Chapter 1
 

How many miracles do you know? Before you start counting please take into consideration what miracles are. We deem them to be the classification of something that we may describe up to a certain degree with our human means but are not able to explain them in full and in their depths. So there are indeed really a lot of miracles. More than we can count, even if we tried. Just look around. Much more are there than you can ever perceive. Miracles in all sizes and shapes. Yet four of them are the most outstanding and the very greatest. Two of them are evergreens so to say, they are here since a very very very and a very long time. The other two only appeared later on.

In addition to those two miracles already existing and working since time began and since humanity started, in our present times two more are showing up who are likewise very impressive when looking at and thinking about them. So there are four miracles altogether. None of them is petrified to serve merely as a piece of an exhibition. But every miracle in its unique way is still very active and developing. 

Each as a single miracle and all together as a combination of four influence our lives in a decisive manner that can not be overestimated. The most obvious of these four miracles is at the same time the oldest one. Nobody knows how old it really is. Only assumptions are possible. And those are beyond our common human experience. Or do you know anybody who can count up to thirteen or fourteen billion years? This number presently is held as the age of the universe. Anyhow how old it really is, it undoubtedly is here and we all live inside of it. Though no human being can know its age, G-d does. Because HE made it come into existence. And so HE knows, contrary to us human beings, living in it, not only its age, but in addition all the secrets we are trying eagerly to reveal. 

HE could of course have attached to the universe for our sake a kind of manual explaining the general functions and revealing its purpose and aim to us. But HE has not done so. Not because HE wants to keep us inside of this wonderful universe as mere spectators who are nothing but impressed, but HE wants us to use our brains trying hard to detect this wonderful universe and its innate powers. 

When giving us this gigantic device as a puzzle HE does not want us to solve it merely as a technical issue. Rather HE has provi-ded us with the ability to experience joy and gladness that will only come to us (at least temporarily) after we have discovered something new by our own efforts. Not really new for HIM, but new for us.

And so we are busy since millennia. But we do not restrict ourselves to detect this universe and its mysteries. We are moreover seeking to decipher in it this thing we have du-bed 'world formula', we assume to be the underlying physical compilation for everything in our world to exist. 

Not just for fun we are looking for it, but because we most eagerly want to reign over the whole universe in general and especially over our own human world therein. To do so unbridled we desperately need this ‚world formula‘ as a kind of eternal fuel for our human sovereignity. But we never will find it. For various reasons, we can not discuss here. Simply put however, because it does not exist. But luckily we can discover someone much greater and incomparable mightier than this non-existing formula: HIM. And To HIM we may even come near. HE, The Creator of the universe, HIMself. 

If we want to. 

But HE is not perceivable like the universe. And so using nothing but our senses and brainpower is not enough to come to HIM, to G-d HIMself. Yet HE practices no coercion of any kind upon us that would force us to come near to HIM. We can stay aside or even far off from HIM, if we want to, and keep ourselves busy our whole life long with all kind of odds and things, looking at the universe and looking at us without even taking HIM into further considerations. 

And so here they are: The universe and we. We and the universe. Two very great miracles. Both are strikingly similar and at the same time very different. With one definite accordance. Both seemingly don't need G-d. Because apparently they exist accor-ding to their own, innate rules and powers. However they emanate into two distinct structures. 

With the most decisive difference that the universe lacks this thing we call consciousness, that could make it aware of its way of functioning. This consciousness seems to linger only in this, compared with the universe very, very very small miracle, called human being. Only this miracle can look and reason. Look at itself, and look at the universe we all are living inside. And thereby reasoning what this thing we call human life really is and how to make the best of it.

The universe with its innate power and structure that, if we decide to live without G-d, nobody fully knows and nobody seems able to harrass. So it keeps on moving, expanding uninterruptedly. Borders? Hesitations? Not for the universe. Everything lying in its way it draws in. Like a big cosmic vacuum cleaner. But there’s no bag inside of it where materia like big or small stars or human bodies and their lives could be stored. Nothing is kept. Everything the universe gets hold of is transformed. To some-thing else. The universe. A big steady move and mover. And a tremendous incessant alteration, rotation and fluctuation. With an aim that can neither be seen nor guessed nor calculated. 

 Chapter 2

Oh how we all yearn for something not only lasting, but for something that will finally come to its good end. 

