Witnesses and Miracles v. Magic and Fear
Hashem has made known His salvation; in the sight of the nations He revealed His righteousness. He recalled His kindness and faithfulness for the House of Israel; all ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God…” [1]
It is said that people love and yearn for miracles; this is a misperception. People tend to love magic and, evidence suggests, hate miracles intensely. The greatest miracle in human events is the faithful remembrance, endurance and survival of Israel amid invasions, libel, genocides and the perversion of its Torah. If there is a greater miracle it is the fulfillment in our times of the covenant and prophecies, from the patriarchs and Moshe to Malachi of the return of Israel in numbers to its inheritance and its blossoming against all odds, chief among them the “peace plans” of its ‘friend,’ Uncle Laban.
On the evidence, most people or at least, governments hate miracles as they hate Israel. What they love is magic and the supernatural, quasi-divine powers it promises: they prefer a culture that generates virtual reality, Amityville Horrors, 9/11 and routine butchery to Jews growing and tithing produce on their land.
The fascination that magic holds for most people, for wielding and observing irrational and unnatural powers is directly proportional to their tendency to hate, reject and destroy the Children of Israel. Among the many gifts of insight and action that Israel brought to the world is the concept and practice of how to pursue and learn from a miracle and, more important how to distinguish it from magic.
Magic is injustice, a fraud on creation and facilitates fraud upon human beings; miracles are of partly by and for people. They require witnesses and seek to realize justice including the ultimate justice, the providence of the Highest Wisdom.
As the epigraph from psalm 98 indicates, the essence of a miracle is the presence of witnesses who participate in, benefit and learn from it, who rejoice in justice, especially divine justice or providence which is closely bound to remembrance and the honoring of promises. It is the arrogance of those who never wish to be so bound, who wish to create their own ‘justice’ and amusements, and to worship these projections of their power who hate the witnesses and workers for miracles in preference for magic.
Today, as the perversion of Edom near their terminus, most people prefer Harry Potter to King Lear although, as with Torah, if the great text is well taught its well springs will open the heart of every being with a soul to its tale of free will, measure for measure learning, the struggle toward and wonder of miracles and the fact that even after helping achieve and enjoy them we remain human; a struggle in which everyone has a part to play [2]. It is by struggling to fulfill his “specific service assignment and challenge” that each individual participates in the unfolding of providence “even though it is beyond our intellect’s ability to grasp or understand fully how the Highest Wisdom” arranges it for good [3].
Contrary to the intellectual (and physical) pride of Hellenism, to its worship of reason that leads to worship of imagination and then to virtual reality and terror, a person cannot change the structure of the universe or nature “by making a statement to ensure himself a pleasant afterlife and all he knows about his faith is this one [individual] declaration” [4]. It is not enough for a person to say “I believe” and his deeds and their effects on nature, on the spiritual realm and on others become irrelevant. A human being cannot speak the structure of existence into new formation: “God is not a man,” human beings are not gods, or God as the third chapter of Genesis made plain [5]. A person cannot say “abra k’dabra and change creation; that is the Creator’s realm; the familiar phrase is in fact a corruption of the Hebrew that means “I created as I spoke” [6].
Israel is hated because it brought knowledge of the Creator into the world [7]; it brought the principle of structure, distinctions and limitation when people would rather indulge the rapturous feeling of infinite, sudden or willed metamorphosis; because it stressed the primacy of remembrance in a world where people would prefer to forget the past and its consequences; because it presented itself as the witness to the definitive intervention of the Divine into history that was witnessed by millions of people, the faith rooted in events so widely shared that thousands of years of assaults have not destroyed it. “The entire people saw the sound and heard” as Ramban and Rashi explain, they heard all ten commandments as one utterance that then was taught by Moshe; they saw the sound of the structure of existence. And all the Children of Israel saw the destruction of Pharaoh and his armies and “then they will sing” (az yashir) in the future as they sang of the Creator 3300 years ago: the witnesses’ faith sustaining them till the second redemption [8]. May this work be a contribution to it…
In bearing witness to history, to the role of the Eternal and Infinite One in history, to the preeminence of remembrance and loyal perseverance in faith, in the act of witnessing itself by many witnesses, by a nation, Israel’s embodiment of freedom gives it the hard heroic role in the world that the righteous man (tzadik) has for his generation or community: to atone for it, to spare it annihilation, to ensure or better its place in the world to come [9]. Thus tzaddikim, with Israel as prototype, “not only can rectify their own generation but also correct all the spiritual damage done from the beginning” (ibid). The Children of Israel, witnesses and embodiment of the distinction between miracle and magic are the Eternal One’s “intimate treasure” (Exodus 19:5) who shines and draws holiness to and from the world in an everlasting exchange that grows more vital as Israel is more gathered, intact and sovereign as a nation in its land, crowned “upon the mountains of Israel” (Ezekiel 37:22). This is how they persist and why they persist, to fulfill their place in the covenant as the Eternal One fulfills His, “giving praise at the mention of His holy Remembrance,” glad with the song of the righteous that is sown and given as light (psalm 97:11-12), a living grace realized in the fertility of the earth and the people.
