Community Magazine April 2014

100 COMMUNITY MAGAZINE Unique Traits The cow’s udder is a most remarkable “factory,” capable of the most breathtaking feats. Each udder is composed of four quarters, with sixty percent of the milk being produced by the hind quarters. The udder contains special cells, called alveolar cells, that are responsible for synthesizing and secreting the various ingredients necessary for milk production. Once the milk has beenmade, it is then discharged into ducts, sinuses and cisterns, where it remains until the cow has been milked. What is a cow’s milk made from? The simple answer to this is: blood. (Approximately 500 liters of blood must flow through the cow’s udder for each liter of milk that the cow produces!) However, a closer look at the milk production process shows the complexity of it, as numerous components in the cow’s blood become key players in providing us with the nutritious and delicious drink called milk. Milk fat is made up of fatty acids. About half of these fatty acids come from the fats in the cow’s diet. The other fatty acids are derived from a combining process in the udder of various components in the cow’s blood. The lactose in milk (milk sugar) is derived mainly from blood glucose, while the milk protein is derived primarily from the amino acids present in the blood. Other “ingredients” in milk that are obtained from the blood are calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, potassium, sodium, chlorine, vitamins A and B complex, as well as vitamins D, E, and K! To say that the cow simply (simply!) transforms grass into milk is a massive understatement. The cow is a virtual chemical factory, taking in grass, digesting it, and then converting all the many ingredients and components of its food into blood, which only then undergoes the awesome change of becoming pure white milk. And all the while, the cow just continues to contentedly munch its grass, absolutely unaware of the wonders and complexities taking place within it! Torah Talk Moshe turned and descended the mountain with the two Tablets of the Testimony in his hand… As he approached the camp, he saw the calf and the dancing (Shemot 32:15, 19). The Golden Calf that the Jews served in Chet Ha’egel symbolized denial of the realities of life. A calf represents playfulness and youth; the throwing of oneself into the pleasures of physical life without worrying about the reality of tomorrow. Gold, on the one hand, represents the sparkling beauty of the physical world; the glitter of life in Olam Hazeh . On the other hand, however, because as a commodity gold is so stable, and as a material it weathers much, gold also symbolizes eternity. Thus, to put the calf and the gold together, the “Golden Calf” was the representation of eternalizing a childish way of life, a life of indulgence in the here and now, without paying any heed to the future. The parah adumah symbolizes the exact opposite of this, and it was therefore the antidote for the Chet Ha’egel . A parah is an adult cow, and it is the color red, which represents physical life that is transitory. The parah adumah thus represents a sobering look at the vulnerability of mortal man. Because of this, internalizing the message of the parah adumah is the first step in helping to remove the tumah of tumat met. The Brisker Rav taught that the parah adumah is an important key to the Final Redemption, which will close the chapter on galut Edom . The midrash says that when Esav (Edom) sold the bechorah to Yaakov for food, he gave away his portion in the World to Come (Midrash Rabbah, Parshat Toldot, perek 63). But that didn’t interest Esav at all, because his approach to life was the “Golden Calf” approach: to be concerned only about the here and now, Olam Hazeh . In the final exile in which we find ourselves today, galut Edom , the Jew is often found living according to this way of life, too, and we pray for the Final Redemption to come and free us from this sorry state. Did You Know? A cow must have a calf in order to produce milk. It used to take a person one hour to milk six cows by hand. Today, with modern machinery, a person can milk one hundred cows in an hour. Cows have an amazing sense of smell. They can smell something up to six miles away! The process of giving birth to a calf is known as calving. It is commonly thought that cows (and bulls) get angr y when they see the color red. However, this is not true. Cows are color blind and are unable to identify the difference between colors. The common misunderstanding of this came from the days of bull fighting, when matadors were usually seen waving a red flag. In truth, it was the actual waving of the material that excited the cow, not the color of the material being waved. Q : What is a cow’s favorite tefilah? A : Moo-saf! Excerpts from ‘Exploring the Wild World of Animals , by Efraim Harari, published by Israel Bookshop Publications. This book and Volume 2 of this series, ‘Exploring the Wet & Wild Underwater World’ , are available online and at all Judaica stores.