Asher Yatzar: The Wisdom of the Human Body and the Gift of Life

Topics

• Asher Yatzar: The Wisdom of the Human Body and the Gift of Life
• Learning the Brachah in the Shadow of a Tragedy
• The Special Importance of Asher Yatzar
• Why Does the Shulchan Aruch Explain Every Word?
• First Question: Why Do We Say Asher Yatzar More Than Once a Day?
• Second Question: Why Specifically the Digestive and Elimination Systems?
• Third Question: Isn't the Entire Creation Made with Chochmah?
• Fourth Question: Animals Also Have Openings and Organs
• The First Three Explanations of "B'Chochmah"
• The Third Explanation: Food Before Man
• Preparing the Food Before Adam: What Is the Greater Chochmah?
• Another Question: "Galui V'Yadua Lifnei Chisei Kevodecha"
• Rav Shmuel Kamenetsky's Delicate Language
• Another Explanation: Kisei HaKavod and the Neshamah
• The Guf and the Neshamah: Two Brachos That Belong Together
• Forty-Five: The Gematria of Adam
• The Maharsha: Chochmah Given to Man
• "Asher Yatzar" and "U'vara Vo": Yetzirah and Briyah
• The Human Being as a Union of Gashmiyus and Ruchniyus
• "Mafli La'asos": Joining Body and Soul
• The Wisdom of Nourishment
• Why Did Hashem Make Each Part of the Body as He Did?
• The Talmid Who Sang Before Eye Surgery
• The Body Is Given to Us for Avodas Hashem
• A Reminder Throughout the Day

Transcript

# Asher Yatzar: The Wisdom of the Human Body and the Gift of Life

## Learning the Brachah in the Shadow of a Tragedy

Rabosai, today, b'ezras Hashem, we are continuing our shiurim on **seder ha-tefillah**. I want to discuss the brachah **Asher Yatzar**, beginning with its words:

**"אשר יצר את האדם בחכמה וברא בו נקבים נקבים חלולים חלולים."**

Hashem formed man with wisdom and created within him openings and hollow spaces.

I have been thinking a great deal about this brachah over the past week, because something terrible happened.

There was a tragic accident on the **Palisades** involving two wonderful young yungeleit. They were on their way back from bringing simchah to other Yidden. They had gone to dance, to clap, to be **mesameach** people—to bring joy to a chassan—and on the return journey there was an accident involving a deer in the road.

I know some of the family. These were beautiful, chashuve people. I cannot get the story out of my mind.

I keep thinking about it, and every time I try to move away from the thought, it comes back. It's terribly painful. How can you begin to understand something like this?

I'm not going to tell you why the Ribbono Shel Olam did it. **We don't know His cheshbonos**, and to suggest that we understand the reason for such a tragedy would be wrong.

But we are supposed to take life seriously. We are supposed to learn and strengthen ourselves from the events that shake us, without pretending to know the judgment of Heaven.

The **Rambam, Hilchos Ta'aniyos 1:2–3**, teaches that when calamity strikes a community, Jews must not merely dismiss it as meaningless chance. The experience should stir us to tefillah, teshuvah and an examination of our own lives.

He says of indifference to suffering:

**"הרי זו דרך אכזריות."**

To respond by treating the calamity as nothing more than an occurrence with no spiritual significance is a kind of cruelty.

But that Rambam is **not** a license to identify which sins caused a particular person's suffering. I am not discussing that. I am speaking about **our own obligation** to awaken.

So I want to share a painful lesson that has been on my heart.

We make **Asher Yatzar** every day, and we often rush through it. Yet the words are an extraordinary recognition of the delicate wisdom through which our bodies function.

**"נקבים נקבים חלולים חלולים."** The openings, the channels, the internal organs—things we barely notice while they function normally.

And we don't know how fortunate we are until something goes wrong.

### The Special Importance of Asher Yatzar

The **Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 6:1**, tells us to recite Asher Yatzar after leaving the beis hakisei and explains the remarkable precision of the body.

