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progressivejudaism · 7 years ago

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Parshat Noach: We Need to Learn to Talk to Talk to One Another

Rabbinical Student Joshua Gischner, Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, delivered to Temple Beth Am, Monessen PA on Oct. 20, 2017 / 1 Hesvon 5778

Here is an excerpt from the Huffington Post from right after Hurricane Harvey hit:

“The United Orthodox Synagogue of Houston [...] [was] flooded by several feet as Hurricane Harvey dropped record rainfall on the city in late August. [...] The building took in 4 to 5 feet of water [...] All the rooms were affected, including the main sanctuary, classrooms and the rabbi’s office. Prayer books and Bibles had fallen off shelves and were soaked. Chairs were toppled. The Torah scrolls had been taken out of the building before the storm hit, but water had crept close to the ark where the scrolls are typically kept ― missing it by inches. [...]

Harvey made landfall near Texas’ Gulf Coast on Aug. 25 as a Category 4 hurricane, eventually dropping 40 to 65 inches of rain in parts of southeast Texas. The storm claimed the lives of at least 50 people across eight counties and caused billions of dollars in damage to homes, businesses, and places of worship” like Rabbi Barry Gelman’s community.

The rabbi told Huffpost, “We’ve been focusing ever since the flood on being positive and first helping people through the initial stages of this, which is very complicated. You walk into your home and see 1 or 2 or 5 feet of water, and stuff is ruined. It’s paralyzing and demoralizing.” (source)

"בַּיּ֣וֹם הַזֶּ֗ה נִבְקְעוּ֙ כָּֽל־מַעְיְנֹת֙ תְּה֣וֹם רַבָּ֔ה וַאֲרֻבֹּ֥ת הַשָּׁמַ֖יִם נִפְתָּֽחוּ׃"

“...Bayom hazeh, niv-ku kol-mayanot tehom rabah v’arubot hashamayim niftachu.”

“On that day, all of the fountains of the great deep burst apart, and the floodgates of the heavens broke open.”

(Gn. 7:11)

Earlier, I read from parshat Noakh: the Torah’s account of a disastrous, ancient Flood which was sent by God. The Flood wiped out everyone and everything in its path in order to destroy those who were evil. Is it possible to make connections between God’s destructive power in this account, and with contemporary natural disasters? If so, does our tradition teach us that in mid-September, it was God who sent a 7.1 magnitude earthquake to Mexico City? Was it because of evil behavior? Is God responsible for the wildfires currently raging in California? [The same fires which destroyed our beloved URJ, Union for Reform Judaism, Camp Newman] Do Californians deserve this wrath? Did God send Hurricanes Harvey and Irma? Did God displace Texans, Floridians, and Puerto Ricans; many of whom are still without power and food? Is God responsible for the fact that they are being used as a political tool by our lawmakers? My mom’s colleague Dr. Sharita, her parent’s live in Saint Martin. Their roof was ripped off by Hurricane Harvey and their home was further devastated by Hurricane Irma. (Pause) Are they bad people? (Aside to congregation) I can assure you that they are not.

No. This theology makes me feel very uncomfortable. It makes me uncomfortable because I cannot believe that an all-powerful, compassionate God would wipe out Their children- especially because they are (make air quotes) “evil,” because isn’t evil subjective. Especially when our tradition views the word “chet” or “sin,” not as an egregious and despicable act against Divine law, but as a misstep. I believe that Avinu Malkenu, our loving Parent and Sovereign, understands that we can always do a little better, because we’re only human. But also, didn’t God produce a rainbow at the end of the story as a sign of a brit, a Covenant, that this sort of destructive power would never happen again in response to the (make air quotes) evil ways of human beings?

How can one really determine what evil is anyway? In a galaxy far far away, Darth Vader is most often viewed throughout the Star Wars movies as an evil dictator bent on control of the galaxy. But his story isn’t that simple. Remember, when he takes off his mask before dying, he dies as one of the good guys. Vader made a mistake, a huge mistake but still a “chet” or a misstep, when joining the Dark Side. In the Star Wars films, throughout other fantasy stories, and in the Noah Account, evil is evil because the bad guys don’t know how to empathetically work with the good guys. Noah is righteous, everyone else is evil. But I suggest that there is more depth and complication in the background of our myth. Perspective is key, and reality is different from fantasy. Assuming that this story is somewhat based on human nature, I cannot believe that all of the people who were destroyed in the Flood were (use air quotes) “evil.” I think that the supposed evil people wiped out in the Flood more closely reflect who we consider evil people today. Think about our broken political system. Evil exists on whichever side of a political or social spectrum that you do not identify with. I propose that this same phenomenon of miscommunication, is the evil that propels God in the Noah story to destroy humanity.

