Noah
Genesis 6:9-11:22
One day, my daughter—who was 10 at the time—came home from the Jewish day-school she attended with an assignment to write a short essay about the opening verses of Noah:
This is the line of Noah.—Noah was a righteous man; he was blameless in his age; Noah walked with God.—Noah begot three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japhet. The earth became corrupt before God; the earth was filled with violence. (Genesis 6:9-11)
The essay was supposed to answer the question, “What would a world filled with violence look like? If Noah was righteous in a world filled with violence, what was it like for him to live in that world?” Her immediate answer was: “We don’t have to imagine what it would be like; we already live in a world filled with violence.” There was my little girl, and there were the pieces of my broken heart. A part of me wanted her to remain unaware of the darkness of the world she lives in for a few more years, to protect her ten-year old fantasy world for as long as possible. I knew that violence was already present around her, on TV, in video games, on the playground at school, in the “grown-up” world she partook in and—as the incredibly self-aware being that she is—inside of her as well sometimes. Case-in-point: as part of her little essay she wrote, “I wonder why God created something in us that made us become violent.” What could I say to that? Resisting the fatherly impulse to comfort her with a pat answer, I only said: “I don’t know; but that’s a very good question.” Some things we just have to learn for ourselves over decades of personal searching and experience.
The most important thing about my daughter’s question was that it pointed to the inner dimensionality of the human dilemma: inside all of us are the potentials not only for peace and love but also for violence and lawlessness. We are Noah, righteous and blameless, walking in alignment with the Divine within. And we are also sinful human beings “with wicked thoughts in their heart” (Gen. 5:5). Judaism is replete with stories about this inner dilemma. Wasn’t it just last week that we read about Cain and Abel? Not surprisingly, since this dichotomy is universal among human beings, there are stories about it in spiritual traditions the world over. In one of my favorites, a Native American story (author unknown), an old Cherokee told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside people.
“My son,” he said, “the battle is between two wolves inside us all. One is Evil. It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego. The other is Good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith.”
The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather: “Which wolf wins?”
The old Cherokee replied simply, “The one you feed.”