“These are the legacies of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, wholesome among his generation. Noah walked with God. Noah sired three sons – Shem, Ham, and Japheth.” — Genesis 6:11-12 When we first meet Noah, the Torah introduces us to his legacies, or toldot. Derived from the verb holid, which means to sire, toldot typically refers to offspring. In fact, toldot often introduces a genealogy, and we need only look toward the following verse to find an introduction to Noah’s three children. However, before we meet Noah’s offspring, we first read about Noah’s character. A righteous man, wholesome among his generation, Noah walked with God. According to the Midrash Tanhuma, these verses illustrate that the principal progeny of the righteous are not children, but good deeds. As the Torah implies, we will be remembered, in part, by what we leave behind. The children we raise, the institutions we build, the words that we write—these will [...]

“Adonai saw how greatly human wickedness flourished upon the earth and how every plan of its heart focused upon evil daily. Therefore, Adonai regretted making humanity on earth and God’s heart was saddened.” — Genesis 6:5-6 Upon visiting an empty grocery store last week, I asked the cashier about his day. In response, he sighed and then proceeded to reveal a dispiriting tale. After leaving the register to help a customer locate a hard-to-find-item, he returned to find an impatient customer waiting to check out, because he had forgotten to turn off his register light. As he apologized for the delay, the customer began to berate him mercilessly and even asked for the manager so she could complain about the time she had wasted waiting for him to return. Nearly sixty minutes later, the episode still clearly troubled him when I strolled up to his register, illustrating the power we [...]

This week, we read from parashat Noach, detailing the famed story of Noah’s ark. However, in order to understand this story in depth, we’ll first revisit a detail from last week’s story of creation: “God created humanity in God’s image; in the image of God, God created them, male and female alike." — Genesis 1:27 A little over one week ago, students in our Camp Wise Sundays program explored the concept of what it means to be created b’tzelem Elohim, in the image of God, as this concept, once internalized, has profound consequences upon the manner in which we behave. Students began by exploring their character. By acknowledging that we are created b’tzelem Elohim, we recognize that we each possess Divine gifts that we may bestow upon the world, and students explored these gifts, naming them as their superpowers. Next, they acknowledged that just as one would readily love and revere God, [...]