A flood of questions
Any spiritual ideology or guiding principles have the potential to be a source of great strength but in equal measure can confuse and bemuse.
This week has been a week of upheaval, the first week back, the Sukkah came down – mostly dismantled and packed away. The heady days of High Holy Days are in the rear-view mirror and fading into happy memory. There is an urgent call now to the ‘business of the year’ and it's December in four weeks!
Parshat Noah is fitting for this time; the way we read parsha, our weekly Torah portion, is a bit like how we read the star signs in the paper. We read what is on the page but we are also looking for the questions and meaning for our own lives.
Noah is the story of the flood, ‘מַּבּוּל’, the time, just a week after reading the creation story, God wants to destroy the world, which is filled with hatred.
The Hebrew word for flood, ‘mabul’, is connected to the word ‘בִּלְבּוּל’, which means confusion. An aspect of this Parsha is a sense of moral confusion. What is Noah’s claim to be the sole surviving family of this flood? What is the wickedness that merits such destruction and devastation?
These are big questions for the week ahead. The element of destruction and profound loss of life, seem intimately relevant. The question of violence and evil seem uncomfortably close as Israel wages war against Hamas and Hezbollah. Questions of just or righteous leadership is key as we look left and right searching for figures who will lead our suffering world to greater freedom and emancipation for our humans and our biosphere.
More questions than answers for the week ahead, but sometimes that is the role of the Parsha, to offer clarification on the big questions we face.
The first step to strengthening our sense of spirit and identity might be shedding clarifying light on the big questions we face.
I am teaching a brand new programme from tonight: LECHTECHA, ‘your journey’.
Come with your big questions! Find us on Instagram Live and on zoom (message me for a link). LECHTECHA is also a travelling class, if you want to host us in your home or at your place of work or study, please be in contact!
