Noah: Torah as Tree of Life

The story of Noah and the ark is one of the best known in the Torah. Even if you did not grow up going to Sunday or Hebrew School, the cultural reach of the story extends far beyond the walls of supplementary Jewish education. 

It is easy to see why this is a beloved Torah story. There is color and whimsy. There is grand drama: great floods, a boat that can contain masses, animals walking two by two. These aspects all come together to make the story of Noah and the ark an easy, neatly packaged story to tell again and again through books, movies, TV, games, coloring books, murals etc. It pervades the mainstream - both religious and secular.

Not to be the bearer of bad news, but the Sunday School version of the story I just recalled is not how Noah’s story ends in the Torah. While much of Noah’s life after the flood is not recorded in the Torah, the one story it does include is deeply illustrative of Noah’s spiritual state post-flood. One might expect to encounter a beloved hero resting on his laurels, however the Torah tells us that Noah, after the flood, took to planting grape vines and enjoying the yield of those vines. He enjoys his grapes so much, in fact, that his sons have to step in to save Noah from embarrassment and shame from his behavior when he has enjoyed too much of his homemade wine. 

Even though Noah has saved all of creation and been given God’s covenantal promise that the world will never again be destroyed, his soul is not settled. Even in the wake of the singular achievement of saving humanity, the Torah does not give Noah the hero’s ride into the sunset we might expect. 

For me, the Torah’s wisdom is on full display this week. We want an easy, clean, teachable narrative that ends in hope. All of us love a Hollywood ending or the closing flourishes of a Disney movie. We grew up on those stories! We love when all the threads are beautifully tied up and all the characters are on a path towards contentment. However, as we know life often does not work like a Disney movie. Our Torah knows this, too. 

The Torah does not like a linear story of redemption. It understands how deeply flawed we are as human beings and reminds us that God loves us anyway. If a great savior of humanity can fall short, we should take comfort in the knowledge that we can do so as well. The Torah reminds us of the duality that exists within all of us: to save entire worlds and to face real personal struggles. In our tradition, our fallibility is accepted as part of the human condition. The winding path, the flawed individual, the less-than-happy ending - that is the story our Torah celebrates. While it may seem paradoxical, these types of stories allow us to return to the Torah each year - because we see ourselves, scars and all, within it. 

This week during HSP I had the privilege of showing our first grade learners the Torah scroll. The final thing I shared with them before they headed back to their classrooms was that we often refer to the Torah as Etz Chayim - a Tree of Life. It is the roots and source of our tradition; it contains incredible wisdom about the human condition; and we are all part of this tree, each generation like new leaves adding a new layer. 

What a privilege it is to have the Torah, to have our Tree of Life, and to benefit from its wisdom year after year. 

Shabbat Shalom.