2. NOAH

GOD SAID TO NOAH*

Melody and some words, traditional; remainder by Rabbi Arthur Waskow *

* Copyright (c) 2007 by Rabbi Arthur Waskow. All rights reserved.

God said to Noah, The earth's getting hotter, hotter,
God said to Noah, The earth's getting hotter, hotter,
Yet she is My (clap) beloved daughter, daughter -
Children of the Lord.

CHORUS: Rise and shine and give God the glory glory
Rise and shine and give God the glory glory
Rise and shine and (clap!) give God the glory glory
Children of the Lord!

People are making My air too smoky, smoky
People are making My air too smoky, smoky

By Rabbi Arthur Waskow

[This essay is Chapter XVII of the book GODWRESTLING -- ROUND 2 (Jewish Lights). For copies of the whole book at a discounted price, write Office@shalomctr.org ]

‘ What is the relationship between the Jewish family and the two broader families within which it is nestled: the human race and our web of living earth? How should the Jewish people address questions that do not uniquely affect Jews, but arise within the broader planetary life?

One such issue arose late in the 1970s. It was, you might say, the most universal question imaginable: the possible death of the entire human race. Yet for many Jews it seemed to echo their own most terrible, unique experience.

Rabbi Arthur Waskow, 9/19/2003

Please see attached PDF file.

THE VERY TALL
TALE OF BABEL
& ALL IMPERIAL
TOWERS

By Rabbi Arthur Waskow

After we swim our way through the story of Noah, the Flood, and the Rainbow, the Jewish community reads the Torah's very tall tale of a very tall tower - Babel.

It is a story of two profoundly different kinds of universality, and it is for that very reason a story of universal significance. Not for Jews alone.

The story is a political satire, aimed against the imperial culture that God commanded Abraham and Sarah to leave.

Abraham's family lived in Chaldean Ur and Haran - the outposts of Sumer, in which the chief city was Bavel, or Babylon. This was the land between the great rivers Tigris and Euphrates, later named in Greek "Between Rivers" -- Mesopotamia.

Rabbi Arthur Waskow

Haftarah for the Rainbow Covenant

[Blessed are You, the Breath of Life, Who makes of every human throat a shofar for the breathing of Your truth.]

You, My people, burnt in fire,
still staring blinded
by the flame and s

Rabbi Arthur Waskow

TEVA: The Ark and the Word that Heal Us from the Flood

By Rabbi Arthur Waskow*

The first words of midrash — textual reinterpretation — in Jewish hi

Rabbi Arthur Waskow

The Flood
In my reading of Parashat Noach, I have been very much guided by the context that the practice of "khamas" (whatever it was) led to the Flood and the near-destruction of life on this planet -- a danger we face in our own generations. So I try to hear the traditional midrashim (as well as develop some of my own) as speaking to this danger.
First of all, the Torah is clearly very concerned about preserving all the species -- God commands Noach to save EVERY species by bringing them into the Ark -- so that (as God says after the Flood) they can go out and breed abundantly, be fruitful, & multiply. (For me, a teaching about the importance of the Species Preservation Act that some in Congress are now trying to destroy.)