Those members of the Jewish people who follow the weekly Torah readings through each yearly cycle will know that we are right in the middle of the season for miracles. Over the past fortnight we’ve had all of the Ten Plagues and we are shortly to embark upon the splitting of the Reed Sea and the subsequent drowning of the pursuing Egyptian charioteers. Later we encounter the provision of manna from heaven—and more besides.
These
miracles share a common factor: they are all visible, perceptible to the naked
eye.
At Avot 5:7
we meet a list of ten miracles which, our sages teach us, God provided for our
forefathers in the Temple. The list looks like this:
לֹא הִפִּֽילָה אִשָּׁה מֵרֵֽיחַ בְּשַׂר הַקֹּֽדֶשׁ,
וְלֹא הִסְרִֽיחַ בְּשַׂר הַקֹּֽדֶשׁ מֵעוֹלָם, וְלֹא נִרְאָה זְבוּב בְּבֵית הַמִּטְבָּחַֽיִם,
וְלֹא אִירַע קֶֽרִי לְכֹהֵן גָּדוֹל בְּיוֹם הַכִּפּוּרִים, וְלֹא כִבּוּ הַגְּשָׁמִים
אֵשׁ שֶׁל עֲצֵי הַמַּעֲרָכָה, וְלֹא נִצְּחָה הָרֽוּחַ אֶת עַמּוּד הֶעָשָׁן, וְלֹא
נִמְצָא פִסּוּל בָּעֽוֹמֶר וּבִשְׁתֵּי הַלֶּֽחֶם וּבְלֶֽחֶם הַפָּנִים, עוֹמְדִים
צְפוּפִים וּמִשְׁתַּחֲוִים רְוָחִים, וְלֹא הִזִּיק נָחָשׁ וְעַקְרָב בִּירוּשָׁלַֽיִם,
וְלֹא אָמַר אָדָם לַחֲבֵרוֹ: צַר לִי הַמָּקוֹם שֶׁאָלִין בִּירוּשָׁלָֽיִם
No woman ever miscarried because of the smell
of the holy meat. The holy meat never spoiled. Never was a fly seen in the
slaughterhouse. Never did the High Priest have an accidental seminal discharge
on Yom Kippur. The rains did not extinguish the wood-fire burning upon the
altar. The wind did not prevail over the column of smoke [rising from the
altar]. No disqualifying problem was ever discovered in the Omer offering, the
Two Loaves or the Showbread. People stood crowded together but had ample space
in which to prostrate themselves. Never did a snake or scorpion cause injury in
Jerusalem. And no man ever said to his fellow "My lodging in Jerusalem is
too cramped for me."
Maharam
Shik comments on this. In effect, though we don’t see miracles manifesting
themselves before our very eyes, that doesn’t mean that we can’t sensitise
ourselves to the fact that something is happening beyond the merely natural,
mundane operation of the world. Even
statistical propositions can take the shape of perceptions of hashgachah
peratit—God’s personal supervision of a world that normally runs smoothly
in accordance with the laws of nature.
In short,
according to Maharam Shik, all we have to do is to keep our eyes open. On any
given occasion when we find ourselves in a fly-free slaughterhouse we may have
no reason to spot anything unusual. But if it happens again and again, but
doesn’t seem to happen in other slaughterhouses, the penny might eventually
drop that something special is happening.
Being aware
of hashgachah peratit takes many forms even today, even though there is
no Temple service and most of us are far from holy. But you have to believe in
its existence or you may not detect it. Here’s a trivial example: one
occasionally hears a person, not necessarily Jewish, saying things like “I must
have been doing the right thing when I decided to do X, because all the traffic
lights on the way were green”. If things like this happen even once, it feels
great but one is unlikely to read any great significance into it. But if they
happen every time, one begins to wonder.
The
standard daily Jewish prayer format of the Amidah incorporates within
its text the idea that miracles come in different shapes and sizes, possessing
markedly different effects. In the “thank you” section, in the blessing that
opens with the words modim anachnu loch (“we thank you”), we express
gratitude for “miracles that are with us every day” and for God’s “wonders and
favours that are in every season—evening, morning and afternoon”. On this basis
we say thank-you even for those miracles that are too small to notice, and for
those that cannot be seen at all.
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