[Avodah] Praying for Miracles

[Zev Sero via Avodah]

On 17/01/17 18:01, Rich, Joel via Avodah wrote:
> As far as: It is proper to pray before measuring produce. But is this
> not equivalent to praying AFTER hearing screams or AFTER the woman is
> already pregnant
>
> My take is that the prayer by the produce is like the bracha of mvarech
> hashanim -- not for more crop but more satisfaction from what we have

Then why not after measuring?  It seems clear to me that the prayer is 
that the as-yet-unknown amount of produce should increase, since this is 
the sort of hidden miracle that HKBH often performs, while open miracles 
such as increasing something that has already been measured is only done 
on rare occasions, e.g. through Eliyahu or Elisha, and is not something 
one can pray for.  Ditto once the baby's sex has been determined, asking 
Him to change it is too much, although He did it for Leah.

Praying that the house which is on fire is not ones own would seem to be 
beyond what Hashem *ever* does, even through nevi'im, since it's 
changing the past (and thus also people's memories of what happened); 
praying that the fire go out miraculously is fine, but praying that it 
should never have happened in the first place, and thus that one never 
saw the flames or heard the noise, and thus never prayed, and thus never 
got the miracle... Well, you see where that leads.

-- 
Zev Sero                May 2017, with its *nine* days of Chanukah,
zev at sero.name           be a brilliant year for us all