The jellyfish have arrived. Last year they were all large and
bright blue with a navy blue edge. This year, they range from
very small to very large. Their color ranges from an opaque
white to a pale blue mixed with a transparent white, to a
uniform dull darkish blue. The only constant factor is their
sting.
I was walking home along the beach, carefully picking my way
between numerous jellyfish stranded at the water's edge, when
I saw a sponge lying on the beach, yellow and puffy and
absorbent. Dried out and sold over a counter, it becomes a
useful item in the home. What purpose do jellyfish serve?
What role do they play in our world?
Last year, fascinated by these beautiful bright blue
creatures, I had made inquiries of experts, even sending them
photos. I discovered then that there are people all over the
world who spend their whole lives studying jellyfish. Not
only that, but they even devote their studies to one species
only. They analyze the habitat, the chemical composition of
the sting, and investigate all sorts of tiny details. But the
question of why there are jellyfish in the world, exactly
what they contribute to the environment, doesn't seem to be
considered.
Could it be that by feeding on plankton, jellyfish clean up
some of the pollution that men thoughtlessly feed into the
sea? Are they some essential part of the food chain? I don't
know. But every year they appear at the beginning of the
swimming season and disappear by Tisha B'av.
Arriving home today, I saw on my desk photos sent to me by my
sister. We had been for a walk and she had picked one of the
flowers from a patch of weeds.
"Look here. See that black spot? Touch it. See it looks like
a small black insect, but it isn't. It's a part of the
flower. Now, look inside. See those little black insects
moving around. Well they are needed for the pollinating
process.
"When these little black insects fly over the plant and see
the small black spot, they think that the plant must be safe
and suitable, since one of their kind is already there. It is
a way of attracting them. Isn't it amazing how Hashem has
taken care of every detail for this plant which we consider a
weed? So now I was thinking not only "Why jellyfish?" but
also "Why weeds?" The answer for weeds came to me fairly
quickly. These big empty patches of land are usually covered
with weeds. The weeds hold the soil together. They prevent
erosion. Who would care for a vacant patch? Who would worry
if the soil was being blown away? Only Hashem cares and by
providing weeds, sturdy plants, well suited to the
environment, planted not by man, but by wind and animals and
insects, the land is preserved in good condition.
So why there are jellyfish remains a problem in my mind.
However, not every problem in life is soluble. So many things
remain unknown to us. Scientists studying one species of
jellyfish all their lives will no doubt, in the fullness of
time, come up with an answer.
I wonder though, why does the secular world accept the work
of these academicians as valuable, acceptable, worthy of a
large salary and prestige? So much work on such a small
subject! And yet, these same scholars dismiss our world, with
its viable and productive code of life, with its devotion to
scholastics in the form of Torah study, a place where all
answers can be found — so cavalierly?