Miracles require human involvement and rational effort though their efficacy and means may not be understood for long after they occur as the Creator indicated to Moshe when preparing to show and teach him the Names of mercy [10]. Miracles require not only human action but human witness to deeds which is why the formative event of the nation of Israel and of world history was the Exodus from Egypt and the revelation of the Eternal One’s sovereignty and rules for life from Sinai. And this is why the revelation of the “Names of Mercy” and the fact that they cohere with Truth and Justice are followed by a restatement of the covenant of the Land, “distinctions such as have never been created… and the entire people among whom you are shall see the work of Hashem, which is awesome – that I am about to do with you,” that is, to assist you in conquering and settling the Land (Exodus 34:10-17).
Thus the Exodus of Israel, its role as the witnesses of the Eternal One’s sovereignty and the carrier of the model of true freedom is closely and often associated in Scriptures.
”Thus said Hashem, He Who made a way through the sea and a path amid the mighty waters, Who brought out chariot and horse, army and force which lie all together, never to rise…fear not, O Jacob, the One Who fashioned you, O Israel, fear not, for I have redeemed you…you are My witnesses, My servant whom I have chosen! (Isaiah 43:1-17). And the Eternal One emphasizes that He has fashioned and “perfected” Israel “as a people to declare My praise” not for Him, the Infinite Who needs nothing but for all people, “in order to liberate those who are blind” with their other gods, projections of their selfhood and magical raptures that pervert wisdom to folly, wealth to poverty, seed to desolation, life to death, peace to war and true freedom to subjugation to the work of their own hands and their fantasies of global dominion, to say abra k’dabra and ‘improve’ creation [11]. It is in our twilight times that the overweening designs of Gog, the “roof” or arrogance of the world and its projected power, Magog comes in fury against Bar Nofli and the fallen booth of David, Israel near the end of the long night of the lie during which Israel “eats ashes like bread” [12]. But history is witness to the truth: no other people ever have made the land blossom, and now it has blossomed again: “you, O mountains of Israel shall shoot forth your branches and bear your fruit for My people, Israel” [13]. Israel always has been unique by illuminating the bond between history, deeds, faithful witness and miracles, working for redemption.
Israel has been the true witness, relating the kindness of the Creator in the dawn, and His faith in the night” (psalm 92:3); thus, “He will arise and how Zion mercy” for at the appointed time “the downfall of all the false powers men worship” will lead to joy at the revelation of the Eternal One of Israel’s sovereign power. “God’s sovereignty, so brightly evident in Israel’s restoration will lead to a better knowledge of God and the instruction Israel can give the world regarding true worship” [14]. Yet the war process of Edom’s shalom kerua continues its sway, “for a little while.”
Be at peace; they will not endure. Their violent arrogance deforms grace into horror that will consume itself in bewildering terrors, a blood-dimmed tide that will drain away and leave wreckage as rocket barrages turn a forest to ash; but from the ashes, beauty renews and truth sprouts from the earth. “It will be that a handful of grain on the mountaintops will flourish like the Lebanon and people will blossom forth from the city [Jerusalem] like grass from the earth…” For Israel in its witness, remembrance and endurance, — its standing will fulfill the service assignment of the righteous man as it states: “and your people are all tzaddikim, they will inherit the land forever, a branch of My planting for Me to glory in…in its time, I will hasten it” (Isaiah 60:21-2). Both paths are taken as the servants and witnesses of the Creator’s miraculous providential order struggle with their challenges and fulfill their service assignment. Thus they are a well spring that eternally strengthens and brings the entire human family to songs of freedom, joy and enduring sustenance where everyone can “buy and eat without money” [15].
