Miracles (2)

 

Nature And The Divine Names [part 2:2]

 

Rihal begins by discussing divine attributes which relate to God's actions in the world; and he later relates this to an additional area: the attributes attached to God's true name, the Tetragrammaton.  There are really two categories of divine attributes.  Rihal distinguishes between attributes which express God's intervention in our world through the forces of nature, and attributes which express His behavior as a creator of realities which transcend the laws of nature.

 

     Rihal relates: "The active divine attributes are borrowed from the actions which come from God through the medium of natural causes."  In other words, we use these descriptions to attribute the events in our lives to divine causes.  For example, when we speak of God as the One who makes us rich or poor, or as a jealous and avenging God, we are describing the effects of a normal life, with its social, financial and other aspects, except that we attribute these powers to God, their original source.

 

     The second category of divine attributes appears at first to be very similar to the former group.  However, upon closer examination we will find that the difference between them is not merely linguistic but fundamental.  This second group consists of the attributes "attached to the Tetragrammaton."  Attributes such as Creator and Maker of Great Wonders fall into this category.  These titles suggest God's absolute freedom, and His ability to transcend the laws of nature.

 

     The difference between these two categories is expressed well at the beginning of the Book of Exodus.  God appears to Moshe and states, "I appeared to Avraham Yitzchak and Yaakov [using the name] E-l Sha-dai, and using the name Tetragrammaton I did not appear to them."  Rihal explains that the lives of the forefathers were guided by God through the forces of nature; this type of guidance is described by the name Sha-dai.  Sha-dai means the divine power which acts through the laws of nature as opposed to the Tetragrammaton, which represents a complete departure from all natural laws.  A miracle is a departure from the laws of nature; even more so is the creation which preceded the laws of nature.

 

     In his commentary on this verse, the Ramban quotes the opinion of the Ibn Ezra, which is similar to the position of Rihal: "Using the name E-l Sha-dai refers back to the first part of the verse and it means "I have shown Myself to Avraham ... using the name E-l Sha-dai and through my name Tetragrammaton I did not make Myself known to them."  Until this point, we have a precise parallel.  However, the Ramban continues in the name of the Ibn Ezra:

 

"The verse that says that [God] appeared to the Forefathers with this name, [expresses] that He is the conqueror of the systems of the skies and performs great miracles with them in which the natural order of the world is not nullified.  During a famine He saved [the forefathers] from death, in war from the sword, and gave them wealth and honor and all manner of good things; these are all mentioned in the promises in the Torah, both the blessings and the curses.  For man receives good as a reward for a good deed and bad as a punishment for a bad deed only through miracles; and if man were to be left to his nature and luck, his actions would not add nor detract.  However, the rewards and punishments of the Torah in this world are all miracles and they are hidden [such that] the observers will think that this is the way of the world and man does not really receive reward and punishment.  Therefore, the Torah expounds upon the warnings in this world and not the promises for the soul in the world of souls for these are miracles and are against the natural progression.  While given the existence of the soul, and its devotion to God it is fitting that it would return to the God who gave it."

 

     The Ramban teaches that it does seem as though nature is following its own set of laws.  The world follows its natural course, and everything is left to chance.  Nature's random behavior cannot contain any concept of reward and punishment.  The behavior of the righteous person constitutes a natural cause which affects the behavior of nature.  The germs and the white blood cells that fight them, do not recognize this behavior, according to the laws of nature.  When ethical realities are expressed despite everything, this is a hidden miracle, a hidden system which fits itself onto nature.  Divine providence can be discovered in cosmic and human history; we detect consideration and relation to the actions of man, to justice and evil.  This fact, that hidden miracles exist, as an additional system of laws beyond the laws of nature, is what is described by the name, "E-l Sha-dai."  This is an additional force which enters the natural system, and it has a name: divine providence. 

 

     Thus, the Ramban teaches that we have three systems: there is the normal, natural system.  Although God is hidden behind it as well, this system is expressed (for instance) in the rains falling as a result of climatic changes, near or far.  At the opposite end, we have the revealed miracle which is the absolute departure from the laws of nature, and the classic examples are the great miracles and the creation itself.  Creation founded the laws of nature and did not act according to them itself.  Between these two systems stands a third system.  Within the recesses of nature there is another element: divine providence.  This element does not express itself through a dramatic breakaway from the natural framework; it functions within the system of apparently random events; in the meeting between various causes it becomes apparent that God directs nature.  The biblical descriptions of the lives of the forefathers are an example of the providential presence in nature.  This is a hidden miracle.  The story of Purim is a classic example of this type of hidden divine direction.

 

     Thus, we are faced with three possible types of dominion: the dominion of nature, the dominion of hidden miracles, and the dominion of revealed miracles.  The Rambam generally stresses two of these levels, the natural world, and the revealed miracle, although in his "Epistle Regarding The Resurrection of the Dead" he speaks explicitly about hidden miracles.  The Ramban coined the term "hidden miracle," and thus succinctly expressed Rihal's distinction between the attributes which are "borrowed from the actions which come from God through the medium of natural causes" and the "attributes which are attached to the Tetragrammaton," in other words, the action which take place as a result of the principle of the Tetragrammaton, the absolute departure from the boundaries of nature and its laws.

 

     Rihal teaches us something paradoxical at the end of this section in the Kuzari.  The forefathers were on a very high level.  Therefore, God did not need to use revealed miracles and could guide and direct their lives with hidden miracles.

 

The Existential Miracle

 

     The topic of miracles would not be complete without a final point from the teachings of Rabbi Nachman of Braslav.  In Rabbi Nachman's thought, the Land of Israel symbolizes faith.  Egypt symbolizes nature.  In existential translation, Egypt symbolizes the narrow pass that reality shows us.  [This is a play on the word Egypt, in Hebrew - Editor.]  We are sometimes locked into a situation of distress and pain, in narrow straits.  Yet even then, the Exodus can occur.

 

     We are shut into our particular situation, like Noach shut in the ark.  However, even if everything is shut and locked, there is always a window.  There is way out.  Our affliction is the rule of nature, from which we can escape.  Health is a miracle.  And we must believe that miracles can happen.

 

(This lecture was translated by Gila Weinberg.)