The Gemara gives the text of the brachah in **Berachos 60b**.

And I saw a statement attributed to the **Shlah HaKadosh**, near the end of his discussion associated with Maseches Chullin, that Asher Yatzar is **"ראש וראשון לכל הברכות"**—foremost among the blessings—and **"והוא קדוש"**, it is holy. [The precise location and wording in the Shlah need checking against the printed sefer.]

It is not a minor brachah that we say only because we happen to have left the bathroom. It expresses a profound yesod: our lives depend every moment on the Ribbono Shel Olam.

Now open the Shulchan Aruch and see something unusual. Instead of simply stating, "After using the bathroom, recite Asher Yatzar," the Mechaber spends considerable space explaining the **words of the brachah**.

Why?

Perhaps because understanding what we're saying is itself a part of the avodah. Perhaps the Mechaber is teaching us that this brachah needs to be spoken **with attention**, not merely recited mechanically.

I have several questions about the text, and we'll work through them one at a time.

## Why Does the Shulchan Aruch Explain Every Word?

Rabosai, I keep coming back to the unusual length of **siman vav** in the Shulchan Aruch.

The Mechaber is writing a **sefer halachah**. Ordinarily, he tells us the din. Here he discusses the meaning of **Asher Yatzar** at length, bringing more than one explanation of the same phrase.

Why such an arichus?

Perhaps because this brachah is so important that knowing its **peirush** is part of how a person should approach reciting it.

The Shlah's description of its extraordinary kedushah may help us appreciate that. And I have seen a teaching quoted in the name of the **Chofetz Chaim**, encouraging people to say **Asher Yatzar b'kavanah** as a tremendous zechus for health.

Some of the talmidim of **Rav Yechezkel Levenstein** also related how much he emphasized this brachah.

People search for segulos. Well, here is a brachah established by Chazal that reminds us to thank Hashem for the functioning of our bodies!

But remember: when a sefer speaks about the **spiritual zechus** of saying a brachah with kavanah, it is not a medically established guarantee that a person will avoid or be cured of illness. Nobody should neglect medical evaluation or treatment in reliance on a segulah. [The exact Chofetz Chaim text and wording of the claimed segulah require printed-source verification.]

So let us actually **learn** the words and see what they mean.

I brought several questions on your sheets—Aleph, Beis, Gimel, Daled, Hei and Vav. I want you to follow them, because each one helps us uncover another layer.

## First Question: Why Do We Say Asher Yatzar More Than Once a Day?

All the **Birchos HaShachar** refer to gifts we receive from the Ribbono Shel Olam. We say **Poke'ach Ivrim** for sight, but we continue to see all day. We say **Zokeif Kefufim**, and we benefit from standing upright throughout the day.

Yet we generally recite these morning brachos once daily.

Why is **Asher Yatzar** different?

We say it after using the **beis hakisei**, even though the praise it contains goes far beyond that one particular bodily function.

The Shulchan Aruch says **"כשיצא מבית הכסא יברך"**—when one leaves the bathroom, he recites the brachah.

Every time the body performs that particular function, there is another occasion to give thanks.

Why did Chazal establish this pattern, when the other bodily gifts mentioned in the morning blessings are not acknowledged with an identical blessing each time we benefit from them?

Perhaps the lesson of **the body's dependence on Hashem** needs to be brought back into our awareness repeatedly.

This is a suggestion, not my invention of a new halachic reason. But it is a profound question.

## Second Question: Why Specifically the Digestive and Elimination Systems?

Now look at the actual words.

**"אשר יצר את האדם בחכמה, וברא בו נקבים נקבים, חלולים חלולים."**

This is not a technical description of the bathroom. It speaks about **openings and hollow spaces** throughout the human body.

Think of the heart, the blood vessels, the lungs and the entire system by which the body lives.

If an artery becomes blocked, that too can be a life-threatening problem. If the heart cannot function properly, what happens? We all understand how much depends on these systems.

Why did Chazal connect this praise particularly with the **function of elimination**?

