Miracles and Wonders
by Rabbi Chaim Brovender

Rambam opens his discussion of the mitzva to tell the
story of the Exodus in the following way (Hametz and
Matza, 7:11):
It is a biblical directive that we tell the story of the
miracles and the wonders done for our forefathers in
Egypt...

The Rambam limits us.  Tell of the miracles!  True, there
were miracles and they surely make a good story.  But are
the miracles the only story that could be told?  What of
the Jews in Egypt?  What of their difficulties in
accepting the leadership of Moshe?  What of the
interesting relationship between Moshe the leader, and
Aharon, chosen to be spokesman?  What of Pharoah and those
tireless Egyptians?  What gave them the strength and
presence of mind to persevere after all their suffering?
Why does the Rambam insist that the miracles which were
part of the process are the only proper subject for our
story on the night of Pesach?

The Rambam in an earlier work did not emphasize the
miracle content of the story on this night.  In the Sefer
Hamitzvot, (positive commandment number 157) the Rambam
describes the content of the story as follows:  we are
commanded to tell the story of the Exodus from Egypt...
and any addition to the story, expansion, nuances,
details, to clarify what was done to us, the oppression of
the Egyptians, and how G-d came to our aid and repaid
them, and to give thanks to G-d for all the Hesed
(kindness) which he bestowed upon us, this is
praiseworthy.

Rambam continues to discuss various aspects of the mitzva,
but he never mentions the miracles specifically.  The
Mishne Torah may represent the more mature version of the
Rambam’s oeuvre, and the inclusion of the theme of
miracles describing the obligation of the evening cannot
have been accidental. 

We are searching to understand the centrality of the theme
of miracles in the story of the Exodus and the creation of
the Jewish people.

The Rambam himself did not always see miracles as a
significant component in the religious quest.

(Yesodei Hatorah 8:1) The people of Israel did not
believe in Moshe Rabbeinu because of the signs (miracles)
he performed.

This is a rather remarkable position since Moshe Rabbeinu
performed miracles specifically in order to get the
attention of his people, and to give the opportunity to
believe that he was G-d’s representative.  But the Rambam
forges ahead and makes a rather compelling argument.

Belief based on signs (alone) is blemished.  Perhaps the
same sign can be performed by magic or sleight of hand?

Rambam is saying that any belief based on a miracle is
doomed to devaluation.  Upon reconsideration, we would
conclude that the miracle was not as great as we thought
and as a result question the belief that rested upon the
miracle!

If you have never seen an eclipse of the sun, you might
decide that such an event could only be explained as a
miracle, indicating the wrath of G-d.  However, if you
have seen them again and again, (or if you have read about
them in elementary science texts,) you conclude that they
are part of the regular flow of things.  When Moshe
Rabbeinu turned his staff into a snake, everyone was sure
that it was a miracle.  When the magicians in Pharaoh’s
court did the same, they weren’t sure.  In fact, it was a
miracle and the judgment cannot be made based on whether
the magicians can or cannot repeat the event.  This leads
to the conclusion (very significant for the Rambam) that
there are miracles, but that it is almost impossible for
us to judge them accurately.  Important for us is that the
miracle is a divinely sent sign, and that cannot be
concluded accurately by our senses.

Purim precedes Pesach by a month.  A month is the time
that we are directed to allow for reviewing the complex
halachot of Pesach (Pesachim 6a).  The calendar forces the
following conclusion:  Purim is the beginning of the
Pesach experience!  Religiously, Purim sets the stage,
forms the basis for the telling of the story of the Exodus
from Egypt.

But Purim is so different.  There are no overt miracles in
the story.  The sea does not split and salvation does not
rain down from heaven.  The story we tell on Purim is
different in essence.  There are no overt miracles to
speak and to expound about, only the story of political
intrigue and what seems to be a possible resolution of a
difficult situation.  Mordechai and Esther act for their
people and the people themselves defend themselves against
the first anti-Semites.  But we are taught that these too
are miracles, the miracles that are in the context of
hester panim, of G-d’s hidden face to man. The miracles
do not shake out of heaven like thunder and lightning, but
seem to be interwoven in the fabric of history.  It could
have happened that way without Divine intervention, but we
insist that - no or yes - it was an act determined by G-d,
just as the Exodus from Egypt was determined by G-d
through His miracles.

In fact, for us there is no difference.  If G-d’s hand is
noticed, then we tell the story on Pesach, but if G-d is
hidden, then we read the Megillah.  There is an anomaly
in understanding the situation of hester panim.  On the
one hand, G-d hiding His face from us is no blessing.
 This is certainly the intention of the Torah in Deut.
31:17-18, I (G-d) will be angry...I will leave them, and
I will hide my face...?  Rashi explains:  Hide my face as
one who does not notice their trouble.

