Beth Shalom
Oceanside Jewish Center

What Do We Have To Fear
Parshat Noah  
October 12, 2002  -  6 Chesvan 5763

This past week we anxiously listened to the debates on Capital Hill and watched with anxiety as clouds of war gathered on the not- so-distant horizon. We found ourselves wondering about the future. Does Sadaam Hussein really have weapons of mass destruction? Are we heading for war? Is America correct to follow the lonely path of unilaterally challenging a man who clearly is maniacal tyrant bent on destruction?

I wish I had answers to these questions. I don't. Like many of you I find myself vacillating between the call for justice and the desire for peace, between assertiveness and patience, between making peace and waging war . On the one hand I know that our tradition teaches "Bakesh Shalom v'radfehu -- Seek peace and pursue it." Yet, I also know that we are taught that preemptive attacks are sometimes justified. The Talmud states, "Hakam Lehorgekha, hashkem v'horgo" "If someone tries to kill you, rise up and kill him first!" We are both an idealistic and a pragmatic people.

The truth is there are no right or easy answers to these difficult questions. Judaism has always recognized the need to wage war, but it has also emphasized the importance of pursuing peace. We are certainly not pacifists. The tenth commandment states, "Thou shalt not murder." It does not say "thou shalt not kill." There are times when the use of force is justified.

We find ourselves torn by the difficult questions our society is debating today. While there may be such a thing as a just war I don't believe that there is such a thing as a good war. Still, there are times when we must be willing to stand up and defend ourselves. Even a preemptive attack is justified under the right conditions.

It seems especially appropriate that we should be reading Parshat Noah this week as we witnessed this debate. This Parshah contains two well known stories -- the story of the flood and the story of the tower of Babel. These are tales we often tell children, but they contain a deeper lesson as well. Parshat Noah contains the tale of two disastrous events and it offers us both instruction as well as a warning based on each one. The events of our day would appear to bring these two stories together.

The first disaster of which we read is the flood. God looks down on the earth and sees a world that has become totally corrupt. "Vatimalay ha'aretz hamas." "The world is filled with lawlessness." The word Hamas, resonates in our daily lives in a terrifying way. This word had become synonymous with terror. In Hebrew, however, it has a variety of different meanings. According to the commentary in Etz Hayim, it can mean bloodshed, violence, or deceit. In the book of Job, the word Hamas is a parallel word for "no justice."

Can you think of a better definition for Hamas than that?

Whichever translation you adopt, the meaning is the same. Noah's world had become a place of anarchy and cruelty, a land without hope or kindness. Such a world could no longer exist even if it meant the innocent would be wiped out with the wicked. Only by conducting a full 'house cleaning' and starting over could life go on.

I'm sure you know the story. It's the end of this tale, however, that I find most intriguing. Upon leaving the Ark, Noah sets up an altar and offers a sacrifice to God. He looks up in the sky and there he sees a rainbow. God tells Noah, "This is the sign that I set for a convent between Me and you...never again will all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth."

Apparently, in the end God doubts Himself, so to speak. Was He right to wipe out all life on earth to rid the world of evil? The Hebrew word for rainbow is keshet. Like its English equivalent, keshet has two meanings -- it can refer to the beautiful band of colors in the sky that we see after a rain storm or a weapon as in a bow and arrow. The rainbow, then, is an up-turned bow -- a symbol of disarmament. God puts down his weapon. He promises never to destroy the earth again.

Does God become a pacifist? Hardly. God doesn't promise us that we won't destroy ourselves, or that He won't hold us accountable for our actions. The Keshet, the rainbow, then, is both an assurance and a question. It says, "I've made peace with you. Now can you make peace with one another."

It's hard to talk about peace when we're discussing a man like Sadaam Hussein. The Torah's description of Noah's world aptly fits the world of Iraq -- it's a world filled with bloodshed, falsehood, deceit and violence. It is a world filled with Hamas, both figuratively and literally. Certainly America is justified in defending itself, but how far must we go? And what will we regret?

The story of the flood is only the first disaster in our Parshah. The other is the tower of Babel. When all the families of the earth gather together to build a tower whose top reaches the heavens, God punishes humanity by mixing up their languages and causing the division and separation.

At first glance this is a strange. What was so bad about humankind's decision to organize a joint building project. Why was it necessary to punish humanity in this way? And why does Parshat Noah begin with the flood and end with the story of Migdal Bavel, the tower of Babel?

The flood and the tower represent opposite ends of the same spectrum. If the generation of the flood was guilty of wickedness and cruelty, the generation of the tower was guilty of arrogance and intolerance. One is just as bad as the other. In the generation of the tower there was no room for diversity. Everyone had to speak, "Safah achat u'dvarim achadim," not only "the same language" but even "the same words." God saw such a world as unlivable and intolerable. Because the people saw themselves as a single unit, they thought they had a right to do as they saw fit.

If Noah's world is the world of Sadaam Hussein, the generation of the tower is not so different from America. In almost every generation there have been nations that believed that they were the only arbiters of morality. While such nations believed that they had to maintain the peace they also believed that they had the right to impose their values on others. Such nations, and America is one of them, are built on hubris. They set the rules. They do as they see fit.

It's not necessary for America to cooperate with the other nations of the world because everyone should be speaking our language and even using our words. While certainly I recognize the dangers posed by Sadaam Hussein, I have to wonder about a nation that sees itself as the only rightful voice in the world today -- and often shapes reality to justify its cause.

So we're living in a world caught between the generation of the flood and the generation of the tower. While Sadaam Hussein would bring a reign of wickedness and destruction on our world, the dangerous waters into which America is wading today can be just as perilous. If cannot live with our neighbors then we are helping to fashion a lonely and dangerous world. I have no illusions about the other nations, but I also have grave doubts about our true intentions. Is America's desire for war more important than seeking a true and more stable justice?

All we can do is pray for peace today. The truth is the worst victim of a war with Iraq will not be America but Israel. She will feel the full force of Sadaam Hussein's unpredictable wrath. It's too easy for Americans to cry for war when we remain basically secure within our own borders.

So which one is it my friends? "Seek Peace and pursue it" or "rise up and destroy the one who wishes to destroy you?" Whichever principle is right, I don't believe America should be going it alone. Because only when we learn to listen can we heal the planet on which we live. All we can do is pray: May God save us from our selves.

Shabbat Shalom