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Ein Ayah: On one level, there is a practical advantage of someone refraining from relying on miracles, for Hashem wants the world to operate based on nature. Additionally, there is a spiritual reason, which stems from the fact that man himself was one of the things that Hashem created with wisdom based on the rules of nature that He placed into His world. Therefore, it is proper that man should love nature, as it allows him to be active and not to be the object to which things happen. Even when man is ostensibly acting himself, he is actually acting together with Hashem (see Yeshaya 26:12). This desire to be one who acts is part of a person’s shleimut (completeness). When the desire to act combines with knowledge, then he will know how to act properly, and nature affords him the opportunity to do so.
In contrast, a miracle turns a person into the object upon which forces operate, and this actually takes away from his power, as he cannot do anything in this regard. What are merits if not the wide variety of good actions that a person does? When a person acts according to the path that Hashem sets out for him, his merits increase, and while they increase they certainly do not decrease. But when the miracle is happening to him, and as a recipient, that which occurs to him is a function of the past merits that he has accumulated, the miracle subtracts from the existing past storehouse of merits. After all, Hashem put limits even on the moral powers that He put in the world, and that which has been gained by proper actions that a person has done can go only so far, whether in the physical or the spiritual realm.
As long as a person is acting in the proper way, he can continue to succeed on an ongoing basis, as the pasuk says: "The work of your hands shall you eat, you are fortunate and it is good for you" (Tehillim 128:2). He will experience the full joy and success, and he loses nothing because he is only asking to continue living properly.
Therefore, one should always have an internal love of nature. This can be fully significant only when he knows clearly that miracles exist and that they are great, yet he sees the value of the sustainable situation of living based on healthy, natural actions. Then his actions are connected to complete truth and true freedom.
There are times when a person needs, for a variety of reasons, to become "smaller" by receiving miracles from Hashem. However, the ultimate goal is to grow again. Indeed, Yaakov, while acknowledging the impact of having received, also was told that his life was one of profound actions, as his new name (Yisrael) connoted that he had acted successfully with dominion among angels and with men (Bereishit 32:29).
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The Land of Israel LGBT'S IN ISRAEL
The question was asked, how can one make Aliyah with the LGBT parades?
Kuzari -Rabbi Ari Shvat Kuzari class 7 - Five Accumulative Proofs of G-d
As a preparation for the Kuzari's classic proof of G-d from the mass-revelation at Sinai, we start here with 5 other directions to strengthen our belief which also contribute to what the Kuzari will present as well.
Ein Aya Muscle & Meaning: The Dual Nature of Gevurah (Physical Strength)
Is physical strength and fitness a necessity or an ideal? Although it if often totally overlooked among topics of Judaism, Rav Kook writes that it clearly is also a necessity to deter the many enemies of Israel, but even in Y'mot HaMashiach, in the Messianic era, to a certain extent, it's ideal continues even after our enemies will have been finished off.
Chukat "HOW ENTEBBE STOLE THE BICENTENNIAL
The Difference Between Historic & Eternal"
As we approach America's 250th birthday, it's worth remembering her 200th Bicentennial birthday, on Jul. 4th 1976, when Israel "stole the show" by shocking the world & miraculously saving 101 hostages in a foreign continent. As Pres. As Pres. Trump decides which countries get priority in his new Middle-East, it's worth reminding him of the difference between historic events and eternally historic ones. This obviously connects with this week's parsha, as well!
Kuzari -Rabbi Ari Shvat Kuzari class 6 - The Parable of the King of India
The advantages of testimony over circumstantial evidence or philosophical speculation.
Kuzari -Rabbi Ari Shvat Kuzari class 5- "Proofs of G-d"
This may be the most important class of the entire book, where we finally get to the Jewish proof of the existence of G-d and truth of the Torah. We should follow His own direction where He tells us how to get to Him: through the Nation of Israel: Jewish history, Jewish prophets (and today, prophecies fulfilled), and national reward & punishment towards Am Yisrael.
Ein Aya One Humanity, One Creator, One Jerusalem
Rav Kook innovatively and beautifully explains this aggadeta where our sages say that after Jerusalem was destroyed her cinnamon fragrance is only found locked in a particular kingdom's treasury.
