October 23rd: No’ach
THIS WEEK IN THE TORAH
Rabbi David E. Ostrich
Is there any sin which God will not forgive? Are there any deeds evil enough to make the sinner irredeemable? This is question which has been debated for many, many years in the Tradition. On the one hand, we are taught that God will forgive us for all of our sins if we only repent. On the other hand, there is our human feeling sense that some people’s sins are so far beyond the normal, garden-variety of misdeeds that they should never be forgiven.
A Midrash approaches this in a story about the torture of the evil King Manasseh. He was the last king of Israel and was captured by the Assyrians around 710 BCE. They put him in a copper kettle and cooked him. At some point, he decided that, despite a lifetime of idolatry and evil, he should repent, and he began to pray. The angels in heaven were aghast. To them, his deeds pushed him far beyond the line of possible redemption. Worried that God Who is so compassionate and forgiving would forgive him, the angels started stuffing the holes in the floor of heaven so that Manasseh’s prayers would not be able to ascend to God’s ears. Nonetheless, God heard the prayers of repentance, and God forgave Manasseh. The moral of the story is that, no matter how terrible our sins, if we truly repent, God will grant us forgiveness.
But what about the generation of the Flood? Why were they not given the chance to repent? Why were they so thoroughly removed from the earth?
A simple answer is that they had many chances to repent, and they did not. God sent the floodwaters because they, by their own evil and intransigence, made themselves irredeemable. Without repentance, there is no forgiveness, and a whole generation removed themselves from God’s presence.
A more complex answer comes from one of our Religious School students. Last year, I wrote about Ellie Kaufman’s Bat Mitzvah speech in which she sees in the story of Noah a change of heart in the Divine. According to Ellie’s view, God loses patience with the evil generation and destroys them. After the destruction, however, God realizes that human will inevitably continue to be imperfect and that there must be a better way to improve them. The Rainbow serves as a reminder that there is a better way—that repentance and forgiveness is a much more realistic response to humanity’s shortcomings.
We like to think that our sins are nowhere near the level of depravity of the Flood Generation, but are we sure? Indeed, it may even be good to worry a little bit—to approach our own sinful natures without an over abundance of sanguinity and confidence. Though we leave the High Holy Days with the assurance of God’s forgiveness, the story of Noah and the Flood reminds us that evil and sin are never dormant. Thus should we be reminded that God’s alternative to the destruction of sinners involves both love and repentance. This is the point of the Haftarah, Isaiah 54.
“The Lord has called you back,
As a wife forlorn and forsaken.
Can one cast off the wife of his youth? said your God.
For a little while I forsook you,
But with vast love I will bring you back.
In slight anger, for a moment,
I hid My face from you;
But with kindness everlasting
I will take you back in love.” (Isaiah 54.6-8)
God’s relationship with humanity is compared to the time of the Flood. Though almost all of humanity perished, God loved us enough to save a remnant and start over.
“For this to Me is like the waters of Noah:
As I swore that the waters of Noah
Nevermore would flood the earth,
So I swear that I will not
Be angry with you or rebuke you.
For the mountains may move
And the hills be shaken,
But my loyalty shall never move from you,
Nor My covenant of friendship be shaken—
Said the Lord, who takes you back in love.” (Isaiah 54.9-10)
Judgment is an eternal verity. Sin is a human experience. God wants us to return from our evil and repent—to join God in holiness and righteousness. This repentance—this turning—can be a daunting task, and God assures us that our repentance will be greeted with loyalty and acceptance. We must just return to God’s ways serious and sincere.
Some may think that pairing Isaiah 54 with the Flood Story is because of the reference to the Flood. However, I also sense in the ancient Rabbis’ choice the theme of eternal Divine love—which is a theme of the recent High Holy Days. Though we focus on teshuvah then, we are also reminded to repent every day of our lives. The Flood Story is a dramatic reminder that there is no time to waste in getting ourselves right with the Divine.