Hope and Miracles
 
Today is the 8th August, the heart of summer here in Jerusalem's Middle East.  In fact, just two days ago my husband and I were in Netanya with my parents when the air conditioner broke.  We both felt like we couldn’t breathe, it was so hot.  Hot it may have been, but it was certainly no great surprise.  This kind of weather is typical for the entire country from about June until November.  Unlike un-sunny England, Israelis are free to plan outdoor day trips months in advance throughout the long summer spell.  One is about as sure of the hot sunshine in this season in Israel, as one is of the two other sureties in life: death and taxes.
 
What we thus tend to forget with such a "certainty" is the main player in the world: our creator, G-d.  What we tend to gloss over on a day-to-day basis, despite "ordinary" miracles of sunsets, breathing and waking from sleep, is that it is not us who is running the world at all, but G-d Who we can count on to pull all the strings.  We hear the news and believe every word of it and it so seems that our undemocratic government is calling all the shots, making all the decisions.  Well why shouldn't it seem like that?  One man alone has the power to decide on the fate of thousands of individuals, from taking away their homes to legalizing the use of violence. This one individual has all the power and is in complete control… so it seems.
 
Yes, indeed it seems that way.  But so many things are not what they seem… for good and for bad.  It seems the baby struggling for life in an incubator will not survive, but look at me now!  It seems life is extremely safe and no-one will come to harm by living in un-sunny England, but hey, that little bubble was burst too.  And it seems like from about June until November a cloud will not appear throughout the whole Middle East.  Indeed.  
 
But today, at about 8am, throughout the country, G-d came and said "good morning."  Not exactly good morning, but rather, "wake up you sleepyheads.  Wake up and stop sleeping."  As our Creator turned on the taps of water in the miraculous way only known unto Him, other miracles around my city were at work. Orange and blue-stripped carriers forgot their sentiments over the political situation momentarily and did something perhaps they have never done. They acknowledged each other.  I came out of the pool and a woman with a blue strip smiled at me, communicating at what an awesome miracle had just befallen us.  She had to share it and only I – with my orange strip – was close enough for that instant communication.  It was a miracle that had to be discussed immediately.  
 
That for me was a miracle in itself.  That for however short a time it was, there wasn't the sinat chinam (groundless hatred) that has been accompanying all right versus left arguments since time immemorial.  While there may not have been a direct understanding that it was our G-d Who was calling the shots, there was certainly an incomprehensible aura that we are just small players in His world.  It was almost like a surrender.  It was like "okay, I do not know what is going on; this has totally thrown me and reminded me – if only for just now – that the whole world and its inhabitants are dependent on miracles, miracles that I am privileged to only observe and enjoy but not create myself."
 
This morning's rain certainly reminded me that I absolutely have no right to give up on the "seemingly" impending fate of my brethren in Gush Katif. That if it can rain on August 8th, Hebrew date 3rd Av (during which traditionally only tough challenges have hindered the Jewish people) then the possibilities are endless and additional miracles probable at any time.  
 
I for one will certainly be hoping and praying for that miracle next week.

Emma