100 pounds of dirt, plant a seed in it and grow an orange tree. Then 100 pounds of oranges come from it, but the dirt will still weigh the same 100 lbs! How? Where’d all the oranges come from?
The answer is, they came from sunlight and rain. The sun and rain go through this machine called the orange tree and we get oranges. So oranges are really sun and water. Other “machines” use the same sunlight and rainwater and make apples or watermelons. How?
It’s G-d. These are all sibbot. The Hovot HaLevavot dedicated a paragraph to seeds, and Rabbi Miller dedicated his life to seeds. He used to walk around with apple seeds wrapped in a handkerchief in his pocket. Every so often, to get hizuk, he’d take it out, look at the seeds and be amazed. He’d say, imagine if someone gave you a box of cereal with a coupon, not for a toy or for another for 10 boxes of cereal, but how about a coupon for a cereal factory that could make thousands of boxes of cereal? Any fruit has coupons like that inside it- the seeds. The apple has coupons inside for apple trees, veritable factories to make apples and apples and apples.
How can we possibly think all of this is just from the seed?
The seed mashal, says the Hovot HaLevavot, is how we are supposed to look at life. Our businesses are seeds, our families are seeds... everything we do is just seeds. Seeds don’t do anything. They just cover up Ratzon Hashem (G-d’s will)
As the rabbis tell us, when Bnei Yisrael were in the desert for 40 years, after a while they began to take the manna for granted. When they got to Eretz Yisrael and had to plant seeds and saw wheat and then bread come from them, they were amazed. How does G-d do that? Of course G-d can bring Manna from the heavens. That’s direct. But the planting, with so many stages and steps? They were truly amazed.
That’s the power of sibbot.