Pensamento Judaico sobre II Reis 5:11

The answer: any commanded activity which seems bizarre in terms of conventional cause and effect can result in one of two assessments: that its commander or executor is a phenomenal sage or that he is a phenomenal fool. That is, if it be seen to result in the end towards which it was directed then the doer will be regarded as a phenomenal sage, having achieved an end which no one else had foreseen. But if it is seen not to result in the projected end the doer will be regarded as a phenomenal fool, as is seen in the episode of Naaman and Elisha. When Naaman went to Elisha to be healed of his leprosy he assumed that Elisha would pray and call upon his G-d. And if Elisha had, indeed, healed him in this manner, the cure would not have appeared so wonderful to him, for all of humanity feel in their hearts that the Blessed One heeds man's prayers. A cure resulting from such prayer, then, would be regarded as natural and as containing no novelty. But when Elisha advised him as he did [to wash in the Jordan seven times], Naaman perceiving no cause and effect relationship whatsoever which might eventuate in a cure, raged at Elisha and cursed his king and his G-d, saying (II Kings 5:11-12): "I thought he would surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of the L-rd his G-d and wave his hand over the place and so heal the leper. Are not Amana and Parpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the rivers of Israel…" For such a thing in which no cause and effect relationship is perceivable seems folly in its commander or performer. But in the end, when Naaman saw that it turned out exactly as the prophet had foretold and that he had been cured outside of the realm of cause and effect, he said (Ibid 15): "Now I know that there is no G-d in all of the earth but in Israel." That is, because of their closeness to Him they attain things which are completely unaccountable for in terms of the natural order, and the projected end is achieved for all to see. Our verse is to be interpreted along the same lines. Our observance of the statutes constitutes our wisdom and our understanding among the nations. For when they see that Divinity resides among us and they consider that all religious codes share in common with our Torah the obvious ethical inunctions, namely, those against theft, murder, and the like — when they consider this and see, nonetheless, that Divine Immanence is ours alone, they will say: "It cannot be but that this great nation is a wise and understanding people." The tone is one of forced, grudging admission in the face of what is so obvious to the senses that it cannot be denied.