ONE More about O-N-E

I mentioned today's posting to my husband, who wanted to add something about ONE.
He had just read a mailing from the Efrat organization. Efrat helps save the lives of babies whose mothers wished to abort them. They not only save the baby, but they support the family emotionally and literally for quite a few years after the baby's birth.
The mailing talked about the power of ONE.
So, this is another good "vort" (word) for 1/1/11.
Very often in the Bible, the two tribes of Benjamin and Dan are named one after the other. Why? Benjamin and Dan weren't born right after one another. They had different mothers. The did not have any special characteristic that would cause them to be paired.
In fact, Benjamin had ten sons and Dan only had one.
Benjamin's ten sons were each named after Ben's brother Joseph. Each son's name was a detail in Benjamin's life that had to do with his brother.
Dan, on the other hand, only had one son Chushim. When a count is made of the Jewish people in the desert, Dan's ancestors number 64,000. Wow, 64,000 from only one son, Chushim.
Therefore Benjamin's descendants should have been about ten times as much, because they began with ten, instead of one son.
However, the tribe of Benjamin numbered only 45,600.
My husband reminded us who Chushim, the progenitor of all these children, was.
When Jacob died, and his children brought him back to Israel to be buried in the Cave of Machpela, Esau came and claimed the remaining burial plot belonged to him and not Yaakov. While the brothers argued with Esau about this, they also sent Naftali to run back to Egypt to get the deed.
Meanwhile, the holy patriarch Jacob remained unburied.
Chushim, the son of Dan, was deaf. He asked his family what the delay in the burial was, and they explained to him that Esau would not let Jacob be buried in Machpela.
Chushim did not have discussions with Esau, or agree to a negotiation. Chushim took a club and smashed Esau over the head, killing him. Chushim could not bare his grandfather's dishonor.
The Efrat organization reminded its readers that Chushim was deaf, and might have had other difficulties as well.
What if his mother would have taken a sonogram (or whatever diagnostic procedure) that showed there was something wrong with Chushim? What if she had decided that since her child was defective, she wanted to abort him?
If that happened, chas v'shalom, Chushim would never have been born, and Jacob would not have been buried in the Cave of Machpela.
Chushim was a very challenged man, and yet he rose above the challenges to honor his grandfather and make history.
Every ONE is a special human being with special talents and abilities. Every ONE must be appreciated and cherished.
It only takes ONE to make a difference.