The same One

Tonight at midnight marks the exact time when The Almighty split the Red Sea for the children of Israel. The 7th day of Passover makes for a very inspiring day.

The same G-d who performed miracles 3321 years ago is still around today, performing miracles. Just because a miracle is subtle doesn't make it any less of a miracle. If you examine your own life carefully, you'll find endless miracles.

What's a bigger miracle than the human heart? Guess what - the same G-d that split the Red Sea is personally massaging your heart and mine this very second. No, He didn't create the world and then retire upstairs. He's still with us performing miracles, every second of the day. He's the same One that was at the Red Sea.

by Rabbi Lazer Brody

The Price of a Miracle

We often take for granted the fact that we, the Jewish people, live on miracles. The Jewish people in Israel especially exist on a higher-than-nature plateau that defies any natural course of events. Only an idiot would attribute Israel's existence to military might and so forth. On a military level, as we evr-so-painfully see despite the recent Gaza war, Israel still has no technological/military answer to missile warfare, with missiles still falling in the south of Israel, from Ashkelon to Sderot and all points in between. The Hamas missiles are a tiny threat compared to the quantity and quality of the Hizbolla, Syrian, and Iranian missiles aimed at every square centimeter of our beloved Holy Land this very moment.

People have the mistaken impression that we can sit back and do nothing while Hashem gives us miracles. That's wrong. The miracle of Purim was only after Esther said to Mordechai (Esther 4:16), "Go gather all the Jews... fast for me, don't eat or drink for 3 days and 3 nights; I and my handmaidens shall fast likewise." In other words, the entire Jewish people made complete teshuva and returned to Hashem.

The existential threat of this generation is just as bad as it was in the time of Haman. Achmedinejad and Assad's designs together with their proxies Hamas and Hisbolla, as well as global Islamofascist objectives, are no different than Haman's platform. Although we don't know what our own politicians stand for, since they promise one thing before elections and quickly change their minds after the elections for political expediency, our neighbors are not politically expedient. They have a clear political and military agenda that's based on the destruction of the Jewish people, just like Haman. The words "Israel" and Zionism" are only excuses for the desire to kill Jews.

Every Adar, Hashem renews the of the miracle of our survival. That's what the joy of Purim is all about. Yet, miracles have a price tag - they behoove us. When there's no teshuva to pay for the miracle, Hashem must take a public sacrifice from the greatest and purest tzaddikim of our generation. That explains the brutal murder of Erez Levanon during his personal prayer to Hashem exactly two years ago in Adar, and the barbaric massacre of the 8 Mercaz HaRav boys during their Torah study last year on Rosh Chodesh Adar.

Who needs more martyrs? Let's gather all the Jews and commit to genuine teshuva. If that's too hard, let's help spread emuna in the world. We can start by teaching the bedtime "Shma Yisrael" prayer to every Jewish child we know. Here is the The Shma Prayer in PDF with the original Hebrew, transliteration, and translation; send it to everyone you know. Our sages tell us that the mitzva of saying Shma Yisrael" alone is enough to save us from any and all calamity. Happy Purim week.

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Rav Chaim Kanievsky and the Grasshoppers

The megillah is filled with hidden miracles - and with so many hidden lessons. One of those lessons can be seen in the following story related by a rabbi from Brooklyn, who heard it directly from Rebbetzin Kanievsky, when he was in Bnei Brak about a month ago.

Approximately eight years ago, Harav Chaim Kanievsky shlit”a, was learning Maseches Chullin and a sugyah relating to chagovim, grasshoppers. Rav Chaim realized that he needed to see a grasshopper to better understand the Gemara - apparently he had never seen a live grasshopper before - and asked his daughter to bring him one. She tried, but reported to her father that she failed to find one. He went back to the sugyah, and lo and behold, a grasshopper came hopping through the window, landing on his Gemara. After examining it, he let it go.

As he continued through the sugyah, he realized that he needed to study the hind legs a bit more, but the grasshopper was long gone. Before closing his Gemara, a second grasshopper hopped in and on to his Gemara, giving him the ability to study its hind leg in detail.

That part of the story is rather famous. But the story continues.

Two months ago, a rov giving a shiur in Bnei Brak criticized the tales people tell about gedolim, explaining that the stories cannot all be true, and sound silly. As a case in point, he brought the maaseh of Rav Chaim and the grasshoppers, viewing it as ridiculous and leading people to the wrong conclusions regarding Rav Chaim, who, after all, learns Torah like everyone else. After the shiur, the maggid shiur went home and found his house infested with grasshoppers (in the same Bnei Brak that Rav Kanievsky’s daughter - seeking to fulfill the mitzvah of kibbud av - could not find one). He tried for three days to rid his home of the insects, but could not. Someone suggested that he go to Rav Chaim and ask for mechilah (forgiveness).

