The portion-parasha of Tzav continues
to deal with the sacrifices. It mentions that 3
stacks of wood used for the 3 fires that
were placed on the Exterior Alter. The Alter stood in the courtyard of the sanctuary-mishkan. 1.Fire
used for the Burning of the sacrifices 2. Fire used to burn the incense on the
Golden Alter 3. A fire used to fulfill the command – Leviticus 6:5 ' a constant
fire shall burn upon the alter, it
shall never go out' – והאש על
המזבח תוקד בו לא תכבה -ויקרא ו: ה.
In truth, the addition of wood was
unnecessary to maintain the fire, for a heavenly fire constantly rested on the
Alter. The fire had 2 purposes. It was the vehicle through which
God blessed man with fire -one of the elements with which man was created. Blessed with fire and energy, man could
pursue his goals of perfecting himself, his society and serving God.
The second purpose of the' man –made fire' says the Seifer Ha'chinuch Mitzvah 132 was to
' hide the miracle', so people would have to ' discover and reveal' the miracle
= the heavenly fire which came down from heaven. Hiding the miracle so it looks
very natural and part of nature is God's way of intervening in the world. The
miracle at the Red Sea was preceded with God moving the sea with the east wind
all the night – Exodus 14:21 in order to hide the miracle.
The Ramban on Exodus 13:16 explains that the great and public miracles help us be aware of
God's presence as the creator and the one who supervises and runs the world.
From this we learn that all the 'hidden ' miracles are not just rules of nature,
science, natural occurrences or events that affect us as people but God's
intervention in the world.
Hiding the miracle provides man with
the ' free choice ' to choose - do I see God's hand behind nature or do I
mistakenly conclude that it is purely a natural event. Hiding the miracle also
means that man needs to put effort in discovering and revealing God in nature.
The man made fire gave the appearance that the fire was essentially man's doing
and not a fire that came from heaven. In fact what people saw was only a '
virtual reality'.
If the ' fire' was an open miracle, people would see
the ' fact' of the miracle; it would be something they know with absolute
certainty. The problem is that this knowledge is something we know from the
outside. Meaning is being imposed on the observer. Faith is something we work on and internalize
– it comes from the inside. When we have the freedom of choice, the process of
internalization can take place. We are the ones who discover and reveal. With open miracles no internalization takes
place and in time the miracle becomes just a phenomenon of nature.
Supporting kids' autonomy is
important for 'Internalization' something crucial for academic
and socio-moral learning. Sometimes the value, rule, knowledge or belief is
inside the kid but unprocessed. The kid has merely ' swallowed ' the rule or
belief and acts in a way that they feel controlled or pressurized from the
inside. Deci and Ryan have called this process – introjection. The alternative
is ' Integration 'and involves helping
the child make the value her own, understand its rationale, and experience a
sense of self –determination in acting in accordance with it. The objective
here is a deeper experience of choice , one understood not just as a selection
of option A over option B , but as something ' anchored in the sense of a
fuller , more integrated functioning.'
As parents and teachers we have to
help kids, so they are the ones who discover and reveal God behind nature .They
should learn to see events and occurrences that affect them, not merely as natural
incidents and occurrences, but as messages from God expressing his divine providence and
supervision. Hidden miracles give us the choice to internalize our faith in God
and see HIS guidance in our everyday life.
No comments:
Post a Comment