This beautiful metaphor reminds us to distinguish and choose witnesses and miracles, not magic: “do not imagine that in the era of Mashiach the nature of the world will change, or there will be innovations in the work of creation.” The words of the prophets on this are “metaphors and parables indicating that the hostile nations will learn to live in peace with Israel.” The ensuing joy is the antithesis of magic, the magic of the war process of the world security state, its media sorcerers and “bewildering terrors.” In this Erev Shabbat of history, the American age the lies are breaking down and the Malkhut Yisrael will rise from the ashes. As Rambam notes, “There will be no difference between the current age and the era of Mashiach except the liberation of Israel from foreign subjugation” as at the first redemption from Egypt [16]. People will make this miracle: Israel will begin and the Eternal One will complete. “Listen to Me, nation with My Torah in its heart…Awaken, do not fear! Then the redeemed will return to Zion and come with glad song,” az yashir [17].
1. Psalm 98: 2-3 cf. Isaiah 52:9-10; “the spirit which blooms in song has its well springs in Zion” Rav Hirsch writes on tehillim 67 (Feldheim 1960; 1997) and translates its first verse, “to Him Who grants victory through the power of music.” Thus “all inhabitants of the earth open their mouths in joyous songs and play music” at the time of Israel’s redemption (all except Amalek) as at the Exodus from Egypt. Indeed, all living things, all elements will “clap hands and exult together” at this proof of justice (98:4-10). As for those occupying the Promised Land, “trembling gripped them there, convulsions like a women in travail” (psalm 48:7)…
2. Rambam, Hilchot Melachim 11:1-3, translation, notes by R’ Eliahu Touger, (Moznaim 1987); on the value of every person participating to make a miracle see the crossing and song of the Sea (Exodus 15) and Deut. 29:9-14. To know your part you must remember your origins and assignment from providence.
3. Ramchal (Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzato), Derekh Hashem 2.3.1 passim, “Providence and Individual Providence” c.1735, (Feldheim 1979; 1997 revised edition of the Aryeh Kaplan translation)
4. Yehuda HaLevi, Kuzari, 1.110, Kalman Steinberg (Jerusalem 2000); 1:83-115 passim; “do not believe that a person can rely on his intellect for knowledge of the Divine…such a lofty level cannot be attained solely by contemplation” either (Kuzari 4:5-6, 11-13): fact, witness, remembrance and practice of statutes bond humans to the Divine Wisdom, Mercy and Truth.
5. Numbers 23:19-22; 1 Samuel 15:29; Genesis 3:4 passim
6. Aryeh Kaplan, Sefer Yetzirah, the Book of Creation (Weiser, 1997 revised)
7. The sages comment frequently on the shared root of Sinai and sinat, “hatred” as the source of the world’s hatred, from the first of Israel. Israel’s bond to the Creator at Horev occasions the difference that makes it a target for the world’s sword, Herev (the Hebrew root is identical). “Much have they distressed me in my youth, let Israel declare it now, much have they distressed me, — but they never conquered me” [totally to yield my faith and practice]. The miracle of Israel’s redemption, survival and mission is anathema to the nations that prefer magic and self-worship (psalm 73) so they “drive their plow” across the back of Israel “but they never conquered me” (psalm 129). This hatred is a hatred of the Creator and the orderly creation, “let Israel declare it now” (129:1 cf. 83); they cannot accept Israel’s modest homeland or role to teach by example. Their envy is a monster of hatred and source of their audacious identity theft.
There is congruence and charge of holiness between Sinai and the Temple Mt., Mount Moriah for both are “the mountain of God.” At Sinai the Creator formed Israel as a holy nation (am segula) and as a single man with a single heart they accepted his everlasting covenant. At the Temple Mount they demonstrate, enact and renew that covenant daily, realizing the vision of Jacob’s ladder, the structure of creation.
