Numbers Cycle 7 Chukat

Chukat

Magic and Miracle

There’s a fine line between magic and miracle.  

They have something big in common.

Faith.

Faith, according to Heschel, is an action. It’s not simply a statement. Faith is simply not belief. Faith is not simply regarding something as true. Faith is an act of the person of mind, will and heart…sensitivity, understanding, engagement and attachment (Heschel, God in Search of Man). It’s the raising of our soul’s light to God. It therefore necessitates a restructuring of this light, a visualization of it.  And once we raise that light to God, God sees us. God sees the one who offers himself to Him and reflects Himself back to that holy being. The action of God’s reflection is that miracle.

This is a lot to think about at once. The truth is though, it’s clean and clear Torah.

There are many miracles in Torah. They are not seen as magic. There’s the revelation at Mt Sinai, the rainbow after the Flood, the birth of Isaac, the Akeda. I could go on. Once again, this is not magic. It would take a great cynic to say that the parting of the Reed Sea is magic. And it would (and does) hurt us and God in a deep indescribable way.  Of course, we are speaking myth now. The question is not whether any of this does or doesn’t happen. In our religion/myth it does happen and that’s enough (for this teaching).

  

Yet how do we, mere beings, (as said above) restructure light or visualize?  Well, we do this with prayer.  Prayer keeps faith continual, constant. Prayer joins the blips of consciousness within one lifetime into one long moment.  It is well known that the love of God cannot strike deep root in the heart of man unless it occupies his mind constantly so that nothing in the world matters to him but this love of God.   (Maimonides, Misnah Torah, teshuvah, x.6)  And what can be said of love can also be said of faith (Heschel). In fact, it has been said (Heschel, God in Search of Man) that intimacy with God is a dimension of understanding just as is space and time. Prayer keeps that dimension…one we can’t delineate and know with second-hands or acreage…accessible and solid. It’s as if we hear a distant bell every ten years for a micro-second. Prayer joins all bells of all lifetimes of all eras. Once faith is one constant chime (or at least there is some continuity), we can present ourselves…in an action… to God.

Another way we can restructure light or visualize is through meditation.  While (as far as I know) Buddhist meditation means an emptying of the mind and the attempt to maintain that emptiness…Jewish meditation can mean a filling of the mind with God-light right at that complete moment of purification. So in Judaism, of course, purification is essential.  Emptying helps to bring about purification.  But the focus remains on the vessel and filling it with divine abundance.

  

This isn’t rocket science. It’s just about faith.

Of course, there is also the embarrassment of faith. My tears have been my food day and night while they say unto me all the day, where is thy God? (Psalms 42:4) I think that anyone of deep faith who has been ostracized for a lack of funds understands this embarrassment. There are always situations when people think that because of superficial titles based on the societal structure…they know God better. In so doing, they question your faith. It can be difficult. That’s why faithfulness is important…strength of waiting, the acceptance of His concealment, defiance of history (Heschel)  and may I add…defiance of  society when absolutely necessary.

Continuing on, another way that we can restructure light or visualize can be to bring in objects that help us. They are not symbols of faith. They are not symbols of God. They are things that help us to do the God-work that we are ordained as Jews to do.

What objects fall into this category? Well certainly the hyssop in this parasha. I don’t know what it may have meant to the culture of that time. But I do know that if we bring in a rock or a shell to a modern meditation we are not glorifying the rock. We are visualizing a beach or a mountain. We are placing ourselves there so hopefully we can have the faithfulness to enter into a deeper space. 

Of course, when Moses hits the rock…with his stick to bring about water…the rock is simply the rock. 

This brings us to a problem. The problem occurs when we do use earthly articles as I previously explained but we use them to manipulate our earthly situation.  This trajectory of thinking brings us into the realm of magic. Magic is when we use objects to get objects, when we place our light into the object in an act of faith rather than into/towards God. There are great magicians in this era.  And I certainly think highly of some of them. There are brilliant people who have turned their talents into abundance in this world. But a magician is not the same as a miracle-worker. We need to know the difference. 

  

In short, magic must be known as magic.  If confused with the awe of miracle it turns faith into a circus and the myth of our religion into satire.  It angers God no end and rightly so because it confuses body with soul. The confusion of the two prevents the transformation brought about by miracle….and this personal and community transformation is our responsibility (Levinas).  It holds us back. It holds God back. 

Rabbi Johannon ben Zakkai supports this. In a midrash,  when faced with a question about magic…concerning the red heifer…he vocally agrees with the heretic that they are performing magic. When his students ask him then for the real truth, the rabbi tells them just to do it. It’s a chukat….so they do it.  They must find the faith within. Any words of explanation…Rabbi Johannon understands…will water down the miracle by turning the faith into belief and even into the magic they all just rebuked. 

It’s an important subject. What we need to remember is that within the silence of nature there is a call,  a radical  ear-splitting, heart-warming call and the call is to us. We can only respond in the same language, a divine language, one that is deep within our senses, held by that glorious bell and heard with sweet gratitude by all who dare love God.  The chime is not there to make us richer, fatter or more satiated. These results are superficial, magical, and often fun. Fun is good. Fun can be fun. But these results can be great or dangerous…it depends on how we deal with them. 

 One again the chime is there to clinch our seeming madness in this often faithless world and make it divine, to help us as we transform our human reality to fit with the Holy One and to help Him as He transforms in His approach to us.

 There's nothing more to be said here. At least not by me and not for now.