Kiddush Levanah: Under the Light of the Silvery Moon (Part 9)
“My walk on the moon lasted three days. My walk with
(Charles Duke – Lunar Module Pilot, Apollo 16)
Kiddush Levanah then continues with the following sentence, which is repeated three times: “As stone, let them be still at Your arm’s greatness; terror and fear upon them let fall.”
This sentence seems to basically repeat the previous one — but in reverse order. Rabbi Dr. Elie Munk (1900-1981), in his classic work called “World of Prayer,” explains this repetition and the reversal. There is a natural order to the world. If one looks objectively at the world, they will see Hashem’s imprint on every single detail. Within the natural world, Hashem protects us and ensures that His nation will always exist. However, there are times when Hashem reverses the laws of nature in order to keep us safe. That reversal of the natural world is what we would call supernatural occurrences. Our sentence in Kidddush Levanah, being in the reverse order of the previous one, alludes to the overt miracles that Hashem has performed for us throughout history.
The Rabbis teach that if we were able to truly recognize Hashem in the natural world, there would be no need for miracles. Miracles are necessary only because it is often so difficult to identify Hashem within the physical world. Rabbi Emmanuel Feldman, in a thought-provoking essay, encapsulates the Torah’s difference between what we call “nature” and what we call “miracles.” In 1967, at the onset of the Six-Day War, a non-Jewish correspondent asked a Rabbi in Jerusalem how he thought the war would end. The Rabbi answered, “In one of two ways. Either by a miracle or in a natural way.” Asked the correspondent, “What would be the natural way?” Answered the Rabbi, “To settle it with a miracle.” The correspondent asked, “If so, what would be the miraculous way?” Answered the Rabbi, “To settle it in a natural way!”
Rabbi Dr. Yaakov Herzog (1921-1972), son of the first Chief Rabbi of the State of Israel Rabbi Yitzchak Isaac Herzog, was a brilliant Torah scholar and orator, with a doctorate in international law. He was Israel’s ambassador to Canada and was a candidate for the position of the Chief Rabbi of the British Empire.
In 1969, Rabbi Dr. Herzog hosted a group of fifteen Christian theologians who had been sent by the American government to the Middle East to report on the spiritual life of the various peoples of the region. In his private notebook, he wrote that he told them (among many other things) with uncanny prescience, as if he were describing our reality today: “Our society in the State of Israel seems to be teetering on the brink when we look through the lens of security, yet, in fact, we are the most permanent of all societies. We seem to be the most agnostic of societies, always relying on the might of our own innovations and powerful army, yet, in fact, we believe in miracles. The State of Israel, with all its religious divisions, believes in miracles more than does any other nation. We always seem to be going blindly into the unknown, yet, in fact, we are going toward our destiny. We are full of paradoxes, yet, when all is said and done, we are ‘a people that will dwell alone’ (Bamidbar 23:9), not as a paradox, but perhaps as the only natural phenomenon of human history that succeeded in existing above time, and therefore took its place above the accepted rules of history.”
Because, truly, every moment of our – the Jewish People’s – existence, defies the natural order.
The Alter of Novardok would study Torah and Mussar by himself in a small hut in the forest throughout the night. Once, his lamp ran out of oil and he was left surrounded by darkness. The Alter told himself, “Hashem can do anything and everything. If Hashem wants me to continue learning, He will send me oil.”
He opened the door of his hut just as a man passed by. This was something that had never happened before. The hut’s location was so far off of the beaten path. The Alter asked his unexpected visitor if he happened to have any spare oil. And, of course, he did. So, the Alter settled down to continue learning uninterrupted for the rest of the night. In the morning, the Alter took the remaining oil and carefully stored it away so that he would never forget the miracle that Hashem performed for him.
Some years later, there was a fire in the Alter’s home, and the jar of oil was lost together with all of his other possessions. When he spoke about it afterwards, the Alter would say that he was happy that the little container of oil didn’t survive the blaze. He explained: “Why should I remember that oil episode more than all the other miracles Hashem performs for me? Every moment of life is filled with miracles!”
To be continued…
