God's Existence

In reference to the Babel fish which, when placed in one's ear, is able to release the right brainwaves for the right language pattern your brain has, and enables the listener to understand every language in the universe.

Adam's writes:

Now it is such a bizarrely impossible coincidence that anything so mind-bogglingly useful could have evolved purely by chance that some thinkers have chosen to see it as a final and clinching proof of the nonexistence of God. The argument goes something like this: "I refuse to prove that I exist," says God, "for proof denies faith, and without faith I am nothing." "But," says Man, "the Babel fish is a dead giveaway, isn't it? It could not have evolved by chance. It proves you exist, and so therefore, by your own arguments, you don't. QED." "Oh dear," says God, "I hadn't thought of that" and promptly vanishes in a puff of logic. 

-Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

What fascinates me more than the question is the solution to the problem.  Douglas proposes a simple solution to an insoluble philosophical problem - that God requires faith, in other words that faith is contingent upon God's existence; however in order to have contingency, you have to believe that God exists, and yet, that belief is a necessary requirement of faith, and QED you have a beautiful circular argument.

Its even better.

Adams, in a beautiful mix of parody, enters into the world of evolutionary debate (whatever that is - Marxist Darwinism, Neo Darwinism, Gould-Darwinism, macro evolution, micro evolution the list goes on.).   What would an evolutionist say to something so bizarre, unique and inexplicable, that he would be forced to conclude that it is impossible for it to exist without God's divine hand?

Would he put it down to faulty logic, a mistake in identity, or existentialist sophistry, or a bad hair day.  Would he have to sit down with a cup of coffee and a decent sized piece of cake or would it be sufficient that he was given hundreds of thousands of dollars to research the darn thing and make sure it wasn't the US government's greatest mistake.

I think the parody speaks volumes.  We don't think about it, and live our lives accordingly.  When we decide, God exists and when we don't, he doesn't.  This is not a reality worth living.

I think that is something to think about!

Birchas HaChama

Question:

Everyone knows that this year is a Birchas HaChama year. Birchas HaChama falls out this year on Erev Pesach. Rumor has it that this only happened twice in history, the first time being the year of Geulas Mitzrayim, and the second time the year of the Purim miracle. There is a lot of discussion that the third year is the year of Moshiach.

Source:
The Sichot of the Admor M'Ostrovosta at the time of 5685 (1925), p. 52.

Answer:
This year is 5769/2009 and is the year of Birchas Hachama which is always post Shemittah (the cycle of 7 years of rest); being a multiple of 7.

The Exodus from Egypt occurred in 2448. This was the 87th cycle of Birchas Hachama, but the twelfth year of that cycle, was the Exodus. Birchas Hachama occurred on 2437 (11 years before) and again on 2465 (17 years after).

The Events of Purim took place around the year 3405 again, nowhere near 3389 or 3417, the years of Birchas Hachama.

A simple purview of the current Hebrew calendar shows that in the years 609, 693, 1309, 1925, and 2009, are years when it did occur on Erev Pesach.

The facts are that the Moshiach can come any time, as long as Klal Yisroel do Teshuvah, that we cry out to Hashem, to answer our prayers genuinely, with a desire to fulfill the Ratzon Hashem, and to serve Him.

The Power we have in prayer can be seen from the fact that the Kohein Gadol, requests, at the height of the service of Yom Kippur, when he enters the Holy of Holies, of Hashem, to refrain from listening to the simple Jew who is walking back from Alos L'Regel. This Jew has a pure, sincere, prayer in his heart that it should not rain. This can only be stopped with the power of the Holy of Holies, with all of Klal Yisroel's soul and heart towards serving the Creator - imagine that! The Power of Teshuva, with a sincere pure heart to serve Hashem?

May we do Teshuva today, and merit to see Moshiach tomorrow, as the Gemara tells us - the Moshiach is waiting to come, he just needs to be told to come....