Shabbat Shalom Weekly
Torah Portion: Va’eira
Miracles and Magic
by Rabbi Yehuda Appel
Over the centuries, many religious adherents have tried to prove that they possess the “true” religion by performing miracles. However, Maimonides states: When one is willing to give credence to a religion because of reports of miracles, that is entering into dangerous territory – for one never knows whether the “miracles” may in fact be optical illusion or sleight of hand.
While there is clearly no lack of miracles in Jewish tradition, Judaism rejects the notion that our belief is based on these miracles. The theological bedrock of our religion is, as Martin Buber notes, a claim unparalleled in history: that God spoke in a national revelation to the entire Jewish people at Mt. Sinai. The foundation of Judaism is built upon a verifiable historical event, not an account of miraculous acts.
But a question remains: How does Judaism respond to the reported miracles of other peoples and faiths? This question is at the heart of this week’s Torah portion, Va’eira. In the Parsha, Moses approaches Pharaoh and asks that the Jewish people be given a short respite from their labors so that they can go into the desert and worship God. To bolster the strength of the request in the eyes of Pharaoh, God tells Moses to have his brother Aaron throw a staff down in front of the Egyptian leader and it will turn into a snake.
Aaron does this, but Pharaoh is unimpressed and his own sages accomplish the same task! Though Aaron’s staff eventually swallows up all the Egyptian staffs, Pharaoh remains unmoved.
There are various opinions as to how the Egyptian sages accomplished their actions. Maimonides categorically rejects the possibility that there is any power to magic. In his view, any instance of sorcery is sheer nonsense to which no rational person should give any credence. He says that the accounts of astrological “forces” are fabrications, invented to control the masses and extract from them money and allegiance.
Others, however, disagree. Nachmanides, whose commentary is full of Jewish mysticism, maintains that the Egyptians were able to perform supernatural acts. He says that they possessed knowledge of the spiritual realm and were able to manipulate negative forces — in particular, the “forces of destruction” — for their own purposes. God created these forces in order to give man the free will to choose to engage the “good” forces or the “evil.”
An interesting intermediate position is brought by the Abarbanel (15th century Spain). He notes that, on the one hand, various Biblical verses indicate that only God can perform supernatural acts. On the other hand, the Torah clearly seems to state that the Egyptians performed magic through incantations and sorcery. Abarbanel’s conclusion is that the Egyptians did in fact perform sleight of hand, but only with the help of these spiritual forces.
I would like to suggest an alternative explanation to the Egyptians’ actions (and to the wider phenomena of miracles performed by people of various faiths):
In creating His world, God placed within it an incredibly powerful force called “faith.” This means that if you put enough people in a room, who share a strong enough belief in something, these people just may be able to bring about a miracle.
Based on this approach, the success of one’s actions does not attest to the truth of their beliefs, but rather to the strength of their faith. Belief stands as a force in and of itself.
In religion, just as in human psychology, what you believe can have a great impact on reality.
God? Who is God?
by Rabbi Shraga Simmons
The purpose of the ten plagues?
The story is well-known: The Jews want to leave Egypt, so God sends 10 fierce plagues … and Pharaoh’s opposition is adamant.
How is it possible that Pharaoh could fail to recognize the obvious deeds of God Almighty Himself?!
Pharaoh epitomizes denial of God. This is evident from Exodus 5:1, the first meeting between Moses and Pharaoh, where Moses utters the immortal words: “Let My People Go!” Pharaoh responds with bewilderment: “Who is God that I should listen to him? I don’t know this God!”
The purpose of the plagues, therefore, is to announce that God is running the show. Once and for all, loud and clear.
The 10 plagues are actually a progression, a process bringing Pharaoh to a recognition of God. Consider:
The first plague turns the Nile River into blood. Why? Because Pharaoh had been promoting himself as a deity who created the Nile, as he says, “I am the river and I created it” (Ezekiel 29:3). Pharaoh goes to such extents to preserve his godly image that he sneaks down to the river alone to relieve himself; hence God tells Moses to “pay a call on Pharaoh in the morning, when he goes out to the water…” (Exodus 7:15)
Moses turns the Nile into blood but Pharaoh is not impressed. His magicians are called in and they do the same. God might be a good magician, thinks Pharaoh, but He’s not out of my league!
