And G-d remembered Noach

(Genesis 8:1)

Marcheshvan 3, 5779/October 12, 2018

The Torah reading of Noach opens as a long dark cloud descends upon all of creation. Gravely disappointed by the downward moral turn that man has taken, G-d has declared of the sons and daughters of the crown of His creation, that "I regret that I made them," (Genesis 6:7) and has set out to destroy all living things, save for Noach and his family, and the animals that Noach is instructed to lead onto the Ark that G-d has commanded him to make. Noach follows G-d's instructions precisely and soon finds himself, his wife and sons, and their wives, and the animals that he brought aboard, adrift upon an angry sea in a ceaselessly raging rainstorm. G-d's oral communication with Noach ended the day that the rains began, and for one hundred and fifty days Noach has heard nothing but the pounding rain upon the deck of the ark, the roar of the waves which rock the ark, and, of course, the ceaseless sounds of the animals on board. But not a word from G-d. The waters rose to fifteen cubits above the earth and the sun was hidden behind thick rain clouds. Din and darkness defined G-d's world.

And then we are told, "And G-d remembered Noach and all the beasts and all the cattle that were with him in the ark, and G-d caused a spirit to pass over the earth, and the waters subsided." (ibid 8:1) What does that mean: "And G-d remembered Noach?" Had G-d forgotten Noach? Can G-d, indeed forget? Or, for that matter, can G-d remember? And what reminded G-d of Noach on this, the one hundred and fiftieth day of the great flood? We can hardly answer the question of G-d's ability to remember or to forget, but the very thought that G-d might forget us, even for a second, is so profoundly chilling that it is impossible to fully grasp. It is a blow against our very existence. If G-d forgets us, do we not cease to be?

Is this the state of mind into which Noach had entered after one hundred and fifty days of steady rain with no end in sight? Did he question whether G-d had forgotten him? Is this what our verse has come to relate? Would Noach remain adrift at sea forever?

And if G-d, all of a sudden, remembered Noach, then what caused G-d to remember? In the book of Exodus, chapter one, verse 24, we are told that "G-d heard their cry, [the cry of the children of Israel] and G-d remembered His covenant with Avraham, with Yitzchak, and with Yaakov." Here it is clear that it was the cry of Israel, their prayer and their pain, that G-d heard and which caused G-d to remember. And that is certainly the reason for our prayer: to place ourselves before G-d and to demand His attention. But the Torah does not share any evidence that on the one hundred and fiftieth day of the flood that Noach or anyone with him on board the ark, cried out to G-d or made any gesture whatsoever that would jog G-d's memory. G-d simply remembered. Light and hope, a future and a path forward have returned to the world: "G-d caused a spirit to pass over the earth, and the waters subsided." A gift from G-d.

As the waters subsided Noach prepared for the inevitable day when he and all those who were with him would leave the ark and return to the earth. He did so with the same prodigious determination with which he had carried out all of G-d's instructions, silently and unquestioningly. And only after the earth was dry did G-d speak again to Noach, saying "Go out of the ark, you and your wife, and your sons, and your sons' wives with you. Every living thing that is with you of all flesh, of fowl, and of animals and of all the creeping things that creep on the earth, bring out with you, and they shall swarm upon the earth, and they shall be fruitful and multiply upon the earth." (Genesis 8:16-17)

Noach and his wife, and his sons, and his sons' wives, and every living thing that was with him, did just as G-d said, emerging from the ark and returning to their habitat. And then Noach did something truly extraordinary, something that G-d had not commanded him to do. "And Noach built an altar to HaShem, and he took of all the clean animals and of all the clean fowl and brought up burnt offerings on the altar." (ibid 8:20) Noach spoke to G-d, not with words, but via his offerings. G-d's cry across the universe to man has been answered. Noachhas heard G-d's anguish and regret over creating man who had descended into the depths of depravity, and Noach's response, one year and ten days after the floodwaters were upon the earth, comforted G-d:

"And HaShem smelled the pleasant aroma, and HaShem said to Himself, 'I will no longer curse the earth because of man, for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth, and I will no longer smite all living things as I have done.'"(ibid 8:21)

Noach, whose name means comfort, has comforted G-d by becoming a man, by acknowledging G-d and thanking G-d. Adam and Eve, our Midrash tells us, built an altar to G-d following their eating of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge and their subsequent expulsion from Eden. And Cain and Abel built an altar which quickly dissolved into a deadly manifestation of ego. But only now has Noach built an altar and made offerings upon it simply for the sake of recognizing G-d's sovereignty and thanking G-d for His loving kindness. Was it this unprompted gesture of love by Noach that retroactively awakened G-d's memory some seven months earlier? Or was G-d teaching man that it is never too late to remember that there is a G-d in the world and that every day is a good day to express one's gratitude to G-d. Noach's building of an ark according to G-d's instructions allowed for the rescue of a remnant of the world before the flood. But it was Noach's own initiative to build an altar to HaShem which laid the foundation for the future of all mankind. The pinnacle of this new world order would be the Sinai revelation, in which G-d would orally transmit the ten commandments to the children of Israel, and immediately follow with an eleventh commandment:

"An altar of earth you shall make for Me, and you shall slaughter beside it your burnt offerings and your peace offerings, your sheep and your cattle. Wherever I allow My name to be mentioned, I will come to you and bless you." (Exodus 20:21) G-d remembered Noach, and G-d's ability to bless his children is, indeed, G-d's greatest comfort.

-The Temple Institute