A person could have an excellent cardiogram, showing that his heart is functioning properly. That is also a reason for hakaras hatov!

So what is distinctive about going to the bathroom that makes it an occasion for **Asher Yatzar**?

There may be important halachic reasons, but perhaps this ordinary experience gives us a recurring reminder of something easily forgotten: the body must **open and close in the right places, at the right times**.

The blessing teaches us to notice how carefully our survival depends on an extraordinary arrangement of organs.

But the text leaves another question. It says **"Asher yatzar es ha'adam b'chochmah."** Was only the human body created with wisdom?

## Third Question: Isn't the Entire Creation Made with Chochmah?

The brachah begins:

**"אשר יצר את האדם בחכמה."**

Who formed man with wisdom.

But doesn't everything the Ribbono Shel Olam made reflect His **chochmah**?

Dovid HaMelech says in **Tehillim 104:24**:

**"מה רבו מעשיך ה' כלם בחכמה עשית."**

How many are Your works, Hashem! You made all of them with wisdom.

So why do we focus on **adam**?

Of course the creation of man is wondrous, but the entire world is wondrous too. The animal kingdom, the sea, the mountains, the stars—**"kulam b'chochmah asisa."**

Chazal even teach that when we praise Hashem we must be careful with our words and not presume to delimit His greatness. The Gemara speaks about the familiar terms **HaKel HaGadol HaGibor VeHaNora**, words authorized by our tradition, and warns against simply multiplying descriptions as though we could adequately capture Hashem's greatness (see **Berachos 33b**).

So what is the distinctive chochmah **of man** expressed by this brachah?

## Fourth Question: Animals Also Have Openings and Organs

And here's another point.

The brachah says that Hashem formed **the human being** with wisdom and created in him **nekavim nekavim, chalulim chalulim**.

But animals also have hearts, lungs, digestive tracts and internal openings. There are differences in structure, certainly, but the general idea of organs that must function correctly is not unique to human beings.

So what is special about **adam**?

Perhaps the brachah is not only praising a biological system. Perhaps it is telling us something about **what a human being is**, and how the physical body is connected to a spiritual purpose.

I want to come to that later in the shiur.

First, let's open **Shulchan Aruch Orach Chaim 6:1** and see the explanations he himself brings of the words **"b'chochmah."**

## The First Three Explanations of "B'Chochmah"

The Mechaber begins:

**"כשיצא מבית הכסא יברך אשר יצר את האדם בחכמה, שבריאת האדם היא בחכמה נפלאה."**

First explanation: the very creation of man is **an extraordinary wisdom**.

A doctor can spend a lifetime studying one organ or one of the body's systems. Think of how many things have to happen in the right order for a person to live a normal day.

The Shulchan Aruch then says:

**"ויש מפרשים על שם שהגוף דומה לנוד מלא רוח והוא מלא נקבים."**

There are those who explain that the body resembles **a bag full of air**, even though it is full of openings.

Imagine you take an inflated balloon or a tire and start making holes. What happens to the air?

A tire can get a puncture. You patch it. Perhaps after several punctures, the fellow in the shop tells you, "Enough! This tire can't be patched anymore!"

And now look at a human being—full of openings, but still alive, with his body functioning as an organized whole!

**Rashi on Berachos 60b** gives an explanation along these lines. It's an expression of wondrous wisdom that the body is built with so many openings and nevertheless remains alive.

### The Third Explanation: Food Before Man

Then comes the third explanation in the Shulchan Aruch:

**"ויש מפרשים בחכמה שהתקין מזונותיו של אדם הראשון ואחר כך בראו."**

There are those who say **"b'chochmah"** refers to the wisdom of Hashem **preparing Adam HaRishon's food before creating him**.

This is associated with **Tosafos on Berachos 60b** and the Midrashic tradition that everything needed for Adam was prepared before he arrived in the world.

Now, why is that so extraordinary?

You might say, "Of course a host prepares food before the guest comes. It's basic hospitality!"

