"Miracle on the Hudson"

Yesterday’s top story: A US Airways plane, its engines assaulted by a flock of birds, crash lands in the freezing Hudson River—with not a single fatality. What could have been a great tragedy was instead an incredible story of survival. To any G-d-fearing person, what occurred was nothing short a miracle.

And yet, many comments I’ve seen online (and I’m sure being uttered in offline, water-cooler conversations as well) are trying to downplay the miraculous nature of the story and chalk it all up to human skill, courage, and just plain luck.

This attitude reminds me of an old favorite song I used to listen to on a tape called “Judea.” The song was called “The Hand of Hashem,” and it referenced the 1976 Israeli raid on Entebbe to rescue the Jewish hostages—another miracle disguised as merely an incredible showing of human prowess. I’m quoting the following lyrics from memory so please forgive any minor errors:

“Remember how they freed those captured men. We said, ‘Wow, it was surely heaven sent.’ But now it’s so different; it’s nothing unusual: ‘They planned it out right, they flew through the night—what’s there to believe?’ . . . The Hand of Hashem—yes, it was clear to them. The Hand of Hashem—yes, it was shown to them. And yet there they are, standing so far apart, thinking so small compared to the signs that fall . . . The Hand is not invisible; it just hides in so many ways. It causes all the grass the grow and the sun to shine on the days . . . Those who don’t see are those who refuse to see, and those who don’t hear are those who refuse to hear.”

Certainly the pilot of US Airways Flight 1549, a verteran of commercial and military flight, deserves all the kudos he is getting. Same goes for the myriad official and unofficial rescuers who responded so quickly. But great acts by human beings and Divine handiwork are not mutually exclusive. In fact, one is often a conduit for the other.

Tragedies do happen, and some people use that as proof that there is no G-d (or none worth believing in, anyway). That is their loss. Life is full of miracles when you go through it with your eyes and ears open. And sometimes they even make the news.