Connection

Ever use an air pump to inflate a bicycle tire or basketball? Remember the sensation when you push down on the pump handle that the pump is pushing back? Well, it is and in the middle of the seventeenth century, an English scientist Robert Hooke developed an explanation for such behavior. He predicted that there were particles in nature that are in constant motion. The particles are the molecules of the air. Their motion causes them to bump into the walls of their container, such as a balloon, and exert pressure.

Maimonides, the 11th century Torah scholar, philosopher and physician, made an astounding observation. He posited that there was a similar law of physics and an all-encompassing force that keeps the particles together -- a spiritual link provided by the Creator of the Universe. This "Connective Tissue" is what gives these particles cohesion and allows them to exist. If this life force were to cease, even for a moment, all of these systems would fall apart. The universe would simply return to "emptiness and vapor," as it was before creation.