Miracles – Part of the Fabric of the Universe

GH has started posting about the historicity of Exodus and has put out some quite intriguing questions. It will be interesting where this takes him. His investigation of Breishis took him to the surprising theological conclusion that gave us the Post of the Year. I would like to take a different route and try to explore the concepts that the story is presenting from a theological point of view.

Rambam in Pirush Hamishna in Avos 5:5 where the Mishna lists the 10 things that were created on Friday afternoon, explains that the Mishna is telling us that all rare events that are perceived by us as miraculous are in reality normal natural phenomena that are part of the fabric of the Universe. If we think about it this is quite obvious. I remember as a kid I used to read this French comic, Tintin, and in one episode, he is among the Inca somewhere in South America, and he is saved because there was a solar eclipse at a fortuitous moment. The uneducated Inca (Herge the author was a bigot at the time he wrote this episode and did Tshuva later), took a natural event and understood it as a message from their god. I am sure that at the early stages of humanity the accepted wisdom for all these phenomena was that they were miraculous. In medieval times comets were seen as miraculous events, and being that stars influenced the world, were predictors of catastrophic events. Astrology was considered a science that although forbidden by the Torah, many Rishonim believed in including Ramban, Ibn Ezra and even Ralbag the great rationalist felt forced to accept it. (Isn’t it amazing that these great Rishonim did not use the current Yeshivish argument that Torah knew science better, and felt compelled to deal with what was considered truth in their days in a responsible way).

Rambam repeats the theme that miracles are natural events in many of his writings, in Shemona Perakim, in Igeres Techyas Hamessim and in the Moreh several times. Here is a synopsis of his point of view:
1. A miracle is short lived. Moshe’s rod stayed a snake for a short time, his hand stayed leprous for a short time, the blood was temporary (Moreh 2:29) and even the sea parting was temporary ( Igeres Tchiyas Hamessim).
2. A miracle is something natural that occurs rarely and is therefore perceived as going against the laws of nature. In other words if a new phenomena is noticed one can be sure it is natural no matter how rare it is.
3. Not only the phenomena itself is natural but it is even predictable. The timing thereof has been set at Creation as a natural result of cause and effect.
4. Saying that God makes miracles is philosophically untenable. It takes away from God’s omnipotence as if to say that he needed to make adjustments to the perfect world he created. ( Moreh 2:28). Isn’t it interesting how a true religious perspective is more rational and less superstitious?! (Superstition: A belief, practice, or rite irrationally maintained by ignorance of the laws of nature or by faith in magic or chance. - Wikipedia)
5. Being natural, miracles are predictable. A great prophet such as Moshe, being by definition someone who has a thorough knowledge of the natural world, can predict one.
I think I covered all the pertinent points. Miracles are therefore a human interpretation of a rare event.

Now let us see how this relates to Exodus (Shemos).In Moreh 2:29 (page 345) Rambam referring to Midrash Rabah Breishis 5:5 אמר ר' יוֹנתן תנאין התנה הקב"ה עם הים שיקרע לפני ישראל ה"ה וישב הים לפנוֹת בוֹקר לאיתנוֹ - לתנאוֹ. אמר ר' ירמי'ה בן אלעזר לא עם הים בלבד התנה הקב"ה אלא עם כל מה שנברא בששת ימי בראשית “This notion consists in their holding the view that miracles too are something that is, in a certain respect, in nature.... He put it into these natures that all the miracles that occurred would be produced in them at the time when they occurred. According to this opinion the sign of a prophet consists in God’s making known to him the time when he must make his proclamation, and then a certain thing is affected according to what was put into its nature when first it received its particular impress.” Continuing his discussion in Pirush Hamishna Avos 5:5 where he already told us that nature has a built in ability for irregular events to occur, Rambam goes one step further and says that not only the possibility of the event was preset but the timing too. All one needs to do is know about it and then can predict it. At creation God, omniscience being one of His attributes, preset the timing of the sea returning to its original state ( what exactly the meaning of this is a separate discussion). Moshe being the great prophet he was knew about it and used it to good effect.Let us put ourselves into the shoes of the Jews as they were squeezed between the sea and the Egyptian army. As they were desperate and ready to give up and capitulate to Pharaoh, all of a sudden the sea parts. They are now conflicted. What will our going into the sea do for us? The Egyptian will just continue to pursue us and catch us a little later. Under Moshe's leadership they continue their march and just as they see the Egyptian army the sea starts closing up behind them. Of course, this was all-natural and was going to happen anyway, otherwise Moshe could not have predicted it, but to them it was proof that God does miracles just for them. That feeling was a momentary reaction in the elation that followed the event. Next day, they calmed down and as they looked back at the events of the past night, they realized this was only a natural event. That is why the next parsha after the Shira, is the story of Marah where they were so concerned about not having potable water nor miracles. (Rashba in his responsa vol. 4 Teshuva 234 explains Rambam's position this way approvingly saying that our ancestors learned not to believe anything until proven with certainty.)Miraculous events are therefore predictable in theory. If the Jews at the time, let's speculate, would have had the technology to know about an earthquake occurring in the Indian Ocean and that a tsunami could result if it happened with a certain intensity and at a certain locale, they would have done exactly what they did at that exact moment, with anxiety about the timing maybe, but it would have been a calculated risk, worth taking rather than falling back into slavery.The Torah however tells us that the "miracle" of Ma'amad Har Sinai satisfied the people that Moshe was special and therefore his Torah is definitive and immutable. They now understood how prophecy works and that all the events since Moshe started the process of Exodus happened because he was such a great prophet. ( see Shemos 3:12 and 15:9) I will discuss this further in a future post. Just a little clue – the Mishna in Avos that interprets miracles as natural events, three of the things listed realte to Matan Torah – Hakesav, Hamichtov, Vehaluchos.