Miracles: In the eyes of the beholder.

It would seem at first blush that God performing miracles is something to be expected from an all-powerful Deity. After all limiting God to what is natural would seem to make Him almost human. However a little more in depth analysis will show this to be wrong. On the contrary the need to make miracles is an insult to God. Of course He can perform miracles if He so wishes as long as He does not have to. A perfectly infallible Entity should be able to bring about our existence, have it planned and so well set in place that He, the Creator, need never interfere or adjust. Even the minutest adjustment is a sign of imperfection. So what exactly are those miracles the Torah talks about so often?

Interestingly, etymologically, we are coming back to our earlier discussions of Nissayon, for Ness is one of the words that are commonly used to describe a miracle. The word Ness stands for flag, pole or demonstration. Again it would seem that miracle is an event whose purpose is to make a point. Rambam in the last of his Eight Chapters puts it as follows
(My paraphrase/translation)

“For we believe that the Will was present during the six days of Creation, and that all things always behave according to their nature as it says “Only that shall happen which has happened only that shall occur which has occurred; there is nothing new under the sun” (Kohelet 1:9.) Therefore the Rabbis found it necessary to say that all the miracles that already happened, that will happen in the future as promised, and that are irregular, all were willed during the first six days of creation. Those things had in their original nature the novel behavior that occurred later, at a set time, and when that happened at a fortuitous time, people perceived them as if they were willed now. That is not so. Our Rabbis expanded on this in Midrash Kohelet and in other places. They also stated “the world acts according to its custom.””

Kohelet 3:14 reads as follows:

יד יָדַעְתִּי, כִּי כָּל-אֲשֶׁר יַעֲשֶׂה הָאֱלֹהִים הוּא יִהְיֶה לְעוֹלָם--עָלָיו אֵין לְהוֹסִיף, וּמִמֶּנּוּ אֵין לִגְרֹעַ; וְהָאֱלֹהִים עָשָׂה, שֶׁיִּרְאוּ מִלְּפָנָיו.
14 I know that, whatsoever God doeth, it shall be forever; nothing can be added to it, nor any thing taken from it; and God hath so made it, that men should fear before Him.

Rambam comments in MN 2:28:

“He declares in these words that the world has been created by God and remains for ever. He adds the reason for it by saying, "Nothing can be put to it, nor anything taken from it;" for this is the reason for the perpetuity, as if he meant to say that things are changed in order to supply that which is wanting, or in order to take away what is superfluous. The works of God being perfect, admitting no addition or deduction, must remain the same forever. It is impossible that anything should exist that could cause a change in them. In the conclusion of the verse, Solomon, as it were describes the purpose of exceptions from the laws of Nature, or an excuse for changes in them, when he says, "And God doeth it that men should fear before him." He refers to the production in time of miracles”.

In other words everything works according to its original plan or nature. There are events in nature that are more common than others. The sun rises and sets daily unchangingly. To us that is obviously natural. There are however other events, though natural but much rarer. These can be extremely rare, so rare, that they happened just once or twice throughout human history. These events are no less natural than the daily occurrences. However the rarity itself is a catalyst that makes the observer pause. It makes him take stock and realize that there is a First Cause that this event can be traced back to. Our mundane day-to-day existence is so constant that we forget to think about what is the cause for all this. The abnormal makes us aware that there is a question to be asked that begs for an answer.

So what is a miracle? If we look at miracles it is always the interaction between man and the event. It is when man is saved because the event occurred at a fortuitous moment for him. When the Jewish people were squeezed between the sea and the Egyptians and the sea split at just the right moment, that rare natural event is interpreted as a miracle. Moshe’s greatness was his ability to sense this rare occurrence and take advantage of it. His intuition, or what we would call his prophetic insight into the future was so strong and certain, that he refused to surrender to the Egyptians.

One cannot prove empirically that miracles occur. As a man of religion one can however interpret the event as being something put in place by God at time of creation and that included this person being at the right place at the right time. It is all in the eyes of the beholder.