Noach

Amid the floods of time and human tears We must endeavor still to keep afloat Our soul’s small vessel, which, however fraught With multifarious animal passengers That clamor to be fed, whose roaring note

One can well understand then that Noah was worried about bringing new life into the world. Why give birth, toil and work the program that living entails if all that is built could at a point in the future also be destroyed!?

As a mother, I have a responsibility to teach my sons to do the right thing. But the right thing can mean, at least ephemerally, getting along and cooperating . . .

Only when something has established its spiritual truth in relation to G-d does its beauty become meaningful. Something is beautiful because it is true and not true because it is beautiful.

Noach teaches a person a very fundamental lesson in interpersonal relationships — how to avoid saying negative things about other people, and how to avoid seeing negative things in other people.

We may not be able to save the world, but we can build for ourselves an ark, a sanctum of time—protected and filled with meaning.

Can we make ourselves translucent to receive the light of spirituality even in our mundane, heavily packed and overworked schedules?

How can one face so much loss? It is human nature to try to avoid pain. But part of healing from the pain is to feel it, and the only way out is through.

This weekly study packet is part of theJewishwoman.org “Be a Leader” initiative. Print it out and learn it with your study group.