ספר שמות

In order to understand this we must once more fall ‎back on a concept that we have dealt with repeatedly, ‎i.e. the two different categories of serving G’d. One ‎reason for serving the Lord is that when we experience ‎miracles we realize that there is a Power beyond the ‎laws of nature with which we are all more or less ‎familiar. This power demonstrates through ‎performance of miracles that it is not only independent ‎of the laws of nature, but is able to make the laws of ‎nature do its bidding. It becomes clear to us that ‎instead of “serving” certain phenomena which clearly ‎exert a great deal of influence on our daily lives, we ‎will do much better to serve the Master under whose ‎direction these phenomena, i.e. sun, moon, fire, water ‎etc., perform their duties.‎The second category of serving Hashem is ‎based on our recognizing the Creator directly, without ‎our having to arrive at His existence by such detours as ‎reflecting on the limitations of the laws of nature. We ‎recognize that He is the source of everything that ‎exists and can be perceived by any or all of our senses. ‎To someone who is aware that this Creator, because He ‎created the physical universe, is obviously Himself not ‎part of the physical domain, and therefore able to ‎change the order of things at will, it does not seem ‎strange when he sees that the Creator has decided to ‎make changes in the order of things. This type of ‎individual did not acquire the insights he possesses ‎about the Creator because He saw Him perform ‎miracles, but he arrives at this logically, realizing that ‎the Creator is absolutely free from external pressures ‎and having created this universe has voluntarily given ‎up some of His freedom of action in order for His ‎subjects to possess a feeling of self-worth, human ‎dignity.‎Going back to the question of the “smart” son. He ‎wishes to know why G’d had to perform all these ‎miracles seeing that even someone like himself is fully ‎convinced of G’d’s stature and supremacy, and so have ‎been his forefathers. In response to this question, the ‎author of the Haggadah shel pessach advises ‎the father of the questioning son to tell him the ‎‎halachah concerning the need for the eating ‎of the Passover lamb to be the last item on the menu ‎on that evening. The father is to emphasize that the ‎‎halachah wishes to impress upon us that when ‎recognition of G’d and His power and His relationship ‎to the Jewish people is the result of having experienced ‎G’d’s miracles, such recognition of G’d will endure ‎forever, whereas when it is merely the result of reason, ‎there is no guarantee that at one time or another ‎someone will not be able to “prove” that the belief in ‎G’d, even when attained after sanctifying themselves, is ‎liable to be shaken by arguments to the contrary.