Thursday, September 22, 2005

More permission to deny

Another newcomer, RuchniGashmi, imagines himself the creator's pet:
But here's how I look at it. God wants my Tefillos. Under normal circumstances He stays hidden and we don't have much conscious contact with Him. We don't SEE Him publicly. But God loves our tefillos so much that He will publicly do whatever it takes to get us to talk to him
And how does the master of heaven of earth let his special friend RuchniGashmi from Brooklyn know that his prayers are desperately desired? He makes the lights flicker, of course.

Now personally, I wouldn't want to worship an entity that is incomplete without my tefillos, and so covetous of having them that he goes and interfers with an entire city's electric grid just to get me moving. That kind of pique I can get from my children. But the more serious problem is Ruchi imagines himself the recipient of a miracle. Do we have permission to deny this, to tell Ruchi that he experienced a random event, an event he simply chose to interpret as a miracle?

Why, yes, as a matter of fact we do. Here's the Ramban, on Deut 11:13
Know further the miracles for good or bad are performed only for perfectly righteous or utterly wicked people. For average people, however, He visits good or bad upon them in a natural manner according to their way and by their doings.