Wonder of wonder, miracle of miracles!

Hey there, my name is Rabbi Jodi Gordon, and I am pumped to be joined by Rabbi Jen Gubitz as we welcome you to the OMFG podcast, Jewish wisdom for unprecedented times.

Hey, Gubitz. Hey, Jodi. OMFG, what a fabulous 4-letter word. These letters express so much in so little time. From laughter to undercooked latkes, from disbelief that our children will receive 8 nights' worth of presents to dreidel games. And as rabbis, we have come to know that when the stories of our lives meet the stories of Jewish tradition, transformation, growth, something awesome occurs.

Jen and I are experts in the letters J and G, Indigo Girls and baby namings, as well as Second Temple literature and vegan cheese. And we want to bring you into our conversations that express our love for Judaism and make it relevant in the world as we mine Jewish wisdom for strength and resilience in these unprecedented times, with a dose of humor, of course, because as Maya Angelou teaches, "Laugh as much as possible. Always laugh.

It's the sweetest thing one can do for oneself and one's fellow human beings." So this week we're talking about miracles, which feels appropriate because Hanukkah, where we famously say, "A great miracle happened there." So let's play a miracle word association game, Jodi. Think of a word, a phrase, a sentence, an idea, a song. Let's see how it goes. A great miracle happened there.

Miracle Grow.

Miracle on 34th Street!

I believe in miracles!

Wonder, wonder, miracles, miracles!

I feel like you just won. That's the best one.

Okay, Jodi, big ask. Do you believe in miracles?

When I think about miracles, the first thing I think about actually is of walking around the lot of a sold-out Fish Show and running into people who are walking around with one finger up, asking for someone to miracle them in, right? To, you know, give them the ticket they need to get into this sold-out Phish show, which, you know, sometimes at some of these shows would be an actual miracle. But in the context we're talking about, miracles are really interesting because I think there's this way in which there's a difference somehow between big miracles and little miracles, right? We have big miracles in our tradition I don't know, splitting of the Red Sea, oil that lasts for 8 nights instead of just 1.

Big miracles.

Right, big miracles. And then there are all of these little miracles. I think about this a lot in the way that we talk about miracles with our religious school students because of the blessings that we teach them as part of the morning service that are called Nissim BeChol Yom, like the miracles that happen every day. And trying to get a 10-year-old to understand that for some people being able to stand up straight is actually a miracle. Is one way that I have taught about and thought about miracles. But I have to say, like, if personally I'm asked, you know, do you believe in miracles? Or what do you think is a miracle? There's really just this one thing that I think of as a miracle. And that is the creation and birth of new human life, which I understand might sound like a cliché. But when you look at a new baby, and you realize that there's now this whole new person in the world, It does feel like more than simple biology. I remember when my older daughter was born, somebody said to me, "Isn't it crazy that when she opens her mouth, there's like stuff in there? Like it's not a doll." To me, that does feel like a miracle, like that this whole being that didn't exist before comes together. And the thing that I think a lot of us know is that so much actually has to come together and align just perfectly. And when you look at the other side of it, right, the difficulty and the things that can and do go wrong, It does feel like even more of a miracle to me that human beings continue to be born, you know, perfect and whole, however they are, each and every day. And that when they open their mouth, there's, you know, a tongue and a throat and a heart and a whole body. And then here they are. What about you?

We have this great video. My sister and I used to ask our oldest niece about where her different body parts were. Where's your nose? Where's your mouth, your ears? And then we asked her where her esophagus was. And she got it right! She just patted her tummy and we said, "Yeah, good job!" So I also think of new children as miraculous. I've held both of my nieces in the first 8 days of their lives and sat next to many friends in school who were growing tiny humans while we sat through lectures. And so seeing how those beings grew up has been really amazing, and the fact that they have esophagus and tongues as well— unique, remarkable. So I think if we think of miracles as one-time occurrences, then each individual being, each child that we've both seen could fit that definition. And then I think about a trip to Utah, and I remember being in Zion National Park and Joshua Tree National Park and Bryce Canyon and thinking, wow, the grandeur of this nature is miraculous. But I'm not sure it was a miracle because it's actually something that happened over a gabajillion years. So for me, I want there to be miracles. I believe that children, in fact, might be, or any holy soul is a miracle. But for me, the distinction is actually between something that happens all the time, which gives me a sense of wonder, and something that can only happen once, which I think is a miracle.

