Dvar Torah Parsha Noach 5784

Choosing Chesed

Parsha Noach frames a significant span of time, from Noah and the great flood until Abraham. It begins with the evil of the people and Hashem having Noah build an ark for him and his family. I find it significant that Noah, learning what is to come, is concerned only with his family, neither arguing with Hashem nor pleading on behalf of others. This of course is a flood narrative historically found in other Near East traditions such as the Epic of Gilgamesh and Atra Hasis dating back to the 18th century BCE. Even including the building of a window, a raven, and a dove to test conditions in the aftermath. But in Babylonian traditions, it was the incessant noise made by humans that led to the floods, irritating the gods mightily. In our tradition, human violence is the cause and at the end, a covenant is established not to flood the world again. Here we find the Noahide laws which our tradition teaches belongs to all humanity. Our covenant is symbolized by the rainbow.

Then we have the tale afterwards of Noah getting drunk and one of his sons seeing his nakedness. Noah wakes up and curses Ham’s youngest son Canaan to be the basest of slaves. It likely was a response to the later event where the Israelites displaced the Canaanites but has been used in more current times disgustingly as racist fodder for those from Africa. In reality there is no indication that the curse was ever honored by Hashem. We then see genealogies i.e. the Table of Nations. Interrupting this is found our story of the tower of Babel. Probably based on the Babylonian Ziggurats, it is used to show the arrogance of humanity and the punishment of mixing up languages.

We then learn the ten generations from Noah to Avram. We see the family of Avram who will become Avraham and Sarai who will be named Sara. I might add my own Hebrew name Yiskah shows up. Rabbinic tradition suggests Yiskah and Sarai are the same person, either as one of great beauty or one who could be prophetic. More recently, scholars believe she was a different person and because Yiskah was named, there was early on a prophetic tradition involving Yiskah that has since been lost to time.

We seem in my opinion to be seeing an evolution in morality and in behavior, for humanity, but also Hashem seems to be learning and growing in Their relationship with humankind. Looking back, we see humanity being cast out of the garden. Then we are so evil that all but Noah and his family are destroyed. What follows is the mingling of languages, but then we arrive to Avram and Sarai where a new covenant will be established, a covenant still with us today. Noah is only concerned with his family, obeying without question. But later, we see Avraham talking to Adonai, pleading on behalf of the people of Sodom. We are witnessing in our origin stories the growth of morality, learning to look out for each other as human beings.

In reality, we see in Torah that we are both, as Rabbi Jonathan Sacks of blessed memory suggests, destructive and constructive. We are born to compete and cooperate. It seems that Hashem created humans in the faith that we would naturally choose right and good but learns soon enough that’s not so. So it is that we have a covenant holding with it the idea of moral law. So, we teach that we should love the stranger, your neighbor as self. It is why we are gathered here today as a Caring Committee. We hold each other in the difficult times and find joy in the good. We are capable of good and evil, but we choose good. Such is the nature of free will. And good behavior, loving behavior is contagious. We are called to repair the world, not because we must, rather because we choose to do so.

I feel called to add something else to this drash as well. Ours are dangerous times. Hate is growing, and recent reports from the FBI and Dept of Justice say hate crimes are at an all time high. I recently had to after all these years, move my Facebook settings from public to friends only after someone jumped in on my page to preach and demonize. I’m in communication as we speak with people in other parts of the country including Texas where I came from because of transgender attacks. Never more than ever, have we been called to acts of loving kindness, for each other and for the world outside. As a committee, as human beings, our call to duty has never been louder. May peace be ascendant and love transcendent. Acts of tzedakah and gemilut chesed are our greatest hope in these dangerous times. Oh, and to vote of course! Baruch Hashem