Q&A: Belief in Rabbis’ Miracles
Belief in Rabbis’ Miracles
Question
Hello Rabbi!
Does the Rabbi think it is reasonable to believe the miracle stories told about Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu, the Baba Sali, the Lubavitcher Rebbe, and others?
I would be glad to understand why.
Thanks in advance,
Ariel
Answer
There is no point in getting into a definition of rationality. That is a semantic and unnecessary discussion. The question is whether it is reasonable, not whether it is rational. In my opinion, no. The reason is experience. In my experience, this usually does not happen, and when such stories are told and someone checks seriously, they usually discover either lies or errors in thinking.
In general, if they had the ability to perform miracles, I would expect them to make more use of it to save people, foresee things, and so on.
Discussion on Answer
Good luck to them and to you.
Moshe is raising an interesting point here. Does Mount Sinai seem reasonable to you?
The Rabbi is claiming that miracles too could be something reasonable.
But he hasn’t had that in his experience, so Mount Sinai also hasn’t been in my experience!
Whether it is interesting or not is a matter of taste. I have to say that in my eyes, not really. But beyond whether it is interesting, there is also supposed to be a question here, and as I understand it, there isn’t one. What does Mount Sinai have to do with miracles? About the revelation at Mount Sinai there is an entire tradition that testifies to it. How is that similar to a miracle that some person says happened to someone else? Am I lacking fools?!
In my experience, the revelation at Mount Sinai also didn’t happen….
(P.S. There are many people—who are authorities—who had things like this happen to them.)