Parashat Noach 5785

by Rabbi Ellen S. Wolintz-Fields

This week’s Torah Reading, Parashat Noach, has some of the most well known stories in the Torah: the story of Noach building the ark, and the flood; and also the story of the Tower of Babel. The Tower of Babel is a fascinating account of the people trying to build a tower that was so large that they wanted to reach God in the heavens. However, to prevent them from achieving this desired goal, they began to speak different languages, and so could not work together, because they could not understand each other. Some might think that the beauty of the world is that we do speak different languages. Although we speak different languages, as a member of Am Yisrael, the people of Israel, when we pray, many do speak the same language – Hebrew. Although our Hebrew prayers are translated into different languages depending on where we live, when someone recites prayers such as the Shema, the words are the same, no matter what our native language might be. This universality of our prayers in Hebrew unites us as the people of Israel. Am Yisrael Chai! The People of Israel Live!