Bechina: The Well-Engineered Seed Wing

From Sing, You Righteous by Rabbi Avigdor Miller 

The glider-wing of the maple seed is a demonstration that the maple tree is “aware” of the wind. Science books call the wing a modified leaf, which is the same as calling a glider a modified board, or calling an electric bulb a modified candle.

The wing is indeed a paragon of purposeful technology, and is no more accidental than the wing of an airplane. It is made of lightweight material which when it dries becomes thin and taut. A thin frame of tough material runs around the wing to give it firmness and to prevent it from crumbling apart. 

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The seed wing is a paragon of purposeful technology 

The seed is so situated at the end of the wing, and the wing is so shaped, that when the winged seed is dropped it revolves so that it acquires levitation and can be transported by the wind.

That shows awareness par excellence: 

• of the necessity for lightweight material
• of the necessity for a taut wing to offer resistance to the wind
• of the need for a frame to reinforce the thin material, and
• of the mechanics of equilibrium and wind action.

And it demonstrates that the tree is aware that seeds dropped in its own shade would not succeed in growing; it therefore equips the seeds with wings to enable them to fly abroad.

Photo: Peter van der Sluijs, WIkimedia Commons