solutions and bread do not grow on trees

The haftara for Metzora opens in medias res, and you have to turn back a few pesukim to get the full picture of what's going on.  Shomron was under seige, and a famine raged throughout the land.  King Yehoram was approached by a woman who had literally eaten her own child and she begged the king to have mercy and help her.  Faced with such a stark example of the people's suffering, the king swore that he would have Elisha killed because Elisha had failed to pray to G-d to help the people (Rashi, Radak to Melachim II 6:31)  The king came to Elisha with one of his officers, and Elisha prophesized that on the very next day a se'ah of flour and 2 se'ah of barley would both sell in the market for a shekel.  The king's assistant then jumped into the conversation and declared the navi's promise impossible,  to which Elisha responded that the king's man will see it happen with his own eyes, but never get to benefit from the miracle.

This is the point at which our haftara begins, telling us about the miraculous downfall of Hazael's army and the end of the seige and the famine, exactly as Elisha predicted, culminating with the king's officer being trampled to death at the gates of the marketplace as the people scrambled for the food that was now readily available and priced exactly as Elisha had foretold.

Why did the king's officer not believe Elisha?  It's not like he thought Elisha was incapable of doing a miracle or incapable of helping the situation.  The king was angry precisely because he though Elisha could have done something to help, could have pulled off a miracle, but had failed to do so!

Chasam Sofer has many answers to this question, and one in particular struck me as relevant to Yom ha'Atzmaut and our situation of aschalta d'geula.  He writes (Derush for Shabbos haGadol, 5662) that the king's officer certainly believed that Elisha could do miracles.  He also knew that without a miracle, the only way to get bread was to plant, harvest, mill, and bake, and that was impossible given the seige and the famine.  So the expectation was that Elisha will do a MIRACLE, something extraordinary and supernatural, like the gemara says, l'asid lavo bread will grow on trees.  But that's not what Elisha promised.  Elisha promised barley, meaning raw stalks that would have to have the kernel separated and milled into flour.  He promised flour that would have to be baked to get bread, not bread growing on trees.  That's what the king's officer found impossible to believe.  If G-d is going to do a miracle, then it would be MIRACLE, not some half-way solution.

But that's not always how it works.  Hashem sometimes does miracles, but couched in derech ha'teva.  Hashem will provide the barley and the flour, but it's up to us to put in the rest of the work and make the bread.

Thinking that geulah means Moshiach riding in on a white donkey and waving a magic wand to solve all our problems -- a MIRACLE -- and not celebrating or believing anything less is yad Hashem is exactly the mistake the haftara speaks to.  Easy solutions will not grow on trees; Hashem has given us raw materials and siyata d'shemaya, but we have work of our own to do.