You Can Believe in Miracles

The scene: A tefillah class , a prayer class
The characters: One 60 year old woman and three eleven year old boys
The conversation: Let's talk about Torah for a minute. Why does the prayer praise G-d for giving us the Torah?
I'm not sure why? Everything in the Torah is just made up. It's not true. Everything in the Bible is just make-believe. There's no truth in it.
Can you believe in something you did not see or experience? Can there be truth in a deeper sense that we can learn from Torah?
I don't believe in the miracles. I don't think miracles can happen.
Can you believe it is possible for something to have happened that had significance to the lives of those who experienced it and who wanted to share it with others because it had such an impact upon them.


Why is it so difficult for children, or for any of us, for that matter to believe in miracles? Why must we think they try to prove what is impossible?

You've probably heard this story before: Prior to Passover a father asked his child what he had learned in religious school about the crossing at the Red Sea. His child explained that Israeli engineers laid pontoons across the sea so that the Israelites could cross over safely. Then the same engineers detonated the floating bridges and caused the pursuing Egyptians to drown. The father was angry with his child's account of what he learned. "But papa," the child responded, "you'd never believe the story the teacher told us."


As Rabbi Harold Shulweiss wrote, "Post biblical rabbinic commentators often focus on the "moral significance of the event called miraculous. The concern is less on how it happened than on its spiritual meaning. It is not whether the event can be explained as a natural occurrence or a supernatural intervention that determines its miraculous character, but what the event signifies morally that determines its miraculous spiritual character."

So let's look at today's parasha.
The scene: The children of Israel are standing at the sea of Reeds complaining that they would have been better off serving Egypt than dying in the wilderness.
Moses says to the people, " Do not fear! Stand fast and see the salvation of G-d that He will perform for you today; for as you have seen Egypt today, you shall not see them ever again! G-d will make war for you and you shall remain silent!
G-d responds by saying to Moses: Why do you cry out to me? Speak to the Children of Israel and let them journey forth! And you- lift up your staff and stretch out your arm over the sea and split it; and the children of Israel shall come into the midst of the sea on dry land."

What is the spiritual meaning that we can learn from this scene of a miracle that is about to unfold? Perhaps it is to look at the scene as Rashi did. In his interpretation, Moses was standing and praying, while the Egyptians were pursuing the Israelites and the Israelites were standing at the sea. It was not the time to be engaging in prolonged prayer. It was the time to take action to relieve Israel's distress.

Another interpretation, this time by Or Ha Chaim, Chaim Ben Moshe Ibn Attar, a prominent Rabbi in the 1700's in Morocco. Why wasn't prayer the proper response if danger was facing the nation? Why did G-d insist that action be taken instead? Or HaChaim explained that G-d exercises mercy only when the victims have a minimum degree of merit. But at the sea, G-d's attribute of justice understood that in Egypt both the Israelites and Egyptians had worshiped idols, so it was not just to save one nation and destroy the other. So in order to have a tangible merit, the Israelites had to demonstrate their faith in G-d by plunging into the water, thus earning the miracle of the splitting of the sea.

What is another interpretation that we can take from this scene? Perhaps its significance is that we must act to help bring about redemption. We must recognize that we are partners with G-d. Our actions are important. We must start moving in positive directions before we will see the response for which we hope and pray. We cannot and should not take the attitude that our world will change just because we pray for it. We must do something to change our world for the positive. Prayer is to help us look within ourselves, to help us figure out what our role in the universe is, and to increase our awareness of G-d's presence. When critical times are upon us, we can't prolong our introspection, we must respond.

This week, if you've been listening to the news, you've heard a lot about miracles, mostly in relationship to the recovery of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. Her doctors have said that her progress in her recovery is nothing short of miraculous after having been shot in the head at pointblank range. But there were other miracles at work during the tragic shootings in Tuscon. There were Individuals who took action to save the lives of others, to prevent more deadly shooting, and to aid and comfort those who had been shot. There was the miracle of watching a community ravaged by sadness and shock coming together to make sense of the horrific event ... able to focus on the strengths of individuals who perished and those who truly made a difference because of their actions.

The scenes from this week remind us that the normal miracles of human will, caring, and intelligence are not to be taken for granted nor discounted. They are no less miraculous than the splitting of the Red Sea. Attempting to understand or at least recognize the miraculous, requires us also to recognize that it does not exclude human action. Shulweiss in his book, For Those Who Can't Believe, tells of a story that happened when Rabbi Akiva was challenged by a pagan named Tineus Rufus. The pagan asked, "Whose deeds are greater, those of G-d or of man?" Akiva responded, "Greater are the deeds of man." " To provide evidence for his assertion, Rabbi Akiva brings forth sheaves of wheat and loaves of cakes and asks, "Which are superior?" Unarguably the loaves of cakes excel." (Midrash Tanchuma Tazriah 19:5). The point is not that the deeds of humans are superior to the deeds of G-d, but that we have a cooperative relationship with G-d.

The miracle occurs when we recognize that relationship and do our part! That's the kind of deeper moral truth that Torah can offer us and that hopefully the young boys will one day come to understand!

Shabbat Shalom.