A Time of Miracles
We are living through a moment of "hidden miracles." Take a moment to appreciate it.
It isn’t always easy to focus. For the past few months, I’ve been awestruck at the changes buffeting the world. I mean that literally—I have been struck with awe. I feel like I’m living through a time of miracles. For me at least, that’s something I’ve never before felt.
Few people believe in miracles these days. Among non-believers, ancient stories are just stories. To many believers, the age of miracles has passed; the stories are all true, but God no longer intervenes in human affairs.
The Rabbinic tradition, however, differentiates between two types of miracles: A “revealed miracle” and a “hidden miracle.” A revealed miracle defies the laws of nature. It’s obvious. Belief in a miracle that’s been revealed to you, in your personal experience, doesn’t require all that much faith. A hidden miracle is different. It unfolds slowly, sometimes imperceptibly, not necessarily linearly, and over time. Seeing it can instill faith.
A hidden miracle is an improbability cascade. Every element conforms to the laws of nature but defies the laws of probability. What makes it hidden is that after any event has happened, its probability becomes 1.0 no matter how unlikely it may have seemed ex ante. It’s very hard to appreciate the improbability of events that have already occurred.
Consider a simple example from recent American experience: A Presidential candidate is giving a speech. A sniper within easy range takes a clear shot at his head. While the bullet is in motion, the candidate shifts his head ever so slightly. The bullet grazes his ear.
Improbable? Extremely so. Yet it happened, so we no longer marvel over it. That’s how probability perception works. Buying a lottery ticket is a notoriously bad bet. The odds of winning big at the lottery are extremely poor. Yet people win big all the time.
The occurrence of a single improbable event proves nothing. In fact, probability theory itself tells you what to expect: Exactly one out of every one million events assigned a probability of 0.000001 should occur.
An improbability cascade takes the matter further. It involves one improbable event after another, all building upon each other and all pointing in the same grossly improbable direction. Two such one-in-a-million events should occur only one time in a trillion. A cascade of five such events should occur once per nonillion (that’s thirty zeroes between the decimal place and the one).
Five years ago, world leadership plunged us into an abyss. It shut down the socioeconomic fabric of the globe. Anyone who knows anything about complex systems knew that nothing would ever be the same. That “great reset” gave the world’s worst actors the breathing room they’d long wanted. Race rioters and anarchists took over American cities. A criminal syndicate destroyed our electoral processes and installed a pathetic figurehead. Islamists, narcotraffickers, and human slavers took over borders and flooded previously decent nations. Antisemitism surged. Israel was under attack from without and within. Child sterilization and mutilation became virtues. Decent parents were classified as terrorists. Globalists massed surveillance and censorship to save us from ourselves. The American idea was dead, as not a single government on the planet recognized the inalienable nature of human rights. Morality was inverted. Not only were the forces of evil ascendant, but the forces for good appeared impotent.
Then the improbability cascade began. Elon Musk bought Twitter. The color revolution in Israel failed. Donald Trump survived concerted lawfare attacks. Hamas launched an attack so brutal that it altered Israel’s psyche. Joe Biden’s dementia was revealed beyond the point of deniability. Israel withstood global condemnation to defeat Hamas. Donald Trump survived assassination attempts. Israel performed masterfully against Hezbollah. The Assad regime fell in Syria. The American people woke up. Trump returned to office. Musk’s DOGE revealed a truth many had long denied: Our problems are clear, the solutions are obvious, and our institutions are designed to prevent the fixes. Trump and Bibi played good cop/bad cop. The American public cheered efforts to remove the violent criminal invaders. Israel decapitated an Iran on the brink of nuclear weaponization.
And there have been so many more positive improbable events along the way! Yes, there is much work remaining. Yes, there will be setbacks. Yes, good people will get hurt along the way. But for the first time in a long time, the possibility of a far better world is becoming visible. A world in which peace, objective morality, and rationality dominate. A world that, not too long ago, appeared highly improbable. Trump, Musk, and Bibi may have been the key human players in this still-unfolding drama, but anyone open to the possibility should see the hand of the divine.
The archetypal “hidden miracle” is the Book of Esther. That tale of Kings and Queens, of debauchery and pleading, of palaces and harems, of genocidal decrees and hangmen, of royal intrigue and self-defense, unfolded over the course of many years. In Persia. The name of God never appears. The hand of God never appears. Yet the improbability cascade is clear. As is the miracle.
I am in awe of much of what I see unfolding around me. Like many of you, the collapse of morality has hit me in the small—in my personal life—as much as in the large. I try to bring the same perspective to bear in dealing with my own travails.
We are living through a miraculous moment. When the dust settles, most of us will take it for granted.
Perhaps take a moment to appreciate it while it’s happening. And Shabbat Shalom.
For more information about Bruce D. Abramson & American Restorationism, visit: www.BruceDAbramson.com
To learn more about America’s Spiritual Crisis and the new religion of Wokeism, see: American Spirit or Great Awokening? The Battle to Restore or Destroy Our Nation (Academica Press, 2024).
To learn more about how America’s elites destroyed the republic, see: The New Civil War: Exposing Elites, Fighting Utopian Leftism, and Restoring America (RealClear Publishing, 2021).
To learn more about the ideology driving today’s anti-American leftism, see: American Restoration: Winning America’s Second Civil War (Kindle, 2019).
To learn more about our work at the American Coalition for Education and Knowledge, visit us at The Coalition for America.
To learn more about how I turn the ideas I discuss here into concrete projects that serve the interests of my clients, donors, and society at large, please e-mail me at bdabramson@pm.me.