I love that definition. Right? Something about miracles being these, these moments, right? These, these unique separate standalone one-time occurrences, and that something wondrous, right, might be something more expansive or something that happens again and again and is no less remarkable but maybe not a miracle in that way. So of course, you know, we like to, to find out what all of you, our listeners, think about miracles. And so we did again a very, very scientific poll collecting really hard data on Instagram, and we asked people Do you believe in miracles? And Jen, the responses were pretty great. What did you think?

75% said totally, and 25% said not so much. And we're not going to tell you what the sample size was. But that means that 3/4 cup of our listeners believe that yes, miracles totally do happen.

So you're saying our listeners are— more of like a 3/4 cup full kind of people. So the other question we asked was to help us finish the sentence, miracles are blank. And the two possibilities— well, there were three, but nobody chose the third one. So the two possibilities that people really selected between was miracles are A, supernatural, something done by God or a higher power, or B, a human-made concept to explain extraordinary things. And of our, again, huge sample size, tons of data, we again had a majority voting for miracles as a human-made concept to explain extraordinary things.

So 70% agreed with that and 30% felt that it's supernatural, and surprisingly, 0% said, "BS, not a thing." So what does that mean? Yes, people believe in miracles, believe that they exist. But yes, also, that they're a human-made concept to explain extraordinary things. What does that mean?

Well, you know, when I often look for wisdom, I often go to my favorite rabbi, Anne Lamott. Who, if our listeners aren't catching the irony there, Anne Lamott is actually this not only incredible writer, but she's a Christian thinker. And she does have a lot to say about miracles. But she had this one piece that I brought with me today because it felt, it felt germane to our conversation. So Anne Lamott writes about miracles. And she's talking about a time where she feels like her family received the miracle that they had been working for and praying for, and really looking for. And she writes, you know, if I were God or God's West Coast rep, I would have a much more organized and predictable system. That's all I'm saying. Miracles aren't the same as nitrous oxide, which would be so great if you ask me. But no. And here's the best part, listeners. This is Anne Lamott's wisdom here. Miracles means grace must have tiptoed sneakily into the picture while you were busy with your clipboard, making lists, and writing down all your good ideas on how to save, rescue, and fix everyone. Miracles, even little brown paper bag miracles, are when you absolutely could not have gotten to where you are now from where you were, but it may come at a cost. And this is the thing about, you know, the two choices that we offered our listeners, you know, are miracles something that come from God or higher power, or are they this human-made concept to explain Explaining Extraordinary Things. I love the piece she says where miracles mean that grace tiptoed in while you were busy with your clipboard making lists, because you were still busy with your clipboard making lists. I mean, I think that is something about miracles where there has to be an openness to it or some sort of preparation, readiness, willingness for the circumstances to align in order for that miracle to occur, even if we believe that there's something we call grace which maybe we'll save Grace for another episode, right? But that there's something else that happens, some sort of alchemy that happens while we're doing the busy work of making a particular dream come true.

Does that mean that there's miracles all around us all the time if only we pay attention?

It's funny you say that. I was, I was looking at my bookshelf earlier today and I came across a book that It turns out I was gifted by the Rabbi George B. Lieberman Religious School in 1996.

Gifted or borrowed permanently?

There's a nameplate in it. I believe this must have— if this was 1996, this must have been a gift to me for my confirmation. And it's called The Book of Miracles: A Young Person's Guide to Jewish Spirituality by the incredible Rabbi Lawrence Kushner. And so I took a quick look at this book, which I've been, you know, schlepping around for the past 24 years. And there is this piece, I think, somewhere, somewhere in like the ether of Jewish thought that does say, actually, miracles are all around you. Because the way this whole book is structured was that if you open your eyes and you open your ears and you open your heart, right? And those are, I think, his three sort of sections that you actually might notice things in your life that should be categorized as maybe miracles, as maybe something else, but that in some way Like that is Jewish spirituality, right? Is noticing, is being open to the possibility and having your eyes and your heart and your ears open to be able to see, hear, receive, and feel all of these things.

