Our Gemara on Amud Aleph discusses whether a perforated gallbladder renders an animal into a tereifa or not. There is a general rule that an animal who is a tereifa will not live past one year. The Gemara uses a verse in Iyov (16:13) where he describes his gallbladder spilling out as result of being pierced by arrows, and yet we know Iyov continued to live. This should prove that a perforated gallbladder is not a tereifa. However, the Gemara rebuts that one cannot bring a proof from miracles. God made a condition with Satan that no matter how much suffering he inflicted, he would keep Iyov alive (ibid 2:6). So this was an unnatural ability to live and not representative of the typical nature of things.

There are two ways to analyze this. Either (1), Iyov was in fact still a tereifa but kept alive by a miracle or (2) his status of tereifa was miraculously healed. This has practical halachic and metaphysical implications.

The Rashba in a teshuva (I:98) explains why we do not render an animal with a known tereifa to be kosher if it lives 12 months past the injury (such as a cut or break that can be seen while the animal is alive.) The Rashba says this does not contradict this rabbinic medical tradition. Rather, we say this particular animal is living due to a miracle. (The ways of God are unfathomable and we have no idea why certain things happen, but apparently God wanted this animal to live.)

One might ask on the Rashba, what does it matter that the animal is living miraculously, after it is de facto living so why should not be a tereifa! The answer is that the Rashba meant side one of the chakira, and therefore the animal still had status of a tereifa. (See Shach YD 57:48) The fact that it is alive does not to go away it status because the physical status did not change. It’s just some kind of miracle. 

This is a fascinating idea regarding how a miracle manifests itself. Is it hanging on thin air or does it work through a natural process? As Rabbi Chanina Ben Dosa told his daughter who mistakenly put vinegar in the Shabbos lamps (Taanis 25a): “Just as God says oil should burn, so He may command that vinegar burns.” This sounds like God did not miraculously change the vinegar to oil, but rather miraculously made the vinegar burn like it was oil.

There are a few versions of Midrash about Avraham that also might be related to this distinction about miracles. When Hashem is reassuring Avraham that he will indeed have a child, the verse states (Bereishis 15:5): “[Then in the vision, God] took him outside and said, ‘Look toward heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them’—continuing, ‘So shall your offspring be.’”

The pashut peshat is that God takes Avraham outside his tent to see the night sky, allowing him to vividly see the metaphor that his children will be innumerable as the stars. Yet the verse begs for a derash because what does it really mean? “God took him outside” — outside to where? And also, what’s the meaning of the stars in the first place — why not say as innumerable as the fish of the sea or some other metaphor? The Midrashic answer is that God took Avraham out of HIS stars, the fate dictated, or so thought dictated, by his Zodiac and constellation that he was born under. Avraham, a learned man of the ancient world, believed that the particular position of the stars that one was born under dictated his fate. (Many of our sages believed in the stars as legitimate indicators of fate, at least in terms of tendencies; see for example Gemara Shabbos 156a.) God told Avraham, “Even though you see astrologically that you are doomed to be childless, your fate will not be dictated by the stars.”

Differences in the text of this Midrash are significant. Rashi quotes it as follows: “Go forth from (give up) your astrological speculations — that you have seen by the planets that you will not raise a son; “Avram” indeed may have no son but “Avraham” will have a son: “Sarai” may not bear a child but “Sarah” will bear children. I will give you other names, and your destiny (מזל planet, luck) will be changed.”

In Rashi’s version, though Avraham’s Mazal (astrological sign) does not control his fate, it is not because the Mazal was ignored. Rather, by changing his name, somehow that gives Avraham a new identity, which is subject to a new Mazal. The Mazal has power and God does not take away its power, but rather substitutes a different Mazal in its place. An astrological “witness protection program.”

Compare this to the text of Bereishis Rabbah (44:12):

“He took him outside” — The Rabbis say: [God told him:] ‘You are a prophet, not an astrologer,’ …In the days of Jeremiah, Israel sought to adopt this mindset (of being subject to astrology), but the Holy One blessed be He did not allow them to do so. That is what is written: “So said the Lord: Do not learn the way of the nations, and from the signs of the heavens do not fear…” (Jeremiah 10:2) — your forefather Abraham sought to adopt that mindset, but I did not allow him to do so.”

The implication of this text is that God was teaching Avraham, and also the people of Jeremiah’s era, that they should not consider themselves subject to their astrological fate. The nuance here is that he is higher than an astrologer; he is a prophet who has a special relationship with God and therefore can change his faith through prayer. (See commentary of Eitz Yosef.)

In Rashi’s version, the power of the stars remains intact, but rather God shifts Avraham within the astral scheme. On the other hand, in Bereishis Rabbah, God annuls the power of the astrological signs for the person who could connect to Him directly. Rather than witness protection, this is a presidential pardon.

These two different texts might be compared to the two kinds of miracles we discussed regarding the tereifah that lives. Is it still a tereifah but staying alive miraculously? Or is the miracle that its tereifah status was healed?

One final note. Although in our times technology changes rapidly, our sages have provided the systems and methods of working theologically with technology and science that can be adapted. So for example, we consider ourselves sophisticated and are no longer superstitious and believe in astrological science. No, we “follow the science.” Yet experts have been telling us what sometimes amounts to propaganda, such as we are “born a certain way.” Most of the time when scientists and doctors say that somebody is “born a certain way” what they really mean to say is “we feel powerless — we don’t understand this. We don’t like that feeling so we will make some kind of sweeping generalization that sounds smart and also dilutes our responsibility.” When a sociological or psychological phenomenon develops, such as transgenderism, or what was debated more fearlessly decades ago, such as the origins of homosexuality, or even the variability of intelligence that has implications as to whether it’s genetic or societal, science today falls upon tropes and dogma instead of courageous humility and honesty. The frequent Midas operandi is to declare something to be genetic or not, depending on what would be politically correct, morally convenient and remove responsibility from people. But even if it’s true that we are “born that way,” the sages provided a model for that. And the model is, even if your current science and philosophy shows that your fate is a certain way, according to the Jewish tradition, it can change. How it changes is interesting and subject to the discussion we had above. When one has a relationship with God indeed it can change, whether it’s genetics or your zodiac.