Shabbat Shalom and D'var Torah in honor of the Yahrtziet of Mark Samuel Z"L: What would have happened if Noah was an antivaxxer?

As everyone know, all good things must come to an end, meaning we finally have come back to Montreal. The end of the trip was also the end of Sukkot, and that means the celebration of Simchat Torah, during which we complete the cycle of the reading the Torah, which means more excitement to tell you about, so let’s get started!

To complete the holiday, we crossed the country from the Tel Aviv area to the Jerusalem area, from Petach Tikva to Efrat. Efrat is in the hills just outside of Jerusalem, which makes the climate quite different than the coast, with warm dry days and cooler evenings with breezes; it’s rare to get a cool breeze in Netanya in the summer!

This makes the Jerusalem area perhaps a bit more palatable weather wise to our Canadian thermostats. As it was still part of Sukkot, Shabbat meals were outdoors in the large “temporary dwelling” that was fashioned from Elan’s gazebo. After Shabbat, we had a bon-fire with marshmallow roasting and smores using the fire pit built into the back yard; the gazebo, firepit, grass and trees in the garden have all been Elan and family’s pandemic projects, which was a remarkably good use of the time in lockdown and limited travel afforded by COVID. Pretty cool what you can do when you are cooped up in the house!

Sunday was an outing to another coastal city, Ashdod, which is south of Tel Aviv. Ashdod has beautiful beaches, and the kids got their fill of sand and waves. The beach had an interesting name “Mei Ami” which means “Waters of My People” but said quickly sounds quite similar to a particular American city known for it’s beaches. Right next the beach was a large city park right along the coast with playgrounds, a petting zoo, and paddle boats. Definitely a great spot for a day trip! Back to Efrat for a sushi dinner and preparation for the next festival, the aforementioned last day of Sukkot, Shmini Azeret and Simchat Torah.

The conclusion of the annual Torah reading cycle is a major celebration. In fact, dancing and singing are interwoven into the prayer service. This is really a holiday that kids enjoy. The community Nomi and Elan live in is a new development and almost all the families have young children, babies, many elementary school kids and at this point in time, fewer high school kids. The area probably has about 350 families but with all the children, its an impressive number of people! Picture the energy of dozens of kids singing and dancing with their parents; some social distancing (perhaps not ideal, but one could always find a place just far enough away) but a real uplifting, pure celebration. Both the evening service and the morning were filled with song, laughter and lots of kids being carried on parent’s shoulders or dancing in circles. Really fun and something that’s hard to forget. 

Tuesday night was time to say goodbye. We helped disassemble the Sukkah, and then off to the airport to get our pre-flight COVID tests. This is the bargain of the pandemic…for $33 Canadian both of us were tested and had our results back in less than 5 hours. Of course, we were fit for travel, so Wednesday was packing, our last walk on the boardwalk, dinner at Ariel and Gila’s home and then off to the airport for the trip home on Thursday. 

This coming week, we will be observing the anniversary of the passing of Barbara’s brother Mark, who left us suddenly, well before his time.  As many of you may know, Mark was a high-energy theoretical physicist, whose research on atomic particles was ground breaking and highly respected. Mark was a keen observer, who tried to find an explanation for everything. Sometimes I wonder what he would think of what is going on during this pandemic. Let me illustrate this with a thought from this week’s Torah portion, which is the story of Noach and the great Flood.  

The opening of the Torah portion describes the state of the world at the time of Noach: 

Genesis Chapter 6 Verse 11-12: The earth became corrupt before God; the earth was filled with lawlessness. When God saw how corrupt the earth was….

Verse 13-14: God said to Noah, “I have decided to put an end to all flesh, for the earth is filled with lawlessness because of them: I am about to destroy them with the earth; Make yourself an Ark….

God follows this with detailed instructions about the construction of the ark, the people in Noah’s family that should accompany him and the way to save the animals whose species would otherwise perish in the flooding. And after all the instructions…

Verse 22: Noah did so; just as God commanded him, so he did. 

Clearly Noah did not do so simply because he heard a voice from heaven (though that’s probably not a bad reason to comply if you think about it), but more likely because he looked around, saw what was happening to humankind, saw the corruption, and understood the consequences. Jacob Sforno, the 15th century biblical commentator, with remarkable futuristic vision, suggests that the expression “The earth became corrupt before G-d” referred to ecological corruption, that the acts of man were physically damaging the world and causing it to crumble. Noah must have been a keen observer, seen the behaviors and their destructive potential, and then acted on this when he was called upon to do so by G-d. In fact, he was clearly in the minority at the time. But, using a relevant metaphor, what would have happened if Noah was an anti-Vaxxer? What if he saw what was going on around him, death, illness, destruction, and called it all one big hoax or a power grab by some amorphous corporation or government? What if, when G-d came to him, his vision was clouded by pre-existing notions, prejudices, and he was unable or unwilling to see what should have been obvious? Maybe he would have just gone with the crowd who believed the same thing, and the story of the Flood would have had a different hero, or tragically, a different ending. 

When we think of Mark, we think warmly of a loving father, son, brother and uncle. But we also think of his powers of thought, analysis, and extremely clear vision of the world; his positive, helpful nature and above all, his brilliance and focus on how to solve problems that affect the world. I am pretty sure he would be working on theories to understand what is happening with our climate and atmosphere, and I am also sure he would be proactive regarding the evidence of what may help us defeat the Corona Virus pandemic. Like Noah, he had the vision to see the world as it was, understand situations, and do the right thing. He is greatly missed by his entire family. May his memory always be a blessing for his family and friends. יהי זיכרו ברוך

We wish you a wonderful Shabbat Shalom and Happy Thanksgiving! 

Barbara and Bruce

We wish a very Happy Birthday to Melissa (and a speedy recovery)

We wish a very Happy Birthday to Penelope!

We wish a very Happy Birthday to Athena!

We wish a very Happy Birthday to Mara!

We wish a very Happy Birthday to our wonderful daughter-in-law Nomi!

We wish a very Happy Birthday to Haim!

We wish a very Happy Birthday to our wonderful daughter-in-law Daniella!

We wish a Refuah Sh’lema (Speedy Recovery) to Mordechai Faiva ben Devorah Leah 

We wish a Refuah Sh’lema (Speedy Recovery) to Rochelle Eta bat Dobrusha

Sincere Condolences to our friend Zigui Levkovich on the tragic passing of his brother Tuvia.