The Miracles That Occur Every Day Feel Natural..

We treasure miracles. On a personal and communal level, we cherish thoses moments during which we feel some form of divine intervention..
in fact most of the holidays on the Jewish calendar celebrate a historical and miraculous occurance..
Weither it is the Israelite's extraordinary journey out of slavery in Egypt or the wonderous triumphant victory of a few Jewish Maccabee fighters..
over an oppressive Greek Empire--
a miracle certainly is a reason to celebrate..

Let us take a step back and analyze the phenomena we term a "miracle."
An interesting episode is recounted in the Talmud..
( a 60- volume compilation of Jewish thought and law)
that will " illuminate" the matter...
The first- century sage Rabbi Chanina was a renowned miracle worker.
Shortly after sunset one Friday evening, he noticed his daughter sobbing.
Upon asking her the reason for her distress, she explained that she had mistakeingly lit the Sabbath candles with vinegar instead of oil.
Rabbi Chanina comforted his daughter: " Do not be troubled, my dear.
The One who commanded oil to burn will command vinegar to burn.
" Needless to say, the candles did not go out..
In fact they burned untill the following night....
This story is so striking and unique because Chanina didn't respond by saying " Wanna see something amazing?
Watch this miracle!"
Rather, in the eyes of this holy sage, vinegar burning was no spectacular then oil burning..
Both phenomena were equally as godly. How so ?
The 17th century Rabbi Israel Baal Shem Tov once put it thus:
" The difference between a miracle and a natural event is only it's frequency."
In other words, a natural occurance is merely a repeated miracle that we have become familiar with.
It is a phenomenon that consistently duplicates itself, following a set pattern...
When it becomes a "stale miracle" we call it " natural".
The rising of the sun every morning is no less miraculous
than was the splitting of the Red Sea as the Jewish people
left Egypt..

For if the sea where to split every day at noon, we would call it a natural phenomenon.
And conversely, if the sun were to have risen once in world history, we would dub it a miracle..
Haveing this frame of mind can change our perspective on so
many of life's routines.
Instead of viewing our daily schedules as a state from which we
try to escape to a " fantasy" and " miraculous" world,
we begin to appreciate every nuance of the " natural "
and day-to-day life as a genuine gift and miracle ...

So if we cherish and pray for divine intervention..
If we truely cherish miracles, then we ought to value every moment of our lives--
for God is intimately involved in every nuance of our existence..
He's present at this very moment, even as you conclude reading this column..

By Raleigh Resnick