Gen. 6:9-11:32
Précis: The story of Noah (Hebrew: Noach) and the Flood appear in this parasha. Noah, called by God, builds the Ark and collects the animals. It rains for forty days and nights. Noah and his family are saved, and afterward leave the Ark, build an altar, and make sacrifices to God. God sets a rainbow as a promise not to destroy mankind again. Noah plants a vineyard, makes wine, and becomes drunk. An odd incident with sexual overtones takes place with his sons. The story of the Tower of Babel is included in this parasha, and it ends with a genealogy of the ancient peoples of the Bible, concluding with Abram.
Gen. 6:14 “Make thee an ark of gopher wood.”
God commands Noah to build the ark. As New York Times columnist David Brooks asks (9/12/17) “What does Noah say when he hears this? Nothing. Abraham protested to God when the city of Sodom was under threat of destruction. Moses protested when God was going to harm the Israelites. But Noah is silent. He doesn’t try to save his neighbors or argue with his God.”
Noah is called “righteous” with an important qualifier: “in his age.” The Sages have debated whether he was moral on some absolute scale (he did, after all “walk with God”) or was merely the best compared to the absolute depravity all around him.
Brooks is speaking on one side of the argument. Noah has an opportunity to save his neighbors, and the text tells us that he spent decades building the Ark. Surely somebody asked him why! But the text is silent with respect to Noah’s inaction. Noah, according to Brooks’ position, has failed his fellow human beings by simply going about his business.
I concur. We live in a time which may not be as depraved as that of Noah, but one in which there is strife, hatred, and a plethora of troubles facing Jews and Americans. Like the inhabitants who build the Tower in this parasha, we have been deprived of a common language, adopting our own silos of belief, our own silos of facts.
At a time like this, we cannot stand by like Noah. We may use a hashtag #metoo or #MAGA on our social media posts, but we must do more. Unlike Noah, we need to engage our fellow human beings, with love and with respect. We need to act. Instead of hiding in a wooden boat of our own making, we need to get to the polls in November, and help others get there as well.
