Noah, Where’s the Ark?

November 3, 2006 - 9:59 PM by Allison

Yeah, I’ve said it before — lots of posts all over Israeli blogs in the past couple of weeks about the recent rain in Israel. Lots. Michael Eisenberg puts it in perspective by explaining just how important the rain is in these parts — and contemplates the possibility that the shower we’ve been taking could be interpreted with morality in mind.

In Israel, if it does not rain in the winter, we don’t drink or water our lawns in the summer. It is that simple. With all of the modern technology, we are still completely dependent on rain here. There is a verse in Deuteronomy which spells this out specifically, “for the rains of the heavens you will drink water,” and it is true today just the same. I could not avoid noticing that as the heavens poured on us, we were in Shul (synagogue) reading the weekly torah portion of Noah. The Torah describes the flood and Noah’s ark. I also took note of the reasons the Bible lays out for the flood: Hamas, translated as stealing or thuggery. Noah’s contemporaries developed an immoral and unethical society, built on theft, bribery and illicit relationships.

With the rain pouring down and that context, I could not help but think of our current predicament in Israel. Half the government is under investigation for corruption; the country’s president is under investigation for sexual harassment and well, Hamas, pick your translation. Either literal or otherwise will do. Aside from the blessing that is rain, it was pretty depressing.

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