Chasidut sur Les Proverbes 3:20

It was explained above that miracles have been programmed into nature from the creation of the world. Now, you may ask, “How can a person arrive at a place above the natural order revealed in the world?” It all depends upon one’s service of God and upon one’s faith. If one’s service and faith are strong, he can ascend to a place above the system of governance, and draw down a transcendent light that can be fixed within the mind’s grasp.⁴⁰¹Similar to the revelation that occurred at Akeidat Yitzchak, discussed in the preceding chapter. If he makes the absolute most of his Divine service and faith, then the supernal light will be revealed and fixed within the system of revealed governance.⁴⁰²According to this (and as explained previously), faith changes the very nature of a person’s perception of reality (a phenomenological shift), so that even the mundane is perceived as miraculous. This, in turn, allows for actual (ontological) changes in the nature of reality itself; i.e. the occurrence of an actual miracle. Then it will be explicitly revealed that this was the way God had originally conceived it.⁴⁰³“Ala be’makhsava” – literally, “ascended in His thought.” Meaning, the person will see that the miraculous occurrence did not entail a change in the natural order, but was always part of G-d’s primordial plan for the world. However, if a person does not prepare his heart, he will remain under the influence of the revealed order of nature. This is the meaning of the Gemara’s statement (Sotah, 36a), “The Jews in the days of Ezra were worthy of witnessing miracles the magnitude of those seen in the days of Yehoshua, yet their sins prevented it.” Instead of revealed miracles, they experienced hidden miracles. That is to say, miracles that occurred through natural processes and a series of everyday events: The Jews found favor in the eyes of King Korash (Cyrus), and he commanded them to build the Holy Temple. However, had they not sinned, they would have witnessed revealed miracles instead. So too, with all miracles, they depend upon the worthiness of the one receiving them, and to that same degree is the miracle proclaimed in the world. We explained this in our introduction to miracles, with the discussion of the splitting of the Red Sea. Similarly, the miracles performed for the Tanaim and Amoraim.⁴⁰⁴Early and later sages in the Talmud. Some were worthy of experiencing only private miracles; however, the more the miracle worker prepared his heart, the more the miracle was experienced and revealed in the world at large.⁴⁰⁵This seems to be a contradiction to what the author said earlier, that one cannot reveal miracles before an unenlightened public. This is as Rabbi Shimon bar Yohai said in the Idra Zuta (289b), “By God’s knowledge the depths were split” (Mishlei 3:20), and filled all of the chambers and passageways of the body, as it is written (Mishlei 24:4), “And by knowledge shall the chambers be filled.” These lights shine from the supernal hidden brain, which illuminates the mazal (Atika Kadisha), and they all depend on each other, and connect to one another, until it is known that they are all one. They are all Atika, the Ancient, and are not at all separate from him.⁴⁰⁶This means that everything is seen from the perspective of Atika, which transcends nature.