Parshat Noach: A Beautiful Day
The following verses might constitute the most famous instructions in the entire Torah:
(13) God said to Noah, “I have decided to put an end to all flesh, for the earth is filled with lawlessness because of them: I am about to destroy them with the earth. (14) Make yourself an ark of gopher wood; make it an ark with compartments and cover it inside and out with pitch.
(19) And of all that lives, of all flesh, you shall take two
of each into the ark to keep alive with you; they shall be male and female.
Until relatively recently, one could probably assume that most
young children of nursery age in English-speaking territories knew the story of
the flood, if only through learning this song almost by osmosis:
"The
animals went in two by two
Hoorah!
Hoorah!
The
animals went in two by two
Hoorah!
Hoorah!
The
animals went in two by two
The
elephant and the kangaroo
And
they all went into the ark
For
to get out of the rain.
The animals went in three by three...."
This multi-purpose song managed to tick both the religious education and arithmetic boxes, which accounts for its popularity amongst nursery teachers. Having spent time in numerous shuls and nurseries, I can attest to how ubiquitous the story of The Flood truly is. Try searching for 'Biblical Stories' on Amazon and the 'Usbourne Children's Bible', which is labelled with the familiar orange 'bestseller' tag, has (yes, you guessed correctly) an illustration of the ark crammed to the rafters with animals. If you click the tag, you'll see that the ark features in three of the top ten titles.
The story of Noah and his ark has become embedded into our
psyche. Here was a person that the Torah
tells us was:
...a righteous man; he was blameless in his age;
Can you imagine how this 'oddball' would have appeared before his peers?
Visualise the scene. You have an old man who is ranting that Gd is about to bring a flood that will wipe out all living creatures. He then proceeds to build a giant boat and gathers in hundreds of animals, birds and every other creature that 'crawls upon the earth'. If anyone had placed himself in a position of ridicule, surely Noah would be the prime example! It is very easy to mock that one person who publicly chooses to follow a different path. After all, how could the 'gods' permit such a calamity to take place?
As the old joke goes, “Who was the first businessman in the Bible? Noah, because he floated the business whilst the rest of the world went into liquidation!”
Noah was different to other people and, in recent times, so was Fred Rogers.
Mister Rogers was a person who was unknown to the majority of British people but to his fellow Americans, he was a 'National Treasure'.
From 1968 until 2001, he presented his television programme ‘Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood’ to millions of children. In addition to creating the format, he also produced it and even wrote its songs which were beloved throughout the land. He used the show as an outlet to educate children in areas which included conducting scientific experiments, showing them films (and later videos) of the inner workings of factories and playing music.
In addition to this, he also tackled very adult topics such as how to deal with death, divorce, disability and war.
At all times, Mr Roger's persona was completely natural and endearing, which inevitably resulted in the immense love that the children (who grew into adults) felt about him.
On the face of it, this kind of programme might have seemed corny and insincere but by all accounts, Fred Rogers, who was an ordained Presbyterian Minister, was not playing a role and he was indeed as genuine as the person who was fronting the show. Like Noah, he was different to everyone around him.
Stephnie and I recently watched an enchanting biography with Tom Hanks starring in the title role. The story that inspired ‘A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood’ was loosely based on an Esquire magazine article written by investigative journalist, Lloyd Vogel (a fictional character based on Tom Junod) .
Mr Vogel was a desperately unhappy individual who resented being tasked to interview Mister Rogers. Naturally, he was suspicious as to the authenticity of his subject but through the course of their time together, he realised that although Mister Rogers was not perfect (his wife admitted that he had a temper), the man in front of the camera was identical to the man offscreen. Cynicism gave way to a deep friendship which lasted until Mister Roger's untimely passing at the relatively young age of 74.
There is much which invites comparison between Noah and Fred Rogers. They were both men living by their own moral compass whilst others, as a collective, chose to live their lives by different ethical standards.
As Gd-fearing men, they refused to let the cynics corrupt their mission. Noah's lay in saving humanity and the animal kingdom. Fred Rogers’ goal was to give children the greatest gift they could own and harness - that of a solid education. He helped them to prepare their future selves from the harm that they might endure as adults, by giving them the tools to deal with problems that they would encounter throughout their lives. He too saved them in his virtual 'ark'.
Whilst some others scoffed and ridiculed, Fred Rogers and Noah simply took no notice, soldiered on and eventually, were able to achieve their own miracles. We are here today because we are all descended from Noah. And many, many Americans know how to muster their inner strength because of Mister Rogers.
If we wish to truly appreciate the greatness and achievement
of both men, let us leave the last word to The Jerusalem Talmud (Sanhedrin 4.1)
‘Anyone who sustains one soul, the verse ascribes him credit
as if he sustained an entire world.’
Shabbat Shalom.
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