Q&A: Prayer for a Miracle
Prayer for a Miracle
Question
Hello Honorable Rabbi, regarding the Mishnah in tractate Berakhot (one who cries out over the past) that one should not pray that God intervene in nature because this is a prayer for a miracle, perhaps it is possible to explain that one does not ask the Holy One, blessed be He, to intervene in nature when I know with certainty that its outcome has already taken place in nature (for example, a woman who is pregnant in the sixth month when already the sex of the fetus has been determined even though we do not see it but only know that it has been determined), but it is permitted to pray that God intervene regarding something whose outcome has not yet occurred in nature but will happen in the future in light of the physical circumstances that exist now and here and here it is permitted to ask the Holy One, blessed be He, to intervene and it is not considered a prayer for a miracle, even though the halakhic decisors did not distinguish in this way, then this distinction is necessary in light of the new knowledge that we have from science at this time.
In summary: it is forbidden to pray that God change nature in a place where we know that the outcome has already happened but if we do notknow that the outcome has happened in nature it is permitted for me to pray to God to intervene in nature and change the outcome in the future.
Answer
There is no logic to this at all. By the same token, one could suggest that people pray only about events that begin with the letters A-H.
Discussion on Answer
In case I didn’t phrase the previous question correctly,
the Mishnah says that one does not pray about something that has already happened, and it gave the example of a woman pregnant for more than 40 days (in the Talmud). But they certainly did not see clearly that the sex of the fetus had already been determined; rather, it depended on their knowledge! Why can’t one infer from this that as long as I do not know that the outcome has already been determined in nature, I can pray about it?
What’s the novelty? So today, when it is known that everything is determined, one cannot pray for anything. That’s what I wrote.
If the Rabbi can explain why there is no logic to it, it fits the Mishnah very nicely, as long as the examples the Mishnah used show that it depends on a person’s knowledge of whether the thing has already been done, and proof of this is that the Talmud assumed that before 40 days a person does not know that nature has already done its part, and then it is permitted to pray. So it would seem possible to conclude that as long as I do not know clearly that nature has already done its part, it is permitted to pray that God change the circumstances and change the outcome.
Maybe I’m talking nonsense, but it is Torah and I need to learn, and if I’m going to learn, then from the very best.