My email is being inundated by videos proclaiming the Messianic sign of a Red Cow in Lakewood, NJ, and of a Kabbalist explaining the Heavenly Sign of the Blood Moons, the numerical meaning of the 44th president, and other secrets of the universe. I guess the question on my mind seems strange a day before we read of the Splitting of the Sea and the fifty miracles associated with the event: "Are we supposed to live life waiting for the miraculous?"

My father zt"l often instructed me that the idea of the Messiah is that we must live with awareness that one human being can change the world. Is that miraculous? It is the miracle of being a human being, but it is not consistent with believing that Blood Moons and Red Cows herald the Messianic era.

Yes, I believe that miracles happened at the Red Sea, but am far more intrigued by what followed. The walls of water formed by the Split Sea (Exodus 14:22 & 29), served as doorway into the future. The men sang the prophetic Song at the Sea only to be forced to move on (Rashi 15:22) because they wanted to remain collected the valuable Egyptian spoils washing up on the shore (Midrash Tanchuma), or because they could not let go of their elevated status inspired by the miracles they witnessed (Zohar). The former approach warning us how easily we can lose the effects of a miracle, and the latter approach reminding us that an elevated state caused by a miracle will limit our ability to live the miracle of being human beings.

The women, led by Miriam, projected their song into the future, having musical instruments they carried from Egypt in anticipation of future miracles. Miriam, whose name means "Bitterness (Ruth 1:20)," closes the Red Sea story, only for the people to arrive a Marah, the place of bitter waters. It seems the people had not left the Maror (Bitter Herbs) of Pesach behind them.

The Bitter Waters of Marah are sweetened when, "If you hearken diligently to the voice of God, your Lord, and do what is just in His eyes, give ear to His commandments and observe all His decrees, then any of the diseases that I placed in Egypt, I will not bring upon you, for I am God, your Healer (15:26)." God placed the power in our hands, the human miracle. This is not a magical tale of miracles saving us but of our ability to trigger the great miracle of God healing us of our bitterness.

Can people who live counting on miracles survive without becoming bitter? (Chatam Sofer, Responsa, Conclusion of Yoreh Dei'ah)

I would love a bunch of miracles, but I refuse to passively wait for them. I prefer to focus my efforts on mastering the miraculous power of being a human being who can think, grow, and affect internal and external change. Is that not the point of this Festival of Freedom?

Rabbi Simcha L. Weinberg 

President 
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