Have you ever played with legos or blocks and been so angry you knocked every thing over, smashed it all down? That’s this portion. G-d is really, really angry. G-d created humanity and then wasn’t happy with the result. It is not exactly clear why and Rashi asks that question. Why does G-d want to destroy the world? What is that word, “hamas” that gets translated as corruption or violence?
Some say it is that the people didn’t listen to G-d. They disobeyed the Divine will. Yet, so far there weren’t many orders, “Be fruitful and multiply. Stay away from that tree. Take care of the earth.” Maybe G-d is figuring out that they need even more rules, that free will isn’t all it is cracked up to be.
Some say that G-d was frustrated because in giving us free will, G-d surrendered some of G-d’s control.
Some say that it goes back to when G-d said, “Let us make man in our image.” Since we don’t know, can’t know what that image is and are commanded in the 10 Commandments not to make an image of G-d, somehow this is idolatrous on the angels part. Some midrashim actually say that G-d actually makes 974 worlds before this one. It seems maybe G-d has an anger management problem.
Yet, G-d is a compassionate G-d. He finds Noah. Noah walked with G-d. Noah was a righteous man (in his generation). Blameless. Flawless. Perfect. However you translate taam.
Tzedek. He was righteous. Just. What does it take to be righteous? What motivates an individual to stand up in life-threatening circumstances and behave exceptionally? Barbara Binder Kadden, a noted Jewish educator, asks that question in a d’var Torah about this very topic and looks at the definition on Yad V’shem’s website.
“In describing the Righteous Among the Nations, “attitudes towards the Jews during the Holocaust ranged from indifference to hostility. The mainstream watched as their former neighbors were rounded up and killed; some collaborated with the perpetrators; many benefitted from the expropriation of the Jews’ property. In a world of total moral collapse there was a small minority who mustered extraordinary courage to uphold human values . . . these rescuers regarded the Jews as fellow human beings. . . “
Because that is how we are taught to see “b’tzelem elohim”, created in the image of G-d. We are all created in the image of G-d. Righteousness, is therefore, having the moral courage to stand up to those who are marginalized, precisely because they are created in the image of G-d.
And that is where Noah falls down. He is righteous in his generation, not for all times. He fails to speak up. He fails to argue to save humanity. To save the world. That is what next week’s Torah portion about Abraham teaches us. Abraham walked before G-d. Abraham argues with G-d to save Sodom and Gemorah.
Rabbi Lord Sacks says it this way…
“Noah is the classic case of someone who is righteous but not a leader. In a disastrous age, when all has been corrupted, when the world is filled with violence, when even God himself – in the most poignant line in the whole Torah – “regretted that He had made man on earth, and He was pained to His very core,” Noah alone justifies God’s faith in humanity, the faith that led Him to create mankind in the first place. That is an immense achievement, and nothing should detract from it. Noah is, after all, the man through whom God makes a covenant with all humanity. Noah is to humanity what Abraham is to the Jewish people.”
Remember those legos at the beginning of our discussion. G-d takes the building blocks and begins to rebuild. It isn’t perfect. It is good enough. It reminds me of our trip to South Dakota this summer. We learned that behind Lincoln’s head at Mount Rushmore, there is a secret room, the Hall of Records. And in the Hall of Records there is a titanium vault and inside that vault is a teakwood box. And inside that box are all of the charter documents of this country. Etched on the capstone is this:
“…let us place there, carved high, as close to heaven as we can, the words of our leaders, their faces, to show posterity what manner of men they were. Then breathe a prayer that these records will endure until the wind and rain alone shall wear them away.”
Learning about this secret room gave me goosebumps.The sculptor who dreamed of creating Mount Rushmore wasn’t perfect. He may not have even been righteous, even in his generation. Yet, he left us a lasting legacy and a dream of the future. That room means that, if necessary, the generations that come after us will have the ability to restart this great nation, just like G-d pushed the reset button on the world.
But there are two other things in this week’s portion to give us hope.
The first is the root word, kaf—pay—raish. We know this word. We just celebrated Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. The root of Kippur is this word. But here it shows up in a different sense entirely. Why did G-d tell Noah to spread k-p-r on the ark. What is this substance? Usually it is translated as pitch or tar.
At this week’s Academy for Jewish Religion’s retreat, I heard another interpretation. That both represent G-d’s compassion.
G-d is a compassionate G-d. Sacks says that “G-d created humanity because G-d has faith in humanity. Far more than we have faith in God, God has faith in us. We may fail many times, but each time we fail, God says: “Even to old age I will not change, and even to grey hair, I will still be patient.” I will never give up on humanity. I will never lose faith. I will wait for as long as it takes for humans to learn not to oppress, enslave or use violence against other humans. ..God has patience. God has forgiveness. God has compassion. God has love. For centuries, theologians and philosophers have been looking at religion upside down. The real phenomenon at its heart – the mystery and miracle – is not our faith in God. It is God’s faith in us.”
Our group thought hard about that connection. One woman said that maybe like Yom Kippur seals us for a blessing the k-p-r seals the ark, keeping the water out. That was an aha moment!
We thought about Noah’s wife, mentioned five times in the Bible but never named. The midrash gives her the name Na’amah. Rabbi Sandy Sasso has written a lovely children’s story about that midrash (Bereshit Rabbah 33:7). Na’amah was a woman of beauty, musical talent, and a doer of good deeds. The rabbis of the Talmud found that threatening. But what if we think about her this way. Her music tamed the savage beast creating peace amongst all those animals and preventing the original cabin fever. Her song enabled her family to pray. She inspired her husband and her children to work together allowing them to dream, to plan and to rebuild the world.
Sh…I’ll tell you a secret. We don’t have to go to New York to learn (although it is nice). We have everything we need right here in Elgin! People who are willing to wrestle with the texts and come up with their own meaning.
This gives me hope. And it makes sense. After the Flood, G-d regains equilibrium and promises never to destroy the world again with a flood. The sign of that promise, the sign of that covenant is the rainbow, the perfect balance of sun and rain.
Have you ever gone looking for a rainbow. You think the conditions are right. It is late afternoon, the sun is out and it is raining. You won’t find one. Or at least I haven’t. No, I think you have to be surprised by a rainbow. And then it is time to say the blessing. Yes, there is a special blessing for seeing a rainbow. Like all blessings, it begins, Baruch Atah Adonai, Eloheinu Melech Ha’olam. Blessed are You, Lord our G-d, Ruler of the Universe, Zocher Habrit. Who remembers the covenant.
Debbie Friedman, of blessed memory, has a lovely setting of it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bw_XdHboBMI&feature=player_embedded
This is a covenant. And the reason that a rainbow appears is to remind us of that covenant. A covenant is a promise, a legal contract. If you do x I will do y. G-d promises to never destroy the world again.
What is our responsibility? What then is our y?
To make sure that happens. To partner with G-d. To be like G-d. To be compassionate. To be kind. To love our neighbors as ourselves. To love every living creature and recognize that each is created in the image of G-d. To find the Divine spark in everyone.
That is the hope that the rainbow brings. That we can be partners with G-d. That we have everything we need. Because of G-d faith in us and G-d’s unlimited compassion, we can begin again.