Miracles in Our Generation – A Message for Us All
Lately, when I travel to New York something happens and I usually learn a lesson from it. On my last visit to New York I was exposed to the terrible tragedy which took place in India, the destruction of a Jewish center, a Chabad House and the killing of the Rabbi and his wife and innocent visitors. This week I again visited New York and I had the following incredible story. It has to do with miracles.
I was flying from California to New York City to be at a memorial for my mother. I was to meet my father and brothers and sisters. It was a little hard for me to find a ticket but at the last moment Jet Blue had a special fare with one seat left. I was able to leave early and get to New York City with ample time. Nothing to worry about, I thought. I’ll have a non-eventful trip.
If you fly on an airplane you will realize that with today’s technology you have the option of watching many different shows and many different videos. It is really mind boggling how people are exposed to different things all at the same time. Walking in the airplane I observed that everyone was looking a different screen. One was watching a video, another, the news, one sports, others were watching history in the making, then the news again. Literally there were three rows on the right and three on the left and everyone was glued to their screen, watching what they wanted to watch, oblivious to their fellow passengers. There was no togetherness or unity felt between one another. Here were a group of people only interested in doing things for themselves and they were literally isolating themselves by wearing earphones.
I had a teacher that said that the way you can tell about people is to see what they are doing at the time of a flight or by what books they are reading.
When I was walking down the isle I asked the steward if I could pray the afternoon prayer. The steward said that it was not a good time to do any prayers as they were busy dispensing different drinks and refreshments to the passengers. It seemed to him that it was not a good thing all together to be praying on the plane. He didn’t literally say it but he gave that impression.
So, I went back to my seat. I was seated between two passengers and I was stuck in the middle. I tried to figure out how in the world I was going to start a conversation and explain that I wanted to stand up quickly and pray. One of them said to me, “Sir, you know, you are pushing me a little bit, and this is an arm rest and the arm rest has to go down”. He then went back to the T.V. screen. The person on the other side was busy watching monkeys on the screen and I couldn’t seem to ask him to move a little so I could pray. I was getting restless, and of course it is a long flight.
What does this have to do with miracles?
Well, part of the conversation I finally had with this person was about prayer, that I wanted to pray to G‑d and give thanks for a safe trip. He said, “Listen here, why don’t you watch the news with me and look what the Jews are doing in Gaza? Sure enough the screen went on to Fox or CNN showing all kinds of shoot ups and people crying. Horrible things supposedly the Jews were imposing on the innocent Gazian Arabs. As we were watching he says to me that there is no G‑d in this world and there is no real supervision and everything has to do with different ideas and different people. Just at that moment all of the screens on the whole airplane began changing and everyone on the airplane started sitting up and it was a tense moment. Sure enough I take a look at the screen and there is an airplane in the Hudson River. Imagine, a real airplane, a big airplane sitting in the middle of the Hudson River. Boats were coming and going, people coming and going. The people watching the rock n roll, or whatever, changed the station. Everyone was watching. What are they watching? They are watching the rescue of an airplane that was stuck in the Hudson.
I thought to myself this is a miracle on the Hudson. Who would believe that in our generation an airplane would land on the Hudson River. That is something beyond our conception. Here was a plane on the water with 150 passengers and on my airplane everybody is riveted to the screen.
As we were watching this rescue my neighboring passenger says you know, look what’s happening, there’s an airplane in the water with the people in the airplane, I wonder how many people drowned, what’s happening? And the other guy who was watching the so called atrocities by the Israelis became a little bit friendlier to me and realized that I was a Rabbi and says, “You know look at that airplane in the water, wow!”
I said to him, “You know, there is a G‑d in this world and there are miracles in this world and that an airplane should go up for three or four minutes and come down and land safely in the water, that’s a miracle.”
So instead of worrying about all the bad things, think about all the good things that happen in this world too. You need to take notice of it.
Just as I was speaking to this guy there was a flash at the bottom of the screen which said the model of this downed airplane was the exact model as the planes of Jet Blue. The exact same plane we were flying on. It said that this could happen to any airplane. Here we find ourselves in the air, an hour away from JFK and the passengers start to get antsy and nervous and someone says, you know, this is not a comfortable ride, it’s not much fun anymore. By now all the screens were turned to the airplane in the water and everyone was watching together. Even the steward said to me “It’s a good time pray”. And that’s what I did. Miraculously Hashem got the attention of the people.
What I realized is that good things catch the attention of a person and bad things catch the attention of a person. Today society world over needs the message of seeing G‑dliness. But seeing and recognizing that miracles are taking place in front of our eyes distracts us from the bad things.
On my way back home from New York to California I was startled to hear our pilot tell us that we were having engine trouble and that they needed to return the plane from the runway and fix the motor. Thinking of what just happened a few days ago on the Hudson I wondered what the people’s reaction would be. Strangely enough we were told after waiting hours that we would need to change planes and I did not hear any complaints. I guess safety was in the minds of all of us and as the saying goes, don’t count on miracles.
Truthfully I am happy the plane developed problems before flying, that was a miracle too. So brighten up your life and look for the miracles and you will find them.
Rabbi Eli Hecht is vice–president of the Rabbinical Alliance of America and past–president of the Rabbinical Council of California. He is the director of Chabad of South Bay in Lomita, CA which houses a synagogue, day school, nursery school and chaplaincy programs.