Q:
What should we think about when we’re taking a haircut? Is there something about hair that we could think about?
A:
It’s interesting, when you look at human hair, you see so that so much hair can come out of the scalp. Hair, you know, doesn’t come out of the brains – it comes out of the skin of the scalp. How can the skin of the scalp produce so much hair? Look at a man – he has a long beard; way down to here, and it came out of the skin of the face. It’s remarkable, it’s a neis that the skin can produce this wool that is coming out of your chin.
The question is, where does the skin get it from? And the answer is that it’s a neis: Whatever you eat is transformed in the cells of your body into keratin by means of many miracles. Keratin is the material of which hair is composed. Now, you can’t make keratin yourself. If you could, you could patent it and become a millionaire overnight! It’s wool! How does the food you eat become wool?! It’s nothing less than a miracle. Hakodosh Boruch Hu has given the body such a wonderful ability that it can take anything that you eat and transform it into the necessary chemicals to produce the hair.
Now, by the way, while we’re talking about that, we shouldn’t leave out another miracle: Why hair doesn’t hair grow on your wife’s face! Only on yourface. It’s a remarkable thing; a neis. When people shave, let’s say goyim in the street, so you don’t see the difference. But when they live naturally, you see men are adorned with beards and women have smooth faces. It’s a neis.
You have to study that and see the miracles of Hashem that He performs in the world. It’s a miracle. Of course, you’re accustomed to it so you wouldn’t say it’s a miracle – but it’s no less a neis than anything else that ever happened.
So, when we open our eyes and we look around us, we will see that the world is full of nissim, full of miracles. It’s only because we’ll see them once and we stop looking; we don’t think about it at all. If you would continue to look at them again and again – if you would think about thses things each time you sit down in the chair at the barber so each time it will enter your awareness, your consciousness, more and more, and the older you’ll become, the more excited you will become over the things that Hashem shows you in nature. And you’ll become a bigger and bigger ma’amin, a bigger believer in Hashem, just by means of the hair on your head – or any of the other millions of nissim.
That’s how it is with all of the great ideals, all of the Torah attitudes we want to acquire. Repetition is the key. Therefore, if each time you would look at the apple you would think the same thoughts over and over again, when you’ll become an old man, you’ll be really excited about it. It enters your mind, and that’s called הקובע מקום לתפלתו. You don’t change, always looking for new things. You continue in the same inyan, again and again. Just as a person who concentrates every day and he says “ברוך אתה ה’ שומע תפלה, so he begins to really believe that Hashem is listening to his words. כי אתה שומע – You are listening! If you say that again and again – the first time it doesn’t mean much to you; but after a while you begin to feel that Hashem is actually listening.
The Mesillas Yesharim says that it’s not easy to gain the attitude that there’s Someone listening to you. But if you continue to make the attempt, after a while, you’ll have a tzi’yur, a picture in your mind of a Hashem who is “מאזין ומקשיב and He listens to what you’re saying. כי אתה שומע – You’re listening, Hashem, and ברוך אתה ה’ שומע תפלה – I thank You Hashem for listening to me. The more you say it, the more it becomes ingrained in your mind. That’s called הקובע מקום לתפלתו – you have to continually repeat this same idea over and over again. Of course we all believe that Hashem listens to our tefillos, but intellectual belief is not equal to sensory perception.
And in order to actually feel, it’s important for us to labor on the great function of repetition like I said above. People who make up their minds that they want to make progress in life, they must know that they have to review. They must constantly repeat the great principles to themselves in order that they should acquire them and it should become a kinyan in their nefesh, instead of being merely words that are said by their lips alone.
TAPE # 918
