Noah 5786

How willing are we to heed the warnings presented to us?

Most of us readily follow storm advisories. For example, those with homes in Florida meticulously track and follow directions regarding hurricanes. Yet, when my wife Lisa and I lived in Las Vegas, we were often baffled by individuals who attempted to drive their cars into flooded underpasses during a rainstorm. Their vehicles invariably ended up underwater. It makes you wonder: How many people, after hearing that advertisement on Sirius Radio to purchase a 25-year supply of emergency nonperishable food for a catastrophe, actually call and place the order? Even more fundamentally, how many of us truly heed the advice of our doctors regarding nutrition and exercise, or the warning calls of our own bodies?

It’s a fundamental question of human nature, and one that echoes loudly in this week’s Torah portion, Noah.

It is clear to every reader of the Torah that no one besides his immediate family heeded Noah’s advice. Imagine if the scene had changed, and every person in the world at that time had listened to Noah’s doomsday call. What if they had all either built similar arks or truly repented? What if just one other person had taken his warning seriously, or if God had chosen a handful of prophets instead of a single Noah to predict the end of the world as they knew it? What if Noah’s message was delivered in a different manner, one that was more believable? After all, how many of us would believe a bearded man who we watched constructing an ark, probably the size of one of our super freighters or luxury liners, for close to one hundred years?

In the Jewish world today, we listen very carefully to the words of the security set up to monitor threats against our communities in North America. Our police departments, on occasion, listen as well. But more often than not, we are forced to provide them with the information, hoping for a serious follow-up and that they will deem the threat to be credible and possible. This modern reality is a heavy burden—a real-world warning we cannot afford to ignore.

This brings us to a different, more cosmic warning. Recently, Dr. Abraham "Avi" Loeb, director of Harvard's Institute for Theory and Computation, predicted that a mysterious, fast-moving object entering our solar system might come close enough to Earth to cause massive destruction on October 29th.

NASA is also tracking this object, known as 3I-ATLAS. Some reports suggest it's up to 1.6 miles long and 14 miles wide, heading toward us at about 130,000 miles per hour—possibly the fastest object of its kind to head our way.

NASA navigation engineer Davide Farnocchia explained, "From images, we also saw that this object is active, which means that around the nucleus, there is some coma, which is an indication that this object is, in fact, a comet."

However, Loeb disputes this, stating, "It shows a glow ahead of the object, not behind it... If it were a standard comet, we would expect some dust to be shed off the surface... and the dust will be pushed behind the object as a result of the solar radiation pressure."

Loeb hypothesizes that what is heading our way might be something more advanced than a comet, perhaps even a ship from another dimension. As one person described the situation: No need to purchase a lottery ticket. Whatever it is, if it hits, the world we know will be irrevocably changed.

I confess, I am quite skeptical of Loeb’s apocalyptic warning. In the Jewish world, we have witnessed so many predictions of the coming of the Messiah that have turned out to be false. I will wait, as the rabbis instruct, for certain key signs before acknowledging that Mashiach has arrived. And until that time, I will continue to “plant,” as they teach us to do, even if the world seems to be ending.

But there is one thing Loeb has stated that rings profoundly true, both for Noah’s time and for ours. Loeb suggests: "As we get more data, when the sun puts more heat on this object, it might reveal its true nature. It could be a wake-up call for humanity if we realize that there is a smarter kid on our block."

In Noah’s time, had they heeded the advice, the world might have been saved. And in our time, whether the threat is a cosmic object or the all-too-human dangers we face, humanity is profoundly in need of a wake-up call. The Torah asks us to consider: What are we building, or neglecting to build, in the face of the warnings we are given? And how willing are we to heed the suggestions and advice of others when it comes to our own personal well-being?

Am Yisrael Chai!!!

Shabbat Shalom,

Rabbi K