8. The Torah, Haftarot and Five Megillot with Commentary (Mesorah 1993), 406-7 on the Ten Commandments; this witness by an entire nation is unequalled. Amalek’s fury is that it demands worship of “the man who never returned” and, evidence suggests, never was there to begin with, yet this invention without known witnesses, this magic is meant to replace Israel. This is why “the nations rage” and to this day “plot furiously together” against the Creator and His chosen people, His witnesses. They seek to erase the past so that the lie will bury truth for which there is abundant evidence, a reality principle stressed by Israel and its teaching. But the dominion of Edom is failing in war that pretends to be peace, in horror that adorns itself as glittering superficial grace that desolates seed; the era of birth and population “control” signals Edom’s end in sterility and death.
9. Ramchal, Derekh Hashem 2.3.8 &10, passim and cf. psalm 85: 9-14 that speaks of the Almighty Creator’s glory and salvation of Israel and references Abraham, Jacob, Joseph and David coming together as did Yehuda and Joseph so that “truth will sprout from the earth” in the sovereign royalty of Israel.
10. Exodus 33:18 -34:7: “My Glory shall pass before you” but you shall be able to “see only My back,” only in retrospect will you understand how all of providence is arranged for Mercy and also Great Kindness and Truth, a Higher Wisdom or reisheet (“foundational principles” or “wisdom”) as Ramchal explains as did Onkelos in his definitive elaborative paraphrase translation of the Torah almost two millennia ago.
11. The paired dualities inhere in the Hebrew double letters (letters that can be pronounced hard, with an interior vowel, or soft, in which history culminates in holiness in marital fertility the path rejected and suppressed by the makers of the world state, the crushers of Israel and sorcerers of media magic and lies. See Kaplan on the double letters as explained by the Vilna Gaon; Kaplan, op. cit. 161-9
12. Ezekiel 38; Sanhedrin 96b5 -97a1 passim, Amos 9:11, Psalm 89:52; “the truth will be absent and he who turns away from evil [from the wonders of the nations] will seem foolish,” 97a2 cf. Isaiah 59:15 (Mesorah 2002), Talmud Bavli, Sanhedrin III, notes Dicker, Elias & Katz, et al; cf. Zohar 23b on bereishis and psalm 102, the tenth of the ten chants, “the evening prayer…like the just man, poor and parched. This is the seed of Jacob,” Israel in exile.
13. Sanhedrin 98a1, Rav Abba on Ezekiel 36:8
14. Rav Hirsch on psalms 92, 97 and 98; Israel’s witness and “knowledge of God’s Name [cf. Exodus 3:13-17] gives it the stamina to complete its long, trial-filled walk through history.” See Ramchal, supra and on Israel’s “service assignment” and “the nations’ last chance,” 2.4.4-9
15. Pirke Avot 2:10-11, cf. Isaiah 55:1-5 on Genesis 49:11-12, Zechariah 14:8-9; “it will be a unique day” and a unique light but it will be very real when all remaining peoples will ‘flow upstream’ (a metaphor used prominently by iconoclast Percy Shelley) to the House of the God of Jacob, a real place of holiness, built by human hands and presided and prayed over by human beings, “a house of prayer for all peoples.”
16. “The Song of the Sea” memorializes the first redemption. Rambam, Hilchot Melachim 12:1-2; “the wicked gentiles are likened to a wolf and a leopard: a wolf from the wilderness will spoil them and a leopard will stalk their cities” (Jeremiah 5:6). The import of the metaphors of Isaiah 11 is the same, he notes. “They will return to the true faith,” for them the laws of Noah (Melachim 8:9 -10 inclusive, and Sanhedrin 55-59), “and no longer steal or destroy.” Rambam comments that “the general principle governing” the importance of the Bnei Noah following the laws for mankind rather than trying to create a ‘new improve’ Judaism, “they are not to improvise a new religion for themselves based on their own religion” but “to study the seven mitzvot only” (ibid. 10:9). The history of the West, no self-destructing testifies to its failure to walk by this simple rule. For gentiles, the yoke indeed is light; but their leaders and then most of them cannot accept the witness, obligation and place of Israel.
Amalek, the haters and attackers of Israel always is “the first among nations, but it too will be forever destroyed” (Numbers 24:20); then there will be peace. Israel, in its witness and might will work the real life miracle of destroying it, with the Creator’s help, as commanded (Exodus 17:8-15, Deut. 25:17-19; Melachim 1:1 passim). “Remember…don’t forget.”
17. Isaiah 51:3, 7-11; in closing as at the beginning, the witness to, participation in and remembrance of the Exodus is the touchstone for the miracle of endurance and vitalized blossoming of song.