D'var Torah

I’ve often reflected on the two vastly different stories of Noah in Jewish tradition.  The fact that there are actually two independent tales of the flood in the book of Genesis, that have been blended together into the one we all know, is not what I mean. Instead, I’m talking about, on one hand, the story of a great big ark, with animals two by two and a rainbow – one that’s usually told right before we sing, “Rise and Shine” – and on the other hand, a disturbing story about God destroying almost all life on earth.  We have little hesitation in telling this story to our children, leaving out some of the bad parts.  Still, the darker part of the story lurks in our minds.  Are we in denial? What do we make of this juxtaposition of good and evil?

The flood story is far from alone – so many fairy tales contain dark and disturbing characters and events, and some say this reflects a need for children as well as adults, to acknowledge the presence of danger and difficulty in our lives.  But many parents question the wisdom of telling their children these stories. 

Even more interesting is that the story of Noah seems really to be about God’s own struggle with the co-existence of good and evil.  After having tried to keep evil tucked away in the Garden of Eden, and then trying to eliminate it by destroying the world in flood, God finally acknowledges at the end of this story that evil is a part of life and must be taken along with good. God says to Noah, “Never again will I doom the earth because of mankind, since the devisings of man’s mind are evil from his youth, nor will I ever again destroy every living being, as I have done. So long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night shall not cease.”

God embraces the fact that the extremes of life live alongside each other, and that one extreme cannot exist without the other.  The symbol of God’s acceptance is appropriate and insightful: the rainbow, which represents at the same time beauty and diversity, in this case, diversity of experience in life. There are times when we struggle and mourn, just as there are times when we enjoy, achieve and celebrate.  May we, like God, grow to accept, and perhaps appreciate, the diversity of the experiences of our lives.

Wishing you a Shabbat Shalom,

Rabbi Jeff Saxe