But we are speaking about Hashem's wisdom in creating a **world suitable for human life** and then bringing Adam into it.

One could have thought of creating the man first and then providing his needs. Instead, everything was prepared beforehand.

Now I want to develop something further, and I may even disagree with the first way I thought of explaining it.

It is not simply that Hashem knew in advance what a human being would need. Perhaps the very **needs, food, and bodily structure** were conceived as parts of one complete design.

The food was prepared in relation to the creation of man, and man was created to live within a world sustained by what Hashem provided.

That's a possible new layer of the explanation. But the text doesn't stop there. It continues:

**"וברא בו נקבים נקבים חלולים חלולים."**

And this brings us straight back to the human body and to the question of what food and physical functioning have to do with our spiritual avodah.

## Preparing the Food Before Adam: What Is the Greater Chochmah?

Rabosai, I want to return to the explanation that Hashem prepared the food before Adam was created.

At first I thought of a very simple sevara. If you have already created a person, you know exactly what he needs. You can study him and prepare the food accordingly. But to prepare everything **before the person even exists**—that requires tremendous chochmah.

That's how I thought of it.

But, I'll be honest with you, I don't like my own pshat so much! Why not? Because we are speaking about the Ribbono Shel Olam, Who knew what He was creating all along. It is not as though Hashem needed to study Adam after creating him in order to know his needs.

Maybe we should say something deeper.

The entire creation is **one ordered design**. Hashem prepared the world and its means of nourishment, and then formed the human being with a body capable of being sustained by those things. Everything fits together.

Perhaps that is part of the **chochmah** of *Asher Yatzar*.

And then you understand why the Shulchan Aruch speaks about the organs and the openings of the body. The body is capable of taking in nourishment, deriving benefit, and eliminating what it cannot use.

It is all one remarkable system.

## Another Question: "Galui V'Yadua Lifnei Chisei Kevodecha"

Now I have another question.

In Asher Yatzar we say:

**"גלוי וידוע לפני כסא כבודך."**

It is revealed and known before **Your throne of glory**.

Why bring in the **Kisei HaKavod** right here?

We are speaking about **the body's openings**, the digestive system, and the ability to function properly. What has the Kisei HaKavod got to do with that?

Surely Hashem knows these things. But why emphasize His **throne of glory**?

I saw explanations that the greatest revelation of Hashem's kavod is that **nothing about His creations is too small for His attention**.

A king may be occupied with the grand affairs of state. One might assume he does not concern himself with whether a particular individual has a small physical difficulty.

But the Ribbono Shel Olam—**"Galui v'yadua lifnei chisei kevodecha"**—knows the condition of every person and sustains the most ordinary functions of life.

There is no distance between the greatness of Hashem and His concern for the simplest human needs.

Look how precious that is! Hashem's kavod is not diminished by His awareness of our physical needs. This very awareness reveals His greatness.

I have been told that this explanation is brought by the **Gra**, but the exact source and wording need to be verified; I do not want to attribute more than the shiur clearly supports.

### Rav Shmuel Kamenetsky's Delicate Language

This reminds me of a small incident.

**Rav Shmuel Kamenetsky**, shlita, once came into my home and asked, in Yiddish, **"Is there a room here without a mezuzah?"**

For a moment I thought he was giving me mussar because perhaps one of the rooms in my house was missing a mezuzah!

I began wondering which room he meant.

Then he repeated himself, gently: **"A room without a mezuzah."**

He meant the **bathroom**.

I thought it was such an elegant way of speaking. He didn't use crude language; he simply referred to a room that doesn't have a mezuzah.

It showed me something about **gadlus ha'adam**. Even when dealing with a very ordinary bodily need, a person can speak with dignity.

And that is important for the next part of the shiur. The brachah doesn't speak in crude terms. It calls our attention to **the creation of adam**, and to the wisdom with which Hashem sustains him.

