אלה תולדות נח [נח איש צדיק תמים היה בדורותיו] א”ר יוחנן בדורותיו ולא בדורות אחרים וריש לקיש אמר בדורותיו כ”ש בדורות אחרים
With regard to the verse: These are the generations of Noah; Noah was a righteous man, and wholehearted in his generations (Genesis 6:9),
Rabbi Yoḥanan says: Relative to the other people of his generation he was righteous and wholehearted, but not relative to those of other generations.
Reish Lakish says: In his generation he was righteous and wholehearted despite being surrounded by bad influences; all the more so would he have been considered righteous and wholehearted in other generations. (BT Sanhedrin 108a)
Today (I am posting this on Wednesday, the day after U.S. Election Day, even though it is last Shabbat’s parashah) feels like the end of the world. And so I’d like to offer you a thought based on the fact that human beings have faced and coped with and been defeated by and got up again in the face of absolute disaster many, many times in human history.
Consider the ancient story of the Great Flood. This story is retold in sagas all over the ancient Mesopotamian world as a disaster which ended all life – except for a saving remnant from which life was continued. The world seems to have ended, and yet: the disaster ends, the catastrophe recedes, the war ends…the Flood ebbs away. The Bible relates nothing of Noah’s mental state, but in catastrophic situations there are two human responses: either to act to cope, or to give up and be swallowed up by the chaos.
Noah was presented with the end of the world as he knew it. It would have been understandable if he had judged the situation to be terminally hopeless, and refused to continue living under the circumstances. But Noah, when surrounded by the muddy devastation of the aftermath of the great Flood, pulls himself together and starts to plant. He raises a grape vine. He nurtures life in the shadow of the great death.
Confronting large scale disaster by planting a grape vine, a symbol of joy, is a demonstration of anti-apocalypse thinking. It’s not “all or nothing”; it’s not going to be all over, even if it is over for me or for you. There will still be life to nurture. May we do our human ancestors proud by adopting their stubborn capacity to focus on beautiful small things even in the midst of so much that seems to be looming disaster: may we look out for, nurture, and protect the small, momentary, everyday lives of all those we interact with.
Come, my friends; consider what is in your hands to plant, and to nurture. In so doing may you find support to nurture the hope that keeps you going.
Torah for the 21st Century by Rabbi Ariel Stone 