As I was reading the account of Rabbi Eliezer in the Oven of Akhnai as I related in Bat Kol, I saw how he moved a tree and made a stream flow backward and could destroy places by looking at them.
There’s a Jewish joke:
Three hasidim are bragging about their Rebbes: “My rebbe is very powerful. He was walking once, and there was a big lake in his path. He waved his handkerchief, and there was lake on the right, lake on the left, but no lake in the middle.”
To which the second retorted, “That’s nothing. My rebbe is even more powerful. He was walking once, and there was a huge mountain in his path. He waved his handkerchief, and there was mountain on the right, mountain on the left, but no mountain in the middle!”
Said the third, “Ha! That is still nothing! My rebbe is the most powerful. He was walking once on Shabbos (the holy day on which it is forbidden to handle money), and there was a wallet crammed full of cash in his path. He waved his handkerchief, and it was Shabbos on the right, Shabbos on the left, but not Shabbos in the middle!”
The second one is the miracle of Jesus, and the third one is the one ascribed to Jesus in suspending the Mosaic law.
Also in Christianism and Muhammadianism
In Christianism
Miracles are seen as something that people can naturally do.
Book of Matthew, 18:18 (KJV):
“Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”
Meaning, Jesus gave his authority to the disciples, and further to the church, to make decisions by that power, and whatever they decided will be the rule in heaven too. This is how Peter was granted a lot of power, and he granted it to the Church.
Book of John, 14:12 (KJV):
“I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do…”
In Muhammadianism
Stories of Holy Men by Farid al-Din ‘Attar (c. 1145 - 1230):
One day [Hasan of Basra] saw Rabi‘a [al-‘Adawiyya] when she was near a lake. Throwing his prayer rug on the surface of the water, he called, “Rabi‘a, come! Let us pray two rak‘as here!”
“Hasan,” Rabi‘a replied, “when you are showing off your spiritual goods in this worldly market, it should be things that your fellow-men are incapable of displaying.”
And she flung her prayer rug into the air and flew up on it. “Come up here, Hasan, where people can see us!” she cried.
Hasan, who had not attained that station, said nothing. Rabi‘a sought to console him.
“Hasan,” she said, “what you did fishes also do, and what I did flies also do. The real business is outside both these tricks. One must apply one’s self to the real business.