Rabbinic notion of daily miracles: “Come and consider how many miracles the Holy One blessed be He, performs for people, and they are unaware of it. If a person was to swallow bread without chewing it, it would hurt them terribly, but God created people with mouths which lets them to chew and then swallow.” (Exodus Rabba 24:1).
Avraham Joshua Heschel talked about the mystery of the universe – how it came to be like it is and the rules that make it work – and how that makes us feel a great sense of wonder” (God in Search of Man).
Image source: Wikimedia Commons.
Albert Einstein: “There are two ways to live: you can live as if nothing is a miracle; you can live as if everything is a miracle.”
Peggy Noonan: “I think miracles exist in part as gifts and in part as clues that there is something beyond the flat world we see.” Peggy Noonan is a columnist for The Wall Street Journal. She has written eight books on American politics and culture. Quote is from: What I Saw at the Revolution: A Political Life in the Reagan Era (1990).
Rabbinic notion of daily miracles: “Come and consider how many miracles the Holy One blessed be He, performs for people, and they are unaware of it. If a person was to swallow bread without chewing it, it would hurt them terribly, but God created people with mouths which lets them to chew and then swallow.” (Exodus Rabba 24:1).
Avraham Joshua Heschel talked about the mystery of the universe – how it came to be like it is and the rules that make it work – and how that makes us feel a great sense of wonder” (God in Search of Man).
Image source: Wikimedia Commons.
Albert Einstein: “There are two ways to live: you can live as if nothing is a miracle; you can live as if everything is a miracle.”
Peggy Noonan: “I think miracles exist in part as gifts and in part as clues that there is something beyond the flat world we see.” Peggy Noonan is a columnist for The Wall Street Journal. She has written eight books on American politics and culture. Quote is from: What I Saw at the Revolution: A Political Life in the Reagan Era (1990).
Monday, July 9, 2007: He survived against all the odds; “now Peng Shulin has astounded doctors by learning to walk again. When his body was cut in two by a lorry in 1995, it was little short of a medical miracle that he lived.
It took a team of more than 20 doctors to save his life.
Doctors at the China Rehabilitation Research Centre in Beijing found out about Mr Peng’s plight late last year and devised a plan to get him up walking again. They came up with an ingenious way to allow him to walk on his own, creating a sophisticated egg cup-like casing to hold his body with two bionic legs attached to it.
He has been taking his first steps around the centre with the aid of his specially adapted legs and a resized walking frame. Mr Peng, who has to learn how to walk again, is said to be delighted with the device.
In November 2009, the Australian Daily Telegraph reported that Peng had opened his own bargain supermarket, called the Half Man-Half Price Store.
Rabbinic notion of daily miracles: “Come and consider how many miracles the Holy One blessed be He, performs for people, and they are unaware of it. If a person was to swallow bread without chewing it, it would hurt them terribly, but God created people with mouths which lets them to chew and then swallow.” (Exodus Rabba 24:1).
Avraham Joshua Heschel talked about the mystery of the universe – how it came to be like it is and the rules that make it work – and how that makes us feel a great sense of wonder” (God in Search of Man).
Image source: Wikimedia Commons.
Mordechai Kaplan explains the miracles in Jewish literature as reflecting the attempt “of the ancient authors to prove and illustrate God’s power and goodness” (Judaism as Civilization, p. 98) Kaplan maintained that these traditions concerning miracles were in conflict with modern thought, and that the belief in miracles that contravene natural law is a “psychological impossibility for most people.” (Questions Jews Ask, p. 155-156)
Peggy Noonan: “I think miracles exist in part as gifts and in part as clues that there is something beyond the flat world we see.” Peggy Noonan is a columnist for The Wall Street Journal. She has written eight books on American politics and culture. Quote is from: What I Saw at the Revolution: A Political Life in the Reagan Era (1990).