God of Nature
As the plagues continue, Pharaoh is moved along a process of increasing recognition of who God is. When Moses brings the plague of lice, Pharaoh calls upon his magicians to reproduce the phenomenon, but they can’t. “‘It is the finger of God,’ say the magicians to Pharaoh.” (Exodus 8:14)
Why were they unable to make lice? The Talmud (Sanhedrin 67) says because magic has no power over something tiny.
Like modern science today, Pharaoh’s magicians can gather and manipulate existing energy, but they can’t create the building-blocks of life itself. No matter how small a particle is discovered, there is always a foundation of smaller particles below that.
When Pharaoh’s magicians say “It is the finger of God,” they refer to God by the name of Elokim, which represents the power of God acting through nature. (Elokim has the numerical value of 86, which is the same as “HaTeva” – nature.) Pharaoh and his men had advanced one huge step along the continuum. They recognized God as the force controlling nature. But this was not sufficient. Pharaoh still refuses to let the Jews go. He wants to play hardball with God.
One Step Closer
The climax of our Parsha is the plague of hail, where Egyptian resources are totally wiped out. Every tree is smashed, and every man and animal caught outdoors is killed (Exodus 9:25). As Pharaoh stands amidst the rubble of a country in ruins, he now declares, “I am wrong and God is right.” This time Pharaoh refers to God by the ineffable YKVK – the transcendent aspect of God that we cannot comprehend.
It took a lot of pounding over the head, but Pharaoh has finally matured in his recognition of God.
Yet somehow, miraculously, he still refuses to let the Jews go. How great is the human ego and the power of rationalization!
God’s Awesome World
In many respects, Pharaoh’s process is our process, too. When we are children, we think we are the center of the universe. Then, through experience and trials, we become increasingly aware of things beyond our control. Whether earthquakes, cancer, the rise and fall of fortunes, even life and death itself… these can only be ascribed to a Higher Power.
In short, life is a series of such recognitions. But sometimes we get confused, we forget, and slip back in the continuum.
Why? Because with each technological advancement, we sense the unlimited potential of man. The 4-minute mile. A robot to Mars. Cell phones and the internet. We are in awe of what is humanly possible.
But where is our awe of that which only God is possible?! Gravity… eyesight… ant farms…
Lessons Today
The commentators say that the 10 plagues were not only for the sake of Pharaoh. They were for the Jews as well. To watch and to absorb the lessons of who God is. That training is a prerequisite to the coming revelation at Sinai.
We’ve all got to reach that recognition. One way or the other, Pharaoh is going to acknowledge God and let the Jews go. The only question is whether Pharaoh’s route to that end will be in cooperation with God, or in opposition.
The Talmud says that “each person must see himself as if he personally came out of Egypt.” Our lives are filled with messages from the Almighty, designed to teach us His ways and draw us near. He has a plan, and we have the choice: To fit in, or to be cut out.
The choice is clear if we only open our eyes.
Showing Appreciation
by Nesanel Yoel Safran
Gratitude is more than just an attitude. In this week’s portion, in order to free the Hebrew slaves from their brutal Egyptian taskmasters, it was necessary to strike the Nile River with a plague. Aaron – not Moses – did the striking. This is because Moses felt a debt of gratitude to the river that had helped save his life as an infant. Even though it was an inanimate object and it had happened many years ago, Moses remained grateful and let his gratitude affect his actions. The Torah way is to feel and to show appreciation to those who help us in any way.
In our story, some boys get a lesson in appreciation
Martin checked the set tables of cakes, snacks and drinks for the 15th time.
“Martin,” his sister, Jill, said, “if you keep moving around the stuff on the tables, you’re just going to end up with a big mess. Leave it alone!”
Martin sat back down on the couch and checked his watch, again.
“They’ll be here,” said Jill. “Don’t worry.”
Easy for her to say, thought Martin. Mrs. Polly Popular. Why oh why did I ever think that having this birthday party was going to be a good idea?
