Q&A: Miracle and the Way of Nature
Miracle and the Way of Nature
Question
What is the difference between a miracle and the way of nature?
What is their definition?
Is there an essential difference in God’s governance between them, or is it only from our perspective?
Can God be in 2 different states?
For example, rest (when the world operates according to the way of nature)
and work? (when He performs miracles)
And what about the Sabbath?
There it is written explicitly that He worked for six days and rested on the Sabbath?
That certainly is not to be taken literally.
Is it possible that God explicitly writes that things supposedly happened even though it could not be so?
What other things did God write happened that did not really happen?
The questions are built one on top of the other, in an “if you will say” progression.
I would be very grateful for a response; these questions weigh on me and confuse me מאוד.
Answer
There are laws of nature. The laws describe regular behavior according to a fixed order. A deviation from those laws is supernatural conduct.
I did not understand the question about the difference in the Holy One blessed be He’s governance between these two. The laws operate constantly, and the miracle is the result of divine involvement at a particular place and time.
During the six days He created things, and in our language that is called working. Therefore we too are supposed to work on those days. The Torah also describes limbs and emotions of the Holy One blessed be He, and the purpose is metaphor, for the sake of our understanding.
Discussion on Answer
If possible, a translation into Hebrew? That will help me respond.
According to your answer, is a miracle by definition the use of the laws of nature for a specific purpose at a specific time?
If so, I would be glad for additional sources to expand on the subject, in light of an argument I had, since that was my claim.
You wrote, “There are laws of nature; the laws describe regular behavior according to a fixed order.”
According to that, supernatural conduct “should be behavior not according to a fixed order.”
Why are you bringing God into it?
Meaning, why is the opposite of the way of nature = divine intervention?
Let me sharpen the question:
It is possible to explain that God acts the same way in both situations; only from our perspective it looks like 2 different situations.
It is also possible to explain that there really are 2 different situations for Him.
Does that mean that in the natural state of the laws of nature, God does nothing, and when He performs a miracle—He acts?
If so, I would ask: how is it possible to say that there are 2 different states for Him? Action (miracle) and non-action (nature)?