Miracles, Creation and Trust in God

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Abraham’s Perfection, Miracles & the Universe’s Design, and Bitachon —Rabbi Israel Chait— Student’s transcription of the 1990 Pirkei Avos lectures

Judaism requires intellectual tolerance: the ability to entertain a question which could be very difficult. Rav Chaim’s method was that he was not afraid to leave a sugya (a Talmudic theme/category many times running through multiple tractates) with a basic question unanswered. In learning, one cannot expect to always find the answer. Sometimes one must leave an area without knowing its main idea. The alternative, that everyone can understand everything, is false. We are not dissatisfied when we fail to understand. We are happy that we have a question and we move on.

5:4 MIRACLES AND TESTS Ten miracles were performed for our ancestors in Egypt, and ten [miracles were performed] at the [Reed] Sea. [With] ten trials did our ancestors test the Omnipresent, blessed be He, in the Wilderness, as it is said (Num. 14:22): “Yet have they tested Me these ten times, and have not hearkened to My voice.”

The commentators go through the miracles in Egypt, and those that took place at the sea were known not through the Torah, but through the mesora. The mishnah then says that the Jews tested God 10 times in the desert. The first time was at the Reed Sea [as Pharaoh and his army were drawing close] when the Jews said, “Are there not enough graves in Egypt that you brought us to die in the wilderness?” (Exod. 14:11). The Jews desired to return to Egypt. The second test was in Marah: “And the people grumbled against Moses, saying, ‘What shall we drink?’” (Ibid. 15:24). The


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