In life it rarely happens that you have a moment where everything clears up and creates a combination of soul and matter in a reality that seemed complicated until that moment. I had a moment like that and today, many years later, I remember it clearly. I’d like to share with you the feeling I had at that magical moment.

Many years ago, immediately after my discharge from the army, I wanted to become an engineer and study at the Technion in Haifa. For this purpose, I had to take a course to refresh my inner student after serving for 6 years in the Navy.

I started the course with great difficulty. My head just forgot how to think. In the army we wrote our names, ID numbers, rank and signature; everything else was muscle memory that our bodies did automatically. Suddenly, without any warning, my brain ran into problems with math and physics and I could hear the gear wheels screeching while moving heavily. We were taught by experienced teachers who had already taught many in our situation and knew how to grease and release those recalcitrant wheels.

The physics teacher, Mr. Melamed, was very good at relaying information to us. One day, in the study phase of Mechanical Physics, with kind help from the Sears and Zemansky’ textbook, Mr. Melamed put a question on the board. It looked similar to what we had been practicing until then, something with a pendulum and a nail in the wall that stops the wire and causes the weight to make a complete turnaround the nail. He added: “I’ve been teaching this course for many years and to this day, no one has solved that question.” He announced that anyone who solved the problem would be released from Friday physics exams through the end of the course.

We took the question home and, even though I didn’t think I could solve it, I started playing with it, trying to solve it. After a while I got tired and left it alone.

At the beginning of the following week, during class, the lecturer asked if anyone had solved the question and I was not surprised that not a single hand was raised. I raised my hand and I said that I wasn’t sure I would succeed but I was willing to try.

Years earlier, while studying at Ort Rehovot, a miraculous teacher came in to replace our math teacher who was sick. He walked in with a piece of chalk in his hand — no text or note book. During the lesson, he showed us that we didn’t need to memorize formulas or solutions. All we had to do was open our heads, break down the problem, and use our understanding to deduce the solution. He said it, and then he did it! His name was Mr. Tomashin and I will always remember him.

Back to my class at the Technion. I went up to the board with chalk in my hand and like Mr. Tomashin, I began to develop equations from the fundamental principles of physics such as the Momentum Conservation Act and the Energy Conservation Act. I was alone at the board in a clear landscape with no clouds. I was sailing between letters and numbers. My hand wrote as if it was directly connected to my brain with no interference from me. I was calm, with no concerns whatsoever.

Suddenly it was all over.