"Miracles are the retelling in small letters of the very same story which is written across the whole world in letters too large for some of us to see." (C.S. Lewis)
Hanukkah is the season of miracles. Every year, for as long as I can remember, the melodies of “Maoz Tzur” and “Hanukkah, Oh Hanukkah”, the smells of latkes and sufganyot, the sights of the lit hanukkiah in the window and falling snow, yes even gentile Christmas lights, have served to recall to mind miracles of the past. As we sit around the table and sing and light the hanukkiah with friends and family, we recount the great works of Hashem and the things He has wrought, not only in our lives, but in those of our ancient ancestors – the Maccabees, David, Moses, Abraham – in the life of every Jew throughout the ages. Moreover, we do not only reminisce about the past, but we pray for miracles to be wrought for us once again during this season.
Meditating on miracles, have we ever asked ourselves what a miracle actually is? Have we contemplated the nature of what we deem “a miraculous act”, an “act of God”, etc.? Do miracles consist of small things that are initiated by God, such as a sunrise or a rainbow, or are they only apparent in the big things, the out-of-the-ordinary events, the unexplainable occurrences, like the splitting of the Red Sea ? Is the ebb and flow of the ocean’s tide miraculous, or can we only call an amazing feat such as David’s felling of Goliath, a miracle? Are some miracles more miraculous than others, i.e., are there “levels” of miracles? Do miracles consist of interruptions in God’s laws of nature?
To answer these questions, we must define what a miracle is. To do this, I will rely mainly upon C.S. Lewis’ book “Miracles”, his classic work in defense of miraculous happenings. Without going into the heavily sophisticated philosophical thought into which Lewis delves (which includes the ideas of Plato, Aristotle, and Augustine,) I will attempt to outline his definition of the events which we call “miracles”. (Lewis goes on to argue that miracles prove the existence of God, but there’s no need to discuss that aspect of his argument.)
Lewis begins his discussion of miracles by first stating what a miracle is, what it isn’t, and why. The most comprehensive passage answering these questions is the one in which he states, “I use the word Miracle to mean an interference with Nature by supernatural power…It is therefore inaccurate to define a miracle as something that breaks the laws of Nature. It doesn't. ... If God creates a miraculous spermatozoon in the body of a virgin, it does not proceed to break any laws. The laws at once take it over. Nature is ready. Pregnancy follows, according to all the normal laws, and nine months later a child is born. ... The divine art of miracle is not an art of suspending the pattern. ... The great complex event called Nature, and the new particular event introduced into it by the miracle, are related by their common origin in God, and doubtless, if we knew enough, most intricately related in his purpose and design, so that a Nature which had had a different history, and therefore been a different Nature, would have been invaded by different miracles or by none at all. In that way the miracles and the previous course of Nature are as well interlocked as any other two realities, but you must go back as far as their common Creator to find the interlocking…The rightful demand that all reality should be consistent and systematic does not therefore exclude miracles: but it has a very valuable contribution to make to our conception of them. It reminds us that miracles, if they occur, must, like all events, be revelations of that total harmony of all that exists. Nothing arbitrary, nothing simply “stuck on” and left un-reconciled with the texture of total reality, can be admitted. By definition, miracles must of course interrupt the usual course of Nature; but if they are real they must, in the very act of so doing, assert all the more the unity and self-consistency of total reality at some deeper level. ... In calling them miracles we do not mean that they are contradictions or outrages; we mean that, left to her [Nature] own resources, she could never produce them.”
In other words, Lewis is rejecting the idea that supernatural intervention disrupts God’s creation. He states there are “rules behind the rules” – instead of portraying a God who must mess with His Creation in order to correct its mistakes, miracles reveal a God who can basically do what He wants with His Nature because, while miracles to us seem to be an interruption of the “Laws of Nature”, they are not interruptions but rather intricate and vital pieces of God’s bigger plan. In fact, it is rather arrogant of us to assume that we know so much about the flow of God’s system that we view anything out-of-the-ordinary as a snag in a fabric that is not our own.
In the latter part of this passage – which can be a little difficult to follow – Lewis is arguing that if a miracle were an invasion from a hostile outside source, Nature would not be as accommodating as it is. Using his example of the virgin birth, in which the “Laws” of Nature immediately take over once the miracle has occurred, we see that Nature is, as he puts it, “an accomplished hostess.” Does this accommodation thus point towards a hostile invasion? No, I believe it implies the opposite; “If God annihilates or creates or deflects a unit of matter He has created a new situation at that point. Immediately all Nature domiciles this new situation, makes it at home in her realm, adapts all other events to it.”
In a chapter on “Natural Laws” Lewis again addresses this issue – whether or not miracles are incompatible with the “Laws of Nature”. If they are incompatible, then God would not allow them to happen, because that would be a disturbance of the systems He has set in place. But if they are compatible, then miracles are definite "interventions" that go beyond natural laws. Thus miracles are consistent with nature, but beyond natural law. Ergo, they point to a new law, a different law, one that transcends the laws of Newton
So back to my initial question – is a sunrise a miracle? According to this definition, that miracles are interventions in the commonly accepted Laws of Nature, I would say not. Is the splitting of the Red Sea a miracle? As it goes against the known Laws of Nature, yes, it is one of the most obvious exemplifications of a miracle. But with this definition, we must not see miracles as God’s abeyances or interferences with the day-to-day occurrences of His Creation. Exceptions, yes – disruptions, no. Even these exceptions are not God saying, “Well I suppose I can change My Law of gravity for you this one time…” Rather He is communicating to us; “These are My Laws – this is My Creation and I can do with it as I wish, and so doing, reveal My immeasurable power.” As the book of Job queries: “Can you fathom the mysteries of God? Can you probe the limits of the Almighty? Their measure is longer than the earth and wider than the sea…” (Job 11: 7, 9)
Much of society has ceased to believe in miracles, because they have ceased believing in God. They do not understand how the laws of science can be “broken” by the Being who set them in place. As C.S. Lewis said, “Belief in miracles, far from depending on an ignorance of the laws of nature, is only possible in so far as those laws are known. We have already seen that if you begin ruling out the supernatural you will perceive no miracles. We must now add that you will equally perceive no miracles until you believe that nature works according to regular laws. If you have not yet noticed that the sun always rises in the East you will see nothing miraculous about his rising one morning in the West.” The atheists have observed these natural laws but have failed to recognize the Prime Mover.
But as us Jews meditate on the mighty deeds of Hashem in our people’s past and present, we can’t help but see the God who has done so much for us throughout the ages – we can’t help but see the bigger Picture behind these events – and we can’t help but recount His acts with wonder and gratitude. This definition of miracles, which reveals the large and powerful God running our world, gives an even deeper meaning to the awesome deeds He has performed.
Happy Hanukkah.
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