Some miracles are revealed: It is easy to see how God interferes in nature and changes it. But there are also many hidden miracles, where the world looks as if it is behaving naturally, while, in truth, God is interfering in it.

Miracles can be divided into two categories: revealed miracles and hidden miracles. Revealed miracles are those great signs and wonders that are performed before the nations, like the signs of Egypt, the ten plagues, the splitting of the Red Sea, the manna and the quails, and bringing water out of a rock, that all involve changing the nature and regular behavior of the world. Hidden miracles include the events and occurrences that happened to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, like Abraham’s war against the four kings and his victory. Even though it looked natural, it was really a hidden miracle. Similarly, the extension of the lives of the righteous and the shortening of the lives of the evildoers are all hidden miracles. Concerning this, King Solomon said, “The fear of the Lord will add days, but the years of the wicked will be shortened” (Proverbs 10:27). For even though worry and fear would naturally tend to weaken a man’s strength and hasten his death, Solomon said that one who fears God and is worried about his sins will have a long life. All of this is a hidden miracle. (Rabbeinu Baĥya ibn Ĥalawa, Commentary on the Torah, Exodus 30:12)

There are many miracles we do not know about even after they take place. God performs wonders for us that only He knows about. A person might wake up in the morning, without even knowing that a snake had tried to strike him and he was saved from its bite; a person traveling may not even be conscious that robbers had wanted to harm him and he was miraculously saved.

Rabbi Pinĥas opened the discussion: “To Him who alone does great wonders, for His kindness is forever” (Psalms 136:4). How many are the favors that the Holy One, blessed be He, does for people, and how many are the miracles that he performs for them every day, and one is unaware; He alone knows about them! A person wakes up in the morning not knowing that a snake had come to kill him and he unknowingly steps on the snake’s head. No one except for the Holy One, blessed be He, knows about it. Behold, “To Him who alone does great wonders!” A person walks on a path and bandits are waiting to kill him. Someone else is taken instead of him [the bandits kill that other person,] and the traveler is saved, not knowing the favor that the Holy One, blessed be He, did for him and the miracle that He performed for him. He alone knows. Behold, “To Him who alone does great wonders!” He alone did it and knows about it. No one else knows. (Zohar 3:200b)

Further reading: For more on Abraham’s war against the four kings, see A Concise Guide to the Torah, p. 28.

In general, God chooses to guide events through hidden miracles in order to elevate the entire natural world.

It is understood that for Israel, in order to elevate them above all the nations of the earth, it would have been better, with more honor and a more glorious name, if God had related to them in an exclusively miraculous way. However, from the divine perspective, more is gained through hidden miracles that are cloaked in nature. This is analogous to the way that the soul must come to this world cloaked in a physical body in order for even the physical body to be elevated, refined, and transformed into something spiritual. Similarly, we can say that miracles cloaked in nature elevate even the physical world and refine it… (Rabbi Shmuel Bornsztain, Shem MiShmuel, Devarim 5673)

In the days of the Ba’al Shem Tov there was a philosopher who reached the conclusion that the miracle of the splitting of the Red Sea was not a miracle. Instead, he thought that exactly when the children of Israel left Egypt a rare physical phenomenon took place, namely, the receding of the sea. He visited a number of the great rabbis but did not hear a response to his claim that satisfied him.

All that Israel experiences during the period of the exile are miracles that are performed for them. No one knows about them except for the Holy One, blessed be He, Himself, as it is written: “To Him who alone does great wonders” (Psalms 136:4). They are being recorded in heaven and in the future will become a book. (Rabbi Menaĥem Mendel of Kotzk, Emet V’Emuna)

Further reading: For more on Purim as an example of a hidden miracle, see p. 86.