Lord–I need a miracle!
אֵשׁ תָּמִיד תּוּקַד עַל הַמִּזְבֵּחַ לֹא תִכְבֶּה – A continuous fire shall burn upon the altar; it shall not go out. (Vayikra 6:6)
עשרה ניסים נעשו בבית המקדש (…) ולא כבו הגשמים את עצי המערכה – Ten miracles occurred in the Temple: (…), and the rains did not extinguish the logs on the fire (of the Mizbeach). (Avos 5:5)
It seems odd that the miracle that occurs here is supernatural. Miracles are meant to seem as natural as possible, and it would have been simpler to manipulate nature, so that rain wouldn’t fall on the Mizbeach at all, rather than have rain fall on the fire but not extinguish it. What is the purpose of the miracle being deliberately more complicated than need be?
R’ Chaim Volozhin suggests that there is a very powerful message we can learn from this.
Sometimes we wish that the circumstances around us would just change, that our “rain” would just stop. But it is evident from the Mishna that the circumstances won’t just change to suit our individual needs; just as אֵשׁ תָּמִיד תּוּקַד עַל הַמִּזְבֵּחַ – the fire burnt on the Mizbeach cotinuously– even in the pouring rain, it would not go out.
We can have all the excuses in the world to stop and falter from what is required of us as Jews. But we have a clear role model in how to conduct ourselves in the Mizbeach. Instead of shying away from our responsibilities, we need to persevere. People pray for miracles, when they don’t see that they need to their hishtadlus – their part. This hishtadlus is the part we play in solving our problems, and thus our problem’s solution is in our own hands. If we keep at what we’re meant to, we will be our own miracles. Our miracles won’t come on their own.
The fire on the Mizbeach was not allowed to be in a state of not being lit – if this was done through a miracle, what is the need for an instruction to not extinguish it? Perhaps we can explain in a similar vein that the fire wasn’t “magic”. It didn’t burn on it’s own with nothing there. It required constant replacement of logs of wood, and over hundreds of years, did not go out. The pasuk says as much: אֵשׁ תָּמִיד תּוּקַד – it never stopped. This is a further indication we need do our part to see G-d’s hand. It won’t play itself.
We can further say that the Kohen Gadol went into the Kodesh Kadashim once per year, on Yom Kippur. He performed the service, and said one prayer. The sole prayer that as ever said in the Kodesh Kadashim was this. The most holy prayer of the year was that Hashem should not listen to the travellers and tourists that it shouldn’t rain, and that it should rain as much as possible. Through rain we see the hand of G-d, and this further shows the importance of “letting it rain” and working around it, rather than having it not rain at all.