Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Wonder of Wonders, Miracle of Miracles...

Baruch Atah, Adonai, Eloheinu Melech ha-olam, she'asah nisim lavoteinu bayamim haheim bazman hazeh
Blessed are You, Adonai, Our God, Ruler of the world, Who made miracles for our ancestors in those days at this time
from the Chanukah candle blessings

Last month, a congregant asked me about miracles and what Judaism thought about them. I said that Judaism said many things about miracles, but gave a short explanation of Maimonides' understanding of the supernatural. Maimonides, the medieval Jewish scholar from Arab Spain was a neo-Aristotlean. As such God was perfect - the ideal form. If, therefore, God was perfect, then God could never change - as that would imply that God had not been perfect in the first place. Miracles, which are supernatural - outside the realm of nature, would be changes for God. In another way, if God needed to suspend the rules of nature, which were created by God, then God had either made a mistake or overlooked something - neither of which was possible. So, by this logic, there could be no miracles. The question then arises of how to deal with the miracles described in the Bible. According to my teacher at Hebrew Union College in New York, Dr. Leonard Kravitz, Maimonides thought that the Bible was good, as far as it went. For those who needed miracles, there they were. For those who did not, they could see that it was for literary effect.

The problem that I have with miracles is that they are inherently not fair. Why should one person merit a miracle and another not? It is not that there are too many miracles, but not enough. I'm not comfortable with a God who decides to save this child and not another. I am much more ready to believe in evolution and genetics.

But, lest one say that a world without miracles is uninspiring to live in, I would not cast out the miraculous with the miracle. I may not believe in events that are contra-indicated by reality, but I still revel in those wonderful things that we see all around us. The very fact of our existence - one random mutation leading to another and another - is a wonder to be appreciated. Human beings able to communicate with each other, sharing feelings that go beyond words, are much more than random chance.

Now, back to Chanukah - one could easily be persuaded that the survival of the Jewish people, after the attempts of countless enemies to destroy us physically, religiously, culturally, politically, is evidence of many miracles. The Rabbis of the Talmud, uncomfortable with the miraculous victory of a dedicated band of guerillas over a mighty army, thought we had better focus on a supernatural miracle of oil. The survival of Judaism is no supernatural event - rather it is a proof of our ability to carry on fundamental values while adapting ourselves to the current situation in each and every generation.

In this Chanukah season, we should celebrate not what is beyond our power - or beyond nature, but rather what we can do, and have done, to build and re-build Jewish life. We take time, for eight days, to bless the God who created us able to re-make ourselves in this season, in every season, in our ancestors' time, in our time - to recognize the miraculous in our shared story.

Chanukah sameach