As parents and as educators, the task at hand sometimes feels impossible.
I once accompanied a group of secular students to a “Discovery” seminar. For those of you who are not familiar with the seminar program, it is an exciting and impressive display of hidden codes in the Torah.
Based on the vilna Gaon’s claim that everything, but truly everything, can be found in Bereishis, a group of Rabbis and mathematicians put it to the test and found hundreds of words encoded in their shortest skip (intervals of letters) in the Torah. The crowd was literally shrieking as they watched this glorious display of words appear before them. All of them, that is, except for Jill.
I asked Jill why she was so unenthusiastic, so unenthralled.
“I don’t get you people,” she said.
“If you’re so sure that G-d is the Infinite Being, why are you so surprised that He can do crossword puzzles?”
Yet here we are, thousands of years later, still excited that Hashem can assist the Jews in their victory and make a jug of oil last 8 days.
Why are believing Jews so impressed by miracles?
To understand this, we have to examine some of our favorite miracles in Jewish history. We have Chanukah, of course. Then there’s the miracles the Torah makes explicit like splitting the sea and the ten plagues, or those elaborated by the Midrash like Batya reaching out to Moshe or Pinchas carrying a body through a small door. The list goes on and on.
All these miracles have something in common. They were not a magic display wherein Hashem wows us with His tricks. They were a deviation from the natural rules of the world in response to an action performed by humans. Nachshon had to start walking even when the traverse was impossible. Moshe had to raise his staff. Batya had to reach out even when the reach was impossible.
As parents and as educators, the task at hand sometimes feels impossible. Raising moral children in a world gone morally mad. Teaching our kids to do what’s right in a world that’s all about doing what feels good. Imbuing emotional health in a generation of emotional chaos.
Yet, we believe and have always believed in miracles. That means believing that we have to and can do our utmost to accomplish what is within the realm of the possible, and to know that when we have exhausted our natural efforts, Hashem, who has no limitations, will take over where we left off.
Chanukah was the last of the great canonised miracles. From now on, the Jewish people will not be granted open miracles. We will have to find the miracle hidden in the natural world, much as the military victory of against the Greeks. As we move into the winter zeman and with Chanukah is behind us, we take hope in its message.
