Four Lessons from Noach that the World Needs to Hear

My article last week – “Three Lessons from Bereishit that the World Needs to Hear” – was intended to be a one-off. Yet as the details of horrific terrorist attacks that took place in southern Israel on 7th October 2023 have continued to emerge, and we’ve witnessed the inevitable rising levels of antisemitism across the Diaspora, I’ve found myself feeling increasingly helpless at not being able to do more to support the State of Israel and the people of Israel.

So consider this article, and those that may follow in the weeks to come, as my small way of showing how the Torah can be a source of strength and comfort to anyone affected in whatever way by the ongoing situation in Israel and the region. Please do like or share this article if it speaks to you.

Although the Torah is the story of the Jewish people, the stories contained in the Book of Genesis are well known, with lessons that are applicable for all, especially in the current climate. This week’s Torah portion, which recounts the famous story of Noach and the ark, will be read in synagogues around the world this Shabbat. It contains further timely lessons – four of them – that the world needs to hear.

The first is about the meaning of Hamas. At the beginning of this week’s Torah portion of Noach, we read:

“The earth had become corrupt in God’s sight, full of violence. God saw how corrupt the earth had become, all flesh corrupting its ways upon the earth… God said to Noach, “The end of all flesh has come before Me, for the earth is full of violence because of them. I am about to destroy them, along with all the earth.” (Gen. 6: 11-13)

In Creation, God had established a world of order. Yet granted freewill, Man had, in a relatively short period of time, caused chaos and corruption to reign. The violence that consumed the earth convinced God that a new world order was needed. It is no coincidence that the word the Torah uses to describe this violence is hamas. Hamas literally means ‘violence’; the kind of violence that seeks to destroy a world.

Like ISIS before it, the Hamas of today has a fundamentalist Islamist ideology, part of which is the total annihilation of the State of Israel. It places this aim above addressing the continued suffering of their own people in Gaza, a territory which they have been in control of since Israel’s withdrawal in 2005.

As for the Jews, those Hamas can reach directly – as we have witnessed – they murder, burn, rape, behead, destroy their homes, and take grandparents, women, men, children, babies as hostages back to Gaza. To those Jews Hamas can’t reach directly, whether in Israel or the Diaspora, they seek to inspire psychological suffering and trauma of the worst kind – hence the brutality of their terrorist attacks, and the resultant flood of antisemitism and Jew-hatred they know it will inspire. As a result, pro-Palestinian and Hamas supporters march through the centre of cities around the world calling on the world to “Free Palestine… From the river to the sea” (which means from the Jordan River in the east to the Mediterranean Sea in the west - i.e. to destroy the State of Israel and kill Jews). Reports of antisemitic attacks are on the rise. Jewish school, synagogues and other communal buildings need increased security, Jewish students are threatened on campus, and institutions such as the BBC are too scared to call terrorists, terrorists.

Once again, we find ourselves in a world full of hamas, of violence and corrupted values. The Hebrew Bible warns us about this on multiple occasions. Sixty times, the word hamas is used in connection to violence. Perhaps this time, the world will listen and realise that a new world order is needed in the Middle East if violence is to be quelled, and any kind of lasting peace is to be given a chance.

The second lesson is about the meaning of the State of Israel, for Jews, and for the world. The Hebrew word used in this week’s portion to describe the “ark” that God instructed Noah to build is tevah. It was into this tevah, this ark, that Noach entered with his family and the pairs of animals as the rain began to fall. Years later, the word tevah is used again to describe the small papyrus basket in which Moses is placed by his sister Yocheved on the River Nile in Egypt. In both cases, the tevah, the ark, is seen as a place of safety and refuge from impending danger. For Noach, it meant protection from the impending Flood. For Moses, it was his way to escape being killed by the Egyptians.

In the 1930s, as Hitler and the Nazis rose to power in Europe, Europe’s Jews turned to the countries of the world looking for a tevah, for help and a place of refuge. None was forthcoming. There was no ark for the Jews to enter. It was only in 1948, after the traumatic loss of six million Jews in the Holocaust and the long, dark shadow of the Second World War, that the world understood the need for a modern manifestation of the tevah, the ark, in the establishment of the State of Israel.

At?a theological level, Israel’s founding was a modern realisation of an ancient dream. But at a very practical level, it was established as a safe haven, a tevah; a place where Jews would be welcomed, where they could be protected from those who sought their death, a place they could call home.

Whilst that remains true today, part of that sense of safety was shattered on Saturday 7th October 2023, both physically and psychologically, with the infiltration of Hamas terrorists into Israel and the gruesome and brutal violence they inflicted on the innocent as they slept in their beds and shelters in fear in their homes. And though Israel has fought back, and the brave soldiers of the Israel Defence Force will continue to do everything required to win the war and rebuild our tevah stronger than before, the perception of Israel, both for Israelis and Jews in the Diaspora, has been challenged in the most profound, deadly, and psychologically damaging ways. I never properly understood how something like the Holocaust could come to pass. Now I do.