So why do our modern floods and natural disasters come? It is tempting to use tragedy to explain the ways of God in dealing with human faults. Many religious responses to tragedy “assume that God is the cause of our suffering, and [they] try to understand why God would want us to suffer. Is it for our own good, or is it a punishment we deserve, or could it be that God does not care what happens to us? [...] [People are] left either hating [them]selves for deserving such a fate, or hating God for sending it to [them], when [they] did not deserve it.”

Rabbi Harold Kushner, author of “When Bad Things Happen to Good People,” asks us to think of another approach. He writes “Maybe God does not cause our suffering. Maybe it happens for some reason other than the will of God. [...] Could it be that God does not cause the bad things that happen to us? [...] Could it be that ‘How could God do this to me?’ is really the wrong question for us to ask?" (”When Bad Things Happen to Good People, pp. 34-35)

So what is the right question to ask? I think that our answers can be explained by viewing the Flood Account side-by-side with the Tower of Babel story, which also appears in this week’s parsha. The Tower of Babel narrative is the Jewish version of a myth where people build a tall tower so that they, according to many of our commentators, could rebel, resort to idolatry, and rule the human race (On parshat Noach, The Book of Genesis Commentary by Judaica Press Books of the Bible, ed. Rabbi Moses Feinstein, p. 135). Both the Tower of Babel and the Flood stories can be viewed as metaphors for how we communicate with one another, or really how we don’t communicate with one another.

I propose that the “evilness” of the individuals before the Flood, really was just miscommunication among people. Humans in the story, as humans do now, do not know how to talk to one another, unlike the builders of the Tower of Babel who use their one language to work together for an evil purpose. Instead of sending a flood this time, God forces them to each speak different languages, thus making it impossible to communicate and complete their horrendous project. Today, we live with a direct parallel in the fact that although we can speak the same language, our divisiveness has made it nearly impossible to work together making it seem like many of us do speak different languages. And if you notice, many of those who do speak the same language, in the sense that they are like-minded, have been hard at work at creating their own evil Tower of Babels in the form of inhumane legislation, divisive and despicable words, and actions bent on hurting others. In our evil world of “alternative facts” and “fake news” we must work to speak the same language and build a very different kind of Tower, while not being afraid to condemn baseless hatred when someone is threatened.

I am not suggesting that recent natural disasters are a merely a Divine Response to this problem of miscommunication, but I am suggesting that we need to learn to talk to one another. Although, it will not necessarily stop floods and earthquakes and fires, it will help us to rebuild, and possibly stop extreme weather challenges, terrorism, mass shootings and other catastrophes. Learning each other’s languages will help us to rebuild bridges and roads, provide food and water to those in need, and help bereaved families. In the aftermath of tragedy, talking to one another will help us to build a better world with love.

That is what the rainbow represents. God puts this symbol in the heavens, to teach us that seeing the humanity in every last person is key to making a world that we can all be proud of.

“אֶת־קַשְׁתִּ֕י נָתַ֖תִּי בֶּֽעָנָ֑ן וְהָֽיְתָה֙ לְא֣וֹת בְּרִ֔ית בֵּינִ֖י וּבֵ֥ין הָאָֽרֶץ׃ ”

“Et-kashti natati be’anan v’hayta le’ot b’rit banai uvein haaretz”

“I placed my rainbow in the clouds, and it will serve as a symbol of the Covenant,” the brit, “between Me and the earth.”

(Gn. 9:13)

Notice the past tense. “Et-kashti natati be’anan” “I placed my rainbow in the clouds.” The beautiful rainbow, a reminder to see every human being as created in the Image of God, was present the entire time. And that rainbow still smiles down on us, especially when met with a disastrous storm. (The Ramban on Gn. 9:13, The Book of Genesis Commentary by Judaica Press Books of the Bible, ed. Rabbi Moses Feinstein, p. 123)

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