Martin had bowling parties and stuff organized by his mother when he was younger, but this was his first ever attempt at hosting his own party. His family had spent a lot of time talking him into it, and he was definitely suffering from second thoughts.
Martin was a smart kid with a big heart to match and would even go out of his way help kids with their schoolwork, but when it came to socializing, he never really seemed to know the right thing to say. Let’s just say big parties and him didn’t really go together.
While Martin was awaiting the arrival of the guests, a few blocks away the guests themselves were having far different thoughts.
“Smarty Marty had a party…,” Rich, a not very nice classmate, was waving around the invitation Martin had passed around the day before with the details about his party. “…and no one even came!” he finished off jubilantly.
Sitting around a table at the pizza place, Rich and his buddies burst out laughing. Everyone, that is, except Sam, the unofficial ‘leader’ of the group, who quietly put his coat on and stood up to leave.
“Where ya going, Sam?” asked Rich. He was sure that Sam had found his little song as funny as everyone else had.
“Actually, I’m going to Martin’s party.”
“WHAT?!”
“What do you have to do with that geek?” his friends asked.
“As a matter of fact, that ‘geek’ got me out of huge a jam I was in last month. I found out that if I didn’t pass my math exams, I was going to get thrown off the hockey team. Somehow Martin heard about it – I think through my sister and his sister, they’re friends. He called me up and asked me if I needed help, and he tutored me every single day for the entire month until I had it down cold. I passed with flying colors.” He paused a second, and then said, “Come to think of it, I owe a lot to Martin. I didn’t just learn math from him, either. The least I can do is help him celebrate his birthday.”
His friends stared at him, dumbfounded. Martin and Sam??!! As he turned to go, Sam looked back at them.
“Anyone care to join me?”
Sam had struck a nerve. Almost every boy seated at the table, at one time or another, had been the recipient of Martin’s special brand of kindness — help with homework and preparing for a test. Almost at once, they stood up and followed him out, sheepishly.
“Marty had a party…” mumbled Rich under his breath. “…and ALL his friends were there!”
A few minutes later, Martin opened the door, surprised and thrilled to see his whole class standing there.
Jill folded her arms triumphantly. “Told you so!”
Discussion Questions
Ages 3-5
Q. How did Rich and the other kids feel about going to Martin’s party at first?
A. They didn’t want to go.
Q. How did they feel in the end?
A. Once Sam reminded them of how Martin had helped them, they wanted to go to show their appreciation.
Ages 6-9
Q. What life lesson do you think someone could learn from this story?
A. It’s easy to forget about all the good things people do for us – like the way Martin helped kids with their schoolwork – but the Torah way is to try to remember, like Sam did, and show our gratitude whenever we can.
Q. What are some ways we can increase our ability to feel and show gratitude?
A. One way is to try to think about the people in our lives and focus on whatever good – big or small – they have done for us. Then we should make a note of all these ‘debts of gratitude’ and keep our eyes open for ways to pay them back.
Ages 10 and Up
Q. Do you think the ability to show appreciation and gratitude is an important part of happiness? Why or why not?
A. To feel grateful is to be aware of the good in our lives. It is a sign of humility and allows us to focus on what we have rather than what we lack. In short, it is a major key to happy living.
Q. Do you think that developing more gratitude to people could affect our relationship with God? How?
A. God gives each of us so much, but sometimes it’s hard to relate. By learning how to be grateful and appreciate the kindness of people, we develop our ability to appreciate God’s kindness, which is a powerful way to draw and feel closer to Him.
Quote of the Week
“What is hateful to you do not do to your fellow” — Hillel
Joke of the Week
Rivka was holding her little baby Yitzy, while talking to her mother. “I haven’t slept in three days,” Rivka complained. “Yitzy is teething and he’s up all night crying.”
“Why don’t you just rub a thimble-full of brandy on his gums. That will numb them up and put him right to sleep.” answered the new Bubbie.
“I can’t give my baby alcohol! Who knows what that will do to him.”
“Yitzy will be fine, I guarantee it!” said the Bubbie.
“How can you guarantee something like that?” asked Rivka.
“Because I did it to you every night and you turned out OK!”
Shabbat Shalom!!
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