Small Miracles

Everyone I know seems to be waiting for a 'big' miracle in their life: this one is drifting further and further away from their husband; that one has been doing chemo with her sick child for months; this one is severely depressed and falling apart; that one can't remember the last time they didn't have a minus sign in front of all the numbers on their bank statement; that one is unwell, this one is unhappy, and so on and so forth.
 
When I talk to them about what's going on in their lives, I talk about G-d, and the amazing miracles that can happen to a person when G-d is really part of the equation, and not just some theoretical concept. I tell them about some of the big, open miracles G-d has done for me, like getting my kids into a school that was completely full and had a waiting list as long as your arm; or the fact that we're still somehow paying the mortgage on this house three years' later, when we knew we couldn't afford it when we moved in; or how the $30k tax bill on the sale of our house somehow got magic-ed away, when our lawyer found a (completely legal) loophole that meant we didn't have to pay it after all.
 
Amazing, big miracles! Thank you G-d!
 
Usually they smile, they sigh, and then they tell me that they wish G-d would do some big miracles for them, too… but He just isn't.
 
I was thinking about all this when I went off to the Bnei Brak Cemetery, to visit the grave of Rabbi Yehuda Zev Leibowitz. Before his death, Rabbi Leibowitz was the head of the 'hidden tzadikim', the 36 righteous individuals who sustain the whole world in their merit. He was also one of Rav Arush's mentors and main spiritual guides, and after his death a couple of years' ago, Rav Arush started to share some amazing stories about Rabbi Leibowitz that would make the hair stand up on the back of your neck. If Rabbi Leibowitz was good enough for Rav Arush, he was certainly good enough for me, so I decided to go and visit his grave.
 
That I even got to the right cemetery first time round was a miracle: I didn't realise that there are at least another two cemeteries in the area, until I got back home and took another look at the map.
 
That I found the right grave straight away was a miracle: the first person I asked knew exactly where it was, and if you've ever been in a cemetery where the grave you're looking for is not very conspicuous, you know how hard it can be to track down the right place. Despite the fact that it was the middle of April, it was also raining really heavily the whole time I was driving towards Bnei Brak – literally, torrents of water that made it very hard to see past the windscreen. When I got to my destination, the rain stopped. For the twenty minutes I was there, it stayed dry. As soon as I got back on the motorway out of Bnei Brak, the monsoon started up again.
 
But that's not all: on the way out of Bnei Brak, I asked G-d to help me find a good bookstore that would have appropriate books for my kids that they would want to read, and (here's the kicker…) easy, free parking right next to the store.
 
The words were hardly out of my mouth when I spotted 'Super Sefer' on the corner, and then a parking spot about 10 seconds away. The man had a whole bookcase full of suitable books that I thought my daughter would like, and I came away a very happy customer.
 
As I stepped back into the car, the torrential rain started up again, and that's when I started to think about big miracles, and small miracles. G-d is doing miracles for all of us, all the time. Every time I wake up, or make supper, or do a load of laundry, that's a miracle (just ask my poor long-suffering husband ☺).
 
Every time we pay our mortgage, or bring a chicken home from the supermarket, or fill up our car with another tank of gas, that's a miracle. Every time a couple gets married, or a child is born, that's an amazing, wonderful, unfathomable miracle. But we don't see all the miracles that G-d is constantly doing for us, because we aren't living our lives with G-d.
 
Rav Arush teaches time and time again, if you believe in G-d, you talk to Him. If you don't talk to Him, it's because really, you don't believe.
 
I have very few merits, but one thing I got as a real gift from Heaven is a big mouth, that I'm using more and more to talk to my Creator. If I hadn't asked G-d to show me that bookstore, I may still have spotted it, and found good parking, but I wouldn’t have felt G-d's loving guidance and influence in my life as a result. I wouldn't have recognised the 'small' miracle He just did for me, because either I would have chalked it up to 'luck', or to my own ability to scan a row of shops whilst simultaneously driving and eating a bag of chips…
 
G-d wants to give us. He wants to shower us with miracles, big and small; He wants to solve all of our problems; but most of all, He wants us to include Him in our lives, and to talk to Him. He just wants us to ask Him, directly, for whatever we need, and to believe that He will give it to us, if it's good for us.
 
The big miracles are there, just waiting for us. If we want to get to them, all we have to do is to acknowledge all the 'small' miracles that He does for us all, every single day of our lives. Each 'small' miracle we recognize – like our kid laughing; like having a great breakfast; like that gorgeous flower that's blooming in our garden – will bring that 'big' one that we all need closer and closer.
 
 
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Check out Rivka Levy's new book The Happy Workshop based on the teachings of Rabbi Shalom Arush