Our final science example is the ant.
והנמלה הקטנה עם חלישותה,
The ant is very weak. They don’t have a skeleton. You can squish one easily with your fingers. Nonetheless, the Gemara finds their abilities enthralling. As we’ve mentioned previously,
Shelomo HaMelech says if you’re lazy go study the ant. לך אל הנמלה עצל.
The Gemara says the rabbis have listened to this and have actually studied ants.
It says they once found a tree that ants had used for storage, with 6 months’ worth of wheat piled high in it. The amount far exceeded their need for food. But they are hard workers so they just keep working. That’s one lesson we learn from ants.
The Gemara also teaches that ants are very careful about not stealing.
G-d in His infinite wisdom instilled within each ant its own scent. They tag and mark their food with a scent that other ants respect. They can detect another ant’s scent on something and thus know to stay away from it.
So they aren’t lazy and they don’t steal.
Another fascinating thing about ants is how they work in communities.
At some zoos you can see the underground caves and tunnels of ants. These tunnel systems leave the caves of Saddam Hussein pale in comparison. The ant has a complex underground world. The ant excavates and navigates while considering architecture and engineering. These tunnels never collapse. We never read about ants getting trapped in underground tunnels. They work together. Who taught them all this?
Additionally there’s a queen ant and soldier ants. They each have a job and make up a whole community.
We aren’t learning about this just for the sake of science- it’s not just science. You can notice these things on your own. The Hovot HaLevavot has a purpose. He is pointing out a contrast: look at the ant- he’s weak yet he has a wonderful community and he flourishes. On the other hand, the Hovot HaLevavot notes:
-ויבצר טרף מהארי-The lions are lacking.
Sometimes lions don’t have food, despite their strength. There are stories of lions who’ve starved.
עם תקפו בקצת הימים, -As strong as he is.
That’s part of the lesson. G-d made this paradox of nature to show us -It’s not about strength.
Lions don’t have community systems like ants. Maybe the ants, despite being weaker individually, are more powerful than lions who are big and strong- but, as we say in Bircat Hamazon and learn from Tehillim:
תהלים לד יא):כפירים רשו ורעבו ודורשי ה' לא יחסרו כל טוב,)
The lions are sometimes impoverished and hungry. These are metaphorical lions as well. It’s the people that act like lions.
The Hovot HaLevavot quotes further:
תהלים לז כה): נער הייתי גם זקנתי ולא ראיתי צדיק נעזב וזרעו מבקש לחם:
I was young and am old and I don’t see that a Saddik is abandoned.
We may see Sadikim impoverished but they are never abandoned. The Sadik knows that.
This is the final of the natural lessons for us, and I was very touched that the wife one of our listeners, who teaches science, requested more of these examples to share with her students. Because science is really Torah. For further information on this topic, Rabbi Yaakov Lubin, of the Jewish Center for Science, is a wonderful resource who expounds on how we can learn lessons of Torah and life from science.