These are the generations of Noah: The word, ‘Noah’ can mean rest, as in the word menuchah. If Noah represented rest, why did he have to work so hard building the ark, living in it and taking care of all those animals for 40 days and nights? His life doesn’t sound so restful to me.
Perhaps it is because he didn’t put his energy into the right things, and he was too restful, or complacent, in his attitude toward others and the world.
A Midrash tells us that when Noah left the ark and saw the destroyed world, he cried out to God, ‘You should have been more merciful to your creatures!’ God answered saying, ‘Now, you say that! But when I warned you that I would bring a flood, and told you that you would be saved, you never gave a thought to the fate that would befall the world.’
God gave Noah many chances to urge his fellow citizens to change their ways, to warn them about the impending doom, teach them how to build their own arks, or beg God to change God’s mind. God gave Noah many sets of instructions for building the ark, knowing it would take time—time enough for Noah to ‘wake up’ and try to change the fate that awaited humankind. But he did nothing to try to make a difference—he put emotional blinders on, and made his own ark. He did nothing to try to save the world.
A Mussar text, Mussar Ha-Torah v’ha-yahadut, says that Noah was not just saved in the ark, rather it was his prison. He was exiled in the ark because he was unmoved in the face of the calamity that befell the world and humankind.
Like Noah, we too are being given signs of impending destruction of humankind and life on our planet as we know it. The clear signals of what is to come have begun—tsunamis, melting glaciers, rising water and temperatures, fading coral reefs, falling rain forests, wildfires and storms. We are sinning on a daily basis by steadily destroying our world, and we, like Noah, have done little to make a difference.
This Shabbat, let us learn from Noah’s mistakes and apathy. We do not want to be complacent. We do not want to find rest on this Shabbat. This Shabbat, we want to be inspired by our parasha to work, to see, to take responsibility and action—to save our world and our fellow creatures who share it.
May God bless us with restlessness, determination, and the divine energy we need to save our world.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Marcia Plumb