We have this seeing, hearing idea of noticing around us, um, the miracles in our lives. There's certainly gratitude implicit in that. And it's very personal though, right? So, I mean, I see your kids and they're beautiful creatures to me. Right? And I see my nieces and they're really beautiful creatures to me because they're really— they're related to me and they feel deeply personal. And I think we each look at our own little miracles through a deeply personal lens. And so I'm curious about the communal sense of miracles and how has Judaism determined as a community what is a miracle throughout Jewish memory and history?

I did a little bit of research. It involved finding a binder from 5 years ago when I had the chance to study at Hadar in New York City, where Jason Rubenstein did a beautiful teaching on miracles in the Jewish tradition. And what I relearned is that in the Jewish tradition, miracles are often defined, or actually usually defined, by being something that deviates from nature, right? That was one like really prominent stream of thought in our tradition. And actually there's some wild stories in the Talmud, Jen, about what constitutes a miracle. So here are some of my my favorites. A guy is walking along, a lion fell upon him, and he was saved. Miracle. The next one, legit. Yeah, I mean, that's a good one. I mean, if a lion fell upon me, either like literally or, you know, literally, I think it's, you know, it's a miracle. A man is walking through a valley and runs out of water, but miracle, a spring appears and he drinks. That one feels pretty legit, maybe not as wild. But the last one is my favorite. And there's a story of a guy who's walking through a busy market and a crazed camel falls upon him. So first of all, I don't know what is going on in the Second Temple period, but we've got like literally crazy wild animals just falling upon people fairly often, it seems, right? But a crazed camel falls upon him, but then here's the best part: a wall collapses and the guy can hide in the rubble of the collapsed wall, thereby escaping being harmed by this crazed camel, and that is a miracle. So we have these quite literally wild stories embedded in our tradition, right? Lions and oases that appear out of nowhere and crazy camels and collapsed walls.

Lions and camels and springs, oh my.

And the rabbis come to say that when these totally outrageous, out of the order of things happen, we have to do something. And the thing that we have to do is we have to say a blessing. And the blessing that they give in this set of stories about the lion and the spring and the camel and the wall is Baruch asali nes b'makom heveh. Blessed is the one who did a miracle for me in this place.

When I was 16, on my NFTY in Israel trip, my two friends, Jessica And I think John got on a camel and then the camel just took off running, just like off into the sunset, kind of like the end of Looney Tunes. You know what? John might not have been on that camel, but Jessica definitely was. And she fell off ultimately. The miracle was that she fell off and only broke her wrist. Blessed is the one who has created for me a miracle in this place in the Negev.

With a crazed camel.

With a crazed camel. Exactly. Exactly. I love also that it's like in this place, something amazing has happened in this place. And we actually see that in that statement that we say about Hanukkah, a great miracle happened there is what our dreidels say, nes gadol hayah sham, for those of us living in the diaspora. But if you're in Israel, your dreidel says nes gadol hayah po, a great miracle happened here. And if you're in Jerusalem, you can really just point at the Old City. Directly where you want.

You don't have to say anything. You don't walk around and be like, miracle!

So, so we say that blessing. And we also, when we bless for Hanukkah, for the candles, sha'asan issim lavoteinu le'imoteinu bayamim hahem lasman hazeh. There was a great miracle that was done for our ancestors. But what's interesting about it is bayamim hahem lasman hazeh. We say in this moment back then, and something about that text actually allows us to relive the miracle right then. So every time we celebrate Hanukkah and light the Hanukkah menorah, the Chanukiah, we're reenacting a miracle. We're reenacting this great miracle of the oil that was supposed to last for 1 day that lasted for 8.

