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Have you ever felt like you were drowning? We’re faced with hundreds of challenges, from our family and relationships to our jobs, bills, and other worries… How can we stay afloat? When the waves of life come crashing at us, how can we juggle it all?
In this week’s Torah portion, we learn about Noah and the flood. The Hebrew word for flood, mabul, also means chaos and confusion. When the world around us is in a jumble, our priorities can easily fall away.
How did Noah withstand the overwhelming waters? He built an ark.
The Hebrew word for ark, tevah, also means “word”. When the world is in a frenzy, when life seems to erase all sense of normalcy, we need to enter the world of “tevah”.
We need to find the time to regain our composure by learning the words of Torah and meditating on the words of prayer. We need to carve out the time to discover the Torah’s wisdom and perspective that will aid us in combating the raging flood waters of life. We can build an ark for ourselves, a sanctuary of time, that is filled with meaning.
Then the raging waters will calm down and we will find the beauty and blessing hidden in every person and every creature.
When Noah came out of the ark, he saw a new world. And so can we.
Wishing you a Shabbat Shalom! Candle lighting time: 5:39 PM