Parashat Noah 29-Oct-11

1. (8:15-22) Noah leaves the ark and offers sacrifices of thanksgiving to God.
2. (9:1-7) God blesses Noah and his family, permits the eating of meat, and prohibits the shedding of human blood.
3. (9:8-17) God places the rainbow in the sky as the sign of the covenant that He won’t bring another flood upon the world.
4. (9:18-29) The story of Noah’s drunkenness and his death.
5. (10:1-32) The descendants of Noah’s sons: Shem, Ham, and Yaphet

God Reboots the World
Rabbi Daniel Pressman

When God created man He was very much like a doting father who expects too much from the limited potential of a very normal son; his expectations were not commensurate with the reality of the situation. Such utopian idealists are usually in for very great falls when their unrealistic hopes are dashed against the rocks of cruel reality. Then the realist gives up hope, repudiates the ideal, and becomes a cynic…
          When God was suddenly confronted with the reality of human corruption at the time of Noah, His reaction was that of the shocked utopian, at which point God proceeded to destroy all of humanity except for the one “perfect” specimen He could find. As God found out later, even this solitary saint had his all-too-human weaknesses. During the forty days of the flood and its ghastly aftermath, God contemplated His decimated world and miscarried experiment and seems to have had second thoughts. Before the flood He had never realized man’s potential for evil. However, once having learned about it, God realized that it was unreasonable to expect from man something that was not part of human nature. To punish humanity for not living up to an impossible standard in order to satisfy His own need for a utopian ethic suddenly seemed both unreasonable and even unjust to God. He then proceeded to adjust His utopian standard to the imperfect reality of man’s nature as He now understood it. Better an imperfect man than no man at all, even if it meant compromising the purity and the absoluteness of His ideals. Life must go on; and without realistic compromises, life—idealistic life, that is—is altogether impossible. Only the orthodox and the fanatic seem oblivious to this most basic existential reality. God began as a meta-idealist and became first a nihilistic cynic, then a tamed cynic, and finally a realistic idealist who learned the reality principle from his own mistakes and had the bravery to take another chance by making a realistic compromise.
          What indeed was the compromise? The answer is as simple as it is profound: to suffer human sinfulness. A man who is not sinful, not fallible, is hardly human. Possibly God realized that if He is fallible in expecting the impossible from man and then punishing him, He had better have more sympathy for human mistakes.
          From this, YHWH learned that if you want to make a fanatic more tolerant of the imperfections of other people, structure a situation in which the fanatic himself will make a tragic mistake and thus be in need of divine understanding. This is what the biblical God did in the cases of both Samuel and Jonah. In the Midrash, God has to “foul up” Hosea with a harlot to have him understand why He was ready to take Israel back. 
          In the Talmud, God already is armed with the foreknowledge of the biblical God and knows what He is getting Himself into; nevertheless, against the advice of the angels, the practical realists, He takes the calculated risk and actually creates man.’ He knows what the angels are going to say after the debacle of the Tower of Babel; in fact, He had the answer already even before He created man. I am willing to suffer man’s sinfulness, God says, to leave room for his humanity, for I cannot have my cake and eat it too: I cannot have a being free from sin who is also human. Rather a sinful human than no human at all. (Dr. Yochanan Muffs, The Personhood of God: Biblical Theology, Human Faith, and the Divine Image).

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Hanukkah and Shabbat Candles - help support the Religious School’s Myuhad (Special Needs) program – preorder deadline is November 6th

Support B’nei Mitzvah projects – see bins in lobby

Jews’ Next Dor Holiday Toy Drive

Sheldon and Richard Balk Memorial Camp Scholarship

Hadashot Religious School – On announcement page on WIKI

Next General Board Meeting is Wednesday, November 30th – following minyan

UPCOMING EVENTS

Saturday, October 29: SAUSY Scary Movie Night (offsite) – 8:00 – 11:00 p.m.

Sunday, October 30: Mishpaha Program: Sense of Shabbat - 9:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.

Sunday, October 30: Why We need Shabbat More Than Ever Before - 10:00 – 10:45 a.m.

Sunday, October 30: Jews’ Next Dor: “Immigrate” to Angel Island – 11:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.

Tuesday, November 1: Introduction to Judaism – 7:00 – 9:00 p.m.

Friday, November 4: Talmud Study and Discussion with Rabbi Pressman - 8:30 – 9:30 a.m.

Friday, November 4: Pirkei Avot: Sayings (or Ethics) of the Fathers - 9:45 – 10:45 a.m.

Friday – Sunday, November 4-6: Global Hunger Shabbat 

Saturday, November 5: Ask the Rabbi - after Shabbat Kiddush lunch (about 1:15 p.m.)

Saturday, November 5: Jews’ Next Dor: Ice Cream Social and Game Night - 7:00 – 11:30 p.m.

Saturday, November 5: Kadima Laser Tag - 8:00 – 10:00 p.m.

Saturday, November 5: Date with SAUSY in San Francisco - 7:30 p.m. – 12:00 a.m.

Sunday, November 6: High Tea with Sisterhood - 3:00 – 5:00 p.m.

Sunday, November 6: Sisterhood Gift Shop Open – 2:30 – 5:00 p.m.

November 9: Learning Express Shopping Day – 1350 El Paseo De Saratoga – A percentage of all sales go to Religious School

Thursdays beginning November 10: Jewish Legends Discussion Group – 7:30 – 8:30 p.m.

Saturday, November 12: Jewish Book Discussion Group – at approximately 1:30 p.m.

Sunday, November 13: K-5th Religious School Traditions Fair – 9:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.

Monday, November 14: Grandparent’s Circle - 7:30 p.m.

Saturday, December 3: SABABA Concert at JCC - 7:00 – 11:00 p.m.

Daily Minyan – Sunday 9:30 am & Monday – Thursday 7:00 p.m.

COMMUNITY EVENTS

Sunday, October 30: South Peninsula Hebrew Day School Campaign Kick Off – 10:00 am – Noon

Israel Advocacy Training Course