The real question for moderns is not can miracles happen, but did they and do they happen. As Hume recognized, the question is one of evidence. Many events that were seen in the past as miracles can now be understood as due to the operation of natural laws, even though Hume himself is less than categorical about the absolute necessity of cause: A) always to produce the effect, B) it usually seems to produce.
Undoubtedly, a modern Jewish believer will be far less prone to attribute extraordinary events to a supernatural intervention, but his belief in God’s power will not allow him to deny the very possibility of miracles occurring.
A Hasidic saying has it that a Hasid who believes that all the miracles said to have been performed by the Hasidic masters actually happened is a fool, but anyone who believes that they could not have happened is an unbeliever. The same can be said of miracles in general.
Monday, July 9, 2007: He survived against all the odds; “now Peng Shulin has astounded doctors by learning to walk again. When his body was cut in two by a lorry in 1995, it was little short of a medical miracle that he lived.
It took a team of more than 20 doctors to save his life.
Doctors at the China Rehabilitation Research Centre in Beijing found out about Mr Peng’s plight late last year and devised a plan to get him up walking again. They came up with an ingenious way to allow him to walk on his own, creating a sophisticated egg cup-like casing to hold his body with two bionic legs attached to it.
He has been taking his first steps around the centre with the aid of his specially adapted legs and a resized walking frame. Mr Peng, who has to learn how to walk again, is said to be delighted with the device.
In November 2009, the Australian Daily Telegraph reported that Peng had opened his own bargain supermarket, called the Half Man-Half Price Store.
In Israel, in order to be a realist you must believe in miracles.
At the creation of the State of Israel on May14th, 1948, David Ben-Gurion became the first Prime minister of Israel and its Defense Minister. For more information, see: http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/ben_gurion.html
The Scottish philosopher David Hume (1711-1776) launched an effective critique of miraculous claims. This sceptical rationalism was a major challenge to religious belief throughout the later 18th and 19th centuries.
From David Hume. An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding
A miracle is a violation of the laws of nature; and as a firm and unalterable experience has established these laws, the proof against a miracle, from the very nature of the fact, is as entire as any argument from experience can possibly be imagined. Why is it more than probable, that all men must die; that lead cannot, of itself, remain suspended in the air; that fire consumes wood, and is extinguished by water; unless it be, that these events are found agreeable to the laws of nature, and there is required a violation of these laws, or in other words, a miracle to prevent them? Nothing is esteemed a miracle, if it ever happen in the common course of nature. It is no miracle that a man, seemingly in good health, should die on a sudden: because such a kind of death, though more unusual than any other, has yet been frequently observed to happen. But it is a miracle, that a dead man should come to life; because that has never been observed in any age or country. There must, therefore, be a uniform experience against every miraculous event, otherwise the event would not merit that appellation….
What does the word “see” or “seeing” mean in each of these phrases?
“It is such a clear night, I can see a lot of stars”
“See that you keep these in the correct order”
“Seeing is believing”
“See, I told you so!!”
“When you mention summer, I see the beach and sand in my mind”
“He always sees the best in people”
“You are just not willing to see it my way!”
“Don’t worry, I have enough money to see me through”
“Why do you only see her faults?”
“Seeing as you are already up, can you please pour me a glass of water?”
“I see what you mean. I hadn’t thought of it like that”
“The last 10 years have seen a sweeping revolution in IT support.”
“I want to see how she handles this on her own.”
“I’ll see to that”
“Please see the guests to the door”
Below are some possible ways of understanding the use of the word ‘see’. Can you match the meanings below with the phrases above?
(a) observe
(b) imagine
(c) take note
(d) consider the fact that
(e) understand
(f) perceive
(g) accompany
(h) comprehend
(i) gain insight
(j) recognize
(k) pay attention
(l) take care of
(m) visualize
(n) experience
(o) __________________
Return to look at Bereshit 16:13 – the word ‘see’ is used 4 times – which senses of ‘see’ could be meant on each of these occasions? How do different meanings of ‘see’ change how we understand the passage?