The rov approached Rav Chaim and told him what had happened. Rav Chaim laughed, saying that he did not need his mechilah at all, as the grasshoppers could have come to anybody (after all, the window was open!), and he was certainly mochel him if he needed it. The maggid went home - and the grasshoppers were gone!

As we review and study the megillah, we must remember who Mordechai and Esther really were - not players in a story, but gedolei Yisroel whose very thoughts, words and actions were entirely imbued and thoroughly saturated with mesirus nefesh for kavod Shomayim and Klal Yisroel. Their lives were not their own, they lived for a higher purpose.

Look at the last seven words of the megillah (Esther 10:3): “Doresh tov leamo vedover shalom lechol zaroh. ” They are there not only for the sake of a nice ending; they leave us with a final, parting message after all is said and done. This is a lesson for all of us at all times. Our gedolim are just not “ordinary” people. We must view them with the tremendous awe and respect they deserve; we must seek their advice and counsel and we must follow what they say. Imagine what would have happened to our people without only two people - Mordechai and Esther - and look at what happened as a result of them.

Let us look at our gedolim as the Mordechais and Esthers of our generation, following their directives and teachings with reverence and joy, and may we, too, be zoche to nissim as they were in those times.

Hakhel Bulletin/Elisha Ferber-Matzav.com Newscenter

Chain of Events

Art by Rob Gonsalves

In order for a miracle to occur, Hashem has to arrange for a chain of seemingly natural events to take place, in order that everything is set up to ensure the miraculous outcome. Most of these events go by un-noticed, until we think about it, and put the whole story together. Then we can see the hidden hand of Hashem behind each step.

"The truth is, each miracle consists of a chain of precious events, but since each individual event is only part of the miracle we cannot feel or see it. We can only understand it with the conclusion of the final chapter.

"Then, the entire chain of events is transformed into a single miracle, and the complete miracle is viewed in all its splendour.

"The Purim miracle went unnoticed. When did they finally realise that they had witnessed a tremendous miracle? When all the events were connected. Then everyone understood that the miracle began when Mordechai heard Bigsan and Teresh planning to assassinate the King, and all the following events were part of the long chain that we call "Purim".

[The Chofetz Chaim "Beshalach"]
ShiratDevorah

MIRACLES IN ISRAEL

No one doubts that the establishment of the State of Israel, after Hitler's decimation of European Jewry, was an open miracle. Scattered around the world, hated everywhere they lived, persecuted in the north and the south, the east and the west, Jews survived and even thrived. But sometimes we forget that every day that Israel doesn't implode -- surrounded by its sworn enemies, many times its' size -- is a miracle we should never take for granted.

And most astonishingly is the following framework for something we have all become intuitively aware.

Do we realize the magnitude of the miracle we recently experienced in Gaza.

The world is now far too well acquainted with the fright and terror experienced by the Jews who live within striking distance of our enemies in Gaza. The panic and hysteria that occurs when a siren goes off and a missile is imminent has been depicted in a frightening film on this website and has been viewed over a million times.

As painful as each and every casualty is, thank God, the losses have been comparatively minimal. But do we realize the magnitude of the miracle before our eyes?

Harold Gans is a mathematical consultant and international lecturer throughout North America, Israel, Australia and South Africa. He was a Senior Cryptologic Mathematician with the National Security Agency, United States Department of Defense until his retirement after 28 years of service. He recently reported the following:

On Jan. 5, 2009, Ehud Barak, Defense Minister of Israel, announced that 125 Grad-Katyusha missiles had fallen on populated areas of Beersheva, Ashkelon and Ashdod. This is 40% of the missiles fired; the remaining 60% fell in open areas. Of the 40% that hit populated areas of these cities, 2% hit buildings. I obtained satellite photos of Beersheva, Ashkelon and Ashdod. My analysis indicated that the average percentage of the ground covered by buildings in these three cities is 39.7%. This takes into account the different sizes of these cities.

Now, the expected rate of rockets hitting buildings should be the same as the percentage of the ground covered by buildings: 39.7%. Yet it is only 2%. The odds of this happening by chance are 100,000,000,000,000,000: 1.

Note that this has nothing to do with the bad aim of these missiles; we are only counting the 40% that actually did fall in populated areas of these cities.

God has given us a universe that is saturated with wonder and amazement. When we tune in to the marvels that surround us we can feel His presence and experience unparalleled joy. But there's a whole class of miracles that is easy to miss -- the "non-events" of life. In some ways, they can be even more providential than the obvious one.

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