The third lesson is about the nature of peace. We read in this week’s portion how, after 40 days and 40 nights, once the flood waters had begun to subside, Noach sends out a raven in search of dry land. Then, when the raven returns to the ark, a dove. We read:

“He [Noach] sent forth a dove to see whether the water had subsided from the face of the land. But the dove found no resting place to plant its foot, and so it returned to him, to the ark, for water still covered the face of the earth completely. He reached out his hand and brought the dove back to him, into the ark. Then he waited another seven days, and again he sent out the dove forth from the ark. The dove came back to him in the evening – and in its beak was a freshly picked olive leaf. Noah knew then that the waters had subsided from the earth.” (Gen. 8: 6-11)

The dove is the international sign of peace. Since its founding, Israel has sought, at every turn, to make peace with its neighbours where there has been a willing partner to make peace with. Yet in the years since its founding, it has found itself surrounded by enemies, dedicated to its destruction.

Rabbi Sacks zt”l once wrote: “Peace is a duet not a solo. It cannot be made by one side alone.” And so it has been with Israel. Multiple times, Israel has shown herself willing to make painful concessions for peace. When it has found a willing partner, peace has been achieved, as with Egypt in 1979 and Jordan in 1994. In recent years, because of the Abrahamic Accords, Israel has established formal relations and peace agreements with several Arab states – and, before Hamas’ terrorist attack, Israel was increasingly close to a peace agreement of some description with Saudi Arabia.

Yet most of the time, when Israel has sought peace with the Palestinians, her peace offerings have been rejected. In their place, she has faced wars, intifadas, suicide bombers, hostage-takings, and barbaric acts of terror as the images and videos from Kibbutz Kfar Aza and Kibbutz Beeri have shown the world.

Yet, when the time comes – and it is sadly not any time soon – Israel will seek peace once again. Like Noach, she will send out a dove in the hope that it will return to the ark, as it did in this week’s portion, carrying an olive branch in its beak. For it is these olive branches – representing peace – that sit either side of the Menorah – representing strength – on the emblem of the State of Israel. Peace and strength can coexist. But it is not possible with a partner intent on your destruction. That is the reality of the nature of peace.

The fourth lesson is about the hidden strength of the State of Israel and the Jewish people. There is a famous story that happened just before the founding of the State of Israel in 1948. As David Ben-Gurion was preparing to announce the new state, there was a disagreement about the final wording of the Declaration of Independence. The religious camp demanded that a reference to God be included to acknowledge the Divine presence in the creation of the state. Wrong, said the secularists, who claimed that it was not God in heaven, but the Jewish men and women on earth that had bought about Israel’s creation.

Eventually some wording was agreed that should be considered as one of Judaism’s greatest diplomatic successes. The wording which both the religious and secular leaders eventually agreed on was as follows: “Placing our trust in the Rock of Israel (Tzur Yisrael), we affix our signatures to this proclamation”.?For the religious camp, “the Rock of Israel” referred to God’s role in the creation of the state. For the secular camp, “the Rock of Israel” referred to the work of Man in the creation of the state. Both sides were happy with their interpretations, and David Ben-Gurion was able to declare the State of Israel.

Ultimately, this combination of interpretations has been at the heart of Israel’s survival ever since: our faith in God which comes from the heavens, and the power of achdut, of Jewish unity and Jewish strength, which comes from the earth. The story of Noach and the flood reminds us of both these important dimensions of our survival.

After the flood waters had abated, we read that “the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat” (Gen. 8: 4). Then a little later, we read how God, remembering the covenant “that binds Me and you and every living creature of flesh” (Gen. 9: 15), promised never to destroy the earth again by flood. As a sign of this promise and His eternal covenant with the Jewish people, God brought forth a rainbow in the heavens.

For me, the rocks of Ararat represent the strength of the people of Israel – whether they are religious, secular, left, right, living in Israel or in the Diaspora. They are essential to what keeps the tevah safe. In the past two weeks I, like every Zionist Jew, has felt a strengthening of my physical connection to the land of Israel in life-altering ways. In the Diaspora we may feel very far away, but our hearts are in Israel. And in Israel itself, the Israeli people has shown the world their strength and their ability to overcome the most trying of situations. And they will overcome this one as well.

But the physical strength of the Jewish people and our connection to the land – the rock – is only half the answer. The rainbow in heavens represents our spiritual strength – our faith in God. Like the different colours of the rainbow, Jews share a range of opinions, both about the nature of God, of Judaism as a faith, and so much more. Yet, in times of trouble, when the rain falls, we know we can still look skywards and through the rays of sun, see the spectrum of colours that make up the Jewish people. We are reminded of the power of unity over division, and of reaching out to heaven through prayer in our time of need.

Ultimately, it is our physical strength and connection to the land, together with our faith in God and in each other, that are the secret ingredients to our survival. When these factors are combined, we have outlived empires and enemies in every generation. And our generation will be no different. With God’s help, our strength, and our unity, we will be victorious once more.

Shabbat shalom.