### Another Explanation: Kisei HaKavod and the Neshamah

In a sefer I saw cited as **Eitz HaTefillos**, there is another direction: the mention of the Kisei HaKavod may remind us of the **neshamah**, which is associated in our sources with the place of Hashem's glory. [The precise edition, page and attribution require verification.]

Now this opens a remarkable question.

**Asher Yatzar** appears to speak about the **guf**. Immediately afterward in the morning we say **"Elokai Neshamah,"** which speaks explicitly about the **neshamah**.

Perhaps these two brachos belong together because man is neither merely a physical body nor merely an abstract soul. He is a union of both.

And now we begin to see why the words of Asher Yatzar may be much deeper than we initially assumed.

The Kisei HaKavod is not here to distract us from the physical body. Perhaps its mention invites us to see the **neshamah within the human being**.

That is something worth learning more carefully, because even the bodily functions we mention in Asher Yatzar support a life whose purpose is spiritual.

## The Guf and the Neshamah: Two Brachos That Belong Together

Look carefully at the order of Birchos HaShachar.

We say **Asher Yatzar**, which apparently praises the Ribbono Shel Olam for the **physical formation and functioning** of man. And then we say:

**"אלקי נשמה שנתת בי טהורה היא, אתה בראתה, אתה יצרתה, אתה נפחתה בי..."**

My G-d, the soul You placed within me is pure. You created it, formed it and breathed it into me.

These two brachos seem to belong to the same great subject: **what is a human being?**

On the one hand, he is a body with organs, openings and an extraordinarily delicate system by which he lives. On the other hand, he has a **neshamah**, a higher spiritual nature.

Some halachic discussions explain the relationship between these brachos and the usual morning order; we have to examine the exact rules before making a claim that they are technically *brachos hasemuchos lechavertan* in every respect.

But in the content of the words, the connection is clear.

The first brachah gives thanks for the **guf**. The next gives thanks for the **neshamah**. Together, they teach that the human being is a remarkable union.

And that may be why **"Galui v'yadua lifnei chisei kevodecha"** belongs within the brachah. The physical existence of a man is not independent of his soul. The body supports the life of the neshamah.

Now, rabosai, I brought some mareh mekomos on the sheets, and I see nobody has turned over to page two!

What is happening here? You have to learn with me, not simply sit and look at me!

One of the sefarim, cited as **Eitz HaTefillos**, associates the Kisei HaKavod with the source of the neshamah. It's a beautiful line of interpretation, although we need the exact reference inside before giving a formal attribution.

### Forty-Five: The Gematria of Adam

I also saw a remark attributed to **Rav Chaim Vital**, in writings on the kavanos of tefillah, about the number of **teivos** in Asher Yatzar.

On my sheet I wrote **osiyos**, letters—but that can't be right! There are certainly more than forty-five letters in the brachah. You'll have to be moichel me. It was after three-thirty in the morning when I prepared these sheets, and it's a nes that they're ready at all.

I meant **teivos**, words.

The number **forty-five** is significant because **אדם** has the gematria forty-five: aleph is one, daled is four, mem is forty.

But how many teivos are in the precise text we say? One of the olam counts another total, and we go back and forth. The result may depend on the nusach or counting conventions. I don't want to claim that a numerical correspondence is verified until the words are counted from the exact source version.

The essential point of the allusion is the connection of the brachah with **adam**, the human being.

And I saw another numerical interpretation in the same kind of literature. Some sefarim connect the word **chochmah** with the **mitzvos** and spiritual structure of man. We need to check its exact formulation: the standard numerical value of the Hebrew word *chochmah* does not, on its face, equal 613, so I won't reconstruct a missing method of gematria without the source.

But the overall direction is significant. The **physical body** and **the spiritual purpose of a Yid** are not separate worlds.

## The Maharsha: Chochmah Given to Man

Now I want to bring another explanation of **"Asher yatzar es ha'adam b'chochmah"**, cited in the name of the **Maharsha**.

Perhaps the phrase means not only that Hashem made man **through His wisdom**, but that He made man **with wisdom of his own**.

