Parshat Noach

This week’s parshah is Noach. Because of the themes of environmental destruction and renewal in this parshah, many Jewish organizations (including the JCPA, the national community relations arm of the Federation movement) have designated this as “Global Climate Healing Shabbat,” an opportunity for the Jewish community to join with many others around the world in prayer and action “to prevent destruction and preserve the web of life in which the human race has emerged and created civilization.”

There’s a midrash (interpretive story) that it took Noah 120 years to build the ark, because he planted the cedars, waited for them to grow, and then cut them down, in full view of everyone. When the people of his generation asked him what he was doing he said, “The Sovereign of the Universe has informed me that God will bring a flood to the world.” (Gen. Rab. 30:7). In other words, everyone had plenty of warning, they just chose not to act on it. This comes to mind because of the article that was in the Eagle today that says polling shows that fewer people now believe that global warming exists, despite all the evidence. Will we make the same mistake as Noah’s generation?

At the end of the episode, God establishes a covenant with the human beings “and with every living thing on earth.” “I will maintain my covenant with you: never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.” This is a commitment on God’s part not to destroy the earth. That power, these days, is in the hands of human beings, even more than it’s in God’s hands. Can we make a covenant with each other, with God, and with our fellow living creatures, not to destroy the earth? Will we?

Shabbat shalom.