Beth Schafer
The leaves are beginning to change, the temperature has (thankfully) gotten a little cooler and crisper, and the Holy Days are now in the rearview mirror. We are back to our regularly scheduled programming, and, back to the book of Genesis. Just a couple of weeks ago everything was at the highest height – the drama of the Holy Days, the drama of Moses’ last sermon atop Mt. Nebo. I can imagine if the Torah were a movie, the music coming to a heightened crescendo as Moses reached the end of his life. And in one breath on Simchat Torah, we came back to the world’s beginning, before the Jewish people were even a thing.
And only one parashah later, it did not take long for humans to sink to their worst instincts. Enter Noah, the first leader of the Torah. Noah was tasked with saving life itself when the world lost its moral compass. Not until the next book would Moses be called to lead a people newly freed but not yet ready to live freely.
Both of them were chosen. Both of them struggled.
Noah survived a flood that washed away everything familiar. He carried the unbearable weight of knowing he was spared when so many were not. Imagine the silence after the storm. How do you start again when the whole world has been reset?
Moses, too, lived through storms — only his came from within the ranks of his people. A stiff-necked, anxious, sometimes faithless bunch who tested his patience and his spirit. He wrestled with anger, frustration, and the loneliness that comes from standing between God and a people still learning who they were.
I sometimes wonder what it would be like if these two could talk to each other.
Maybe Noah would say,
“You’re lucky — at least your people survived. You have a community to lead, to challenge, to love.”
And Moses might smile and reply,
“You’re lucky — you didn’t have to argue with them every day.”
Both of them were asked to partner with God in saving what was sacred. Both of them had to believe that humanity was still worth saving. And both of them, in their own way, remind us that leadership and faith are not about being perfect because neither of them were. But each of them stayed present — through the flood, through the wilderness, through whatever obstacles came their way. Leadership is about showing up, believing in, and rebuilding a world that’s still worth saving. We each have a bit of Noah and Moses in us, and our presence is very much needed in the times in which we find ourselves.
Enjoy these autumn days, and Shabbat shalom,
Beth
