I have always struggled with one question about the story of the Exodus.
How could it be that the Jews in Egypt witnessed 10 astonishing plagues with their own eyes and still refused to believe in G-d and in Moses? The Torah tells us that only 20 percent of the Jewish people actually left Egypt. They simply refused to believe!
Think about that.
They saw the Nile turn to blood. They watched frogs swarm the land. They experienced darkness so thick it could be felt. Egypt was collapsing around them and yet most Jews shrugged their shoulders and stayed home. How could anyone witness biblical miracles and remain indifferent?
Then it hit me with uncomfortable clarity. Are we potentially making the same mistake today? Because miracles don’t stop happening. We just stop seeing them. The greatest miracle is not when G-d performs one, but when we finally notice.
Miracles are unfolding before our eyes. It feels like we are living through a Passover in real time. The Torah describes how G-d passed over the Jewish homes and struck only the enemy. Today we are witnessing events that echo that ancient pattern in ways that make the heart tremble and the mind wonder.
Consider just one example.
After massive Iranian missile barrages against Israel, some of the engineers involved with the Iron Dome defense system admitted something astonishing. They know the physics. They know the algorithms. They know the mathematics of missile interception. Yet again and again missiles veer off course, land in empty fields, or are intercepted in ways that defy the models. One engineer was quoted saying that sometimes the only explanation left is divine intervention. Scientists build the system. G-d bends the trajectory. Faith is not believing without evidence. It is recognizing the evidence everyone else calls coincidence.
The numbers themselves are staggering. During the 1991 Gulf War, Saddam Hussein fired 39 Scud missiles at Israel. The entire nation held its breath. In just two weeks, more than 500 missiles have been fired toward Israel, many carrying cluster munitions and aimed deliberately at densely populated civilian centers. Yet the mortality rate is almost beyond comprehension. As of the end of March, roughly 11 to 15 fatalities from hundreds of deadly precision aimed missiles. In military terms that statistic should be impossible. Statistics do not usually whisper. But sometimes they scream. When coincidence piles up high enough, it begins to spell Providence.
A British journalist named Allister Heath recently wrote an article that captured the world’s quiet bewilderment. Heath is not Jewish. He is the editor of the Daily Telegraph.
He said there is something about Israel that makes people uncomfortable, and it is not what Israel does. It is what Israel is. A nation this small should not be this strong. Israel has no oil, no vast natural resources, and a population barely the size of a mid-sized American city. It is surrounded by enemies, condemned in international forums, targeted by terror, and boycotted by activists. And still it thrives in military power, medicine, agriculture, technology, and intelligence. The Jewish people were supposed to disappear a long time ago. Yet the Jews came home, revived their language, rebuilt their land, and turned desert into farmland. Heath concludes that Israel does not make sense unless you believe that something greater than statistics is at play. If you stare only at the numbers, you miss the narrative.
The achievements are nothing short of astonishing. Recently the United States Secretary of Defense referred to what he called the two most powerful air forces in the world: the United States and Israel. Israel consistently ranks among the 10 most powerful nations on earth in military capability and technological innovation. Let that sink in. A nation of just nine million people stands shoulder to shoulder with America, Russia, and China in the list of most powerful. When statistics stop making sense, the story of Hashem begins. If this is not a modern-day miracle, then what is?
History books usually describe miracles after they happen. I am increasingly convinced that we are living inside one. The Jews of Purim and Chanukah 2,400 and 2,200 years ago had no idea that their life stories would become Jewish holidays until the end of time. I believe that we are experiencing exactly the same. Nature is simply G-d’s miracle on autopilot.
Last month we read Parshas HaChodesh, when G-d commands that the month of Nissan (Pesach) become the first month of the Jewish calendar, even though the month of Tishrei (Rosh Hashanah) is the start of the New Year. In a public letter for Pesach 1973, the Rebbe explained that Judaism maintains two beginnings to the year because G-d runs the world in two different modes. One is the predictable order of nature. The other is the miraculous dimension that breaks the rules. Tishrei represents the ordinary world of nature. Nissan represents the extraordinary world of miracles.
The message is simple and profound: It is time for us to open our eyes.
The miracles around us are not coincidence and they are not proof of how brilliant or powerful we are. They are expressions of divine love. Sometimes the greatest supernatural act hides inside the natural order.
The plagues in Egypt had an explicit purpose. They revealed that G-d is in full control. The Egyptian gods that people worshiped were powerless. Today our false gods have different names. Politics. Armies. Economies. Elected officials.
We have learned painfully that political power can disappear overnight. Even places we once thought were safe can change in a single election. The seats of power we rely upon can flip in an instant. Sadly, even places we once considered strongholds can change overnight.
Our prophets teach that the future redemption will mirror the redemption from Egypt. The prophet Micah says, “Kimei tzeischa me’eretz Mitzrayim arenu niflaot,” meaning that just like I showed you miracles in the days when you left Egypt, I will show you wonders prior to the arrival of Moshiach in the final redemption.
The miracles of the Exodus were meant to wake a sleeping people after centuries of slavery. Sadly, four out of five Jews refused to wake up. This time it will be different. No Jew will be left behind. But to do that, we need to wake them up from their spiritual slumber and help them see the light.
When the Jewish people reached the Red Sea, they declared “Zeh Keili v’anveihu.” This is my G-d and I will glorify Him. Suddenly the miracles were undeniable. When we’re aware of the miracles around us, everyone else very soon gets up to speed.
Perhaps that moment is approaching again. G-d is whispering through history. Through statistics.
Through survival against all odds.
The only question left is whether we are listening.
Rabbi Dovid Vigler is the spiritual leader at Chabad of Palm Beach Gardens, with over 85,000 subscribers to his YouTube channel, youtube.com/jewishgardens. Email him at [email protected].
