Two Minute Torah Podcast

Noah 5773 by Rabbi Rafi Rank

Noah and the Flood. We may not be dealing with the effects of a nuclear bomb, but this so-called all-encompassing global deluge does involve the virtual complete destruction of all humanity, all animal life, and all plant life. How we went from there to a song about God asking Noah to build and arky arky, because there's going to be a floody floody-I don't know. But let's face literary facts-this is not a child's tale. This is scary stuff.

Scientists debate whether there ever was such a flood, but I think their arguments are irrelevant to the actual power of the tale. There are ideas in this tale that define us as Jews. One way to mine this tale for its deeper truths is to think of the ark as the earth, comfortably supporting life; think of the flood as outer space, an environment in which no human, animal or plant life could survive without some artificial support; and think of God's command to build an ark as a principle of faith, a personal mission statement of what our purpose in life is all about.

Between life on earth as we know it, represented by Noah and his floating menagerie, and the abyss of outer space, represented by the raging flood waters, are some planks of gopher wood coated with pitch. That was the ark's basic building material and it ain't much, but it sounds a whole lot like the very thin layer of atmosphere that protects us from the inhospitable and noxious environment of outer space. Damage that atmosphere and we are lost.

The Flood was most likely never intended as a tale of environmental consciousness but great stories and their interpretations evolve. Our rabbis teach that Noah's righteousness pales in comparison to the righteousness of an Abraham or a Moses, but Noah didn't do too badly. In a generation prone to thoughtlessness and foolishness, Noah understood a human responsibility that he elevated to the level of divinity. Defile the earth, and all life-human and animal-will suffer the same fate. In this tale, God essentially says, "Hey, you're all in this boat together, and its construction is relatively fragile! Don't mess up!"

The earth, its atmosphere, our lands and our waters-these make up our boat and our godly duty is keeping it afloat. Let's protect all of them well because if we don't, the passengers all go down together in the arky arky.