Parashat Sav- "Miracles and Skeptics"
**Candlelighting in Brooklyn, NY, March 21st is at 6:51 PM.
MInha, followed by Derasha and Arbit on Shabbat, March 22nd will be at 6:15 PM
Parashat Sav- "Miracles and Skeptics"
Towards the beginning of Parashat Sav (6:6), the Torah tells that the fire upon the altar outside the Mishkan burned constantly, day and night, without ever being extinguished. This phenomenon was, of course, a miracle; without God's supernatural intervention, it would be impossible for a flame to burn constantly without ever extinguishing for even a moment.
And yet, despite this miracle, the Torah requires the Kohen to arrange firewood on the altar each morning in order to sustain the fire (6:5). The obvious question arises, once the fire on the altar depended upon a miracle, why did the Kohen get involved? If God sustained the flame miraculously, what purpose was served by the firewood placed each morning by the Kohen?
The Sefer Ha'hinuch (anonymous work analyzing the 613 Biblical commands) writes that this command reflects a basic principle concerning miracles. Namely, whenever God performs a miracle, He does so in a way that allows room for the skeptics to ascribe the event to some natural cause. One classic example of this phenomenon is the famous miracle of the splitting of the Yam Suf (Sea of Reeds). As we read in the Book of Shemot (14:21), a fierce east wind blew throughout the night preceding the splitting of the sea, and allowed for the possibility of denying the miraculous nature of this event, and attributing it instead to an act of nature. Of course, such a claim would be absurd. The Sages tell us that the sea split into twelve different lanes, one for each tribe, and the ground was tiled for easy and comfortable walking. It goes without saying that this could not have possibly resulted from a strong wind. Nevertheless, God made a point of providing some flimsy basis for the stubborn, unyielding skeptics who would insist on denying God's existence and ascribing all events to the earth's natural forces.
For the same reason, the Torah commanded Aharon to arrange wood on the altar each morning. This ritual served to allow the cynics of Bene Yisrael the opportunity to deny the special miraculous quality of the Bet Ha'mikdash. In a sense, every miracle is a test of an individual's faith, determining whether he will realize the truth of God and His unlimited power, or stubbornly persist in rejecting this belief.
As we believe that God is the creator of the universe, it necessarily follows that we accept the possibility of miracles. If God created and rules over the earth, He necessarily has the power and authority to overturn the natural laws that He himself set into motion. The skeptics who reject miracles, and concoct strained interpretations of the miraculous events recorded in the Tanach, seek to undermine the most basic tenet of Judaism – the belief in God as the Creator. We, however, affirm the belief in miraculous events as part of our unwavering recognition of God as the Being who created the entire universe, and who thus has the unlimited ability to intervene and overturn the natural processes.
