Allergy of the Body, Obsession of the Mind, Part II

Well, it's Feb 28 and my month is almost up here.

Here's my answer to the question which I asked in my last post.

The question is not whether or not G-d CAN cure an alcoholic's body and make it like a normal person's body so that the ex-problem drinker can now drink in moderation like other people. Of course G-d CAN do that. He can also split the sea and rain down bread from heaven. These acts are called miracles and they flout the laws of nature. G-d made up the laws of nature and He can suspend them as He sees fit.

And yet it seems that G-d doesn't perform these kinds of miracles too often. Not just in our age, but even in the "olden days," nature was always more common than miracles (that's sort of what defines it as nature.)

The Jewish mystical tradition explains that G-d actually dislikes performing miracles that circumvent the natural order. The reason? Because G-d wants THIS world to become a heavenly place and it's only by working WITHIN the natural order that the natural order itself can be elevated to something holy.

When G-d works within the natural order, this is also a miracle. In fact, it's an even more powerful miracle than the obvious type of miracle.

The spiritual experience one has "as a result of these steps" is a miracle. Not a miracle that breaks nature or circumvents nature but a miracle that actually uplifts nature. In other words, there is nothing identifiably supernatural involved in the process of having the obsession for alcohol removed. It looks normal from the outside. One doesn't levitate or learn how to move objects with his mind. And yet, it is nothing less than the Power of G-d at work and it is an
even more amazing display of His Power than were He to step in and simply override nature by removing the allergy of the body.

Simply put, the miracle that has the greatest effect on this world is the miracle that stays within this world.

--
Shais Taub
Chasidic Thought