This is the central theme of Exile, of punishment, of
Diaspora.  G-d hides his face and we do not have anyone to
turn to.  Not that G-d is no longer there, but that we do
not feel His presence and His concern. In a world of
hester panim existential difficulties are twice as
tragic.  First, we are oppressed and moreover, we have no
one to turn to.

The latter represents the most terrible tragedy of our
existence.  Turning to G-d is our nature.  The rain needs
our intercession with heaven.  We must feel that we can
ask, that we can pray.  Imagine the punishment, which
affects us on a practical level but also much beyond.
 Practically, we find ourselves in danger with no one to
turn to.  That is the hester panim, which Rashi refers
to, that G-d does not notice their trouble.  But hester
panim affects the very essence of our being.  If we can’t
find G-d in order to turn to Him, then what manner of His
creation are we?  If the rain does not concern us, if we
do not share bounty with G-d, if we are unable to stand
before G-d because we no longer know where to stand, then
who are we?

The story of Purim turns out to be the discovery that G-d
acts as G-d to determine our history in the most intimate
sense, even when it is not obvious to others. Hester
panim is not about G-d’s leaving the world be, or His
disinterest in His people.  Hester panim is a challenge.
 When there are no overt miracles, when there are no
obvious signs, when the forces of evil (Amalek) are
certain that the world is theirs, then we are obliged to
see the hand of G-d as the strong arm of G-d? as it was
known to us during the Exodus from Egypt.

There is a difficult Medrash which contains the following
comment about Purim.  In the future, all the festivals
will be cancelled, except for the holiday of Purim
 (Shocher Tov Mishle 9).  It is hard to imagine that the
mitzvot in the Torah will disappear and we will not be
obliged to celebrate the special days that mark our
development as a nation.  What can the intention of the
Medrash have been?

There is another well-known theme in the Medrash which
helps to define Purim.  This was the time (the Medrash
says) when the Torah was accepted (a second time).  This
is explained (Netziv) as relating the nature of the
Revelation on Sinai.  When the Jews stood before the
mountain, and G-d made His presence felt to all, and the
forces of nature were in upheaval, it could not be
expected that the people would answer the question in a
manner representing their free will.  How free can a
decision be made when we are standing in the presence of
G-d’s miracles?  Can we review the question, and mull over
our position?  Doesn’t the face-to-face confrontation deny
us our free will?  How can we claim to have accepted the
Torah freely in such a situation?  Purim was actually the
time when our acceptance was not prejudiced by our
situation.  We were able in a state of hester panim to
think about the Torah and accept it without being
compromised by the situation.

So, hester panim seems to have advantages.  We are not
as clear about being in the presence of G-d, but are able
to determine for ourselves that we are in fact, part of
that presence.  As great as the acceptance of the Torah at
Sinai was, the Medrash insists that it remained incomplete
until the further acceptance on Purim.  On the
relationship between the obvious miracles of Pesach and
the covert miracles of Purim, the Ramban has this to say
(Shmot, 13:16 towards the end):
the well-known miracles, the signs, they bring man to
admit the truth of the hidden miracles.  The latter are
the bedrock of the entire relationship to Torah.  For a
man is said to have a portion in the holy Torah, the Torah
given by Moshe Rabbeinu , if he believes that all things,
all events in time are all miracles, are not ‘nature’, and
that one’s fate depends entirely upon his devotion to the
mitzvot of the Torah?  According to the Ramban, Purim is
implied in Pesach.  There is no point in focusing on the
miracles, unless we understand that all existence is a
miracle.  The hidden miracles are the hester panim of
the time of Mordechai and Esther.

Had we merited it, the miracles of the story of Pesach
would have also been the story of hidden miracles and the
feeling that we are living in a world of miracles. This
explains why the Tannaim, creators of the Haggada, looked
for additional miracles in the story and were not content
to list the ten obvious ones.  Two hundred and more
miracles were discovered by the greatest commentators of
all time.  This is the direction.  We do not only live in
a world of miracles, known and countable, but we live in a
world where everything is a miracle, those that are
counted and those that represent the infinite number of
points on the course of time.

The Rambam directs us to tell the story of the Exodus on
the eve of Pesach, and further directs us to focus on the
miracles and wonders contained in the story.  But we now
see that there are the miracles of the specific story of
the Exodus as related in the Torah. The ten plagues
focusing us on G-d’s concern for our future and the public
nature of that concern.  But the story of Pesach continues
through Purim (chronologically) and the miracles and
wonders contained in the story.  But the story of Pesach
continues through Purim and the miracles and wonders
multiply themselves endlessly, and we find ourselves
concentrating each year on the newly discovered miracles
in the story of the Exodus. The new miracles were hidden
just a year ago, but become known to us through the
principle of the Ramban:

The miracles we see are the basis of our belief in the
miraculous nature of all existence.  Certainly the story
of the Exodus is no exception to this rule.