It’s A Miracle!

In a recent video, Rabbi Elimelech Biederman cites the Ramban’s famous commentary on Parshat Bo. Hashem created the miracles leading to the Exodus from Egypt so that everyone would recognize from the hidden miracles, that everything is a miracle. In this way we should recognize that everything comes from Hashem. This is a foundation of Judaism 

How do the plagues and the splitting of the Red Sea lead us to this insight? The Chassam Sofer gives a parable of an artist who made a beautiful statue of a horse. It looked incredibly real. He put it out in the middle of a busy intersection so that people could admire it, but nobody paid any attention to it. This bothered the artist terribly. 

He mentioned this to a friend. His friend said the artist was being foolish. The reason that people weren’t paying attention was because the horse looked a like a real horse! He advised him to split it in half.  People would than see that it’s not a real horse and would admire his work. This is exactly what he did, and people noticed his great work of art and gave it rave reviews.  

Rabbi Biederman says that in a similar manner, a person gets up in the morning and looks at the beautiful sky and the clouds and the sun. Everything is running smoothly, and he doesn’t take any special notice how Hashem has put everything in a beautiful order for his benefit. Therefore, Hashem upset the natural order with miraculous plagues and the splitting of the Red Sea so that we would notice that nothing happens by accident. It’s all from Him. This way we should appreciate all He does to sustain us with kindness.  

Look at the lungs for example. We have over 300 million alveoli in each lung. Alveoli are tiny, balloon-shaped air sacs. Their job is to move oxygen and carbon dioxide (CO2) molecules into and out of your bloodstream. Our respiratory system also has millions of hair-like projections called cilia that trap dust and dirt particles and keep them from entering the lungs. If we didn’t have the requisite quantity of each of these, we couldn’t survive. The alveoli and cilia function without us even thinking about them, including at night when we are sleeping.  

Could a marvelous and complex human respiratory system have developed through the chance interaction of gases and molecules? What would have happened for the millions of years it allegedly took for respiratory systems to be developed through random genetic interactions? Could anyone have survived without the ability to breathe? 

Even if one were to accept the statistically outlandish notion that lungs developed by rolling genetic dice, how does one account for the fact that all the other mammals on earth have functioning respiratory systems? That would mean these species developed their systems through dumb luck.  

When we study and contemplate the respiratory system – and for that matter any other marvel of the human body – we will come to belief in the benevolent Creator and Master Designer to Whom we owe thanks and allegiance. When we do this, we reenact the spiritual journey of our father Abraham. 

In one of his recent videos Rabbi Shalom Arush says need to fight for our faith by realizing what we experience is not natural or happenstance. We need to be in awe of many phenomena that we tend to take for granted. We should thank Hashem endlessly to internalize an awareness and appreciation of His kindness and compassion. 

In his book Thank You Rabbi Zelig Pliskin gives us dozens of tactics to enhance our gratitude. One technique is to ask periodically throughout the day: “What am I grateful for right now?” You then state at least several items for which you are thankful. Certainly, many aspects of our health would be good examples to cite – precious gifts we might otherwise take for granted. 

One of my teachers taught me that when we recite the blessing Asher Yatzar to thank Hashem for our body functioning properly, we should do it with even more joy than when we recite the prayer Az Yashir which commemorates the splitting of the Red Sea. This is because there are many more miracles occurring in our bodies right this minute than what occurred at the time the sea split during the Exodus from Egypt. 

The Ramban says that what we call “nature” is nothing more than a miracle to which we are accustomed because it happens with regularity.  He adds that the entire purpose of Creation is for us to get to know the Creator and thank Him. That is the message we absorb from our repeated mention of The Exodus from Egypt in our prayers. Let’s be sure to stop, think, and thank. “This emanates from Hashem; it is wondrous in our eyes.” Psalm 118:23.