Parashat Bo: Living a 'miracle'

• Published date: 27 January 2023

When we read about these miracles, we sometimes feel removed from these events, which took place in the distant past. We do not experience miracles in our day-to-day lives. The laws of nature continue as always, and we do not expect them to change or cease. And we ask ourselves: What do miracles have to do with us? What do we get from these Torah stories that describe such huge aberrations from the laws of nature

Someone who grappled with this question was the Ramban (also known as Nachmanides, the great Spanish sage of the 13th century) in his commentary on our Torah portion. His answer is deep and thorough. He summarizes his approach to the significance of miracles in our lives:

"And from the large and famous miracles, man gives thanks for the hidden miracles that are the basis for the entire Torah… until we believe in all our words and in every instance that they are all miracles; they are not the result of nature and the way of the world… Everything is decreed from above."

Ramban on Exodus 13:16

"And from the large and famous miracles, man gives thanks for the hidden miracles that are the basis for the entire Torah… until we believe in all our words and in every instance that they are all miracles; they are not the result of nature and the way of the world… Everything is decreed from above" (Ramban on Exodus 13:16).

Nachmanides is challenging the very concept of "laws of nature" and claims that all nature is a miracle! But there are two types of miracles. One is overt and manifest, similar to those miracles that we read about in this week's Torah portion, whereby man notices them. The other is concealed – which is actually the laws of nature.

WHY ARE the laws of nature defined as "miracles"?

Countless scientists, over thousands of years, have researched the laws of nature. As a result of this research, humanity has progressed in many varied fields – progress that grows exponentially from generation to generation. But there is one question that no scientist has been able, or has even tried, to answer: Why is this so?

Science deals with the questions of "what" and "how," but not with the question of "why." Scientists do not try to deal with the issue of why nature works according to fixed rules and are also incapable of providing answers for this.

In contrast to science, the Torah deals only...