Q&A: The Holy One, Blessed be He, and the World
The Holy One, Blessed be He, and the World
Question
Hello Rabbi,
Regarding the lectures on the Holy One, Blessed be He, and the world:
a great many statements in the Talmud point to divine intervention in the world, or at least to His intent and direction.
This is, of course, after the Second Temple, a period in which there were no longer open miracles, a period similar to our own.
Why did the amoraim continue with this line of thinking even though there was no open intervention in the world?
Thank you.
Answer
Before you ask about the sages of the Talmud, ask about the sages of all generations down to our own day, who continue to hold this view. The power of inertia, and interpreting the plain meaning of the verses.
Discussion on Answer
Because of the midrash that speaks about Esther: Why is she called “the hind of the dawn”? Because just as the dawn is the end of the night, so Esther is the end of miracles. Esther was between the First and Second Temple. From here it follows that even though there are statements by tannaim that may have come from the days of the First Temple, and therefore they speak about miracles, necessarily none of the amoraim lived in a period in which there were miracles and open intervention of the Holy One, Blessed be He, in the world.
Yosef, on what basis do you determine that in the period of the amoraim there was no intervention and no miracles in practice? That is begging the question.