Covenant with the Web of Life (Shabbat Noah)
Last week, my husband and I were in Maine, on our first real vacation since the pandemic started. The biggest highlight for me was the day we spent at Acadia National Park. I thought, in the middle of a weekday, it would be empty. But we ended up driving around looking for a parking spot for 15 minutes! It turned out everyone had the same idea of getting outside while the weather was still nice. It was truly awesome to be surrounded by ancient lakes and mountains, to peep the leaves in all their colorful radiance.
This week, we read about a world that stopped feeling awe of the natural world, and faced severe consequences for its self-centeredness. According to the rabbis, the people who lived at the time of Noah believed they no longer needed God to feed and shelter themselves – and as a consequence were entitled to everything they wanted. As they lost sight of the bigger picture, they also forgot the more than human world of which they were part.
These days we are facing, with increasing alarm, the consequences of our own self-centeredness. Our plunder of the earth’s resources has led to climate change – record-breaking temperatures; floods, wildfires, and hurricanes. It is as if the world is warning us to change our ways before it is too late.
Torah tells us, when the world first came into being, God told humanity it could master the natural world, use it for its survival, as long as it remembered the air, food, and water all came from God. But humanity eventually forgot, and became greedy and irresponsible. God sent a flood to wipe away creation, and start over again.
After the flood, God makes a new covenant, with some of the same language as the first. In the old covenant, God commands humanity to pru urvo / be fruitful and multiply to fill the earth, and master creation. After the flood, however, God says to Noah and his family: “Bring out with you every living thing of all flesh that is with you: birds, animals, and everything that creeps on earth; and let them swarm on the earth ufru urvu – let [the animals] be fruitful and multiply on earth” (Gen 8:17).
“I now establish My covenant” God continues, “with you and your offspring to come, and with every living thing that is with you – birds, cattle, and every wild beast as well…every living thing on earth” (Gen 9:9). In order to live in balance, God says, we are to be stewards of creation, humbly acknowledging that our place in the web of life is not at the center, but at the edges, helping the rest of creation thrive; living sustainably so not just other creatures, but we ourselves can endure on this beautiful planet, the only home we have.
May we be blessed to find our particular role in returning to, and upholding this covenant to responsibly steward the gifts we’ve been given – to vote for leaders who will protect the water and air and food we share; to reflect on how we can partner with the animals and plants around us to sustain the beautiful earth we share, and our connection to the Source from which all life comes.
Amen.