A human being has the power of understanding, judgment and daas. He is not simply another creature with a physical digestive system.

And that is one way to answer our earlier question: **why single out adam when animals also have organs?**

Because man has been given **chochmah** and can use his physical life in the service of a higher purpose.

The **Aruch HaShulchan, Orach Chaim 6:2**, records this interpretation in the name of the Maharsha, alongside the explanations associated with Rashi and Tosafos.

That's a beautiful addition to our three explanations.

We began with the body's astonishing structure. We continued with the image of a bag full of air despite its openings. We saw the wisdom of preparing the world's nourishment before creating Adam. And now we see **the wisdom granted to the person himself**.

I think these explanations begin to come together. Man is created with a body able to live in the world, but he is also equipped with **daas** and a **neshamah** so that his life has meaning beyond the physical.

And maybe now we can begin to appreciate the final words of Asher Yatzar:

**"רופא כל בשר ומפליא לעשות."**

Hashem heals all flesh and acts wondrously.

What is the greatest **pele** here?

## "Asher Yatzar" and "U'vara Vo": Yetzirah and Briyah

Before I explain **"mafli la'asos,"** I want to be medayek in the beginning of the brachah.

We say:

**"אשר יצר את האדם בחכמה, וברא בו נקבים נקבים חלולים חלולים."**

First, **yatzar**—He formed. Then, **u'vara vo**—He created within him.

Why use two different expressions, **yetzirah** and **briyah**, one immediately after the other?

Could the brachah have said simply **"asher bara es ha'adam"**? Why emphasize **formation**, and then the openings and organs created within him?

I don't want to give a long shiur on every place in Tanach that distinguishes *barah* and *yatzar*. We could sit here until tomorrow, and I'm supposed to finish tonight!

But perhaps **yetzirah** suggests the shaping of a particularly refined, purpose-filled creation. It is not merely the existence of something; it is the formation of a living human being whose parts must cooperate.

And then **"u'vara vo"** directs our attention to the intricate systems within the person.

This is a thought to develop, not a claim that every occurrence of the two Hebrew words has one fixed technical definition.

## The Human Being as a Union of Gashmiyus and Ruchniyus

Now let me tell you what I think is the bigger yesod.

A person is made of **gashmiyus** and **ruchniyus**. He has a body, but he also has a neshamah. The body is not simply a disposable container; its actions become the means by which a person fulfills the mitzvos.

Chazal speak of the **eivarim** and the **gidim** in connection with the structure of the mitzvos. There are classical teachings linking the number of limbs and sinews with the positive and negative mitzvos. We need to be precise about the traditional counts and their original sources, but the *remez* is well known.

The human being is not only a biological organism. His whole bodily existence can be drawn into **avodas Hashem**.

Dovid HaMelech says in **Tehillim 35:10**:

**"כל עצמותי תאמרנה ה' מי כמוך."**

All my bones shall say: Hashem, who is like You?

Not only my mouth gives praise. **Every bone**, every part of my body, can express the greatness of the Ribbono Shel Olam.

And that is something extraordinary.

Now when you make **Asher Yatzar**, don't look at it merely as a statement that the digestive system is functioning. It is a brachah on **the human being whom Hashem formed for a higher life**.

That is why the distinction between man and the animals is worth examining. Animals have digestive systems, yes. But a person can take his physical actions and direct them toward Torah and mitzvos.

I believe the **"b'chochmah"** of the brachah reflects that entire extraordinary construction.

## "Mafli La'asos": Joining Body and Soul

Now let's look at the end.

**"ברוך אתה ה' רופא כל בשר ומפליא לעשות."**

Blessed are You, Hashem, Who heals all flesh and performs wondrously.

The **Rema on Orach Chaim 6:1** explains the *pele* as the wonder of the connection between **the spiritual neshamah and the physical body**.

His language is:

**"ועוד יש לפרש שמפליא לעשות במה ששומר רוח האדם בקרבו וקושר דבר רוחני בדבר גשמי."**

There is another explanation: Hashem performs wondrously by preserving man's spirit within him and joining a **spiritual thing to a physical thing**.

