Q&A: A Miraculous Act Attributed to a Person
A Miraculous Act Attributed to a Person
Question
When Jonathan ben Uzziel was engaged in Torah study, any bird flying above him would immediately be burned. Let us assume for the sake of argument that this is meant literally: birds really were burned, and this was a regular miracle. Would he be liable for kindling on the Sabbath? On the one hand, surely yes, because for him this is the normal way of kindling, like striking a match; it is an inevitable result, and his Torah study in a place where birds are flying causes the burning. On the other hand, this is a miracle, and the One who kindles is the Holy One, blessed be He, so if He decided to kindle on the Sabbath, that is His business.
This is not trolling.
Answer
At most this is unintentional involvement, and is permitted. Something similar appears in the responsa Shevet HaLevi regarding walking in the street and turning on a light via a motion sensor.
By the way, in the simple sense, the bird was not burned because of a miracle from the Holy One, blessed be He, but because of the heat generated by the holiness of his Torah. It is a “natural” process.
Discussion on Answer
After we saw in column 376 that a bird needs only one second to fly upward and save itself from danger, one must wonder about the bird: why did it not sense, one second before approaching the head of Jonathan ben Uzziel, the blazing heat—something that should instinctively have caused it to move away from the place of burning?
It nevertheless seems, as the commentators say, that “a flying bird” means a thought, and that the holiness of his Torah immediately repelled any improper thought that arose in his mind.
With blessings, Menashe Perachi
With God's help, 27 Adar 5781
In Torat Chaim it is explained that the statement is literal: fire blazed around him, as happened with Rabbi Eliezer and Rabbi Yehoshua, when they were engaged in Torah and the words shone and rejoiced as at their giving at Sinai, and “fire descended and licked around them.” It is possible that Rashi too, who explained that “the ministering angels gathered to hear him,” and Rabbenu Hananel, who explained that “the radiance of the Divine Presence was in his seat,” understood that there was actual fire.
The Meiri and the author of Shevet Yehudah (cited in Maharsha and Iyyun Yaakov) explained, as I mentioned above, that “a flying bird” means a thought: any mistaken opinion was nullified immediately upon encountering Jonathan ben Uzziel, who would at once show the erring person his mistake.
If they interpreted “was burned” in the sense of “was nullified,” Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook (cited in The Dictionary of Rabbi Kook) explained that the thought arising in his mind became refined, elevated, and purified of all materiality: “The level of the study of Jonathan ben Uzziel was such that before the thought had time to become materialized through contact with matter, it was rendered precise and ennobled by the appearance of the soul’s supernal light, which had been greatly refined through the divine inspiration of his study.”
These words parallel the Hasidic explanation of the author of Yismach Moshe, that every “flying bird,” that is, an angel, “was burned,” meaning that it was elevated to the level of a “seraph.” The “burning,” then, is not destruction but elevation (and Maimonides already taught us that angels are thoughts).
With blessings, Menashe Levi Perachi
It is also worth noting the words of Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Kotzk, that the level of the teacher, Hillel, was greater than the level of the student, Jonathan ben Uzziel, because in the case of the teacher the fire was internal, without any external manifestation.
One should ask about this also from the standpoint of “perfecting the person,” “sustaining the world,” “service of God,” “purposeful labor,” and more—
since Torah study causes these things, and they are forbidden on the Sabbath.