Verse 8:15 & 16 says “God spoke to Noah, saying ‘Go out of the ark, you, your wife, your sons, and your sons’ wives with you.”

Consider that Noah did not leave the ark on his own. Despite the ark coming to rest and no longer in the water, Despite seeing the dry land all around. Noah waited.

Rabbi Schneerson wrote “Noah and his family enjoyed in the ark a taste of the messianic era, when animals will coexist in peace, which explains why he was reluctant to leave. But God told Noah to leave the ark, since his mission in life was not to isolate himself in an atmosphere of holiness, but rather to ‘be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.’ You might be tempted to lock yourself away in an ‘ark’ of personal spirituality. The Torah, however, teaches you that you must ‘go out of the ark’ and take responsibility for the world around you.”

As I meditate on this, I am struck with the questions of what are the “arks” I’m comfortable with that I’ve been unwilling to go out of? For 5782, I know my Torah learning and study has been one of those arks. I spent a lot of time in 5781 studying and reading the Torah (mostly on my own). This year I’m called to share what I’m learning with others.

We are responsible for the world around us. It would be easy to eschew this responsibility and tell ourselves “well, God is bigger than I; certainly he can’t hold me accountable for what is going on around me?” The truth is he doesn’t hold us accountable for what is going on around us; he calls us to engage with what is going on around us and bring light (the soul spark of Hashem’s neshama in us) to the world. As i was engaging yesterday, the truth is our personal past isn’t real. It lives as brain function in the present moment. When we are thinking about our past and we are unwilling to move because we are stuck, we are forgetting that all of this takes place in the present moment. There is no past, there is no future. It’s all in our brains, right now. All I can do is engage with the next 60 seconds. That’s what I can control.

And what did Noah do as soon as he left the ark? He built an alter to Hashem. He made sacrifces on this alter.

This leaves me with more questions for myself;

1. What other “arks” am I living in and comfortable with that I don’t want to leave on my own?

2. What is Hashem asking me to do with this moment of my life?

3. What (metaphorical) altars to Hashem do I need to build?

4. What do I need to let go of (sacrifice) that may be holding me back.

Not a lot of answers. But certainly many questions.

Would love to know your thoughts- what are some of your answers?