Rabbi Angela W. Buchdahl said in her sermon that last week we went from dvarim, Deuteronomy, to a world that was tohu vavohu, formless and void. To a state of no words.
In the Torah God makes order in the world with the help of words. Here on earth we will try to learn from him and try to find words that will make order, that will make life possible.
Those who give advice to parents at this time, suggest that they create a routine: get up every morning, wash your face, get dressed, put on your shoes, eat breakfast. The Torah offers us its routine. Each week has its weekly portion and haftara, and we are left to relate them to what is happening to us in the present.
At the beginning of our portion (Genesis 6:9) God looks at the world he created, a world which, in chapter 1 of Genesis, he declared to be "very good", and sees something completely different:
"And the earth was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence." (Genesis 6:11)
What is this violence? According to Ibn Ezra:
"VIOLENCE. Theft, oppression and taking women against their will." (Ibn Ezra on Genesis 6:11).
God sees the theft, oppression and the taking of the women by force, and is filled with anger. The anger makes him decide to destroy all life on earth, except for a few animals and Noah and his family:
"And God said unto Noah: 'The end of all flesh is come before Me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth." (Genesis 6:13)
Humans are corrupting the earth. At another time I would talk about the climate crisis, which does not leave us, but we have more urgent things right now. God ends life on earth. "Of the past let us wipe the slate clean" (The Internationale) he sings to himself, striving for a clean and good world.
We too, created in the image of God, are filled with rage when we encounter the heights of human evil. We too may strive to destroy everything and start over.
But after the flood, God comes to the conclusion that "the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth" (Genesis 8:21), he puts up with the fact that there will be evil in the world. There is no longer an aspiration for a perfect world, where everything is "it was good" (Genesis 1:25), there is no aspiration for a perfect man. We understand that we are left in a flawed world, and we must fix it as best we can. God gives up the idea of creating a perfect world and a perfect man, and accepts that there will be evil in the world.
We, who have the image of God, can look at the situation and say what is good to do and what is bad to do, look at bad deeds, say that it is very bad but we will not act like that, and above all we will think about how to prevent it from happening again.
Thanks to, or because, "the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth", we have the choice. As it is written in Deuteronomy chapter 30 "See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil […] I have set before thee life and death, the blessing and the curse; therefore choose life" (Deuteronomy 30:15,19).
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Rabbi Tamara Shifrin is the rabbi of Ahavat Yisrael congregation in Rishon Lezion and a member of the Kiryat Ono city council on behalf of Meretz.
In the Torah God makes order in the world with the help of words. Here on earth we will try to learn from him and try to find words that will make order, that will make life possible.
Those who give advice to parents at this time, suggest that they create a routine: get up every morning, wash your face, get dressed, put on your shoes, eat breakfast. The Torah offers us its routine. Each week has its weekly portion and haftara, and we are left to relate them to what is happening to us in the present.
At the beginning of our portion (Genesis 6:9) God looks at the world he created, a world which, in chapter 1 of Genesis, he declared to be "very good", and sees something completely different:
"And the earth was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence." (Genesis 6:11)
What is this violence? According to Ibn Ezra:
"VIOLENCE. Theft, oppression and taking women against their will." (Ibn Ezra on Genesis 6:11).
God sees the theft, oppression and the taking of the women by force, and is filled with anger. The anger makes him decide to destroy all life on earth, except for a few animals and Noah and his family:
"And God said unto Noah: 'The end of all flesh is come before Me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth." (Genesis 6:13)
Humans are corrupting the earth. At another time I would talk about the climate crisis, which does not leave us, but we have more urgent things right now. God ends life on earth. "Of the past let us wipe the slate clean" (The Internationale) he sings to himself, striving for a clean and good world.
We too, created in the image of God, are filled with rage when we encounter the heights of human evil. We too may strive to destroy everything and start over.
But after the flood, God comes to the conclusion that "the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth" (Genesis 8:21), he puts up with the fact that there will be evil in the world. There is no longer an aspiration for a perfect world, where everything is "it was good" (Genesis 1:25), there is no aspiration for a perfect man. We understand that we are left in a flawed world, and we must fix it as best we can. God gives up the idea of creating a perfect world and a perfect man, and accepts that there will be evil in the world.
We, who have the image of God, can look at the situation and say what is good to do and what is bad to do, look at bad deeds, say that it is very bad but we will not act like that, and above all we will think about how to prevent it from happening again.
Thanks to, or because, "the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth", we have the choice. As it is written in Deuteronomy chapter 30 "See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil […] I have set before thee life and death, the blessing and the curse; therefore choose life" (Deuteronomy 30:15,19).
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Rabbi Tamara Shifrin is the rabbi of Ahavat Yisrael congregation in Rishon Lezion and a member of the Kiryat Ono city council on behalf of Meretz.