But unfortunately this can never be because we all are and live inside of this universe, and the universe allows no stop or break. On the contrary, it changes itself and everything in it with a never ending perpetual move.

Is this trait of the universe not a little bit like the one of ourselves? Do our lives, being big or small or mediocer, not also incessantly move on as well? And so there is never a stop or a rest with the feeling of a perfect satisfaction for us. 'Very well done!' Such a statement is a G-dly privilege and not a human one. Of course we can utter it as well. But our words remain very shaky. Just said with a deep conviction. Yet already the next moment things can be totally different.

But the development of the universe is neither identical nor even congruent to that of a human being. The universe is moving on, indeed. But we as humans are not only moving along. We are living. What a difference!!! And so the universe never can look at you, but you can look at it as often as you want. And you can look at yourself too. Moreover the universe can never say No. But you can. Or at least you could. If you wanted to. And so we can clearly discern two kinds of existences. One existence that can be looked at. This kind of existence we will call: object. The other kind of existence posseses the ability to look at something or someone. This we will name: subject.

So there are increasingly innumerable objects of all kinds and sorts in our world and there are subjects with the ability to generate those objects. But to bring objects into their existence, indiscriminately or with a definite purpose, is not the core ability of a subject, it is only its outward feature, but not his soul. The very soul and core ability of a subject is to say first NO to all things that shall be kept excluded and then to say YES to all that thus has been chosen to be part of our lives. And so we may now understand why there in the Garden of Eden G-d HIMself forbade Adam to eat from the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Bad. 

There are various other explanations, each one valid and true, but amidst them a very strong one is that Adam had to learn first to become and be a subject. He was truely designed to be a subject by G-d HIMself and meticulously formed out of clay. But to be able to live as a subject he had to be educated first, not only in theory, but also in practice. And this practical education started with the G-dly prohibition to never eat the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Bad. (So, by the way, Gan Eden is the very first cheder, under treetops, and G-d HIMself the very first melamed.) 

And so it is a rule valid for everyone, everywhere and at all times: without standing on the firm foundation of a solid NO nobody can say effectively YES. Every YES you utter or carry out needs a definite NO it can be offset from. And so the universe is not a subject. Although it was fully created by G-d, as well as everything else existing in it, but it did not obtain any G-dly education. And so it can never act as a subject. It can neither look at something, nor say NO. We human beings however (should) have learned to say NO. And so to live as subjects. And this means to act accordingly to the rules we have set up and accepted for our lives in order to implement our daily work. Because being a subject is not a natural trait of humanity, it is a permanent G-dly gift and a very special heavenly assignment. So the core feature when living as a subject is your willingness to meet the ongoing challenge to discern between NO and YES reliably . 

This goes far beyond our common individual attitude to get and to do only what we think is useful for us. If we would restrict ourselves and our behaviour in such a way we would define the NO and the YES only according to our passing mood. But are we really the center of the world with the upsurped right to determine everything in it exclusively according to our own in-terests? Is there not something or someone outside of us to provide us with definite rules what we have to keep as NO and as YES, even when we do not fully understand? Is there not another measure valid beyond our own?

Thus the ability of eveyone of us to live as a subject is inseparably connected to undergo a lifelong G-dly education to say ef-fectively NO. But unfortunately this education nowadays seems to be vanishing whereas the the habit to look at everything and anything indiscriminately soars to unknown heights. All TV-stations and mediafirms make a high profit out of our beha-viour gone wild by offering us more and more stuff to look at, incessantly, for this unquenchable human thirst to look at something and someone. Not so much however to see something or someone, that may even become quite boring, but thus to get this unique thrill when doing so, to feel to be a subject. Just by looking. 

We are now really tempted to go on into depths with this topic. The human capability not just to see, but to look at. There is a whole bunch of consequences that shows up here. The wide area of art, of painting, photography etc. And also religious que-stions appear. Especially concerning the prohibition of making images. But we have to quit here. Though it was highly inte-resting to continue. Perhaps there will be an opportunity to take up these thoughts later on elsewhere in depth. So let’s go back to the universe. And to the subjects inside of this universe. Clearly divided and distinctedly put apart. At least, so we may presume. But if you take a closer look you will discover that a subject clearly set off from everything and everybody around is hardly to be found. Mostly they are connected to their surroundings in a strange way that even prevents them to live as subjects. 

© h. w. / A. D. 2024

© h. w.   A. D. 2025   C. M. 5785