We don’t need a weather man to tell us when a storm is coming. We can simply step outside and see how the air gets heavy with anticipation as the world seems to hold its breath. The clouds darken in warning, and then the sky breaks open. Occasionally, the rain is intense but brief; other times, it is light and long. Either way, it is a gift direct from Hashem, and the clouds are the neatly wrapped packages that hold this gift until delivery.

Clouds of Glory

It was these same clouds – this simple phenomenon of nature – that miraculously formed a protective wall for us during our 40 years in the desert. While Rabbi Akiva said that we lived in mundane, physical booths while traveling through the Sinai before entering the Land of Israel, Rabbi Eliezer explained that klal Yisrael was enveloped in seven layers of Hashem’s ananei hakavod, Clouds of Glory, which shielded us from the broiling sun during the day as we faithfully followed His path. They also leveled the ground, making it easier to walk, and provided protection from predators. Arriving immediately after yitzias Mitzrayim, they represent Hashem’s close relationship with klal Yisrael as one based on miracles.

Most people are fascinated by nature – as long as it stays outside. Birds are delightful (until they accidentally find themselves in a grocery store), and spiders are very helpful (but not really appreciated in your bedroom). Ants are no exception to this rule. Their industrious nature has inspired people to persevere for generations. Sefer Mishlei shares the ants’ message: “Go to the ant, lazy one; watch its ways and become wise.” This idea is especially relevant today, when young and old alike have made it their mission statement to avoid investing effort at all costs. Unfortunately, we most often encounter ants when they get into our kitchens, which somehow does not leave us feeling very inspired.

Putting aside our unfavorable meeting place (inside), ants are beyond fascinating. For example, if an ant accidentally drops a kernel of grain, the other ants won’t take it, even though it would make their personal trip to find food much shorter; stealing from each other is not an acceptable short cut. Furthermore, they can carry 50 times their body weight, which is the equivalent of a person carrying a car, and they selflessly work for the good of the whole group.

By clearing away dirt to form a network of vast underground tunnels, ants aerate the soil, which lets air and water penetrate more deeply. They also carry tons of organic material into the ground, some of which decomposes before it can be eaten, adding valuable nutrients to the soil.

Most people are self-proclaimed frog experts. After all, we all learned about the stages of the frog’s life cycle in elementary school and are aware of the reactions they get when they’re stuck in swimming pools. And that’s all there really is to know, right?

Frogs are possibly the most famous when they are taken apart. Dissecting frogs is a “highlight” of most middle school science classes. Personally examining how perfectly each individual organ fits with the others is truly incredible. Hashem’s wisdom in design is so clear when you remove and identify each essential, internal body part – magnified tremendously when you consider the complexity of the human body.

After successfully dissecting a frog (or getting your lab partner to do it while you keep your eyes shut), it’s time to expand our understanding by putting some pieces together. Firstly, it helps to recognize that frogs come in a wide variety of types and sizes, ranging from a third of an inch to over a foot long! A group of frogs is called an “army,” and some of them are extremely lethal; there is enough poison found in the skin of just one Golden Poison Dart frog to kill 10 people!

It happens to the best of us: You’re ready for dinner, the aroma of fresh pizza and fries fills the house. Before settling down at the table, you take a quick detour to the fridge to get the ketchup – and you can’t find it. You were pretty sure the ketchup was there the day before. You check everywhere, but you just don’t see it. You conclude that someone must have finished it, shrug, and get a new bottle from the pantry. (You should always have backup ketchup for emergencies.) And then, a certain unrecorded number of slices and some fries later, you go to put the ketchup in the fridge only to find the one that you had been looking for earlier sitting there, as smug as a plastic squeeze bottle can be.

Things have an uncanny way of avoiding our detection (or we have an uncanny way of not noticing what’s in front of us). Either way, the ability to conceal is a crucial survival skill to many animals (and, apparently, ketchup).

As the temperature drops, there may be nothing that says “comfort” quite like sipping some hot soup. With every spoonful, you can feel the warmth radiate throughout your body. Whether you are chilled, aching, or just tired, finishing a bowl of soup is like being wrapped in a warm blanket on the inside.

It is fascinating how this simple sustenance can be both an inexpensive meal and a gourmet dish. It is fed to prison inmates and soldiers – and also to presidents and kings. It exudes warmth and comfort to the family yet takes little prep and inexpensive ingredients. Anyone can handle the straightforward cooking process – cut this, boil that – and there are hundreds of varieties to please any palette.

It is possible to question why we “eat” soup instead of “drink” it, since it’s a liquid. The fact that we don’t put it in a mug is also troublesome. Isn’t soup just a hot drink? As an important part of the meal, deserving its own course and requiring separate utensils, soup is far beyond a beverage.

Long ago, soup was eaten as an accompaniment to bread, which was used to soak up the liquid. When people started eating the soup on its own, in the 1600s, they adopted the name we know today, deriving from the Latin verb suppare, which means “to soak.”

I’ll be the first to admit that more than a few things frighten me – unleashed dogs, letters from the IRS, taking out my son’s lunch box to pack on Monday morning only to discover the lunch I thought he had eaten on Thursday is still inside.

While everyone is entitled to his or her own individual obsession – such as arachibutyrophobia (the fear of peanut butter getting stuck to the roof of your mouth) or gelotophobia (the fear of laughter) – there is one phobia, called nyctophobia, fear of the dark, that affects almost half American adults today. Triggered by threats that are either real or imagined, it prevents people from going out at night, sometimes just to the car to get a bag they forgot to bring in earlier, and causes panic during power failures.