1. As I was walking home I was thinking “wouldn’t it be great to have money to buy an ice-cream” – and then I saw a dollar coin in the gutter. 2. In the storm, a bolt of lightning came down and split the tree in half. 3. I fell off my bike speeding down the hill, but came out of it without even a scratch. 4. When the house down the street caught fire, I prayed that everyone would get out of the fire safely and they did. 5. I wake up every morning feeling fresh and ready to start the day. 6. When the forest fire was out of control, the wind turned and the rain came and put it out. 7. The fortune teller told my sister that she would meet someone and fall in love and she did. 8. God created the world in seven days. 9. Jonah was swallowed by a whale/big fish and survived. (Is this the same as no.8?) 10. I prayed that something bad would happen to the boy at school who is always teasing me, and then he broke his arm. (How does your answer here compare to your answer to no. 4?) 11. A standard 747 airplane weighs more than 910,000lbs when it is loaded, and yet it can still get off the ground!
As you do this, pay attention not only to what your senses pick up, but also about what is involved in the act of ‘seeing’ what is around you (you might find it helpful to think how each of the meanings of ‘seeing’ listed below are involved).
Find a place to sit (it might be outdoors, inside a room, amongst people, or somewhere you are alone – you decide).
Sit quietly for 10 minutes and concentrate on what you can see around you.
Write down your observations. Come back and share them with your class.
Some ways we use the word ‘seeing’
(a) observe (“I can see what you are doing”)
(b) understand (“I see what you mean”)
(c) recognize (“there are so any white cars in this parking lot it is hard to see mine”)
(d) visualize (in a furniture store: “I can just see us sitting at this table in our kitchen”)
Discuss what the term ‘miracle’ means in each of these sentences: 1. “It was a miracle he survived the accident” 2. “At Hannukah we talk about the miracle of the oil” 3. “When my baby brother was born and I saw him for the first time I thought ‘this is a miracle’” 4. “The lion tamer performed miraculous feats of daring” 5. “My biology teacher talks about the miracle of life on earth” 6. “It was a miracle that I got my homework done on time” 7. “The magician pulled a rabbit out of the hat – it was a miracle!’ 8. I used to take butterflies for granted, but now we have studied them, I think each one is a tiny miracle!
Sitting in the circle, one person begins by describing someone else in the circle very carefully – other’s in the circle need to figure out who it is. The first person in the circle to guess who it is correctly has the next turn in describing someone else in the circle. To make it more difficult, start with describing the more general features (that s everal others share) before describing more unique features of the person (eg, ‘brown hair’ before ‘red ribbons in their hair’)
Discuss what the term ‘miracle’ means in each of these sentences:
1. “It was a miracle he survived the accident” 2. “At Hannukah we talk about the miracle of the oil” 3. “When my baby brother was born and I saw him for the first time I thought ‘this is a miracle’” 4. “The trapeze artist performed miraculous feats of daring” 5. “My biology teacher talks about the miracle of life on earth” 6. “It was a miracle that I got my homework done on time” 7. “The magician pulled a rabbit out of the hat – it was a miracle!’ 8. I used to take butterflies for granted, but now we have studied them, I think each one is a tiny miracle!
In each case, make sure to explain your answers / responses.
Are there times you can be heard but not seen? Describe come situations
Are there times you are seen but are not heard? Describe some situtations
Can you look at someone but not really see them?
Can you see someone without looking at them?
Can you hear what someone says but not listen to them?
Do you expect friends to see you better than other people? In what ways?
Is there a difference between the way parents see you and the way teachers see you?
Is there a difference between the way parents see you and the way your friends see you
Do you think all your friends see you the same way?
Could a stranger see you better than your friends do?Could someone who disagrees with you see your point better than people who agree with you?
image source: shutterstock
Return to the questions above – try re-asking them about seeing and hearing God. (e.g.; Are there times when God is heard but not seen? Could you hear what God says but not listen to God? Does it make a difference if you see God as a parent or as a friend? Do you expect God to see you better than other people? In what ways?)
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