On the first day of the month of Nissan, fifteen days before the Exodus, G-d said to Moses, “This month, you and I will be redeemed, for we will be redeemed together” (Shemot Rabbah 15:2). What happens to us happens to G-d. If we are in exile, so is G-d. If His children are free, G-d is free as well

That sounds beautiful and deeply stirring—but what does it mean that G-d is in exile, and what does it mean that G-d is free? We know very well what exile means for us. We have plenty of experience with that. But what do exile and freedom mean for G-d? And why should His freedom depend on us?

G-d in Exile The Chassidic masters explained it this way. Exile for us does not necessarily mean living under the rule of a tyrant. Exile can also mean submitting completely to the natural patterns of ordinary life while dismissing the G-d factor. We assume that if we cook, we will have food. If we work, we will earn money. If we build, we will have a house. That is the norm. Miracles, we assume, are freaks of nature. They aren’t our regular reality. If they occasionally occur, they are flukes—events on which we should never rely.

Yet this mindset is not the natural disposition of a Jew, a child of G-d. A Jew’s instinctive perspective is that G-d provides for us, G-d assists us, and G-d stands by our side. He may choose to work through natural channels, but our employer does not truly pay us. G-d pays us through our employer. And the same G-d who provides for us through an employer can also provide for us without one.

This way of thinking does not mean that G-d will always act outside the natural order. That is entirely up to Him. It simply means that He can. And sometimes, to remind us of this truth, G-d allows it to happen.

The Talmud relates that the daughter of Rabbi Chanina ben Dosa mistakenly prepared vinegar instead of oil for her Shabbat candles. At the last moment, she realized the mistake and cried to her father that they would........

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