The miracle of a new perspective

The Talmud says that a person is only allowed to permanently dwell in Israel through hardships.[1]  And that makes sense for nothing great comes easily.  That teaching echoed over and over again on our quest to receive keys for a new apartment.  Without going into details, we- my sister, brother-in-law, mother and I- ended up in Tel Aviv in an attempt to negotiate with the opposing lawyer on why charging us interest payments for our apartment had no merit.  We sat in a small office brimming with large black files that overlooked the less than spectacular Tel Aviv skyline.  The callous lawyer was dressed casually in a black polo and jeans, and had a smooth scalp pockmarked by tiny hair implants- not a good sign.  He glibly defended his company’s actions to extort interest payments from us thereby forfeiting any trace of human decency.  But no matter, this is how these things go.  But I wondered, ‘what would it take for a person like that to change’?  Nothing short of a miracle and that is exactly what Passover is all about.[2]

             Leaving Egypt is the foundation for all of Judaism. We mention it day and night, each and every day.  It serves as the source for many of our mitzvoth and major holidays.  Even the Holy Sabbath is kept because we left Egypt.  While we may think that the major miracles were what accords importance to the exodus, but that is not our focus on a daily basis and these miracles are not what obligates us to keep Shabbat or Succot.  It is the exodus itself that forms the crux of nearly all of Judasim.  Which begs the question, what was so incredible about the exodus itself, taking one nation out from a different nation? 

            Realize that the Jewish nation was not bonded only physically, but spiritually as well.  This we see from the verse when G-d spoke to Abraham at the covenant, ‘Know surely that your children shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and they will enslave them and afflict them for four hundred years.”[3]  This extra language of affliction goes beyond physical enslavement, but to spiritual torture.  The Hebrews were about to lose their heritage and their unique perspective on life as they assimilated to the Egyptian culture.  Just prior to their complete spiritual damnation, the exodus happened.  In a matter of days, the Hebrews changed their perspective, and recaptured their spiritual heritage.  To reorient ones values and to change perspectives from those that surround us is a greater miracle that splitting seas and a multitude of frogs.  Therefore, whenever we have a moment of clarity in our lives and see a new perspective, we are experiencing a miracle of the highest order and it can be the greatest source of joy and gratitude.

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[1] See Berachos 5a

[2] The following is an idea from Gevuros Hashem Chapter three from the Maharal

[3] Genesis 15:13

Dealing with the Miraculous

                 It is not because my mother arrived in the middle of the night, three hours before my tiny nephew met life, in order to give him a proper welcome that this is such a miraculous time. Rather, we have entered the month of Nissan, the month whose name is ‘Nes’ or miracle.  The month’s name reflects the main event of the month, Seder night.  On this night, we will recount the miraculous plagues that befell the Egyptians and culminated in the splitting of the Sea.  But, long before Seder night, we all have to ask ourselves, do we even believe in miracles, particularly of that nature?  

            There are three groups of people that exist.  In group one are the believers.  Rooted in their strong faith, they don’t feel the need to rationalize miracles.  Since G-d’s existence is obvious, and G-d’s power is infinite, open miracles are a natural outgrowth of such a set up. Human beings are too limited to grasp the workings of the miraculous, so there is no need to delve into it beyond the knowledge that it exists. 

Group two is made up of philosophers and scientists. They believe the world is eternal and there is only nature, therefore, the mention of the miraculous is ludicrous.  Or there is a Divine force, a first cause, who set up a world of nature and no longer interferes.  Either way they are comfortable putting the Haggadah on the book shelf next to Harry Potter. 

The final group consists of the people who are open to the idea of the miraculous but need a rational foothold in order to get them over the hump. This is where many of us sit on Seder night- uncomfortable that we recount the miracles as fact, yet intrigued at the possibility that this all happened.  Now within this group, there are yet two approaches.  One approach is to couch the miracles entirely within the spectrum of nature.  Yes, they did happen, but entirely through nature.  The miracle was that all of these natural forces coincided at one time and on one nation.  The other group does not go that far in rationalizing the miracle, but has a deep interest into understanding how the miracle fit into the spiritual mechanics of the world.

For the scientist who denies a spiritual reality, there is little point to celebrating Pesach.  The main idea of the holiday is to teach us about G-d’s involvement in worldly affairs.  For them, not only is G-d not involved in our world, but who says there is a G-d?!  But, for the majority of us, who do believe in a G-d, but have been raised in a world of scientists, it pains us to let go of the natural.  However, to try and mold the plagues to our limited rationality is a mistake.  Firstly, to try and explain even the simplest of miracles naturally is impossible.  How an inert stick can transform into a live snake and then revert back is beyond any science experiment.  Therefore, we have to explain away the majority of what happened as fabrication.  Or, if we somehow do rationalize every miracle, then we create an impotent holiday.

The easiest thing to do is to realize an important point.  If we believe in a G-d, then we also believe that there exists a world that is beyond the physical.  Now, according to that world that is beyond the physical, these miracles are not miracles at all, but proceed according to the rules and regulations of that world[1].  Because the world of open spirituality has largely been sealed off since the times of the first temple, we don’t have  experience with this world.  However, subtle hints to the existence of such a world appear everywhere, from the power of consciousness to the power of my mother making it three hours before her grandchild’s birth as well as the birth itself.  With that knowledge in hand, we can be open to the idea that this spiritual world revealed itself more openly to a different generation, and we can read about the miracles comfortable with the idea that they happened. 

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[1] See introduction to Gevuros Hashem, Maharal