“Noah’s Ark…a story for kids??”

By Hazzan Jenna Greenberg.

Despite many creative animal depictions and fun songs, like “Rise and Shine,” based on this week’s Torah portion, Parashat Noach is not for kids! 

Violence, wrong, injury, lawlessness, oppression, robbery, evil-doing. All of these words have been used to translate the Hebrew word hamas into English, a word as old as Parashat Noah, where it makes its first biblical appearance: ‘The earth became corrupt before God; the earth was filled with lawlessness (hamas). When God saw how corrupt the earth was, for all flesh had corrupted its ways on earth, God said to Noah, “I have decided to put an end to all flesh, for the earth is filled with lawlessness (hamas) because of them; I am about to destroy them with the earth.’ (Gen. 6:11-13)

Sadly, this scriptural introduction of hamas coincides with the surreal reality of how the terrorist organization of the same name is currently murdering an unbelievable number of lives of our Israel, the land of our people, of all of us, of Am Yisrael.

Turning back to our parasha, God commands Noah to build an ark (teivah), where he, his family, two of every non-kosher animal, and fourteen of every kosher animal board the teivah. It rains for 40 days and 40 nights, creating a 150 day flood that destroys everything. After those 5 months, Noah sends out a raven-and then a dove-to see if the water has gone away. The dove returns with an olive branch, a symbol that we know well as one of the most iconic visual representations of peace.

Peace, Shalom. We pray for the same transition from our parasha, from hamas to shalom, from lawlessness to peace. We are broken, but we are strong. “Israel will prevail,” a statement I have been hearing from many IDF soldiers since the war broke out. 

Wholeness, fullness, completeness. The opposite of brokenness is wholeness, shleimut, a word who shares its Hebrew root with shalom. We daven with a whole heart, a Lev Shalem, from our siddur of the same name. We pray with all our heart for an end to the war, for peace in Israel, for a time when we can fulfill the vision of our prophets: “Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.” (Isaiah 2:4; Micah 4:3)

Until then, we pray for the safety of our brothers and sisters in Israel, for those taking shelter in their “teivah” until this storm passes, and for those fighting to defend our holy land.

From the prayer for the IDF written by the Chief Rabbinate of the State of Israel:

“May God defeat our enemies and crown our forces with salvation and victory. Through them may this verse be fulfilled: ‘For it is Adonai, your God, Who marches with you to do battle for you against your enemy, to bring you victory.’” (Deut. 20:4)

May we only know from shalom and shleimut, peace and wholeness, for each of us, for all of us, for Medinat Yisrael.

Am Yisrael Chai!!