Dina had to draw a picture of a miracle that she has witnessed for her Hebrew School homework. This proved harder than anticipated because it forced the entire family into a philosophical discussion on the nature of miracles. As an example of how the seemingly normal could, in fact, be miraculous, I offered the birth of a human being. This argument, of course, ensued:
Dina: I’m going to draw a picture of a person.
Bassie: Then you should draw an ape, then a person who looks like an ape, then a person.
Dina: No, I’m just going to draw a person.
Bassie: Oh, so, like God goes “here’s an arm, here’s another arm, here’s a leg. No.”
Dina: Then I’ll draw Adam and Eve.
Me: So what Dina’s saying is that it’s a miracle because we can’t make a person out of nothing.
Bassie: We could make a person; we just need some DNA.
Me: But that’s not nothing. That’s something.
Bassie growls faintly.
The result: homework still unfinished.
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