Thought for the Day: So... Just What *Is* The Difference Between a Miracle and Nature?

Here's the question: Just What Is The Difference Between a Miracle and Nature?

Before you start rolling your eyes (what? too late? oh well...) and thinking.... "Good grief. Miracles are supernatural; you know, above nature! Got it, Mikey?"

Are you finished? Good; then we can proceed.

So here's one problem with that definition. If you one is not religious and/or simply an apologist, it is very easy to assert that the miracles of yore were simply the romanitification and fanitizisation of events that happened at a propitious time and were perhaps somewhat out of the ordinary that have grown into the stuff of legends. Of course, they just assert things like that without any proof or data; their argument being, "Well, obviously it didn't happen as reported. Things like that can't happen." To which I generally respond (if it seems like it might be worth my time or if I am just in a contrary mood): "Why, yes... that's why they call it a miracle. If it could happen, then it's not a miracle!"

But there is a problem with that definition even for honest and thoughtful believers. Namely, it's not really a definition, because it doesn't really say anything. After all, what is supernatural? In fact, what is natural? For example, suppose you mean by  "natural" just what we are all used to experiencing, and supernatural is everything else. What about the generation that grew up for 40 years in the dessert and eating mahn? For them, it was natural to find food on the ground every day -- except Shabbos and Yom Tov -- that exactly satisfied their needs. Can you imagine the 40 year olds who had grown up and even raised families in that environment, and then come to Eretz Yisrael? "Whoa... you mean you put this little, tiny balls in the ground... and then a few weeks later you have food?!? That's a miracle!!" In more recent history, your grandparents certainly would have found it miraculous that you could get a brand new of jar or peanut butter delivered to your door just by calling out, "Hey, Alexa... we need some peanut butter."

(What follows is my understanding from the Introduction II to the Maharal's גבורות השם.)

So let's take a step back. Obvious fact: HaShem runs the world and can do anything He wants. Less obvious fact: HaShem wants there to be an order to the world. (Why? That is a very big topic, but the short answer is to make our free will choices meaningful so that we can be held culpable for them; בין לטוב בין למוטב/both to give you proper reward and to plan mid-course corrections for you.) In support of those two (somewhat contradictory) goals, HaShem has two distinct modes of running/managing this world: דרך טבע/natural and דרך נס/miraculous. Both modes of management are effected by HaShem directly creating each and every instant of our lives and existence. At this point, then, we are finally ready to address our question.

Now that we see that HaShem runs the world -- in fact, creates a new version of reality for each and every moment that He wants to exist -- according to, and only according to, and wholly according to His Will... just What Is The Difference Between a Miracle and Nature? Saying they are "two modes of conduct" is true, but for all practical purposes, useless information (very similar to the information when you call Microsoft customer support). What we want is: How does one discern a miraculous from a simply astounding (but natural) event?

For the natural running of the world, HaShem has created a whole panoply of creatures (angels, if you will; laws of nature, if you won't) that translate His Will into a physical action. For a miracle, HaShem just puts it there.

By way of analogy/דרך משל: A natural event is something like a document appearing in the printer tray in response to me pushing a button on a mouse. One kind of miraculous event is something like me drawing a little bunny on that piece of paper in the printer tray. Another kind of miraculous event is my getting into the operating system of my computer with a debugger and manually inserting the code that means the printer should print a document.

The difference between a miracle and nature has nothing to do with expressing the direct רצון השם/Will of the Creator; they both do that. Natural events, though, happen through a well defined chain; they have both dimension and duration. No matter how astounding, they always have dimension and duration, and they are always, always the result of a well defined chain of events. Miraculous events, on the other hand, have no duration; they happen outside the system, by direct manipulation.

Notice, by the way, that miraculous events (and their results) need to be realizable in the natural system. That is not a limitation, chas v'shalom, on the Creator; rather, it is a decision of the Creator. (See obvious and less obvious facts, above.)