Dear TBZ Community:
I wish I could feel more hope and optimism this Shabbat, but I don’t. I wish I could encounter our texts and be inspired by them, find messages of hope and optimism, but I’m not. My heart is crushed and I continue to cry in disbelief that this is what’s happening, that the hostages are still not home, that so many people are in danger, and that so much blood is being shed.
The stories of the Torah don’t make it easier either. After last week’s reading of the creation of the world, and of the first human beings made in God’s image, too soon we encounter violence and death. Last week I asked, where is our humanity? What happened to our humanity?
And this week, the story of Noah tells us again, that the world was filled with violence.
**וַתִּשָּׁחֵת הָאָרֶץ לִפְנֵי הָאֱלֹהִים וַתִּמָּלֵא הָאָרֶץ חָמָס
The earth became corrupt before God; the earth was filled with lawlessness.
The violence that begins too soon after creation, continues and unravels in ways that even God did not expect. God has to figure out what to do, how to save humanity, and how to save us from the corruption of the earth.
What does God do? Finds the finest man, the one that has some potential, the one that seems to still have humanity in him. The Torah says:
נֹחַ אִישׁ צַדִּיק תָּמִים הָיָה בְּדֹרֹתָיו אֶת־הָאֱלֹהִים הִתְהַלֶּךְ־נֹחַ
Noah was a righteous man; he was blameless in his age; Noah walked with God
There is a known question asked about Noah: why does it say he was blameless in his time? It is understood that he was the best that could be found in the midst of so much wickedness. I hear this as God still saw some potential in humanity when seeing Noah.
And he is asked to build an ark. An ark to protect him and his loved ones, and the animals around him. To protect as much as possible in his world, the world, the creation.
In the description of the ark that Noah is about to build, God says:
צֹהַר תַּעֲשֶׂה לַתֵּבָה וְאֶל־אַמָּה תְּכַלֶּנָּה מִלְמַעְלָה וּפֶתַח הַתֵּבָה בְּצִדָּהּ תָּשִׂים תַּחְתִּיִּם שְׁנִיִּם וּשְׁלִשִׁים תַּעֲשֶׂהָ
Make an opening for daylight in the ark, and terminate it within a cubit of the top. Put the entrance to the ark on its side; make it with bottom, second, and third decks.
This place of protection has a window to see the light. In the midst of the darkness, in the midst of the destruction of the world, they build a window, so they can see the light and the sun.
There is so much going on around us, so much disinformation and misinformation, so much overwhelming information. Still in shock and in pain from the horrific attack on October 7th, still not understanding how this kind of evil can exist in the world, still waiting for hostages to be returned home, and still watching how this war unfolds. We are also witnessing the reverberations of this in our own lives. Our own fears for ourselves and our loved ones, our feeling lonely as Jews in America, our feeling that those who were our partners are not any more, our anger at words that are being said, and our anger at words that are not being said. More divisions and more hatred beyond what already exists.
So, I think of Noah… God chose him because he had potential. He wasn’t perfect; he wasn’t a savior, or a prophet, or a voice that could bring the end of violence. God chose him because he had potential to stay human in the midst of evil. At this point, I just want to be like Noah, and remind myself that I have potential, we have potential to find humanity, to be humans, to save us from that which surrounds us. I want to be Noah and ride this ark, not alone, but with all of you, and not close myself inside it in a dark room, but remember to have a window, one that looks to the world, not just to my own suffering and my own fears but to others’.
I weep for my people, for Israel, for the Jewish People. I stand with Israel in a time of darkness. I pray for our soldiers who are defending the land of Israel to come home safely. I continue to pray for the hostages to come back home and for the government of Israel to make this their priority.
And as I said last Shabbat, I remind myself that even when it’s hard – especially when it is hard – I know that my humanity, staying human, depends on my capacity to have compassion and weep also for the innocent people in Gaza, for the children in Gaza. I can’t believe we live in a world where we have to explain ourselves when having compassion for children dying…. No matter whose children.
And that my humanity depends on my capacity to differentiate between Israel defending itself and acts of revenge. My humanity also depends on calling out settlers, terrorists in the West Bank who attack Palestinians and any kind of violence against Arab-Israelis. And my humanity also depends on being able to call out extremism of all people: the death of Wadea Al-Fayoume, a six-year-old Muslim boy who was killed in his home by his landlord because he was Palestinian and Muslim, is an abomination. I was glad to hear that dear colleagues, rabbis, in the Chicago area went to the funeral.
We are all Noah, trying to survive in what seems to be a world filled with hatred. And we, each one of us, is being chosen by God, to save humanity. Because each of us has the potential.
May this Shabbat bring blessings and consolation to all of you and your loved ones.
May we find strength, courage, and patience, and open our hearts with generosity.
May all those who are ill find healing. And may we find joy in the midst of darkness.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rav Claudia
**Please note that the word חָמָס (chamas) in Hebrew means violence and wrong and, like all biblical words, there are different connotations and understandings in the different uses of the word over different periods. Hammas, the terrorist organization’s name, is an acronym which stands for “Harakat al-Muqawama al-Islamiya” (Islamic Resistance Movement). I will not be focusing on the connection of these words.