Noah’s Ark as a Paradigm - Me vs We

Almost everyone know the story of Noah and his ark. What most people fail to realize, and Sydney will talk about this in a moment, is that the end of the story is very serious. At the end of the story, God tells us that every time we see a rainbow in the sky, we are to remember that God will not again destroy the earth. However, the implication is clear that the future of the earth is in our hands. It is our responsibility to care for the earth and to create on it a just society.

It occurred to me that basically the story of the ark is important because it says that once upon a time there was a small ark, it contained Noah, his family, and all of the animals – all of the world according to the legend. But now we live in a world where our consciousness has been expanded; stars and galaxies are hundreds of light years away and we realize that as big as our world seems, we are but a small speck of the universe. In essence, the earth as we know it is now our ark. We, as humanity, are Noah. We are on this ark with every living creature in the universe. The issue now for us is, "How will we take care of our ark?" How will we take care of our earth?

The more I look at where our society is right now, the more I see a conflict between what I call the forces of “Me” versus the forces of We.” This “we versus me” conflict can be seen all over America and the entire world. It is seen in those who would make predatory loans to the poor and bring down the entire economy. It is seen among the business community who callously shift jobs overseas, destroying the manufacturing base in places like North Carolina. These are but two examples. The base of the problem is that many in our society now believe that the most important thing is personal achievement, and that any personal achievement trumps any communal responsibility.

I am reminded of a story of a very wealthy king who refused to provide food for his starving subjects. One day, a fisherman invited him to go in his rowboat to go fishing. The king readily assented. Once they were out in the middle of the ocean, the fisherman took out a drill and began to drill in front of his, the fisherman’s, seat. The king went berserk. “How can you do this?” he cried, “If you drill a hole in the bottom of the boat it will sink and both of us will die!” To which the fisherman responded, “But I’m only drill a hole underneath my seat, why should you be concerned?” The king then replied, “I understand your point.” The fisherman returned to shore and the king became a better king. He became more concerned about the welfare of his subjects, more concerned about the welfare of the entire community.

The environmental problems that we are facing are quite serious. Global warming is indeed very serious. Without a doubt, the hotter and smokier that we make the earth, the less livable it will become not only for ourselves but for our children, grandchildren and our great-grandchildren.

The effort to establish renewable energy needs to be taken very seriously and I am very proud of the fact that Temple Emanuel, within the next year, hopes to install solar panels as our energy source.

Global warming is here to stay. This ark belongs to us and our children. Will our ark continue to be a livable environment or will the “me” of selfishness and consumption prevail. Will we be like the selfish king as we drive gas guzzlers or will the “we” of collective responsibility triumph making our world livable for our children?

The second place in which we recently have seen this conflict between the “Me versus We” is an event that occurred this past week in a rural town in western Tennessee. A fire department was called to a house to put out a fire, and because the owner of the house had not paid a $75 fee to the fire department, the firefighters stood by and watched the house burn down. Fortunately no one in the house died, yet three dogs and a cat were incinerated. The fire department said, “We are not responsible because this homeowner did not pay the appropriate fees.” Here we see the ultimate of the “Me versus We” conflict in our society.

First of all, it goes without saying, here in Greensboro we don’t have a choice to whether we pay taxes to our police and fire departments. The system in Tennessee, therefore, is to blame.

But the Torah tells us that we should not stand idly by the blood of our neighbor. The idea that people who have supposedly dedicated their lives to saving life, limb, and property would stand by is indeed appalling. The Torah is quite clear. We are not to stand by when someone else is in trouble.

Second, Judaism stresses that the collective wellbeing trumps personal wellbeing. Society is of greater importance than individual personal achievement. For example, the Torah tells us that we are all responsible for the education of our children in our society, even if we send our kids to private school. Jewish tradition is filled with the idea that all of us must provide for the common good. In the medieval Jewish community, taxes were not considered a bad thing, nor should it be considered bad here. The next time you hear we pay too many taxes, ask if they’d like to send their children to school in buildings that are dumps. The answer, of course, is no. We like having proper bridges, roads, schools and transportation and an army to protect our country. The problems that we have with paying taxes are not that taxes are bad, but that wasting tax money on bridges to nowhere in Alaska is not a good thing. Judaism clearly eschews community care. Our tradition stresses that what is important is not “Me,” but rather the “We.”

The third incident where we see the “We” versus “Me” in our society recently is the sad story of Tyler Clementi. Tyler was a Rutgers University student whose roommate secretly taped him having relations with another male. The tape was put on the internet and the next day Tyler jumped off the George Washington Bridge.

Jewish tradition would say that we are all responsible in some way for this tragedy. It is our responsibility to fight to eliminate bullying. Sadly, our society seems to fail to combat bullying when the person who is being bullied is gay or lesbian.

Here at Temple Emanuel, I am pleased to mention that last week and this week we are doing anti-bullying education with our students. This will, of course be ongoing, because we think the problem is indeed that serious and we think it will help make this ark that we live in a bit better. Bullying and discrimination against gays and lesbians is our problem, not merely someone else’s.

At Temple Emanuel we will not stand idly by. This conflict that we see between the “We” versus “Me” is all to frequent. It all goes back to the ark. When Noah goes on the ark he takes his family and the animals because he realizes that on the ark, community is important.

In Jewish tradition, the rabbis tell us that we are all responsible for each other. Personal salvation, no matter what your religion, is not as important as communal responsibility. In most religions, prayers are said in the plural tense. The community is important, because theologically, mentally, spiritually, emotionally and physically we are all bound in the same ark.

If we adopt this attitude of the “We,” the attitude that recognizes the importance of community, we will care for our ark, our earth. We will love it and try to be ecologically responsible and try to provide for all its inhabitants just like Noah did. Poverty, homelessness, indecent housing, poor education – these are communal concerns.

If we believe in the value of “We,” we can create a community wherein every individual is seen as being created in the image of God. Once we do that, we will create a loving society on our “ark,” a loving society on our earth. Truly it will be a society based upon justice compassion and peace. And truly it will be a fulfillment of the vision of the prophet Zachariah who wrote, “On that day God will be one and Gods name will be one.” In other words, on that day all humanity will be one because we will realize that we have to lovingly care for each other, our earth and our planet.

May this be God’s will as it is our task!