Q&A: Miracles
Miracles
Question
So is the Rabbi basically claiming that since there is no gap in nature, there is no way for God to enter in a natural way, and assuming there are no miracles except perhaps in specific cases? If so, I have two questions.
1. Is the Rabbi sure there is no gap in nature? Have we really cracked the formula of the galaxies so completely that there is no room for what is called an operation without any lawful force that repeats itself — a force that appears random?
2. Why not assume that God intervenes in the world constantly (according to His thought, of course), and that the intervention is miraculous but hidden, since if it were revealed there would be no choice to do evil because everyone would be afraid, and if it were not hidden at all then there would be no reward for good or evil?
Answer
- Nothing is certain, including in science. Are you certain that there are miracles? We act based on our assumptions and conclusions. The scientific conclusions are at a high level of certainty. But complete certainty does not exist.
- You can assume whatever you want. If He is playing hide-and-seek with us, then indeed we will not discover Him. In general, it is also possible that the law of gravity is playing hide-and-seek with us. In fact, it is not correct even without God's involvement. Rather, every time it is measured, it appears in its familiar form.
Discussion on Answer
I have already explained this many times. Maybe this and maybe that. There is common sense.
In any case, Rabbi, common sense also means knowing that I do not know, and knowing how to understand what is preferable: to bring a new theory, which is also doubtful as you said, or to remain with the outlook of our rabbis throughout the generations, which indeed may also be doubtful. But I have no reason to leave the accepted doubt for a new doubt.
True.
Now if the matter is not certain,
why should I or you depart from the tradition of the Sages and from the plain meaning of the Torah? From the simple understanding that if God gave commandments and said that whoever keeps them will have good, and whoever does not, then not — that God intervenes in the world, does intervene, and hears prayers. You do not have to look at it in a Haredi way, that God intervenes in every single thing and everything is like a puppet game that God is playing at this very moment, but one can certainly argue for intervention, and there is no need for the theory you proposed that God leaves the world. Because He does not leave and will not leave; with Him there are no changes. The changes are only on our side, in that we experience fewer miracles, etc., exactly like the accepted explanations about God's hiddenness.
Without a doubt, in philosophical thought there is no gap in nature because everything is causal, but philosophy is one thing and reality is another. From the standpoint of philosophy, we would never have imagined quantum theory. Maybe, simply and innocently, there really is some kind of gap that is "random," through which there is an option for change. Of course this is only theoretical, but for something that is not certain, in my opinion it is plainly wrong to neglect the tradition of the Sages and the plain meaning of the Torah.
As an aside, perhaps if such a gap exists, then the words of the Sages who permitted prayer about the future but not about the past become understandable.