What does it mean that Everything & Everyone is in the Torah?
The Torah is not merely a book of laws. It is not a history scroll. It is not only a guide for a nation.
It is the blueprint of creation itself.
The Midrash teaches: “Hashem looked into the Torah and created the world” (Bereishis Rabbah 1:1). Everything that exists, has existed, or will exist—down to the smallest blade of grass—is rooted in the Torah.
The Chazon Ish zt”l once said: “The Torah is not a commentary on the world. The world is a commentary on the Torah.”
If so, then it follows that every person, every event, and every invention is in the Torah. But not always on the surface. The secrets are there for those who truly delve.
Let’s explore this wondrous idea through the lives of some of our greatest gedolim—and the stories they left us.
The Chazon Ish and the Medical Mystery
A young surgeon once approached the Chazon Ish zt”l with a question about an extremely complex operation that had stumped the medical community. The Rav listened carefully, then took out a Gemara and began to explain the internal positioning of the organs, using sugyos in Chullin and Ohalos.
When the surgery was later performed exactly as the Chazon Ish described, it succeeded flawlessly.
The astonished doctor asked, “Kvod Harav, how did you know the anatomy so precisely?”
The Chazon Ish replied simply: “HaTorah hi ha’metzios — the Torah is reality.”
The Rambam’s Healing Leaf
The Rambam zt”l, besides being one of the greatest poskim of all time, was also the personal physician to Sultan Saladin. In one famous incident, the Sultan was gravely ill and his advisors were hopeless.
The Rambam requested a specific kind of leaf that no one had heard of. When asked where he had learned of such a thing, he said it was from a Gemara and cross-referenced psukim in Tehillim.
That leaf saved the Sultan’s life.
And the Rambam became known not just as a healer of bodies, but as a man who drew medicine from the Torah itself.
The Vilna Gaon’s Self-Discovery
A misnaged once approached the Vilna Gaon and said mockingly, “You say that everything is in the Torah? Then tell me where you are in the Torah!”
The Gaon replied instantly: “In Parshas Haazinu, the pasuk says, ‘וַיַּ֥רְא ה' וַיִּנְאָ֑ץ מִכַּ֤עַס בָּנָיו֙ וּבְנֹתָ֔יו’ — Hashem saw and was angered, provoked by His sons and daughters. The gematria of ‘וינאץ מכעס’ equals the gematria of Eliyahu ben Shlomo Zalman.”
The man fell silent. The Gaon, with brilliance and humility, had shown him that even he, too, was hidden in the Divine Code.
The Pilot and Rav Chaim Kanievsky
A secular Israeli pilot once visited Rav Chaim Kanievsky zt”l, curious to see what this Gadol was like. He asked, “What does a man like you, who studies books all day, know about flying?”
Rav Chaim smiled and pointed to a passuk in Sefer Yechezkel that describes the Ofanim—heavenly wheels that move with divine propulsion.
“You think Hashem didn’t think of flight before man did?” he said. “It’s all here—man just had to catch up.”
That pilot later became a baal teshuvah.
The Barcode in the Torah
Rav Yitzchak Zilberstein shlita relates the story of a scientist who was stunned when shown a passage in the Zohar describing "lines of light that carry within them hidden messages for the wise to decode.” The wording mirrored the exact concept of a barcode—lines that store data.
That scientist became frum.
When the Chazon Ish said “haTorah hi ha’metzios,” he meant it literally. The Torah contains all wisdom—revealed only when Hashem wills it.
Rav Meir Mazuz and the DNA of Lashon HaKodesh
Rav Meir Mazuz shlita once showed how the shoresh (root) of Hebrew words reveals biological truths. The word for bones — עצמות — comes from עצם meaning "essence." The word for blood — דם — is numerically equal to the word אדם without the aleph, representing the Guf without the Neshamah.
He taught that Lashon HaKodesh isn't a language. It’s the spiritual DNA of reality.
The Sefer Torah That Predicted a Birth
In Bnei Brak, a couple long childless came to a sofer known for his kedushah. He was working on a Sefer Torah and noticed that he had just begun writing the word "פָּקַד" — as in "Hashem remembered."
He told the couple, “You are about to be remembered.” Months later, a child was born—exactly at the pasuk he had written that day.
When you live with Torah, you don’t just read it. You live in it.
The Baal Teshuvah Scientist and the Eggshell
Dr. N. T., an Israeli biologist who became a baal teshuvah, once described the moment that changed his life. He was teaching embryology and explaining how a chick gets oxygen through an eggshell.
A student asked: “How can such a perfect system evolve by accident?”
He had no answer.
That night, he opened a Chumash and read, “And Hashem said: Let the waters swarm with living creatures…” And he broke down in tears.
“I realized,” he said, “I had been studying Torah my whole life without knowing it.”
The Torah Is the Blueprint
None of these stories are fantasies. They are lived truths. As Chazal say:
“Hafoch bah ve’hafoch bah, d’kulah bah — Turn it over and turn it over, for everything is in it.” (Avos 5:22)
And the Vilna Gaon writes:
“A person is obligated to learn all wisdoms to the extent that they are needed to understand the Torah.” (Even Shleimah 8:24)
Modern science may “discover” something. But Torah had it all along. The difference? Torah had no labs, no funding, no error rate. Just emes.
Footnotes & Sources
- Bereishis Rabbah 1:1 — “Hashem looked into the Torah and created the world.”
- Story of the Chazon Ish from Pe’er HaDor, Vol. 3, and oral testimony from Rav Yitzchak Zilberstein.
- Rambam medical anecdotes from Shevet Yehudah and Iggeres HaRambam.
- Vilna Gaon story quoted in Maaseh Rav and Toldos HaGra.
- Rav Chaim Kanievsky story from Orchos Yosher, Vol. 2.
- Barcode/Zohar story in Aleinu L'Shabeach, Rav Zilberstein.
- Rav Meir Mazuz on Lashon HaKodesh — from his weekly shiurim, compiled in Nei’os HaTorah.
- Sofer Torah story from Bnei Brak as told by Rav Eliyahu Mann.
- Dr. N.T. story collected by Lev L’Achim and featured in B’Sod Siach.