GENESIS XLI:1-XLIV:17

THE MIRACLE IN JUDAISM

Our chapters coincide with the holiday of Hanukkah, a date that celebrates the Nes, the miracle that God performed so that the few could overcome the many, the weak could dominate the strong. It should be noted that the Nes is not a dominant event in Judaism. On the contrary, divine intervention through miracles constitutes a disruption of the order of nature. Huge, for example, is the fact that the sun rises and sets every day; That is the Nes, the miracle. Therefore, when Yehoshuaexclaimed Shemesh Begivon Dom, by imploring that the sun would not go down to allow his armies to gain victory thanks to daylight, was compromising the law of nature. 

By postulating the existence of a single God, Judaism affirms that there is a single will that governs the behavior of nature, regulates the celestial trajectory of the stars, determines that the horse produces another horse and not a cow, that the apple tree produces apples and not pears. While the miracle manifests the divine concern for the destiny of man whom he frees from a predicament through the extraordinary, extra-natural event, at the same time there is a risk that the person will rely on the miracle in the future, stop working and producing, and presuppose that God will solve the problem.

The “hand” of God is present in the unfolding of the drama between Yosef (Josepht) and his brothers, the fundamental theme of the weekly biblical text. However, it allows to shinewith absolute prominence the intelligence of Yosef. Yosef, who is now under the yoke of slavery, does not succumb or despise his talents: he uses them for construction.

While in the past, dreams had been the cause that led to the conflict and produced the hatred of his brothers, now he takes advantage of his abilities in this area, to get out of the predicament of imprisonment and then achieves a key position in the court of the pharaoh.

The miracle is a springboard that promotes a human response to a situation. It is not the solution. At the end of the day, the person must face the situation. The drama of the brothers leads ineluctably to the meeting after years of separation. Hatred will have to be resolved by them, no miracle will eliminate it: they will have to pass from a process of remorse to Teshuvah(repentance) for the crime they committed.

The Nes of Hanukkah occurs as a culmination of the years of struggle, not to give in to the powerful Syrian army. The real miracle of Hanukkah is that Matityahu and his sons, the Hashmonaim, did not lose hope in victory because they were sure of the justice of their cause. The fact that the oil of the Menorah (Candelabrum) was not exhausted to allow sufficient time to produce new quantities under the gaze of the Kohanim(Priests), served to deepen the faith, granted greater confidence in the feat of Yehuda HaMaccabi and his brothers, who restored sovereignty to the Jewish people. The Nes was not stipulated by Judaism as a substitute for human action. The miracle can be a momentary solution when no solution is in sight.

During the tragic period of the Holocaust, victims prayed for some miracle that would produce a forceful human response, the awakening of a universal conscience that would react to Nazi inhumanity. The miracle is an insufficient answer. Even though God rained Man (manna) from heaven to feed the Hebrews during their journey through the wilderness, the people complained that they had no meat. The Man prevented them from succumbing to hunger, but it did not satisfy their appetite. The miraculous parting of the waters of the Red Sea allowed escape from the pursuit of Pharaoh’s hordes, but they later had to fight Amalek.

Forty years would still be left in the desert, a period of conflict and danger, uncertainty and internal strife that forged the character of a nation. The Nes made possible the future development that was the result of the commitment and perseverance of the collective.