Now, rabosai, that's a gevaldige vort.

We are so accustomed to being human beings that we barely think about what it means. You have a physical body, with nerves, organs, blood vessels, digestion, movement. And somehow you also have a **neshamah**, thought, awareness, choice and a desire to come close to Hashem.

What is the relationship between them? What joins them together?

That is the **pele**.

It isn't only that a lung can function or that food is digested. The whole living person, physical and spiritual together, is a wondrous creation.

And perhaps that is why the brachah begins with **Asher Yatzar es ha'adam**—the unique human being—and concludes with **Mafli La'asos**.

The entire life of the person depends on this extraordinary joining.

### The Wisdom of Nourishment

Now return to the Tosafos that Hashem prepared Adam's **mezonos** before creating him.

Perhaps the food is not merely an external provision that keeps an organism functioning. It supplies the strength with which the person can **learn Torah, daven, do mitzvos, help others, and live a spiritual life**.

Without the guf, a person cannot carry out those actions in this world.

So nourishment serves the **neshamah's avodah** through the body.

I am not saying that food is itself spiritual in precisely the same way as Torah. I am suggesting that the physical and the spiritual are joined in the human being's purpose.

That helps explain why a brachah about the most ordinary bodily function can rise to the words **"Mafli La'asos."**

Now I want to give you a personal example, because sometimes a simple experience teaches more than pages of explanation.

## Why Did Hashem Make Each Part of the Body as He Did?

I want you to think about the human body.

A person usually has **one hand stronger than the other**. His two eyes don't necessarily function with exactly the same strength. We are not two perfectly symmetrical machines.

And isn't that interesting?

Imagine somebody manufactures a car with two mirrors and you discover that the right mirror works differently from the left. You might say, "Why didn't they make them identical?"

But the human being is an infinitely more complicated creation. Different parts have different functions.

The Torah instructs us to put **tefillin shel yad** on the **yad keihah**, the weaker hand, as explained by Chazal (see Menachos 37a). For most right-handed people, that is the left arm; for a left-handed person there are special halachic rules.

Now why the weaker side?

I am not trying to explain the whole mitzvah of tefillin right now. I am asking you to notice that even what seems to us a physical difference can become part of **the structure of a mitzvah**.

The Ribbono Shel Olam did not give us a body so that we could simply exist. It is the instrument with which we serve Him.

### The Talmid Who Sang Before Eye Surgery

Years ago, I went to visit a talmid of mine in the hospital. He was facing **surgery on an eye**, and there was concern that he might lose his sight in that eye.

I entered the room, and what did I hear?

He was **singing**.

He was singing a song of thanks to the Ribbono Shel Olam:

**"אודה לך ה' על שתי עיני."**

I thank You, Hashem, for my two eyes.

And then: I thank You for my **two ears**, my **two legs**, all the limbs with which You've blessed me.

I was so moved by it.

Here was a young man who was afraid he might lose the sight of an eye, and instead of only thinking about what he might lose, he was thanking Hashem for **what he had**.

For him the words were also a **tefillah**: Ribbono Shel Olam, I've been given both eyes—please let me continue to have the gift.

I don't mean that singing was a substitute for surgery or a guarantee of its outcome. I'm telling you the **emunah and hakaras hatov** that I heard in his voice.

Then the boy asked me something interesting.

"Rebbe, why did Hashem make **two eyes**? And two ears? And two hands? Why pairs, again and again?"

Of course there are physical functions which are helped by having two eyes and two ears. Binocular vision, depth perception, hearing from different directions—these are things people study scientifically.

I'm not giving a biology shiur tonight!

But his question made me think: **everything has a cheshbon**. We don't see the entire design of the human being.

It is a very humbling thought.

Sometimes people speak about a part of the body as though they know it has no function. But our knowledge of physiology is incomplete, and medical understanding continues to develop. One has to be careful not to confuse "I don't know the purpose" with "there is no purpose."

