We’re learning what the ancient rabbis say about the flood story. One of the rabbis says that there was a miracle to fit all of the animals and food onto the ark.
Rabbi Rebecca: What’s a miracle?
Boy 1: Well, I can’t explain that!
Rabbi Rebecca: Let’s see if we can find some words…
Girl 1: I can kind of explain.
Rabbi Rebecca: Would you like to start us out and we’ll see if we can together figure out some words to explain.
Girl 1: A miracle is something that happens, that’s kind of good that happens to make something better. Like it happens to do something that really helps.
Boy 1: And usually you don’t expect it.
Girl 2: And it’s kind of like magic.
Boy 1: Yeah!
Girl 3: Like in, um, a fairy tale, like in Beauty and the Beast or something, it’s like something happened that is SO like amazing, it’s like someone’s like, “This is SO amazing!” …
Rabbi Rebecca: One of the things about a miracle, um, {Girl 2} called it “magic.”
Girl 1: Yeah, that’s pretty, basically what it is. Because magic is surprising and unexpected.
Boy 1: Yeah.
Rabbi Rebecca: Something that…
Boy 1: Unless it’s a magic show.
Rabbi Rebecca: Would it happen in the natural world, regularly?
Boy 1: Only in a magic show. Like at Akiba-Schechter, we saw a magic show where a magician made money come out of two people’s ears and nose.
Rabbi Rebecca: Now, was that real magic, was that a trick?
Boy 1: Probably.
Rabbi Rebecca: Is a miracle like the tricks of a magic show?
Girl 1: No way. It means that like it’s magic, except it’s something that people can’t do. It’s something, like, impossible, it would be impossible.
Boy 1: Even for a magician.
(The children spot a keshet on the table and start singing, ending the conversation.)
Even when we grab a parent’s iPad to draw at home, we still have keshets on our mind!
