COMMUNITY MAGAZINE March 2021

ADAR - NISSAN 5781 / MARCH 2021 73 Efraim Harari Connection It turns out that the little fly in Pharaoh’s cup was the trigger that eventually led to Yosef becoming second to the king in Mitzrayim! Another momentous episode in which the fly is mentioned is in the story of Purim. The Gemara ( Megillah 13b) tells us that Haman, who excelled at speaking lashon hara , approached King Achashveirosh and informed him that the Jews had many strange customs that mocked his kingship. He specifically told Achashveirosh that if a fly were to enter a Jew’s glass of wine, the Jew would remove the fly and then drink the wine, but if the king were to touch the wine, the Jew would pour the whole cup out and not drink any of it. After hearing Haman's words, Achashveirosh agreed to Haman’s plot of destroying the Jewish people. We learn from the fly that Hashem has many messengers, and that He often causes the fate of an individual or a nation to be determined by an insignificant object, such as…the fly! Available Online and at All Judaica Stores! Presented by The Jewish World of Wonders Fascinating Questions & Answers on the Mysteries of the Animal Kingdom Can be ordered online at: www.israelbookshoppublications.com and Amazon. Prior to the scientific experiments in 2008, scientists thought that the fly’s escape response was a simple reflex. But when they studied it in slow motion, they found that a fly uses most of the time it has to carefully reposition its legs and body. In other words, the fly does make planning movements prior to its takeoff. Then, at the last possible moment, the fly jumps in the opposite direction of the swatter. The time it takes from the start of the swatter’s move to the fly’s jump-off is only about 288 milliseconds. The fly uses 287 of those milliseconds to plan its movements, and only at the very last millisecond does it actually fly away. A fly has six legs. The middle two are called the “jump legs” and are the most critical for the fly’s calculated takeoff. When the fly needs to jump backward because the swatter is coming at it from the front, it puts its jump legs forward so that when they extend, they’ll push the body backward. When the threat comes from the back, the fly (which, as we mentioned, has a nearly 360-degree field of view, and can see behind itself) moves its middle legs a tiny bit backward, so that they’ll push the body forward. When a threat comes at it from the side, the fly keeps its middle legs still, but leans its whole body in the opposite direction before it jumps. How the Fly Plans Its Escape House flies have three additional simple eyes, called ocelli , located between their two compound eyes. I See You!