Parshat Re'eh - A Command To Not Believe In Miracles
by Rabbi Joe Wolfson
A number of years ago, a great teacher of mine, Rav Yoel Bin Nun, taught a class which presented a number of verses in our parsha as key to understanding the book of Devarim as a whole:
כִּֽי־יָק֤וּם בְּקִרְבְּךָ֙ נָבִ֔יא א֖וֹ חֹלֵ֣ם חֲל֑וֹם וְנָתַ֥ן אֵלֶ֛יךָ א֖וֹת א֥וֹ מוֹפֵֽת׃ וּבָ֤א הָאוֹת֙ וְהַמּוֹפֵ֔ת אֲשֶׁר־דִּבֶּ֥ר אֵלֶ֖יךָ לֵאמֹ֑ר נֵֽלְכָ֞ה אַחֲרֵ֨י אֱלֹהִ֧ים אֲחֵרִ֛ים אֲשֶׁ֥ר לֹֽא־יְדַעְתָּ֖ם וְנָֽעָבְדֵֽם׃ לֹ֣א תִשְׁמַ֗ע אֶל־דִּבְרֵי֙ הַנָּבִ֣יא הַה֔וּא א֛וֹ אֶל־חוֹלֵ֥ם הַחֲל֖וֹם הַה֑וּא כִּ֣י מְנַסֶּ֞ה יְהוָ֤ה אֱלֹֽהֵיכֶם֙ אֶתְכֶ֔ם לָדַ֗עַת הֲיִשְׁכֶ֤ם אֹֽהֲבִים֙ אֶת־יְהוָ֣ה אֱלֹהֵיכֶ֔ם בְּכָל־לְבַבְכֶ֖ם וּבְכָל־נַפְשְׁכֶֽם׃
When there appears among you a prophet or a dreamer and he gives you a sign or a wonder, saying, “Let us follow and worship another god”—whom you have not experienced—even if the sign or portent that he named to you comes true, do not heed the words of that prophet or that dreamer. For the LORD your God is testing you to see whether you really love the LORD your God with all your heart and soul (Devarim 13:2-4).
Said Rav Yoel, a person who has absorbed the book of Shemot cannot understand these verses. For when, in Shemot, Moshe asks God how Pharoah or the people will know to listen to him as he tells them of God’s message, the answer that he is given is exactly what the verses in Devarim prohibit: he will be given signs and wonders, a stick that turns into a snake or an arm which becomes leprous, and through these signs Pharoah and the people will understand that his message is true.
Devarim introduces a wholly new philosophy, captured in these verses. Religious arguments are not to be conducted with references to signs, wonders and miracle workers. Moshe’s staff which has been ever present from Shemot through Bamidbar - splitting seas, striking rocks, ending plagues - is completely absent from the book of Devarim. Rather, the book of Devarim is exactly that - a book of words - Eleh HaDevarim - where the power of Moshe’s speech takes the place of any miracles.
It is brit hitbagrut - a covenant of coming of age. In Bamidbar, the Jewish people are compared to a child. The sages describe Israel leaving Sinai as "tinok she’barach m’beit hasefer" - like a child running away from school. When Moshe complains to God that he is not a mother to be breastfeeding this people, his complaint is that this people are exactly like small children - happy in the moment that their parent showers them with love and makes their presence known, but distraught as soon as the parent withdraws or any difficulty is encountered. Devarim is a book of growing up - a new generation who will need the spiritual hardiness to survive in a world without miracles.
The sages of the mishna gave expression to this anti-magic tradition inherited from the book of Devarim. Commenting upon the story in Shemot where Moshe aids the Jewish people in their battle against Amalek by raising his hands to heaven, the mishna states:
וְהָיָה כַּאֲשֶׁר יָרִים משֶׁה יָדוֹ וְגָבַר יִשְׂרָאֵל וְגוֹ' (שמות יז), וְכִי יָדָיו שֶׁל משֶׁה עוֹשׂוֹת מִלְחָמָה אוֹ שׁוֹבְרוֹת מִלְחָמָה. אֶלָּא לוֹמַר לְךָ, כָּל זְמַן שֶׁהָיוּ יִשְׂרָאֵל מִסְתַּכְּלִים כְּלַפֵּי מַעְלָה וּמְשַׁעְבְּדִין אֶת לִבָּם לַאֲבִיהֶם שֶׁבַּשָּׁמַיִם הָיוּ מִתְגַּבְּרִים. וְאִם לָאו, הָיוּ נוֹפְלִין
“And it came to pass, when Moses held up his hand Israel prevailed” etc. (Exodus 17:1).
Did the hands of Moses wage war or break [Israel’s ability] to wage war? Rather this teaches that as long as Israel would look upwards and subject their hearts to their Father in heaven they prevailed, and if not they fell. (Mishna Rosh HaShanna 3:9).
Although a straightforward reading of the verses may well imply some supernatural causation between Moshe’s raised hands and Israel’s victory, the mishna establishes a firmly symbolic reading: the raised hands served to remind Israel of the cause they were fighting for.
This approach, establishing a commitment to our tradition and beliefs which does not depend on miracles, provides a protection against wonders worked by miracle men. The teacher in the cheder asks the students: ‘Did Jesus walk on water? ’Of course not’, they reply. ‘And if he did’, the teacher continues, ‘would it make the slightest bit of difference?’
Rabbi Yosef Shlomo Kahaneman (1886-1969) was educated in the yeshivot of Europe, and had founded the Ponovezh yeshiva in Lithuania before the destruction of European Jewry. In Mandate-era Palestine he had stood on a hilltop outside of Tel Aviv and sworn that on the sand dunes he would build a city of Torah - what became modern day Bnei Brak - where he would refound Ponovezh. As a key architect of the post-Holocaust Hareidi world his credentials are second to none. And yet, Rav Kahaneman would recount that once as a young man he had heard Leon Trotsky speak when he visited the town, exhorting the masses to commit themselves to Communism and revolution. He had heard Trotsky speak once, and if he had heard him speak twice, said Rav Kahaneman, he would have left the yeshiva and followed him.
"When there appears among you a prophet or a dreamer and he gives you a sign or a wonder, saying, 'Let us follow and worship another god'—whom you have not experienced—even if the sign or portent that he named to you comes true, do not heed the words of that prophet or that dreamer."
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