Halakhic Miracles

An interesting angle on the discussion of miracles within Judaism is the halakhic-legal application. There is a halakhic directive to make a blessing upon experiencing a miracle (Brachot –chapter nine). As such, there is a need to have a working halakhic-legal definition of what exactly constitutes a miracle so that the individual can know when they are obligated to make this blessing.

The Talmud however, does not define the precise boundaries of what is considered a miraculous event. What it does do, is give us examples of what it considers a miracle. For example, the Talmud (Brachot 54a) says that one must make a blessing when passing the place where our ancestors experienced a miracle. It then goes on to give two examples: the splitting of the sea and the place where the Jews fought (and won) Amalek. 

Clearly these two events are strikingly different in their type of miracle. As we discussed at length in the last few posts, there is a miracle that works within nature, and a miracle that transcends and doesn’t reckon with nature. These two examples typify these two class sets.

This would seem to imply that even when someone experiences an event that does not break the bonds of nature and is just not what we would expect (i.e. winning a war against a numerically and strategically superior force, such as Amalek), we still can, and are obligated to, make a blessing on the event.

The shulkhan arukh (orach chayim, siman 218, seif 9) brings yet another example that might obligate one to make a blessing on a miracle. The example is where one simply underwent a potentially life-threatening situation and was saved. Such as being robbed or falling off a ladder and the like. According to this we can isolate three class sets of experiences that can be considered halakhically a miracle.

1.       Complete miracle- i.e. something broke the laws of nature.

2.       Semi – miracle – i.e. something extraordinary happened that utterly defied what we would expect to play out naturally. Yet no law of nature was broken. This would be chanuka, the war of Amalek, purim etc.

3.       Dangerous situation – potentially life threatening that one was saved from. In this situation there is no breakdown of nature, not even something extraordinary, just what appears to be a commonplace occurrence. Yet this is, according to some authorities, considered a halakhic miracle.

The problem with this last class set is that there is an entirely different blessing that one is supposed to make on being saved from a potentially life threatening situation. It is called birkhat hagomel, the blessing of beneficence. Thus if one crossed the sea and went through a storm, or travelled through a desert they must say a blessing of gomel. This would seem to indicate that a dangerous situation is not halakhically classified as a miracle since it already falls under a different category of gomel or grace. As a result this last class set is hotly disputed by the earlier commentaries.

What is most interesting is that these three halakhic categories exactly parallel the three categories that Chassidic thought delineated. The open dominant miracle, the integrated miracle and the non-recognizable miracle.

Although the earlier commentators (Rishonim) debated the issue, the final ruling as it has been codified by the later commentators (Achronim) is that one makes a blessing on a miracle only where a breakdown of nature has occurred.