My interest in water peaked when I took my first general chemistry course in college. My professor asked a rather profound, yet simple question, “Why does salt dissolve in water, but not oil?” I had never even pondered such an idea, and it got me thinking, my interest peaked. “Like dissolves like,” he said, but I didn’t know what that meant. With some more studying, I finally understood the beauty of that statement. It had such infinite implications as I connected the idea to the internality of the Torah, human interaction, and nature’s laws. Those words, that phrase, was music to me, a symphony realizing itself from within.

Put simply, any molecule is the result of the connection between two or more elements. Water, also known as H₂O, is literally two parts hydrogen and one part oxygen. When you connect these elementary parts together it builds something so much greater than the sum of its parts. Two elements, which are both invisible to the naked eye, when put together, form a liquid that is the basis of almost all life. Upon examining the nature of the connection between the elements, the “line” that connects them together, scientists discovered that the molecule is bent, exuding magnetic qualities due to a partial dipole. Put simply, imagine some water just spilled on your table, there’s a tiny puddle with little droplets dispersed throughout the surface. If you move the puddle around you’ll notice how little droplets start to converge and form bigger droplets, like tiny little magnets that attract each other.

And like any magnet, water can only dissolve or attach itself to something with magnetic properties. A magnet will not attract paper, because the properties of paper do not resemble the properties of the magnet. Rather magnets attract metals, because the properties of most metals are similar to the properties of a magnet. That’s why everything doesn’t dissolve in water, it’s because not everything has similar magnetic properties like water does; there’s nothing to attract.

This coming month is called Elul, an acronym for ani ledodi vedodi li (I am for my beloved and my beloved is for me). It is a month of love, a month of attraction, a month where we examine how much we’ve come closer to Hashem by trying to emulate Him in our personal and interpersonal relationships. How often do we take for granted what the Creator has put forth in front of us? We ignore Him, we don’t appreciate Him, and every second of every day He is still there counting patiently until we’ll realize the purpose for which we were created. How often do we detach ourselves because we think we’re not as good as Him, that we don’t deserve Him, that we’re not good enough, smart enough, pretty enough, anything enough? And it’s no wonder this generation thinks itself as completely detached from holiness, because we ARE, because we’re convinced that we’re nothing like it. How can we connect to our beloved Creator if we’re not for Him the way He is for us?

The Baal Shem Tov says “A yid doesn’t sin because he wants to, but because he’s been separated from his Father in heaven”. We don’t screw up because we’re bad, we screw up because we don’t understand how special we are. But once we reach a state where we understand our greatness, as an individual, and as a collective, then we invite something that has been knocking on our door since the beginning of creation, we invite a love, an attachment, a relationship with the most beautiful thing in the world. I wish that everyone comes to understand how special they are, it breaks Hashem’s heart if we don’t