Pesach is the time of new beginnings. This is the start of the Jewish nation that has continued through today and the rebirth of God’s covenant with our fore-fathers and mothers.

God removes our people from their slavery with a strong hand and an outstretched arm. The Haggadah tells us about the signs and wonders that showed the world of the power of HaShem. The miracles of the Ten Plaques were but the beginning.

Throughout our ancient history, God has communicated with us through prophets, like Samuel and Elijah, and leaders like Moses and Joshua. Our ancestors also continued to see the many miracles of HaShem. From the parting of the Sea of Reeds (Red Sea) and the tumbling of the walls of Jericho, to the strength of Samson against the Philistines and the redemption of the Temple by the Maccabees, God’s miracles continued to be a part of the fabric of their lives.

Now, here we stand thousands of years later with our science and technology. So, many of us looking inward, feeling that today’s miracles come from the greatness of man himself. With the splitting of the atom, space travel and the cloning of animals, it is understandable how mankind can get this swelled head. Yet, God’s miracles are still with us today.

They may not be the ostentatious sights of the past, but the quiet intervention of God’s soft voice, that is spoken of on the High Holidays. One such miraculous moment may have happened very close to home with the survival of our own Rabbi Pachter. Rabbi Pachter’s illness has a mortality rate of over 90 percent. If everything that had to be accomplished did not happen in exactly the right sequence, he may not be with us now.

• If his wife Naomi hadn’t taken him immediately to the hospital when she noticed the Rabbi was not himself it would have been too late.
• If his cardiologist hadn’t contacted the emergency room in time and requested a chest x-ray, they would have tried to correct a stroke and it would have been too late.
• If the hospital had not been able to gather its top cardio and vascular operating team at 1 a.m. it would have been too late.

This event may not have been the pillar of fire or a column of smoke that the Torah tells us about, but I believe that it certainly was the still small voice of HaShem guiding all the pieces of the puzzle needed to give our Rabbi a “Refuah Sh’leimah”.

May God grant Rabbi Elliot Pachter many more healthy and fruitful years.