So there's something there about time and place, right? We already said, you know, this blessing that the rabbis offer for the crazed camels, right? She'asali nes b'makom hazeh, who made a miracle for me here in this place. And then we think about the Hanukkah candle blessings, right? Sha'asan Nisim, lavoteinu uleimoteinu, bayamim ha'hem, bazman hazeh, right? Who did miracles for our ancestors back in that time and again in this time. And then, so we've got time and place, which I love. And then I'm thinking about this connection between Hanukkah and Purim, which for one thing is that we insert those, we insert this other blessing, right, around Nisim, around miracles, right? We sing al-hanisim, right? We thank you for the miracles, for the redemption, for the mighty deeds and the saving acts. So there's this whole really complicated and interesting thing about the way we talk about miracles where somehow it feels like we are trying to isolate something very specific as the miracle, because there's the miracle and there's the redemption and there's the mighty deeds and there's the saving acts, right? All these other things that we attribute to God. But the tradition is pretty specific about what's the miracle and what's not the miracle. For Hanukkah, the miracle is the oil, right? The oil is the miracle. And the fact that Judah Maccabee, that little scrappy guy and his band of brothers, they overcome the Greek army, right? That's not necessarily the miracle. The oil is the miracle. We acknowledge everything else is extraordinary and mighty and redemptive and all these other things, but we're meant to hone in on what's the miracle.

So Jodi, as you said, the miracle of Hanukkah according to Al HaNisim is the oil, but what else could be the miracle of Hanukkah? There's texts that talk about Judith who cuts off the head of Holofernes after she gives him salty cheese and gets him drunk. She cuts off his head. What's the miracle of Hanukkah? The women, the power of women. And then David Hartman actually says, I'm going to read what he says precisely. In considering the miracle of the cruse of oil, our rabbis asked why the holiday of Hanukkah was celebrated. For 8 days rather than for 7 days. Since there was by all accounts sufficient oil for 1 day, only 7 of the 8 days of burning may be designated as miraculous days. Though several ingenious explanations were offered, what strikes me, Hartman says, as being the miraculous feature of the initial day was the community's willingness to light the lamp in spite of the fact that its anticipated period of burning was short-lived. The miracle of the first day was expressed in the community's willingness to light a small cruse of oil without reasonable assurance that their efforts would be sufficient to complete the rededication of the Temple. Chanukkah celebrates the miracle expressed by those who lit the lamp and not only the miracle of the lamp's continued burning for 8 days. So what is the miracle of Chanukkah? It's communal hope.

I love that. That actually feels in some ways like maybe that should be the headline of Chanukkah 5781. You know, I know a lot of people are feeling that impending weight of the holidays as they come up. And for so many of our families, whether we celebrate Hanukkah and Hanukkah alone, or Hanukkah and Christmas, or Hanukkah and any number of other winter celebrations, right? We're living through unprecedented times, as we keep saying, and our Hanukkahs won't be necessarily the same, which seems to be a running theme of something we talk about every week, that as we continue to live through this year as it unfolds, we are constantly faced with having to do things we used to know how to do a certain way and approach them totally differently. Differently. And so what if that was the miracle this year, that each night of Hanukkah, we keep coming back to our hanukkias, you know, whether they're on our kitchen counters or on our front windows or our dining room tables, and we keep lighting them, even though we know the darkness isn't going to end after 8 days. Like we know the pandemic is not going to be over. We know like that all the things that are hard about being human right now in 2020, in this world, like they're not going to be over on December 18th, but that every single night we keep adding another candle and we keep sort of that light of perpetual hope. I mean, to quote the famous Kevin McAllister in Home Alone, right? This is the season of perpetual hope.

Yeah, I think a lot of people could throw their hands up and say, why bother this year? Why bother? But if we want to be like the folks of yore, in the days of yore, and light anyways, that is what it means to be human right now, is in spite of the darkness, to continue to create light. That's a running theme for us.

That is a running theme. You know, the other thing I love about that Hartman teaching, right, is that it's actually the, the other 7 days that were the miracle, because— or the first day only that's the miracle, whichever way you look at it— is I also picture this vision or this image that we create of Judah Maccabee. And it's not like once they, you know, took over the Temple and they found that single cruse of oil, they had a chance to, I don't know, take a nap and take a shower and eat a good meal and like clean themselves up a little. Like, they were still— they had just fought a war. Like things were presumably still not great for them in that moment, right? There isn't like a, a set break where everyone goes home to like then get ready. This was imminent and this was something they did even with battle scars, even tired and hungry and a little bit beaten down by the experience, but they still go kindle the light. And so I'm thinking about people who, you know, for me, my current experience, right? We have I have little children at home. My house is sort of constantly a mess. My Chanukkias are beautiful, and God willing, we'll clean off the kitchen table, but Hanukkah might not look perfect this year, and we don't look perfect, not that we ever do. We in the sort of the general sense. What does it mean to come to Hanukkah sort of as we are, a little beaten down by the year, maybe a little battle-scarred, but still willing to light the lights?

