 | Our experience of time is not linear. Whatever a clock tells us, long stretches can pass in a blink while some moments seem to last forever. As we enter our annual calendar's peak autumn and the colder, darker months, perhaps we can open a window on how the Biblical Noah and his family felt aboard the ark. What might we learn about spiritualizing our experience of time? |
| Recent Divrei Torah on this portion: • Make a Little Birdhouse in Your Soul (2023) • After the Flood, the Rainbow (2024) |
Time is a trickster. Depending on mood, awareness and activity, time can seem to race, stall or do backflips. Even when we know what time it is and how much time passes, subjective experience still can bend, leap and loop in our hearts and souls. Time can be fleeting, and time can last forever.
It's a big deal, because how we experience time shapes how we experience life. When we're just "killing time," we languish. When nostalgia focuses us on the past, we don't fully live in the present or see hope for the future. When we live fully in the now, time is full. Between fleeting and forever is our very approach to life.
Imagine how Noah and his family felt in the Ark.
This week's Torah portion is crystal clear about how much time would pass in each stage of the Flood and its aftermath. God told Noah that rain would last 40 days, and it did (Genesis 7:4, Genesis 7:12, Genesis 7:17). Then for 150 days, the Ark floated (Genesis 7:24, Genesis 8:3).
Forty days, 150 days – Torah repeatedly says when, but nothing about what happened during those times. What did Noah and his family do? What was their experience like? Did anything happen? Why would Torah take such care to repeat how much time elapsed but nothing about what happened?
Some times seem as if dead, motionless, empty – which was the Flood's purpose: to stop life and begin life anew. Never again has such a time come: henceforth, time would have value.
And that's what happened: Torah's next time markers suddenly included plot. After another 40 days, Noah opened the Ark to send out a raven and dove, hoping they'd return with proof of life beyond the Flood (Genesis 8:6). After another week, Noah again sent a dove, which brought an olive branch (Genesis 8:10): it was another seven-day creation. After seven more days, Noah sent the dove, which didn't return (Genesis 8:12). The earth began drying on 1 Nissan (Genesis 8:13), and finished drying on 27 Iyar (Genesis 8:14), and humanity rebooted.
Now we had a calendar, and a future. Torah leaves to our imagination what it was like for Noah and his family, but leaves no doubt that time's value and meaning are in our hands.
Let's remember that when we see rain, or a rainbow (Genesis 9:9-17), or a clock. Whether time is fleeting, or forever, is partly up to us.
It's a big deal, because how we experience time shapes how we experience life. When we're just "killing time," we languish. When nostalgia focuses us on the past, we don't fully live in the present or see hope for the future. When we live fully in the now, time is full. Between fleeting and forever is our very approach to life.
Imagine how Noah and his family felt in the Ark.
This week's Torah portion is crystal clear about how much time would pass in each stage of the Flood and its aftermath. God told Noah that rain would last 40 days, and it did (Genesis 7:4, Genesis 7:12, Genesis 7:17). Then for 150 days, the Ark floated (Genesis 7:24, Genesis 8:3).
Forty days, 150 days – Torah repeatedly says when, but nothing about what happened during those times. What did Noah and his family do? What was their experience like? Did anything happen? Why would Torah take such care to repeat how much time elapsed but nothing about what happened?
Some times seem as if dead, motionless, empty – which was the Flood's purpose: to stop life and begin life anew. Never again has such a time come: henceforth, time would have value.
And that's what happened: Torah's next time markers suddenly included plot. After another 40 days, Noah opened the Ark to send out a raven and dove, hoping they'd return with proof of life beyond the Flood (Genesis 8:6). After another week, Noah again sent a dove, which brought an olive branch (Genesis 8:10): it was another seven-day creation. After seven more days, Noah sent the dove, which didn't return (Genesis 8:12). The earth began drying on 1 Nissan (Genesis 8:13), and finished drying on 27 Iyar (Genesis 8:14), and humanity rebooted.
Now we had a calendar, and a future. Torah leaves to our imagination what it was like for Noah and his family, but leaves no doubt that time's value and meaning are in our hands.
Let's remember that when we see rain, or a rainbow (Genesis 9:9-17), or a clock. Whether time is fleeting, or forever, is partly up to us.
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