HaRav Moshe Sternbuch Shlit"a - Heresy and Miracles

 

HERESY and MIRACLES

And Hashem opened the mouth of the donkey (22:28).

The Sforno says that Hashem opened the donkey’s mouth for Bilaam’s benefit in order to give him a chance to repent as a result of witnessing this open miracle.  However, in practice he did not utilize this opportunity, and continued in his wicked ways.  A person can witness an extraordinary miracle right before his eyes and continue as if nothing was happening, as noted by Rabbeinu Bachaye.

Rav Yehoshua Leib Diskin said that in light of all the evidence of a Creator all around us and inside us, heresy that denies the existence of Hashem, claiming that the only reality is nature, is so irrational that it can only be explained as a supernatural phenomenon created by Hashem, in order to maintain free choice.  This explains, for example, how Amalek could have espoused such views after the unprecedented miracles of Yetzias Mitzrayim.

Rav Diskin added that much siyatta d’Shmaya is needed to enable us to keep our distance from epikorsus, especially in the final period prior to the coming of Moshiach, when the powers of tumah drastically increase, knowing that their end is near.

Rav Sternbuch was once visiting the Brisker Rav when an American visitor told the Brisker Rav that in America people were waiting for Moshiach to come.  The Brisker Rav asked him whether people were preparing themselves for this great event.  The visitor responded that Moshiach should come already with or without our preparations.  The Brisker Rav replied that this would not work.  We must start the process of repentance and strengthening our faith now, intensifying our Torah and prayer and working on our character traits so that we will be worthy of welcoming the Moshiach and witnessing the unprecedented miracles that Hashem will perform at that time.  Even revealed miracles, the Brisker Rav said, will not change a person who is stubborn or steeped in his desires.

Although epikorsim (heretics) clothe their views in an intellectual veneer, in reality their outlook usually does not have intellectual roots, but rather stems from negative character traits.  Deep down they feel the emptiness of their lives, and seek to justify licentious behavior by citing sundry intellectual “problems” that they claim to have detected with regard to leading a religious lifestyle.