Some real essential truths that we want to make sure everyone knows before they really dig into this festival of light. First, Jodi, most important sufganiyot donut flavor.

Okay, I live in a place where I don't have access to lots of fancy artisanal donuts, and so if you are like me and short of making them yourself, Dunkin' Donuts is your only option, I'm gonna go for the chocolate cream-filled donut. It's just what we gotta do. If you want to be a purist, you can get the jelly. It's fine, but chocolate cream filled.

Sorry that you live in a donut desert, Jodi.

Jen, important question. First, what kind of latkes are we making this year? And then follow-up question, what are we putting on them?

So there's the purist, just the straight potato with some knuckle blood in them.

Delish.

There's the Trader Joe's version. I do like a sweet potato latke. I do like it when there's a chive experience. Or some really wonderful seasoning. The more oil, the better. And as far as toppings go, applesauce. And here's why: lactose intolerance.

Noted. Okay, I have two things to say about latkes. The first is that last night I found a recipe for dill pickle latkes with an everything bagel ranch dip, and I'm definitely making them. That sounds delicious. And second, this very quick story does speak to the moment that some of us might be experiencing of not being able to celebrate Hanukkah with family. So my grandpa Lou was the latke maker in our family. Lots of knuckle blood, sometimes fingernails, and he made the best latkes. And for most of my early childhood, we were able to always see them for Hanukkah. And so whatever year it happened that, you know, either Hanukkah was before we could visit, whatever it was, we weren't going to see them for Hanukkah. I think I was 8 or 9 years old, and I must have said like, oh, grandpa, I'm so sad, I'm not going to get your latkes this year. You know, fast forward a week or two, and in my childhood home, the front door had a mail chute. That's like how our mail came in. It came right through the front door and like onto the, you know, floor. And through the mail chute flew a greasy envelope. And my grandpa Lou had— I don't even think he put it in foil. Like maybe it was wrapped in a napkin, but he had taken a latke and sent it to me in just a regular envelope. And it was one of those incredibly memorable moments. So if you are far away from the people you normally eat latkes with, the USPS could really use our support right now. I highly recommend, if for no other reason than the humor and the memory, to send some latkes to your loved ones.

I love you a latke.

Jen, do you have any Hanukkah fashion tips for us? Like anything we could be wearing to really up our game this year?

So as some people may know, I have really invested in my Hanukkah wardrobe over the years. So I may have a number of Hanukkah sweaters, but this year I really wanted to up my game and I want to encourage people to really double down on the joy of Hanukkah and commit with me to wearing a dreidel costume for all 8 days. What is the miracle of Hanukkah if anyone will stand next to you after you've worn anything for 8 days in a row?

One last question for the official Jen Gubitz Guide to Hanukkah 2020. What do you hope to receive as a gift this year?

Snarky socks. That's it. Snarky socks. What about you?

I have to say, I'm reaching that point in my life where often if I want something, I just buy it. I just gotta buy it for myself. And so I would love the gift of maybe an extra hour or two of sleep in the morning, of like not getting up in the 6s or 7s. So Josh, if you're listening, now you know what I want for Hanukkah. And coffee, right? What else is there? Sleep and coffee. They go together hand in hand.

Amen. So happy Chanukkah, everyone. We hope that you have a lot of light and a lot of joy and notice the miracles. And when they appear in front of you, find the words to acknowledge them with gratitude. May they not only be a one-time occurrence in your life. This episode of the OMFG podcast, Jewish wisdom for unprecedented times, was brought to you by Rabbis Jen Gubitz and Jodi Gordon. Audio editing by Leslie Gubitz. Art by Daniel Ben-Yushai. And brought to you by the letter F.

What's your favorite F word?

Family.