Eye on religion: a Jewish view on miracles of healing.

Jewish tradition understands a miracle as a wonder that manifests God’s beneficent power. A miracle (nes in Hebrew) could be supernatural, but it need not be. While God has the ability to act in a manner that goes against the “orders of creation” (sidrei breishit) that He has established, the regularity of this order itself wondrously manifests God’s beneficent power. A central goal of Judaism is to train its followers to appreciate God’s wonders in daily life. The Hebrew Bible does not use a term for miracle, though it does speak of wonders and signs. In unusual situations, it emphasizes that the wonder goes against normal expectations, as a clear sign of God’s power and will. When Korah challenges Moses’s authority, Moses proclaims that “if the Lord creates something unheard of, so that the ground opens its mouth and they all go down alive into Sheol, you shall know that these men have spurned the Lord.” The earth split and swallowed the rebels, proving that Moses was God’s true servant (Num. 16). Later, the prophet Elijah staged a contest with the priests of Ba’al. He arranged sacrificial animals on altars, doused them with water, and challenged the priests of Ba’al to call on their gods to accept and consume the offering. The priests of Ba’al prayed, but nothing happened. Elijah then prayed to the Lord to act so that the people would realize that He alone is God. “Then fire from the Lord descended and consumed the burnt offering, the wood, the stones, and the earth . . . When they saw this, all the people flung themselves on their faces and cried out, ‘The Lord alone is God’” (I Kings 18). Many times, however, God’s beneficent power is manifested in ways that are consistent with the patterns of nature. When the wandering Israelites are hungry, God provides quail by having a wind blow them in from the sea (Num. 11, Ex. 16). Psalms praise God’s wonders as reflected in unusual events in history, and also in familiar patterns of nature. God is to be praised by the sun and moon, stars and waters; “He made them endure forever, establishing an order that shall never change” (Ps. 148). God wondrously causes rain to fall and grass to grow for cattle (Ps. 104). God (supernaturally) fed the Israelites with manna in the wilderness, to teach that “man does not live by bread alone,” and to teach the Israelites to thank God when they enjoy the (natural) produce they cultivate in the land of Israel (Deut. 8). The Bible presents God as Healer and also as one who causes illness (Ex. 15, Deut. 28). Examples of miracles of healing are provided by similar stories told of the prophet Elijah and his disciple Elisha. Each was approached by a woman whose son was grievously ill or dead. Each prophet prostrated himself over the boy’s body and prayed to God, and each boy returned to life (I Kings 17, II Kings 4). The Talmud (compiled between the years 600–700 of the Common Era) includes stories of rabbis who effect miraculous healing, reminiscent of Elijah and Elisha. Rabbi Yohanan reached out to ill people and asked them to grasp his hand; when they did so, they were healed. Rabbi Hanina ben Dosa’s intercessory prayers were remarkably effective. In general, however, the rabbis were cautious about such miracles. In part, this hesitancy to endorse supernatural miracles in their own time reflected concern for their own authority and worries about false prophets. Deuteronomy 13 warns that a false prophet might produce a sign that comes true but must not be followed. Supernatural occurrences were not authoritative in matters of normative practice. During a legal dispute regarding the ritual purity of a certain oven, Rabbi Eliezer proclaimed that his position would be supported by a carob tree, which moved a hundred yards; by a stream, which flowed backward; and, finally, by a Heavenly voice that supported him. Rabbi Joshua argued against him, quoting the Bible, “It is not in Heaven,” (Deut. 30). Following Rabbi Joshua’s challenge, the legal arguments endorsed by the majority prevailed. Max Kadushin argues that the rabbis of the Talmud were uncomfortable with the conflict between the value of nes, in its expression as supernatural miracle, and sidrei bereishit, the regular order of creation. Accordingly, they restricted the application of the concept of the supernatural miracle and emphasized the wondrous quality of daily experience. Ambivalence about supernatural miracles is reflected in a Talmudic story about a poor man whose wife died, leaving their infant motherless. The man developed female breasts so that he could suckle the child. Rav Yosef commented that the man must have been a great man, considering such a miracle was done on his behalf. Abbaye responded that he must have been an inferior man, for the created order was changed on his account. The rabbis emphasized the wonders that manifest God’s beneficent power in daily life. Numerous passages in rabbinic literature proclaim that such daily miracles are as great as the most striking supernatural miracles, or even greater. God’s causing rain to fall is like His original creation of the world and is even more miraculous than the future resurrection of the dead. The sustenance of humans is even more wondrous than redemption; redemption is at times described as taking place by the hand of an angel (Gen. 48), while Psalm 145 proclaims that God opens His hand and directly gives sustenance to all. God daily performs countless wonders of which From the Department of Theology, Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.