NB: this essay is really a collage, incorporting sermons by Alfredo Borodowski, Gerald Zelizer, Ed Farber, & Shraga simmons, as well as some references I added in.
The fire and the altar were ready. The knife was touching Isaac’s throat when the angel of God shouted “Abraham, Abraham, stop!”
“Abraham looked up, [and] saw a ram caught in the thicket by its horns” At that moment, when Abraham needed a sacrifice to substitute for Isaac, the perfect replacement appeared before his eyes: a ram, ready for sacrifice.
So where did the ram come from? Did it just end up in the wrong place at the wrong time?
In typical rabbinic fashion there are two opposite opinions as to the pedigree of this ram.
1) One opinion, strongly maintained by Rabbi Eliezer, is that prior to getting caught in the bush the ram was just grazing nearby in the hills. The specific ram Abraham saw was no different from any other ram.
2) In the opposite corner, Rabbi Joshua, who often debated with Rabbi Eliezer, maintains that this ram was created on the sixth day of creation, on the eve of the first Shabbat, for the very purpose of being ready to replace Isaac. Where was the ram kept since the time of creation? The ram was suspended in time, grazing in the Garden of Eden under the tree of life
What a strange debate! What difference does it really make if the ram was grazing in the hills of Judea or in Paradise, or in a backyard in Brooklyn? What could bring these two distinguished sages to argue about such a seemingly irrelevant question? What really divided these two sages?
Rabbi Joshua’s and Rabbi Eliezer’s positions are diametrically opposed. Rabbi Joshua, who brings the ram all the way from paradise, actually does not believe in miracles. The ram had to be included as part of creation, embedded in the DNA of history, in order to be used at the precise moment that Isaac was saved. For him, there cannot be true spontaneous miracles, changing nature on the spot; only rare spectacular events programmed within the natural order.
On the other hand, Rabbi Eliezer, who believes that the ram was like any other, finds the miraculous in everything. For him God can work miracles at any time either through nature or by breaking the laws of nature.
Let me ask you a question. If I were to give you a choice, whose opinion would you follow? Would you follow Rabbi Eliezer who believes that miracles really exist and present themselves in our lives, sometimes in ordinary ways and other times in extraordinary ways? Or would you follow Rabbi Joshua who believes that God has only a very limited supply of spectacular events, which are programmed within nature?
Each one of us has a slight preference either for Rabbi Joshua or for Rabbi Eliezer. Some of us are more skeptical and see the world mostly through the prism of reason. Others are enchanted by the beauty and mystery of the world and see God’s hand in ordinary events. Some of us see life in a very natural and progressive way. Others wonder about events that seem to be more than mere coincidences. Most of us vacillate between the two schools. Some days we feel that our lives are engulfed in the extraordinary and other days we wake up feeling that all that is around us is ordinary. Sometimes we feel we are victims of chance and randomness, while other times we feel we can glimpse a mysterious force steadily moving us in a certain direction.
Was the ram a miracle, or a coincidence?
Do I see world as miraculous or not?
Last summer, I read the Life of pi, a book which also came out as a movie.
Early on, the main character arranges to meet a friend of his, Mr. Kumar, who is religious, at a zoo, and happens also to run into his teacher, who is also named Mr. Kumar. He takes them both around the zoo, which they experience completely differently. After they all admire the creature, the rolls-royce of equides, Mr Kumar the teacher declares “equus burchelli boehmi.” Mr kumar the baker, on the other hand, just praises God. Mr. Kumar and Mr. Kumar are two different ways of approaching reality.
The main plot of the movie is that Pi, the main character, somehow survives a shipwreck, and survives on a lifeboat with a Bengal tiger aboard until they float to mexico. When they arrive, and Pi explains how he got there, the people who found him can’t believe him, and come up with different explanations.
Pi’s argument in favor of his story is not that it’s more plausible than theirs, but that “it’s a better story.” Sometimes seeing a zebra as equus burchelli boehmi is a better story, if I am studying evolution, biology, or medicine. But seeing a zebra as an amazing creation by God is a better story in the way it enriches my life, enables me to lead a life of meaning.
I can see the world scientifically, what heschel called dry facts, or I can see it as a miracle, as divine creation. Heschel calls this radical amazement. I can try to explain reality, describe it with scientific laws, which is very useful, but sometimes it is important to just be amazed that it exists, to be awed by the mystery behind a zebra, behind the sun and moon and stars, behind my own existence.
Celts have term: “think and thin moments”
The idea is that there is a veil between this world and the other world
Thin moments—moments/places where veil lifted
Very thin moments: recognition of miraculous forces itself upon us
Eric Weiner writes travel pieces for the New York Times. Weiner talks of “thin places” in travel. He says “It is admittedly an odd term. One could be forgiven for thinking that thin places describe skinny nations, like Chile; or cities populated by thin people; Los Angeles. No, thin places are much deeper than that. They are locales where the distance between heaven and earth collapse and are able to catch glimpses of the divine or the transcendent or the inscendent whatever. We are jolted out of all the ways of seeing the world.”
