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Rabbi Karp's Sermons ... MIRACLES This is a strange, but wonderful time of year. I know that some Jews prefer it when Hanukkah and Christ-mas do not fall together - they feel that their Hanukkah is overwhelmed by the Christmas that surrounds them - but I, on the other hand, love it when they fall together. I find it downright inspiring when everyone around me is celebrating their special holiday. Yes, the holidays are different, but there is a certain spirit which they hold in common. And when our Christian neighbors are drawing upon that spirit from within Christmas, and we are drawing upon that spirit from within Hanukkah, the world just seems to be a better, more cheerful, kinder place. And I love that feeling. Part of the power of these holidays is to be found in the stories of the miracles that are associated with them. Indeed, not only are there the miracles which are associated with them, but there are also the miracles that have become a part them; miracles that have evolved within the growing folklore surrounding these holidays. These miracle stories have the effect of transforming this season into a magical time. They infuse the season with a certain warmth; with a certain comforting sense that God truly is concerned about our well being, and is taking care of us. Who among us is so cold hearted as to honestly claim that they remain untouched by a movie such as "It's A Wonderful Life"? We love such movies because they are warm, because they are human, and because they tell us that God is watching us, and that what we do really counts, and that when the chips are down, God will send us help, and miraculously, we will be saved. Yes, miracles - whether they be the miracle of one day's oil lasting for eight, or the miracle of a gentle Santa Claus visiting every home and leaving gifts, or the miracle of three ghosts visiting Ebenezer Scrooge and trans-forming his life - miracles offer us an assurance of the presence in our lives of a loving God. Yet, ironically, it has been precisely this issue of miracles which has served for so many as the beginning of the end of their journeys of faith. You all know the drill. Little children listen in awe to the stories of miracles - how the waters of Egypt turned to blood, how the Red Sea split permitting the children of Israel to cross on dry land and then closed in and drowned the pursuing Egyptians, how the sun stood still over Jericho for Joshua, how the lions refused to touch Daniel, how the oil lasted for eight days. But then, somewhere along the line, in their adolescence or their teenage years, they begin to question them. "Do you expect me to believe that the sea actually split? There's no way that one day's worth of oil could last for eight days! Seven days to create the universe? Get real!" These questions, these doubts, becomes snags in the fabric of their faith. And like snags tend to do, they grow, ultimately unraveling the entire fabric. There is a sense of betrayal. "I have been lied to! These stories can't be true. And if these stories can't be true, then perhaps the rest isn't true either! Perhaps there is no God. Perhaps religion is nothing more than a sham." Oh, how young people love to frame their universe in contrasts of black and white! How we elders pray for the day when they will discover that there truly exists many shades of gray. But once again, ironically, even when that discovery occurs, when it comes to matters of faith, the damage has already been done. Few feel the need to revisit it. What once was faith has, especially for us Jews, been transformed into some sort of ethnic identity. The challenge of miracles is not just the challenge of maintaining the faith of adolescents. For miracles have presented a challenge to many of the greatest thinkers of Jewish history. As people of great faith and commitment, they have wrestled with maintaining their belief in the truth of the Torah while at the same time making sense of a God who would violate the very laws of nature which that God created in the first place. Why would God create a law, and then choose to break it? If God is perfect, then one would expect that God's laws are perfect as well. But if God's laws of nature aren't perfect, then perhaps none of God's laws are perfect. And if God can break God's laws, then why can't we? Yes, even the ancient rabbis had great problems with the concept of miracles. Indeed, rabbinic literature is filled with many stories which you might classify as being "anti-miracle." In Tractate Shabbat of the Babylonian Talmud there is a fascinating story told of a poor man whose wife died, and whose breasts became as a woman's so as to suckle their infant child. Interestingly enough, the text does not end with that story. It continues with one rabbi commenting, "How great this man must have been that such a miracle was performed for him!" and another rebuking him, saying, "On the contrary! How unworthy this man must have been that the order of creation was changed on his behalf!" And then, of course, there is that most famous of all rabbinic anti-miracle stories; the story of the debate between Rabbi Eliezer ben Hyrcanus and the other rabbis of the Sanhedrin. According to this story, Rabbi Eliezer disagreed with his colleagues over the ritual purity of a certain oven - a relatively minor matter. But Rabbi Eliezer was so convinced he was right that he would not relent. He brought forth every argument he could muster, but his