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Based on Yismach Yisrael and other sources in
Kabbala and Chasidut
Both nature and miracles are from G-d, but what is the
difference? Many who believe in G-d may find this question naive. Of course
everything is from G-d they will reply. Nature is the law G-d established at the
time of creation, which regulates the processes of the world in accordance with
certain principles (usually cause and effect). This is how this world operates,
they will tell us. On rare occasions, because of some special need, and for
someone who has extraordinary merits, G-d may override the laws He has written
into the cosmos and will perform open miracles which seemingly have no physical
cause. This is the case with all the miracles mentioned in the Bible and in the
words of our sages.  | | " ...Would it not be correct to say that this is a constant miracle, it is just that we have gotten used to it?" | | |
However, what precisely is "nature"? For example, what
causes grain to grow? The obvious reply is that once the soil is prepared by
plowing, and the seed has been sown and the ground properly watered, the
presence of natural causes bring about the growth of the grain.
But while the forces which G-d has implanted in
Creation, i.e. "nature", bring about the growth of grain, why do these
factors cause the growth of the grain?
Nature is a miracle
But if we go into this more deeply we realize that
there is no answer to the question why "nature" works the way it does. An effect
follows a cause. All we know is that this is what invariably happens. Would it
not be correct to say that this is a constant miracle, it is just that we have
gotten used to it!?
Don't we see the same miracle in the growth of a seed,
which is sown in the earth and rots away, until a new shoot comes forth out of
the rotting material. Why should not this event, too, be considered a kind of
resurrection of the dead? In fact it is. The only difference is that we are used
to the resurrection of seeds but it would be hard to accept resurrection of
people. But if the situation were reversed, we would call the resurrection of
bodies "nature" and the resurrection of seeds "miracle". | | " There is no essential difference between the natural and the miraculous..." | | |
The truth is that there is no essential difference
between the natural and the miraculous. Everything that occurs is a miracle.
There is no other cause than the will of G-d and no other consequences than His
deeds and His conduct in the world. What He wills comes into being without need
of any intermediary. We call it a miracle when G-d wills an occurrence which is
novel and unfamiliar. Subsequently we become more aware of the hand of G-d. We
call G-d's acts "nature" when He wills that certain events occur in a
recognizable pattern with which we become familiar.
This familiarity presents us with a challenge. We can
choose to recognize that these events, too, have as their sole and immediate
cause the unfettered will of G-d. Or we can imagine that G-d has delegated
certain powers to "nature", and that within the realm of nature man too has the
ability to influence events by the process of cause and effect. The whole
concept of "nature" is thus nothing but a test for the human being. Nature has
no objective existence; it is merely an illusion which gives man a choice to
exercise his free will: to err, or to choose the truth.
Let vinegar burn
Let us imagine an individual who by dint of enormous
spiritual effort has successfully overcome the challenge of "nature", so that
the natural no longer presents any problems to him. There would no longer be any
need for Heaven to deal with him through the obscuring veil of nature. Miracles
would become commonplace for him. | | " He Who told oil to burn can tell vinegar to burn..." | | |
There have been rare individuals of this sort in our
history. One of them was Rabbi Chanina Ben Dosa, whose daughter once by mistake
put vinegar instead of oil in the Shabbat lamp. He said to her: "Why are you
sad? What difference does it make? He Who told oil to burn can tell vinegar to
burn," and the vinegar burned all Shabbat until they lit the Havdala
light from it after Shabbat. (Talmud Taanit 25a) The meaning is that
Rabbi Chanina had reached the level where he recognized, not only
intellectually, but deep in his being, that there was indeed no difference
between nature and miracle. Consequently, so far as he was concerned there was
no need to keep up the pretense of "nature". And for him oil and vinegar were
indeed equally flammable.
The miracle of Chanukah | | " The eight days Chanukah return us back to the mindset that all that G-d does for us is miraculous..." | | |
This is one of the most powerful lessons of Chanukah.
The Greeks wanted to impose their calculated way of thinking upon Jewish wisdom.
The Greeks thought that G-d created the world then left it up to nature to run
its course. And their nature-based mythology reflects this, and this idea gained
headway until a significant number of Jews believed Greek philosophy. Only a
minority of Jews, mainly the priestly family of the Hasmoneans, remained true to
the Jewish view of G-d and nature.
That gives us an answer to an ancient question. If the
Hasmoneans found one jug that contained enough pure oil to light the menorah for
one day, why was Chanukah established for eight days? The miracle was only for
seven days and that should have been the span of the Chanukah holiday. Yet when
we understand that even nature is really a miracle, then the lighting of that
one day's worth of oil was it self a miracle, not a natural act to be considered
haphazardly. The eight days Chanukah return us back to the mindset that all that
G-d does for us is miraculous. It just takes a little extra introspection to
remember it.
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