The eruption of Iceland’s Mount Fagradalsfjall hearkens back to a miraculous lesson in tragedy and redemption
On August 29, 1776, General George Washington’s first field command was about to end in disaster. Having divided his forces, Washington now found half his Continental army trapped between a superior redcoat contingent advancing on his position on one side and a fleet of British warships sailing up the East River to bombard his men from the other.
Instead, the rising winds of a nor’easter turned back the British ships, allowing the American force of over 9000 to escape across the river by night without losing a single man. As dawn broke, an impenetrable fog concealed the final stages of the withdrawal so that, when the air cleared around 7 AM, the British discovered an empty landscape where there had been an army only hours before.
On account of a timely wind and a providential fog, the American army survived to fight another day and the failure of the American Revolution was averted.
Two centuries earlier, it was the British who found salvation from a change in the wind. In 1588, King Philip II of Spain dispatched his fearsome Armada to depose the Protestant Queen Elizabeth and make Europe safe for Catholicism.
On the night of August 7, however, a powerful north wind sped a plucky fleet of English fireships from its southern harbor up into the English Channel. By engaging the enemy flotilla, the British ships delayed the Spanish from their rendezvous with an invasion force of 27,000 soldiers that would almost certainly have captured London and executed Elizabeth. The wind then drove the Spanish on into the North Sea where they posed no further threat to England.
If not for the strong north breeze, Spain, not Britain, would have prevailed as the dominant power in Europe, the counter-Reformation might well have purged Protestantism from Europe, and Spanish would today be the preeminent language of world commerce and politics.
ALL THINGS GREAT AND SMALL
Virtually everyone has heard of the “butterfly effect,” the theoretical phenomenon whereby a tiny breeze begins with the flapping of a butterfly’s wings in Africa and gathers strength until it becomes a typhoon in the Pacific Ocean. A seemingly insignificant event on one side of the world may produce events of titanic proportions on the other.
And although it took winds stronger than a butterfly-induced zephyr to stay the power of the Spanish Armada and save Washington’s army, we typically consider weather conditions on any given day inconsequential with respect to the rise and fall of nations.
In the grand scheme of creation, however, nothing is without consequence. Indeed, according to kabbalistic teachings, nothing occurs on earth unless it is first decreed On High, and that nothing is decreed above unless it is first determined below.
This is not a contradiction.
It is foundational to any theology that whatever transpires in this world is a reflection of the Divine Will, which itself changes each and every moment according to the behavior of human beings, the same way a mother and father may alter their parenting style to match any given action of their child. The blessings and the retributions that flow into the world, therefore, are a celestial response to the conduct of human beings.
TIT FOR TAT, WRIT LARGE
It was the final moments before the destruction of the Second Temple nearly 2000 years ago. Not satisfied with having razed Jerusalem to the ground and set fire to the House of G-d, the Roman general Titus showed his contempt for the sanctity of the Jewish nation by taking the Torah scroll, unrolling it upon the floor of the Holy of Holies, and laying with a prostitute upon it. In the place where the High Priest once performed the most intensely spiritual act of divine service, Titus committed the most despicable act of defilement.
Why would the Almighty allow Titus to desecrate His innermost sanctuary? The revered Rabbi Chaim of Volozhin, founder of the great Talmudic academy of 18th-century Europe, explained that Titus gained divine sanction for his act because the Jews had, in a manner of speaking, already done the same thing themselves.
Just as the Temple once served as the center of Jewish society, should every Jew see himself as a microcosm of the Temple. And just as the focal point of the Temple was the Holy of Holies, wherein resided the Ark of the Covenant, similarly is the mind the holiest sanctuary of the human being, for therein resides the soul. By allowing the self-indulgent philosophies of Greece and Rome to infiltrate their thinking and shape their values, the Jews had yielded to the carnal defilement of their souls and desecrated the inner sanctuary of their own minds. For that reason alone, Titus was allowed to perpetrate his abomination.
Despite the Temple serving as a constant reminder of their spiritual identity and mission, the Jews in ever-increasing numbers had compromised their cultural integrity by adopting Greek and Roman styles of dress, by eagerly attending the spectacles of the Greek gymnasia and the Roman coliseums, by passionately studying sophistry from the philosophers of Greece and courting the aristocracy of Rome – all the while convinced that their dabbling in foreign culture was as innocent as the flitting of a butterfly on the breeze. But the moral corruption that lay at the core of these societies released a hurricane of spiritual confusion, eroding the foundations of Jewish values until the Jews forfeited the merit to serve their Creator in the great Temple of Jerusalem.
FROM ANY SOURCE, AT ANY MOMENT
Through the guidance of Divine Providence, however, the flutter of the butterfly’s wings need not always result in devastation. In November 1991, a long and painful drought in Israel ended dramatically with rain and snow falling at record levels to fill the dangerously low Sea of Galilee beyond capacity and replenish underground aquifers. Climatologists attributed the precipitous weather to the eruption of Mount Pinatubo, on the Philippine island of Luzon, five months earlier. Coming after nearly 500 years of inactivity, Pinatubo’s eruption was the second largest of the 20th century.
After months of special prayers and fasting, the religious community had a different explanation. When the Almighty wants it to rain in Israel, He causes a volcano to erupt on the Pacific rim of Asia.
And that’s not the only story. Another volcano’s eruption two decades later revealed the hand of Providence less globally perhaps even more dramatically.
In 2010, an 18-year-old seminary student in Israel was diagnosed with fulminate hepatic failure. Following the advice of his doctors and rabbi, the young man traveled to Brussels, the world center for liver transplants, which offered his only hope of recovery. But with five patients on the list ahead of him and his health deteriorating rapidly, the young man’s prospects were bleak. And so he waited, praying for a miracle.
In mid-April, a liver became available. The medical center contacted the patient whose name topped the list, but he was unable to get to Brussels within the lifespan of the liver. Patients numbers two, three, four, and five could not arrive in time, either. The young student waiting in Brussels for divine intervention received word that the liver was waiting for him. The transplant surgery was successful.
Why were none of the other candidates able to get to Brussels to benefit from the liver? Because only days earlier, the eruption of Iceland’s Eyjafjallajokull volcano had shut down all air traffic in Europe. What should have been a journey of only a few hours now became an unbridgeable gap for all except the prayerful seminary student who waited seemingly without hope.
After seeing his diseased liver, doctors agreed that if not for the transplant the young man would have died within a week. To save his life, Providence caused a volcano to erupt in Iceland at precisely the right moment in time.
Nothing occurs on earth unless it is first decreed On High, and nothing is decreed above unless it is first determined below.
As Jews around the world this month mourn the anniversary of the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem, let us consider that the flapping of butterfly wings begins in our hearts, in our conduct toward our Creator, and toward our fellow human beings.
The gentle breeze produced by every act of kindness and devotion works its way up to the highest reaches of the heavens, then wafts back down to earth as the wind of change that visits upon us the consequences of our misdeeds or, if we are worthy, the blessings of our virtue.
