Parashat Noah 5769 -- Vote!

It is fitting that, this year, we will read Parashat Noah on the Shabbat before Election Day, November 4. I say “fitting” because this week’s Torah portion provides us with a lesson in civic involvement. We can imagine that Noah, whose name means “pleasantness,” must have looked out at his world and seen something quite the opposite. In his age, Noah was surrounded by corruption and lawlessness. God, as the text tells us, witnessed this corruption and told Noah “‘I have decided to put an end to all flesh, for the earth is filled with lawlessness because of them: I am about to destroy them with the earth” (Genesis 6:13). Noah was spared this end. As the Torah tells us, “Noah was a righteous man; he was blameless in his age; Noah walked with God” (Genesis 6:9).

Let us imagine Noah’s reaction to God’s dire pronouncement. Surely, even before God spoke to him, Noah must have feared that the troubles of his time were so great that the very fabric of society might rip apart around him. Surely, Noah had been expecting something terrible to happen. Surely, Noah knew that the created world was headed on a course to disaster. But this course? And, at the hands of God? Was Noah, this man of pleasantness, expecting God to destroy the world?

It is hard to say.

Noah, the blameless man, never gives us any indication of his feelings. God tells Noah, “Make yourself an ark,” and Noah sets about doing so (Genesis 6:14). He doesn’t argue. He doesn’t mourn. He doesn’t try to change his society for the better. He doesn’t say anything to forestall the destruction. He doesn’t do anything to stop God’s plan. He simply builds an ark.

In today’s world, we too are surrounded by global issues that threaten our society’s destruction. At home, we are concerned with financial crisis and healthcare, with war and unemployment. Globally, we are faced with poverty and climate change. Just to name a few concerns…

Yes, we might say, every generation faces destruction. But, age after age, we avoid that destruction. Destruction is avoided only by the actions of strong willed individuals, burning with a sense of moral outrage. Destruction is avoided when people care not only for themselves, but for the present and future of their society.

Destruction is avoided when people stop building their own arks and start changing the world around them.

Noah is an appropriate parasha for Election Day because it shakes us with this fundamental truth: It is not enough to be blameless. It is not enough to build our own arks. It is our responsibility to care for the entire world. Would Noah have gone to the voting booth on Election Day, or would he have busied himself with gopher wood?

On Election Day, it is not enough for us to build our own arks. We must add our voices to the multitude who are trying to stop the flood. We stop the flood when we exercise our civic duty by being agents of our own destiny. This is what being a contributing citizen is all about.