* Translation by Yehoshua Siskin
A group of students once visited the Lubavitcher Rebbe. At the end of their meeting, one of them asked: “I heard that you can make miracles happen, is this true?”
The Rebbe smiled and said: “The truth is that every one of us has the power to make miracles happen, to overcome nature. Everyone has a divine soul that can overcome natural limitations, no matter how formidable they may seem.”
And then the Rebbe suggested the following: “In order to prove that this is true, each and every individual in this room will now resolve to improve himself in one specific area. You will each choose an improvement — in character traits or mitzvah observance — that you recognize as necessary but until now have perceived as being beyond your power to achieve. Nevertheless, you will succeed, proving to yourselves that the soul indeed has the power to overcome natural ‘reality’ and perform miracles.”
This week’s Torah portion of Beshalach describes the Exodus and the splitting of the Red Sea. These are great miracles but our commentators remind us that the Exodus was not just a historical event but our everyday mission as well. We are obligated to leave behind everything that limits us and thus merit a personal splitting of the Red Sea. To move forward, to carry out resolutions for self-improvement, to learn from our mistakes, to change. We need not only pray for miracles, but make them happen in our own lives.
