Parshat Noah directly speaks to what occurred two weeks ago. If there’s  a portion that says דרשני-create for me a Midrash to speak to this situation, this is it.

          Three connections between this parsha and the situation in Israel. First is the line וַתִּמָּלֵ֥א הָאָ֖רֶץ חָמָֽס, the land was full of evil.[1] Naming the evil in our world is the first step in addressing it. Decapitating babies is pure evil. Killing hundreds of peace-loving activists in cold blood is pure evil. Abducting 200 people from their land, many from their homes, by putting a gun to their heads is pure evil. Noah also lived in a world full of evil that had to be wiped out by the Great Flood.

          How do we wipe out the evil in our midst? One way is to try to uproot the Hamas, the evil, from Gaza. Yet how do we do it here in Sacramento, where as the great poet Yehudah HaLevi said, לבי במזרח ואנכי בסוף המערב “My heart is in the east but I am at the edge of the west.”[2] A start in doing so is to follow Rabbi Yehuda Leib Alter of Ger in his book Sfat Emet. On this very Parshah he teaches שבת קדש כמו תיבת נח, “the Holy Sabbath is like Noah’s Ark.”[3] By developing a Shabbat practice of leaving the rat race of life, taking a break to focus on what is truly important-our families, our health and our well-being, we will be able to better respond to the current crisis or trauma at hand. If we are glued to CNN or Fox News 24/7 for the latest development, rather than taking things in moderation and focusing on ourselves and our families, in Israel as well as abroad, we will burn out. Israel is in this for the long haul. We will hear tomorrow from our former Rabbi, Yossi Goldman, as well as former congregants who have moved to Israel, promptly at 10:00 am in KOH.

          The final step I learned from my teacher, Rabbi Jordan Bendat-Appell. He taught me that “you need to build your ark” so that when the storm comes you are prepared. One cannot be prepared for every situation-the crisis of two Shabbatot ago which continues to pervade us, bringing fear, uncertainty and trauma, was not something we could have anticipated. What Rabbi Bendat-Appell is talking about in building an ark is that we have to practice building resilience, being able to be present with what is even when it is ugly, repugnant or abhorrent.  The more we can flex that muscle, the stronger the foundations of our ark will be and the better prepared we will be to weather the storms of our lives.

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[1] Genesis 6:11

[2] Judah HaLevi, “My Heart is in the East”

[3] Sefat Emet, Noah 3, 1873 (תרל”ג)