Parashat
Noach
1 Cheshvan 5778 / 20-21 October 2017
Torah Reading: Genesis 6:9 - 11:32
Haftarah: Isaiah 66:1-24 (Shabbat Rosh Chodesh)
1 Cheshvan 5778 / 20-21 October 2017
Torah Reading: Genesis 6:9 - 11:32
Haftarah: Isaiah 66:1-24 (Shabbat Rosh Chodesh)
Dedications
and Calendar of Events are below.
Please
feel free to pass this on to a friend, and please cite the source.
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REBIRTH OF MAN – AND GOD
"And God remembered Noah and all the beasts and all the cattle that were with him in the ark, and God caused a wind to blow across the earth, and the waters subsided." Genesis 8:1
In "The Five Books of Miriam", author Ellen Frankel suggests that the affair of the Flood is reminiscent of a birth. The waters are amniotic fluid. The ark is an embryo, and contained within that embryo are the seeds of all life. The embryo floats, without direction, in the water. The child is born, and needs to be raised. The child needs food and instruction. These, Noah and his family receive. They learn agriculture, and they are given rules to live by. These are the Seven Noahide Laws, which prohibit, among other things, murder, idolatry, animal cruelty and sexual misconduct, and which require the establishment of courts of justice.
Thus, the human race is reborn, with knowledge and guidelines which Adam and Eve did not have. I would suggest that God is “reborn” as well. After the disobedience of the first humans, God simply drives them away. In the face of the "corruption of the world", a world inhabited by lawless people, God destroys nearly everyone. But God "reinvents" God’s Self. God remembers - God remembers that God too must have rules, and so God makes a covenant with Noah not to destroy the world again. God finally "gets it" - God understands that those created (merely) in the image of God, the human race, cannot survive without God's guidance.
It's a symbiotic relationship, if you will. God needs us to perfect the world, and we need God to tell us how to do it. Put God's words into action - you might even be reborn.
Have a wonderful Shabbat!
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REBIRTH OF MAN – AND GOD
"And God remembered Noah and all the beasts and all the cattle that were with him in the ark, and God caused a wind to blow across the earth, and the waters subsided." Genesis 8:1
In "The Five Books of Miriam", author Ellen Frankel suggests that the affair of the Flood is reminiscent of a birth. The waters are amniotic fluid. The ark is an embryo, and contained within that embryo are the seeds of all life. The embryo floats, without direction, in the water. The child is born, and needs to be raised. The child needs food and instruction. These, Noah and his family receive. They learn agriculture, and they are given rules to live by. These are the Seven Noahide Laws, which prohibit, among other things, murder, idolatry, animal cruelty and sexual misconduct, and which require the establishment of courts of justice.
Thus, the human race is reborn, with knowledge and guidelines which Adam and Eve did not have. I would suggest that God is “reborn” as well. After the disobedience of the first humans, God simply drives them away. In the face of the "corruption of the world", a world inhabited by lawless people, God destroys nearly everyone. But God "reinvents" God’s Self. God remembers - God remembers that God too must have rules, and so God makes a covenant with Noah not to destroy the world again. God finally "gets it" - God understands that those created (merely) in the image of God, the human race, cannot survive without God's guidance.
It's a symbiotic relationship, if you will. God needs us to perfect the world, and we need God to tell us how to do it. Put God's words into action - you might even be reborn.
Have a wonderful Shabbat!
Rabbi Richard A. Flom
Visit me on Facebook
Twitter: @DrahcirMolf
"שתיקה כהודאה
דמיא"
"Silence in the face of wrongdoing is consent.”
BT Yevamot 88a
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This d'var torah is offered for a refuah shleimah for Avi Shmuel
Yosef Hakohen ben Bella, Ze’ev ben Adeline, Yaakov Rani Ben
Margalit, Eilite bat Miryam, HaRav Tzvi Hersh ben Frimet, Sarah bat
Devorah, Hiroe Andriola, Susan Arbetman, Stuart Barth, Ken Bitticks, Stana
Cooper, Jerry Daniels, Maya Fersht (Maya bat Esther), Dr. Samuel Fersht (Shmuel
Natan ben Gittel), Leonard Foint (Eliezer Moshe ben Esther), Jerry Forman,
Bernard Garvin, Myra Goodman, Leah Granat, Simon Hartmann, Brandon Joseph,
Philip Kovac, Tonya Kronzek (Zlata Malkah bat Sarah Emanu), Lyndia Lowy (Leah
bat Sarah), Stuart Lytton, David Marks, Deborah Schugar Strauss (Devorah bat
Chaya Feiga), Helen Schugar (Chaya Feiga bat Kreina), Bernard Seeman, and
Meagan Yudell.
Please let me know if there is anyone you would like to add to this
list or if there is anyone who may be removed from this list.
CALENDAR
Candle lighting: 5:54 pm
Friday – Shabbat
Evening Service – 7:30 pm (Oneg Shabbat follows).
Saturday – Breakfast
and Torah study - 8:45 am. Shabbat Rosh Chodesh Women’s Morning
Service – 9:30 am. Kiddush luncheon follows. Attention all TBH/CBM women
of all ages! Contact Carol Herskowitz or Lynn Kronzek to sign up for a part –
many still available.
Sunday –
Religious School – 9:30 am. Sign up the kids and bring ‘em on
down! Would you like to learn to read Hebrew, or how to lead davening, or
to chant Torah or Haftarah? Join Adult Hebrew with Lynda Foster at
9:30 am and Barry Glass at 10:00 am! Volunteers
needed! To take down the sukkah – not the frame, just the skach. Sunday at
9:30 am.
Tuesday – Lunch
and Learn – 12:00 noon.
Friday,
October 27 – Shabbat Evening Service – 7:30 pm. Oneg
Shabbat follows.
Saturday,
October 28 – Breakfast and Torah study - 8:45
am. Shabbat Morning Service – 9:30 am. Kiddush luncheon follows.
TBH Religious School and TBH Pre-school have
open enrollment. Enroll your children now! Contact the TBH office for
information.
And be sure to tell your neighbors, friends, and relatives about our
warm and welcoming community and our programs!
We are looking for volunteers for services: chant Torah or
Haftarah, daven, lead English readings, and have aliyot and other Torah/bimah
honors. Contact Rabbi Flom or Susan Burke by e-mail for details and to sign up!
My weekly divrei torah are available through
free subscription to the Cyber Torah e-mail list. No
salesman will call!
Cyber Torah list management:
To subscribe to Cyber Torah,
send an e-mail from the receiving address to: ravflom@sbcglobal.net with the heading “Subscribe Cyber Torah”.
To unsubscribe from Cyber
Torah, send an e-mail from the receiving address to: ravflom@sbcglobal.net with the heading “Unsubscribe Cyber
Torah”.
To dedicate a Cyber Torah in
honor of a simchah in memory of a loved one or for a refuah shleimah, send an
e-mail to: ravflom@sbcglobal.net with the heading “Dedicate Cyber
Torah” and provide details in the message body.
