By the Grace of G-d
Dear Friend,
As a rabbi, people confide in me. The problems they share with me sometimes seem insurmountable.
In those untenable situations the only thing I can do is offer an empathetic ear.
It is at those times that I find myself saying ‘if only I had a magic wand…I would solve the problem’.
Do I really want a magic wand solution to problems?
Yes, and no.
Paradox?
Indeed!
Yet eminently livable.
Avraham did have a kind of magic wand. The Talmud speaks about a special stone the Avraham possessed that had the power to heal sickness in a miraculous way. When Avraham passed away, G-d did not leave the miraculous stone available to us mortals any more.
Now, if Avraham had a miraculously endowed healing stone, why do we find in this week’s portion that after his circumcision he was in pain.
Why didn’t Avraham use his miracle stone to heal himself?
The answer is that Avraham didn’t want to employ miraculous short-cuts when it came to fulfilling G-d’s instruction to him of circumcision.
The whole purpose of G-d’s instructing him to circumcise was to place a G-dly sign into the physical flesh. The experience was to be a fusion of two worlds.
The G-dly command of Brit Milah was to be embedded in the physical flesh of Avraham. In the physical world the result of cutting flesh is pain. To truly be a fusion of heaven and earth, that pain needed to be felt in the physical flesh of the one who was being circumcised.
Avraham was not about to circumvent that unique bringing together of the holy and the mundane by employing miraculous means.
G-d Himself did not want to interfere with Avraham’s earthly observance of the mitzvah either. Thus He did not heal him immediately after the Brit. It was only on the third day that G-d came to visit Avraham and sent Rafael the angel of healing to heal him. By day three it was already not a wholly supernatural healing. After three days’ circumcisions begin to heal naturally.
That’s a lesson right there to all of us.
Stop looking for the ‘magic wand’ to free you from the exertion and efforts that loom before you.
Don’t feel threatened or overwhelmed when doing the right thing looks hard.
On the contrary.
Embrace the challenges. Roll up your sleeves and get to work. The no-nonsense, no-shortcut path is the most meaningful.
Because it’s what G-d intended for us in the first place.
Recognize that G-d places us here on this earth, not only to arrive at a particular destination.
The very journey itself is what He wants of us.
G-d placed us in a physical world, where things don’t just happen by themselves in a miraculous way, not because he doesn’t want us to have good lives. Rather it is because he desires and cherishes our input and efforts. By working in the physical world according to spiritual ideals, we are impacting the world and elevating it.
G-d wants our physical life and all the efforts we expend in doing a mitzvah, to be imbued with a connection to G-d.
That’s why doing the right thing requires effort.
Having miraculous bypasses to obviate the need for natural and sometimes even strenuous efforts would not be the proper way to serve G-d. It would be missing the very point that we are placed here for.
Click here for a story that illustrates this point.
It also gives us a healthy perspective on spending money.
All too often, doing the right thing is not cheap.
Does it seem like living a Jewish life costs extra money?
If it seems that way, it’s probably because it is that way.
A non-Jew doesn’t need mezuzahs on their doorposts nor do they require an Etrog on Sukkot. Fulfilling the mitzvahs have an unavoidable expense.
Rather than resenting spending money on a mitzvah, rejoice in the additional expense. Recognize the beauty and holiness of it.
When you use your hard earned money to perform a mitzvah you are refining and elevating the materialism that money represents.
Getting something for free takes away that process of the elevation of your money and the efforts that earned you the money.
Do I want the ‘magic wand’?
According to what I have written above, no. For its our natural efforts which G-d wants of us.
Yet, as Jews we certainly do want miracles as well.
The birth of Yitschak described in this week’s Parsha says it loud and clear.
Abraham was one hundred and his wife Sara was ninety when their son Yitschak was born.
A miraculous, nature-defying, conception and birth.
Yitschak was the first Jew by birth.
As the forefather of the future Jewish nation his coming into existence in such a miraculous way, was an indication of the supernatural future of the Jewish nation.
Am Yisrael has always been a miraculous nation. It started that way, and has continued that way till this very day. And so it will be forever.
Yes to miracles or ‘no thanks’ to miracles?
Sounds contradictory.
I have a simple resolution for this contradiction.
Leave it up to the Almighty.
While I definitely pray to G-d for miracles, I understand that in the absence of miraculous otherworldly assistance, it is precisely my enthusiastic and persistent efforts that G-d awaits.
G-d sometimes makes miracles.
Sometimes He doesn’t.
Not because He can’t, but because He doesn’t want to.
It may be the G-d wants you to shvitz a little as you work through things according to the natural course of the world operating according to the laws of nature.
For those who have access to the Mega Lotto, consider that if He decides to have you win the lottery, it may not be a bad idea to buy a ticket. One ticket is enough though. And don’t hang around twiddling your thumbs till you win. You may not be the winner
It’s actually really simple. A Jew wants to do what G-d wants them to do.
Which is to work naturally on the one hand. Pray for G-d’s blessing in making one’s natural efforts successful. As well as praying for G-dly miraculous intervention. Once those blessings come, its not time to rest, rather one must use those G-dly blessings as a stepping stone for even greater efforts.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Yosef Kantor