colleagues refused to yield. In frustration, he turned to God for help, calling upon God to intervene miraculously in the debate. He said, "If I am right, this carob tree will prove it." The tree then moved 100 cubits from its place. The rabbis simply responded, "No proof can be brought from a carob tree." Rabbi Eliezer then said, "If I am right, this stream of water will prove it." The stream then began to flow backwards. Still, his colleagues responded, "No proof can be brought from a stream of water." Pressing his argument, Rabbi Eliezer continued, "If I am right, the walls of this house of study will prove it." The walls then began to cave in. Then Rabbi Joshua, the head of the Sanhedrin, shouted at the walls, "If scholars argue about matters of law, what right have you to interfere?" So the walls did not cave in entirely, out of respect for Rabbi Joshua, nor did they straighten up, out of respect for Rabbi Eliezer. Still unrelenting, Rabbi Eliezer said, "If I am right, heaven itself will prove it." At that very moment a voice cried out from heaven, "What do you want of Rabbi Eliezer? The law always agrees with his views?" Rabbi Joshua then stood up and cried, "It is not in heaven!", "it" meaning the determination of matters of Jewish law. Later, Rabbi Nathan met Elijah the prophet and asked him, "What did the Holy One, blessed be God, do at that time?" Elijah responded, "He laughed with joy and said, 'My children have defeated Me, My children have defeated Me." And still today, in the realm of religion, the struggle with miracles continues. Taking a more contemporary approach, Dr. Mary Hesse, an expert in the philosophy of science, looks at the question of miracles in light of modern theories of physics. In so doing, she observes that since Newtonian physics, with its sense of structure and order, has been discredited in favor of quantum physics, which is far more random and unpredictable, the notion of a miracle as a "violation" of a mechanical system no longer has meaning. Indeed, in a universe operating under the random nature of quantum physics, it is now far easier to believe that miracles are possible. But even if Dr. Hesse is right, and miracles are possible, we are still left with that perennial question, "Why don't miracles happen to us today, like they used to happen in biblical days?" If miracles are possible, why don't we witness modern day versions of the splitting of the Red Sea, or the miracle of the oil? Harold Kushner, in his wonderful book, WHEN CHILDREN ASK ABOUT GOD, addresses this issue. It is Kushner's contention that if we choose to believe that a miracle is something that happens which we consider impossible, then we have misunderstood what miracles are all about. Miracles are not impossible events; they are not suspensions of the laws of nature. Rather, "the important part of a miracle is that something entirely possible happened when it didn't have to happen, when there was no way human beings, by their own efforts, could have made it happen." If the less sophisticated minds of the ancients found the need to describe these events in supernatural terms, it was simply because they were not fully capable of understanding what had happened. We, today, however, may experience those very same miracles, but since we understand what is happening, we may fail to see the miraculous happening in them. So, for example, in our own day, we have witness several redemptions; we have witnessed the redemption of the Jews from the Soviet Union, and the redemption of the Jews from Ethiopia. There are those here this evening, or if not here this evening, at least alive in our community who witnessed the redemption of our people from the horrors of Nazi oppression and the establishment of the State of Israel, in spite of the overwhelming odds that were against them. Are these redemptions qualitatively any different than the redemption of the Israelites from Egyptian slavery, or the victory of the Maccabees over the forces of Antiochus? No, they are not. All that is different is our perception of them. Perception is a powerful player in our lives. It frames how we feel about and interact with the world around us. Our ancestors experienced life, and perceived in it miracles. We experience life, and perceive in it events. And when events occurs in our lives and in our world which, as Kushner describes them, are entirely possible but which didn't have to happen, and in which there was no way human beings, by our own efforts, could have made them happen, we may find ourselves being grateful, and we may find the world a friendlier and more cooperative place because of them, but we may not recognize them for what they are - modern day miracles. It is all a matter of perception. At this time of year, we are more susceptible to miracle stories. We want to hear them. We want to believe them. We want to know that there are healing forces in the world. We want to know that God cares about us and will make things right. But in truth, miracles are not solely reserved for this time of year. Miracles happen and they happen year round. They present us with a challenge. But the challenge is not, as many have supposed, the challenge of explaining them or understanding them or justifying them. Rather the challenge is placed squarely on our shoulders. It is the challenge of perceiving them and of appreciating them for what they are. May each and every one of us grow in our vision and learn to welcome the miracles which fill our lives. AMEN |
