We continue to speak about the Baal Bitachon’s advantage over the alchemist in that he doesn’t have to worry about over- or under-ordering because G-d takes care of everything. The Hovot HaLevavot, in his deep understanding, provides many examples of this from nature to give us hizuk. His first example was the embryo.
The second example the Hovot HaLevavot provides is the chick inside the egg.
והאפרוח בתוך הביצה, אשר אין בה מקום מפולש להיכנס אליו
וממנו דבר מחוצה,
The chick inside the egg - nothing can enter or exit and yet the chick has food.
I recall from when I was young a big advertising campaign about eggs called The Incredible Edible Egg. This was in response to dropping sales of eggs due to reports about the dangers of cholesterol. Farmers started the Egg advertising campaign in order to push back against those reports.
(As an aside you should never believe these new studies. Case in point- it has been discovered that the sugar industry funded the research that would reveal the danger of fat in the diet in order to bolster sugar sales.)
Using my limited secular education combined with what we learn about this topic from Gemara we can study the egg to better appreciate what the Hovot HaLevavot is saying.
When you crack an egg open you’ll find the clear/white part, the yellow (yolk) in the center and the little slimy piece. One becomes the chick and one part is the food that the future chick eats from. (You can research which part for homework.) All the food for the little chick is already inside.
Then there’s the slimy item. What’s that for? -Well, if it was just the yolk and the white, the whole thing would get mushed together. So the slimy piece acts like cord or a hammock to hold the yolk in place, keeping it centered.
You’ll also notice that the egg has an air pocket. When you eat a hard or soft boiled egg you can see the air pocket -it’s the space between the shell and the white part.
There are machines that make soft boiled eggs. They come with a needle to pierce the egg, to let oxygen out so that it doesn’t explode. Why is there oxygen in the egg? Because, unlike an embryo that gets nourishment from the mother’s blood, as the chick develops, it starts to breath on its own and so it needs oxygen. There’s just enough air inside to last until the chick is ready to peck its way out. G-d blessed the chick with the instincts to do this (Shouldn’t evolutionist realize this? Don’t they wonder how are there any chicks at all? How could any chick have gotten out before the beak “evolved?”) G-d gave the little chick the ability to peck his way out, and he gave him enough oxygen to survive until then.
G-d put all this thought (מחשבה) ) into the future chick and at the same time G-d also prepared it equally as food for us. The egg we eat is actually an unfertilized chick. It’s perfect food for us. It’s both breakfast and a future chick.
That is how G-d thought about the chick. And we have to realize that if He can provide all that the little chick needs, He can take care of us. So the next time you’re eating an egg for breakfast, look at the egg and say Wow! What a Hizuk!