And for a Yid there is an additional layer: the body is the means by which a person can perform **mitzvos**.

So the question of **why two eyes and two hands** doesn't have to be fully answered to awaken gratitude.

Look at the things you take for granted each day: you can see, hear, speak, walk, move your fingers, put on tefillin, help another person, open a sefer.

These are extraordinary gifts.

**"כל עצמותי תאמרנה ה' מי כמוך."**

Every part of the body should say: Ribbono Shel Olam, there is no one like You.

Now I want to bring all of that back to the tragedy we began with, because the connection weighs heavily on me.

## The Body Is Given to Us for Avodas Hashem

Now you understand why I began with those two precious yungeleit and the tragedy on the Palisades.

They had gone to **dance** and to **clap** for other Yidden, to be **mesameach** people. They were using their bodies in a beautiful way: their hands and feet to bring happiness to someone else.

And then such a terrible accident. I cannot explain it. I cannot make the story fit into a neat cheshbon.

**We do not know why this happened.**

But it makes me think about the meaning of our hands and feet. Why do we have hands? Why do we have legs? Why were we given the ability to walk, dance, help another Yid, carry something for him or clap at his simchah?

Everything is a gift from the Ribbono Shel Olam, and it can be used for **His avodah**.

I don't claim to know the particular lesson of somebody else's tragedy. The pain is too real for that. But I know what **I** have to take from it: I need to appreciate the life and abilities Hashem has given me, and to use them well.

When a person can stand up, walk, see, hear and move his hands—what a reason for **"Odeh lecha Hashem."**

That talmid in the hospital sang about his two eyes because he understood something precious. He was thanking Hashem even while he feared losing what he had.

We, who live much of the time without such fears, often forget to express gratitude for the same gifts.

This is the **yesod** of Asher Yatzar.

It isn't only that my digestive system worked today. It is that the **entire human being**, the guf joined with the neshamah, is constantly being sustained by Hashem.

**"אשר יצר את האדם בחכמה ... רופא כל בשר ומפליא לעשות."**

He formed man with wisdom. He heals all flesh and performs wondrously.

The wonder is not only that the organs function. It is that through those organs, the person can carry out **the work of the neshamah**.

We have a body so that the neshamah can accomplish something in this world.

And this is why I think Asher Yatzar belongs so naturally before the words of **Elokai Neshamah**:

**"אלקי נשמה שנתת בי טהורה היא."**

Hashem gave us a pure soul, but He also gave us the guf with which to bring that purity into a life of Torah and mitzvos.

### A Reminder Throughout the Day

Perhaps this is why Asher Yatzar is repeated. Throughout the day, we need to remember the same foundation again and again.

When we open our eyes, when we stand, when we walk, when we use our hands—every ordinary human act is possible only because Hashem continues to sustain us.

And we can direct those ordinary acts toward a higher purpose.

The words **"Kol zman shehaneshamah b'kirbi, modeh ani lefanecha"**—as long as the soul is within me, I thank You—bring the body and the neshamah together in one expression of gratitude.

So when we make **Asher Yatzar**, let us take the moment seriously.

Not mechanically, not as an inconvenience before we return to our day. We have an opportunity to thank the Ribbono Shel Olam for **the gift of life**, the extraordinary functioning of our bodies, and the power to use that life for good.

And may we be zocheh to use our eyes, hands, feet, and all the abilities Hashem gives us for Torah, mitzvos and helping other Yidden.

Rabosai, we're going to stop here. We've raised several questions in this brachah, and I want to return to it, **im yirtzeh Hashem, next week**. There is much more to learn about its words and its depths.

But this is the thought I want you to take with you today: **"Asher Yatzar es ha'adam b'chochmah"**. Hashem created the human being with a body and a neshamah, and every part of that creation is a reason for gratitude.

[The source recording ends after the promise of a subsequent shiur on Asher Yatzar. The continuation is not present in these eight chunks; the teaching above is the recorded conclusion of this installment, not a reconstruction of the following shiur.]