Sources that Avrohom Avinu spoke about nature - A Moment with Rabbi Avigdor Miller Zt"l #835

What are the sources that tell us Avrohom Avinu spoke about nature?

And the answer is, you heard today that Avrohom called out in the name of Hashem. So what do you think he did when he built the mizbei'ach? He stood there shouting, Hashem, Hashem, everybody come and serve Hashem!

When you're talking to strangers and you give them a name, Hashem, it's like talking to the wall! It's common sense that Avrohom spoke to them about the most plausible observations that were available. And what's most available? The sefer Chovos HaLevavos says at the beginning of Sha'ar HaBechinah: the closest way, the nearest way for a person to gain emunah is to observe the wonders of nature.

Now to many people this is meaningless, because they never thought about it. But when you put your mind into it and you see plan and purpose, you begin to realize that this is a great demonstration created by Hashem in order that people should actually see Him with their eyes.

If you can see on the rosebush thorns — just like daggers, and you ask yourself, why are they shaped like daggers? And you understand because the rose is such a beautiful and fragrant flower, and people would like to try to uproot the plant and to take it home, to pull out the bush. So the daggers are shaped exactly in the configuration that's necessary, that's most efficient. They're all pointing downwards. And as a man tries to pull the bush upward, so the daggers come down into his flesh.

Now when you study that — next time stop and study a rose bush. And little by little, you'll see the Yad Hashem in nature. The daggers are no accident. There are no daggers on a poplar tree, no daggers on weeds. Daggers are only on this precious flower, the rose, because that's the one that's most imperiled by covetous people who would like to pull out the bush. And you begin to understand that Hakadosh Boruch Hu's footsteps are everywhere in nature.

So if Avrohom called out in the name of Hashem, there's nothing that could convince his listeners other than the wonders of plan and purpose in nature.