Appreciating Everyday Miracles

One of the primary themes of Chanukah is revisiting the meaning of a miracle. The conventional understanding of a miracle is an extraordinary supernatural event that upends the natural order of the world, akin to the splitting of the sea or the plagues in Egypt. Our Rabbis have taught that our daily lives are filled with miracles, and we are the recipients of phenomenal and incredible miracles. We witness babies born, apples growing, and many other fantastic events that regularly occur. Somehow, because of the frequency of these occurrences, we become desensitized to these miracles and lose appreciation to G-d for orchestrating all these amazing realities. Only when we are deprived of these blessings do we begin to fully appreciate how special and fortunate we have been to be the worthy recipient of these miracles. I think of this during Chanukah as a response to the famous question posed by Rabbi Yosef Karo (1488-1575) as to why we celebrate Chanukah for eight nights. After all, if the Jews had enough oil for the first night, the fact that the fire remained burning for an additional seven nights should be the reason to celebrate Chanukah for seven nights! Why, then, do we celebrate Chanukah for eight nights? I want to suggest that with our expanded understanding of miracles, it would be worthy to celebrate all the miracles in life, including the hidden miracles. That means being attentive to all aspects of the Chanukah story and not just that oil burned for an additional eight nights. As we gathered around our Menora for the last eight nights, we celebrated not only the famous historical miracles that our people experienced centuries ago. It was also a celebration of the hidden miracles in our lives. As Chanukah comes to an end, let us recommit to being attentive to noticing the hidden miracles in our everyday life and give proper thanks to the Al-Mighty! Have a Peaceful Shabbos, Rabbi Yaakov Fisch