Eric Weiner says that a “thin place” is not necessarily a tranquil place or a fun one. Weiner, Disney World is not a “thin place.” Nor is Cancun. Those places may relax us, but they do not transform us. Weiner writes: “In thin places time is not something we feel compelled to parse or hoard. There is plenty of it to go around.
My experience outside of santé fe—seemed like there was a spiritual opening there, among cliffs west of santa fe, bordering a vast open plain leading to the city. I could imagine if I were a native American, wanting to burn incense there to mark the sacredness of the spot. Not incidentally, this was a location which had an unusual number of pictographs. Apparently I was not the first human to notice this place.
I also had the experience of standing on top of mt adams—saw the world spread out under my feet like a carpet, experienced awe at the grandeur of creation
For our people, Jerusalem is that place, where the veil becomes transluscent. This is why creation started there, the energies of divine creativity entered the material world through that nexus. This is why we pray facing Jerusalem.
The Messianic era is a time when the veil will be lifted, the world will be full of knowledge of god. And Shabbat is such a time, me-ein olam haba, a taste of the world to come.
Are there historical events where the veil is lifted?
Are we living in miraculous times?
Most of us would say no, miracles are something from the bible,
Maybe we believe it, maybe not, but that kind of thing doesn’t happen now
In the events of the book of esther, which we commemorate with purim, god doesn’t appear
Just like our time: God’s role in universe is hidden
But we acknowledge that god was behind our success
Splitting Red sea—you could say rare coincidence of tides and winds, shifting sand bard
Many have said exactly this: rambam says a miracle is just a unique natural event—but he still says it’s a miracle.
Why? Because we choose to see the miraculous
Haggadah: increase number of miracles to 50 & beyond
What about the Yom kippur war?
This week marks the 40th anniversary of the 1973 Yom Kippur War, when Syrian dictator Hafez al-Assad launched a war of annihilation against Israel. The Jewish state prevailed, but for a time things were in real jeopardy; many northern Israeli towns were evacuated and then overrun by the Syrian army. This was a modern day miracle
Some other recent miracles:
1) The first Jewish State in 2000 years was established and the combined armies of 7 Arab countries were beaten back in the War for Independence.
2) 600,000 Israeli Jews went on to absorb 800,000 Jews from the Arab countries into the new tiny Jewish state of Israel – something no country has ever been able to accomplish in such a short period of time.
3) The Soviet Jewry movement supported by the American Presidents and the Congress of the United States managed to bring down the iron curtain and it culminated in 1 million Soviet Jews moving to Israel. and an interesting anecdote, not only the white house, but even the Kremlin has an annual Hanukkah party!
4) for the first time in human history - white men –went into Africa to take blacks out – not to be slaves – but to take them from persecution to freedom in the land of Israel. Over 90,000 Black Ethiopian Jews were rescued and transferred to Israel –Israelis flew planes into the Sudan to take out Ethiopian Jews and the American Government paid the ransom and the bribes.
What do we expect a miracle to look like?
Do we expect a very large hand, the hand of God, reaching down from heaven?
Lifeboat story: drowning man praying to be saved
Boats come, throw him a rope
Dies; god: “why didn’t you grab on to the rope?”
What do we expect god’s hand to look like?
Look at Israel. Look at our survival. Look at your own life.
This is what a miracle looks like.
Living in the miracle is a choice
A choice to notice
A choice to be amazed by life, to live in awe & wonder
Not that it’s a different explanation, rejecting science
A choice to see the universe through the eyes of amazement
Contemporary debate over Hallel on Yom Ha’atzmaut:
We can choose to see Israel as a miracle, say Hallel,
Or we can choose to see it as just another fact
Heschel calls: a dry fact
If we choose to view life through the eyes of miracle, it transforms my approach to life.
Yehuda halevi: live a richer life—experience the spiritual side of everyday experience. Nourishes me, elads to a richer experience of life.
Realizing divine love inspires us to practice divine love
Today marks the 100 year anniversary Franz Rosenzweig’s non-conversion:
What happened? He was considering converting to Christianity, but he went to shul on yom kippur, and then announced it was unnecessary to convert. He subsequently wrote his magnum opus, the Star of Redemption, a theology defending Judaism.
In that work, Rosenzweig says there is a basic experience of god’s love & God’s command, in which god says: ‘love me’
Choosing to sense the miraculous, choosing to experiencing divine love in the world, inspires us to practice divine love.
We become each others angels,
each others miracles
the answer to each others prayers
As we begin a new year, I invite all of us to strive to fill the world with so many good actions that we will naturally increase the chances for the extraordinary. Like throwing a bottle into the sea of life, we never know the potential far reaching effects of a good simple action. Spread as many acts of goodness as you can, large or small, create moments of holiness, and use your wealth to help those in need. You never know how what is ordinary to you may be miraculous for somebody else.
May this be a year in which each one of us becomes a miracle for somebody else, perhaps without even knowing it.
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