Tyler’s Torah Thoughts for 30 Tishri, 5784
Parsha Noah: (Genesis 6:9- 11:32) 
First Portion: Genesis 6:9-22

Today is a special day!  At Sundown tonight, we will start a new month: Cheshvan!  I wrote earlier about this new month.  It is a month free of Holy days.  A month/cycle for us to fully implement what we are learning.

This is juxtaposed with the new Parsha of Noah – about a flood.

We start the passage here (Genesis 6:9-13):

9These are the generations of Noah, Noah was a righteous man he was perfect in his generations; Noah walked with God.

10And Noah begot three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

11Now the earth was corrupt before God, and the earth became full of robbery.

12And God saw the earth, and behold it had become corrupted, for all flesh had corrupted its way on the earth.

13And God said to Noah, “The end of all flesh has come before Me, for the earth has become full of robbery because of them, and behold I am destroying them from the earth.”

In a sense, I think the learning from last week is designed to flood this new month – wiping away the past hurts, wounds, and trauma.  As we read yesterday, there was almost a “collective” trauma happening on the earth – and this is why Hashem was sending the flood.  Noah was the light in the spiritual darkness that had come upon the earth.  What is our “light” in the darkness around us? What can we look to within?  What is the Noah inside of us that will trust Hashem in this process?

If the earth represents our internal “spiritual condition” – where is our corruption?  I don’t know about you, but I don’t see myself as perfect in any way.  And the descent into slavery is to avoid recognizing the corruption within!

Hashem doesn’t leave us in our own corruption.  He wants to destroy the corruption within us.  And here is the plan for Noah, who, in my opinion, may represent our Neshama:

14Make for yourself an ark of gopher wood; you shall make the ark with compartments, and you shall caulk it both inside and outside with pitch.

15And this [is the size] you shall make it: three hundred cubits the length of the ark, fifty cubits its breadth, and thirty cubits its height.

16You shall make a skylight for the ark, and to a cubit you shall finish it to the top, and the entrance of the ark you shall place in its side; you shall make it with bottom [compartments], second story [compartments], and third story [compartments].

17And I, behold I am bringing the flood, water upon the earth, to destroy all flesh in which there is the spirit of life, from beneath the heavens; all that is upon the earth will perish.

18And I will set up My covenant with you, and you shall come into the ark, you and your sons, and your wife and your sons’ wives with you.

Hashem is asking Noah to build an ark. A sealed protection.  What does this look like within us?

I see this as taking all of the things we are learning, and holding them “sealed” or “sacred” within us.  As the storms rage around us – and they WILL rage around us – what are we going to hold on to?

Today’s portion ends with the line: “And Noah did; according to all that God had commanded him, so he did.”

So what will we do?

Remember, We learned last week:

• The Path of Ascension begins with curiosity and not judgement
• If someone’s curiosity causes doubt and defensiveness, be curious about our own doubt and defensiveness and NOT their motives for curiosity.
• The tree of life is within us. Choose life within with curiosity and not judgment
• Learn to balance the comfort of stumbling, with the challenge of pushing ourselves towards spiritual growth.

This is what I am personally putting into my ark.  This is what I will do.  How about you?

Here is my commentary from  the past two years:

Tyler’s Torah Thoughts for Tishri 28, 5783

Today, we start the famous Torah portion Noah. The Chumash has a beautiful sentiment to ground us for the week ahead:

“The Flood waters had a spiritually cleansing effect on the world. After the Flood, the world and all its inhabitants had a greater conscience and a greater appreciation of God. This in turn brought a greater peace and serenity to the world.”

Lately I’ve been using the hashtags #RepairOurselvestoRepairTheWorld and #TikkunOlam47 because this concept is grounded in a Torah.

The flood in Noah – which was DEVASTATING- also had a positive effect. After the flood, people knew – people appreciated Hashem. It brought peace and serenity.

The spiritual journey isn’t an external battle to grow our faith in an external God. The spiritual journey is a battle inside of us to grow our faith for the spirit within. Hashem is in us; we have the Neshama. Do we trust OURSELVES as a part of something greater, or do we trust something greater and lack faith in what Hashem has created? That’s the paradox. To trust the creator, we MUST trust the creation.

When things happen in our lives – the flood, a major change that was not within our control, etc; we have a choice.

Is this happening “to” us or is this happening “for” us? That’s a major choice we each get to make.

This first portion is about Noah’s offspring. We learn Noah was righteous. See last year’s post below for more on this.

We find the earth became depraved. Hashem told Noah He was going to destroy. But I’m the midst of destruction, Hashem was watching out for Noah. He gave instructions on building an ark.

Now let’s stop and appreciate some things. Noah was living in a time where the messages he was getting around him were ones of depravity. How difficult would it have been for Noah to love himself enough to trust that he is hearing from Hashem AND to take the steps necessary to build the ark? That’s Requited love within Noah! He loved himself to trust Hashem.

The portion today ends “Noah made the ark. He did everything that God had commanded him.”

That. Trust. That is Requited love. Noah returned God’s love to Him.

Thoughts?

Tyler’s Torah Thoughts for 27 Tishrei, 5782

Parsha Noah

Today we read Noah. The Torah calls Noah a “righteous” man in his generation.

Rashi ( a sage from the 11th century) points out how there is some question as to the level of righteousness of Noah. Was he considered righteous because his generation was so bad? Or was he indeed righteous so that if he had lived in a different generation he would have been even MORE righteous?

It’s an interesting question to ponder. One of the questions about Noah was how much he did (or did not) have compassion and care for the community around him. Contrasted with Moses, Noah seemed self focused. Rashi points out Noah did involve himself with others around him, but the question was motive; was he doing that because he was required to? Did he do that because he was concerned about those around him?

These questions (for me) focus inward. When I consider myself; do I compare myself with others around me, finding satisfaction with how I engage my Judaism because of others? Or do I focus on my own personal practice, without considering those around me; sparking on towards deeper connection with Hashem? Although I do spend time in the latter (inward reflection) I spend more time than I care to admit on comparing myself to others.

Comparing myself to others is always a problem; because it’s all relative. I can choose to compare myself to those Jews around me who seem to “practice” Judaism more than me, and feel a sense of shame and guilt. Or I can choose to compare myself to those Jews around me who seem to practice Judaism less than me, and instead feel a sense of pride. Both are completely problematic; because in both instances, I suffer from separating myself from the community rather than connecting and engaging.

The truth is; a Jew is a Jew. We are all on our individual journeys with Hashem; and we cannot compare ourselves to others because our journeys are different.

I believe (this is my opinion) we are called to be interconnected with others; Whether they are Jewish or not. We are not called to isolate ourselves. We are called to engage and be a light to each other, illuminate the darkness on this earth and working towards Tikkun Olam; bringing Hashem’s spark of light to the earth.

Just some thinking on this Sunday morning