Dear Friends,
This week we read parashat Noach. Enjoy my musings of this incredibly ancient story. But before you do that, consider a book that isn’t even written yet! That’s right, we are in the home stretch of fundraising for my forthcoming book all about torah! Can you spare a little chunk of change and help this project along? Head on over to my GoFundMe. A million thank yous to those who have already donated!
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Chodesh tov!
Love, Meg
What is it about the story of Noah’s Ark that somehow charms us into thinking it is a family friendly tale? It is a story of mass genocide (and animal-icide). It’s gruesome– about how the world was so corrupt with evil that God believed the only solution was to just start over–wipe the slate clean (mostly) with a gigantic global storm. Yet, all we seem to focus on are the animals and the rainbow, like this print I found on amazon:
There is a great midrash about the story of Noah’s ark and it goes like this:
R. Huna said in the name of R. Yosé: The Holy One, blessed be He, forewarned the generation of the flood to repent its misdeeds for one hundred and twenty years. When they refused to repent, He commanded Noah to build an ark of acacia-wood. Then Noah arose, repented his sins, and planted cedar trees. They asked him: “What are these cedars for?” “The Holy One, blessed be He, intends to bring a flood upon the earth, and He has ordered me to build an ark so that I and my family might escape,” he replied. They laughed at him and ridiculed his words. Nevertheless, he tended the trees till they grew large. Once again they asked him: “What are you doing?” He repeated what he had told them previously, but they continued to mock him. After some time, he cut down the trees and sawed them into lumber. Again they inquired: “What are you doing?” He warned them once again as to what would happen, but they still refused to repent. Thereupon the Holy One, blessed be He, brought the flood upon them, as it is said: And they were blotted out from the earth (Gen. 7:23).1
In other words, God specifically asked Noah to build such an outrageously large and specifically sourced ark so that the people would ask about it and thus be given chances to repent and maybe change the course of history. Maybe there didn’t need to be a flood at all, just the threat of impending doom like in the Book of Jonah. But, the people didn’t take the bait. After 120 years of opportunities to start acting nice, God drowns them all. God maybe even shows us a hint of regret when God says:
“Never again will I doom the earth because of humankind, since the devisings of the human mind are evil from youth; nor will I ever again destroy every living being, as I have done.”2
If it had worked–if the flood had been an adequate solution to the problem of evil–then we would assume God would not have to promise to never do that again. Instead, God admits that humans are inclined towards evil from youth. Was it all in vain?
I would call this a dark time in biblical history. So why have we chosen this as the quintessential children’s story? Is it really just that kids love furry things and boats?
God looks out and sees that “all flesh had corrupted its ways on earth.”3 All flesh except Noah and his family. And whether we are talking about a moral relativity when the text says that Noah “was blameless in his age,”4 we know that somehow, Noah was that spark of good–something worth saving. The story could have gone full earthly do-over: kill everyone and remake humanity 2.0. Or, God could have just decided to enjoy the sea creatures left over and repopulate nothing–God’s own private aquarium planet! But that isn’t what happened.
Plainly, the story of Noah is a story of hope. That there is a good future waiting to be born. That from one tiny seed, with time and patience, a forest can grow. The fight is not over and the curtain has not fallen. We get another chance.
Hope is in short supply these days. I don’t need to cite specific statistics on deaths of despair or rates of depression because you’ve read about them recently, I’m sure. The thing about hope, however, is it isn’t just some woo-woo-religious-illogical thing. It is actually a mindset that brings well being.
In the abstract of his article “Hope Theory: Rainbows in the mind,” psychologists Charles Snyder writes:
Higher hope consistently is related to better outcomes in academics, athletics, physical health, psychological adjustment, and psychotherapy.5
And in a Healthline.com article on this topic, Claudia Trudel-Fitzgerald, PhD, research scientist and clinical psychologist at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health reported:
Research indeed suggests that individuals experiencing greater optimism are more likely to age in health and to live longer; they are also at a decreased risk of developing chronic diseases, particularly cardiovascular disease.6
Turns out, hope is good for us. It isn’t naïve or unreasonable or anti-science. It is an empowering mindset that lubricates our life. Sometimes, hope is even life-saving medicine. And it feels better than despair, doesn’t it? Of course we don’t always have control over this feeling–sometimes we need serious medical intervention to even begin to consider being hopeful. By no means am I condemning people who actively struggle to experience hope. What is concerning to me is when hope is caste aside as childish or simple or not serious. I take hope very seriously, and I see it as just one piece of our psychological and intellectual complexity. Hope can coexist with sharp critical thinking and action. Hope can coexist with extreme disappointment. Hope isn’t always bright eyed and bushy-tailed–sometimes it is hard won or practice daily. Hope doesn’t mean the present moment is perfect. By easing a present pain, hope imagines a time of relief. Hope is, forever more, another chance.
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So why do we teach kids the story of Noah’s ark? Maybe it’s because it is our primordial story of hope. Even in a world overflowing with evil, there is a chance that justice, though greatly outnumbered, will prevail. This is a worthy vision. Maybe we teach our kids the story of Noah so they can be the exception when the time comes–the one kid in the group who says they don’t want talk behinds others’ backs. Maybe we teach our kids the story of Noah so they can feel in their kishkes that warm butterfly feeling of good things to come. After the storm comes the rainbow.
Or maybe, after all this, we teach the story of Noah because the truth is, people love animals. And boats.
PS: there is a life size replica Noah’s ark theme park called Ark Encounter
Midrash Tanchuma, Noach 5
Genesis 8:21
Genesis 6:12
Genesis 6:9
Snyder, Charles. (2002). Hope theory: Rainbows in the mind. Psychological Inquiry. 13. 249-275. 10.1207/S15327965PLI1304_01.
Cassata, Cathy. Fact checked by Dana K. Cassell. How Hope Affects Your Health and 5 Ways to Build It. February 12, 2021. https://www.healthline.com/health-news/how-hope-affects-your-health-and-5-ways-to-build-it#1.-Take-some-control