Let My People Know

"To make a miracle, an entirely new world has to be created"

 

In order to make a drastic change in the laws of nature, to make a miracle, an entirely new world has to be created. 

The Talmud has an account of such a dilemma —in the story of Rabbi Elazar, who was very poor and complained to God about it. 

And God told him that if he wished things to be different, the whole world would have to be destroyed and rebuilt in order for Rabbi Elazar's luck to take a turn for the better. 

To which Rabbi Elazar replied that he preferred to renounce his personal needs and to let the world remain as it was.

–Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz
 
From The Sustaining Utterance, p. 38, by Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz