Are Miracles Hidden in Nature? Jewish Wisdom on the Laws of Creation

Dor asks: “In Rabbi Zamir's lectures, I’ve heard about the mystical ‘secret of the Hebrew letters’ and the spiritual laws that God embedded into nature at the time of Creation. These laws, he explained, allow for supernatural miracles. My question is: when God performs a miracle, does He actually suspend and break the natural order, or were these miracles already built into the fabric of nature from the very beginning? For example, is the resurrection of the dead already hidden within creation since the dawn of time? Thank you in advance.”

* * *

Shalom Dor, and congratulations on your spiritual journey.

Rabbi Cohen explains that what we generally refer to as “nature” and its “laws” is actually nothing more than a hidden miracle — a constant, ongoing expression of divine providence. The fact that gravity keeps us on Earth at this very moment is no less miraculous than the splitting of the Red Sea. The difference is only in what we’re accustomed to.

Righteous individuals who deeply internalize this truth begin to see the divine hand behind every detail of creation. For them, God’s providence sometimes becomes visible in ways we call “open miracles,” which to ordinary people look like a suspension of natural law. In truth however, there is no essential difference between “nature” and “miracle.”

Rabbi Dessler’s Explanation

Rabbi Eliyahu Dessler (in Michtav Me’Eliyahu, Vol. 1, p. 178) explained this idea with striking clarity.

Nature is simply the framework that God placed in creation — a pattern of cause and effect. When we plow, plant, and water, wheat grows. If we stop to think however, we realize we don’t really understand why the seed rots in the ground and then produces a full stalk of grain. It does this and repeats consistently. Isn’t that itself a miracle?

If you saw a grave where a body had turned to dust, and suddenly from that dust a living, speaking person grew out of the earth, you would call that resurrection of the dead. The very same thing happens when a seed decays and a plant springs forth. One we call a “miracle,” the other “nature.” The difference is only that one has become usual.

If we had been conditioned the other way around, we’d call resurrection “nature” and farming “a miracle.” In fact, both are divine acts. The world has no independent existence apart from God’s will and what we call “nature” is simply God’s decision to act in a consistent way. What we refer to as a “miracle” is when He chooses to act in an unfamiliar way, reminding us of His presence.

(Photo: shutterstock)

The Test of Perception

This, Rabbi Dessler explains, is humanity’s spiritual test: will we recognize God in the familiar processes of daily life, or will we fall into the illusion that “nature” runs itself?

For those who truly see through the illusion, the boundary between miracle and nature disappears. The Talmud tells of Rabbi Hanina ben Dosa, who lit his lamp with vinegar instead of oil, saying: “The One who told oil to burn can tell vinegar to burn.” To him, both were equally dependent on God.

An Analogy

Imagine a person peeking through a keyhole and seeing the tip of a pen moving across paper. He might think the pen writes by itself. If he opens the door, he will see the person holding the pen. In the same way, the skeptic sees only “natural forces”. The believer opens the door and sees that those forces are just tools in God’s hand.

The very idea of “nature” is therefore only a shallow description of God’s profound wisdom in sustaining the universe. No blind, automatic process could ever create such a magnificent and purposeful world. Science may answer questions of “how” and “what,” but it cannot explain the “why” behind the order of reality.

Were Miracles Pre-Programmed at Creation?

Everything in the universe exists only because God continuously wills it. However, the sages teach that God does not introduce new laws after Creation, but rather, all miracles were pre-programmed into the fabric of the world during the six days of Creation. They are simply revealed at the right time and place, according to His plan.

Even the resurrection of the dead, which will one day occur, was already embedded within creation from the beginning — waiting for its destined moment to be unveiled.