“In the Jewish prayer book, there are a great number of blessings.
Many of them concern simple, mundane activities, such as opening one’s eyes in the morning, stretching, standing on one’s feet, walking, and so on.
Why must we say them every day?
Because the significance and wondrousness of our ability to do these things tends to get lost.
We rarely recognize them as gifts from God until they are suddenly gone.
It is only when pain prevents us from walking with ease that we recognize and acknowledge God’s role in ‘firming our footsteps.’
In fact, we often need to experience the extraordinary in order to reawaken us to the significance of the ordinary.
When something happens that is remarkable and unusual, we are jolted out of our stupor and re-acquire the ability to see the miraculous in the routine and the habitual.
This sudden change enables us to see what routine conceals, so that we can once again perceive what is truly important and what is not.
There are two ways of sensing God’s presence in the world.
One is through thunder and lightning and other extraordinary events; the other is within the world’s natural order.
Nature is God’s alternate signature, so to speak, when He does not want to sign His work with the Ineffable Name.
Thus, we may say that God wrote the Book of Esther using a pseudonym.
God’s name is there even when it is not written.
And, more important, God is there.
Even things that seem rational, clear, and ‘natural,’ may be miracles.
May our experience of Purim enable us to appreciate all of the miracles in our lives.
From an essay, “The Miracle of Purim” by Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz