This is a very unique weekend for North America. Both Canada and the United States celebrate share a common long weekend. In Canada, we celebrate Thanksgiving. Schools are closed, banks, federal and provincial government buildings are closed. Many stores are closed or have adjusted hours. The summer crops have been harvested, the days are getting shorter, the season has changed and fall is definitely in the air. Thanksgiving in Canada offers a genuine sense of nature, agriculture, the delicate balance of water, light, crop strain, technology, and labour to bring forth a plentiful harvest. Growing up in the U.S., this weekend was known as Columbus Day. Like Canada’s Thanksgiving Day, public schools and private schools were closed. It was a Bank holiday as well as a federal and state government holiday. Unlike Canadian Thanksgiving, every store was open and usually, it was an excuse for a weekend sale of merchandise. However, one could very well imagine that upon making landfall in the Caribbean, before he realized that he did not find what he originally set out to find, he probably gave thanks for his safe arrival.
This Shabbat we read from Parshat Noach. Comprised of two distinct narratives; both deal with the theology of chaos and confused boundaries. First, we read the story of Noach, God’s disenchantment with Creation and mankind’s behavior, the instruction to construct the Teva (the Ark), the Flood as punishment for mankind’s unethical behavior, the covenant made between God and Noach, and the resulting offering to God, and then an odd story about Noach’s drunkenness and one’s sons inappropriate behavior. The second distinct narrative is also about chaos and confused boundaries. This time mankind confuses boundaries and trying to build a tower up to the heavens. The result is that God scatters mankind across the earth by making mankind speak numerous languages and making communication difficult.
Noach was good at following instructions. He built the Ark-Teva according to God’s specifications. He brought in the animals according to God’s instructions. He and his family boarded the Ark when God told him to. After the flood, after the rains stopped, the water receded and the earth dried, Noach, his family, and the animals disembarked from the Ark only when God told Noach to do so. However, God does not show Noach the rainbow, God does not make any covenant to refrain from bringing another flood, God doesn’t even bless Noach until Noach does something for which he was never commanded. VaYiven Noach Mizbeach L’Adoshem VaYikach Mikol HaBHeima Ha’T’Hora U’Mikol Ha’Of HaTaHor VaYa’Al Olot BaMizbeach - Then Noach built an altar to HaShem and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings on the altar (8:20). Noach built an altar to AdoShem, however, it was Elokim who told him to leave the Ark. Why does the Torah change aspects of God from Elokim to AdoShem? Why do we need to be told that Noach built an Altar and then “offered burnt offerings on the altar”? How did Noach know to make burnt offerings using only the ritually “clean” beasts and fowl? Chizkuni, the 13th century Rabbi/biblical commentator explains and derives an important lesson from this one verse. He [Noach] acted similar to the sailors in the story of Jonah, who after having been saved from a great storm and returned to dry land, immediately offered offerings to G-d for their deliverance. (Jonah 2,16). From Chizkuni's comment, we learn that anyone who has been miraculously saved from dangers beyond his control is expected to offer tangible thanksgiving offerings. One offers thanks to the Merciful aspect of God - Adoshem. The expression of gratitude is incredibly personal and only results when one feels the need to express gratitude. Gratitude, real gratitude is expressed wholeheartedly. Using only the “ritually clean beasts and fowl” indicates Noach’s intuitive understanding that his sense of gratitude is pure of heart. The only previous offerings with any detailed narrative are those offered by Cain and Abel. Cain withheld the best of his flock and Abel offered the best of his harvest. God was pleased with Abel’s and less than pleased with Cain’s. God’s response after Noach makes his pure-hearted, completely voluntary demonstration of gratitude is a covenant, a rainbow, and the 7 Noahide laws.
There is still a Canadian Thanksgiving, however, in many parts of the United States, Columbus Day has been replaced by Indigenous People’s Day. Despite changing the name of the Federal holiday, it seems that we can understand the importance of offering thanks both for religious purposes and even secular purposes. Perhaps the real lesson is having enough humility and enough perspective to understand that gratitude needs to be expressed. Only by expressing and demonstrating a sense of gratitude does a community and the individual realize greater meaning and purposefulness.
Rav Yitz
No comments:
Post a Comment