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Question
Hello Rabbi, I have a question. I have heard some accounts here and there in the past of a goy saying to their Avoda Zara (lav davka statues) “show me a sign”, especially before they went to war, and a thunderstorm or something happened. And they lost the battle. Or the case of Constantine putting the cross on his shield and he won the battle. Why does HaShem make such cases happen, and how to explain them.
Answer
Personally, as one with an MA in history, I can tell you that all such "miracles" that I'm familiar with in other religions, are not historically documented and almost definitely didn't happen, or could easily be explained naturally, coincidentally or through "slight of hand". Especially in the olden days, when people believed in magic and polytheism, where every power is considered a god, primitive man "believed everything and anything" they heard, and generally didn't question, and didn't have the empirical tools and/or methods to verify or document things, which really developed in the more modern world. In the religious world of yesterday, in the average battle, one side won, and claimed it as godly intervention, while the losers explained their loss religiously as well. I"ll be very surprised, but if you ever do come up with a really convincing and historically documented miracle, please ask me again, because the Ramban has an alternative explanation, which as of now, I don't feel any need for.
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