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| (c) Karl Bushby |
Three men,
two of whom are real and one fictional have a great deal in common when it comes
to travelling around the world.
The first
is an extraordinary man by the name of Karl Bushby.
Karl hails
from Hull. He was bullied due to his being
dyslexic and to escape his daily ordeal, spent a great deal of time in the countryside
near his home becoming an experienced birdwatcher.
At the age
of 16, he joined the British Army and served with the 3rd Battalion Parachute
regiment for 12 years after initially struggling to pass Pegasus Company, the Army’s
arduous course, which all potential recruits need to complete successfully.
During his
service, he conceived a concept which he called ‘The Goliath Expedition’. This would entail walking back home to Yorkshire
from Punta Arenas at the southern tip of Chile.
He set himself two rules. Firstly,
he would not use any sort of motorized transport to advance his journey and secondly,
would not reach his destination unless he had achieved this on foot.
On 1st
November 1998, with just $500 in his pocket, he set off on a journey that he thought
would take him 12 years. 36,000 miles and
nearly 28 years later, on 5th October, he reached these shores after
swimming across the Channel. He hopes to
complete his expedition on 1st November.
What happened to him and why it has almost taken him three decades to complete his journey is, as the old saying goes, the ‘stuff of legends’. It is beyond the scope of this Drasha to describe in detail the challenges he has faced, which include spending 18 days in jail in Panama for entering the country without a visa; reaching Las Vegas only to have to return to Columbia because his visa had expired and could not be renewed in the United States; crossing the 58 mile Bering Straits having been forced to follow a 150 mile detour; being banned from entering Russia for five years due to a previous infraction and finally, the list of bureaucratic obstacles placed in his way at every turn. He requested to cross into the UK via the Channel Tunnel by foot but was denied permission by the Eurotunnel (GetLink) operators due to safety concerns (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c2dyexegry6o). Despite it all, Karl is currently on his way back home, very possibly as I am writing these words.
Our second
traveller is Odysseus, the fictional hero of Homer’s epic poem, the Odyssey.
To date, Christopher
Nolan’s epic film has made over $1.68 billion worldwide. It hasn’t yet topped Avengers: Endgame’s record
of $2.93 billion as the highest grossing film of all time but currently sits just
outside the top 10.
Odysseus is
also trying to make his way home and has to contend with challenges such as overcoming
Poseidon’s Curse and Polyphemus the Cyclops, harsh Mediterranean seas, the Sirens,
Circe the Sorceress who turns his crew into pigs and Calypso, the nymph who traps
him on her island for seven years promising him immortality. Like Karl Bushby, at times, his journey home seems
nigh on impossible.
Finally, the
eponymous traveller of this week’s Parasha, Noach who spent 120 years building an
Ark to house himself, his family and his menagerie of animals whilst Gd destroyed
the world in the flood. One that lasted many
months beyond the numerous days and nights of water raining downwards (and upwards
from the ground). It took a year from the
initial raindrops until the hatch was opened and the family stepped out onto dry
land.
Three travellers
who have overcome several obstacles in their way but do they have anything else
in common?
To answer
this question, let us start with looking at Noach. The first pasuk/verse of the Parashah tells us
that:
This is the story of Noach. Noach was a righteous man, a person of integrity
in his generation; Noach walked with Gd.
The first
part of the verse is straightforward. Noach
was a ‘good egg’ in modern day parlance.
Rashi tells us that in his generation, he was a ‘cut above the rest’ but
his righteousness would not have been particularly notable especially when compared
with that of his descendant Avraham Avinu.
Setting that aside, it is the last few words that are intriguing. What does the Torah mean when it states that ‘Noach
walked with Gd’?
Again, Rashi
comes to our aid and provides the missing piece, not only to the story of Noach
but the link it presents to our other travellers.
He tells us
that Noach, as opposed to Avraham, needed Gd’s support to help him ‘uphold his righteousness’
or, in other words, he built the Ark as a physical entity, but looked-for Gd to
give him the chizuk/strength to sustain him during the long and perhaps, lonely
days and nights cooped up with his human and animal cargo. He had his family with him but human dynamics
often play a part in creating an atmosphere that is not conducive to ‘shalom bayit’
– maintaining peace in the home.
The Torah
itself is silent on this. However, Midrash
Tanchuma states that during the year they were in the Ark Noach and his family did
not sleep as they were feeding all the animals, birds and beasts. The Talmud (Sanhedrin 108b) tells us that there
was no intimacy between the humans as it would be inappropriate granted the destruction
that was taking place outside the boat at the same time. One can only imagine the emotions raging inside
the Ark, not dissimilar to the battering of the waves against the exterior for most
of the year until they finally calmed.
Noach therefore
needed all the inner strength he could muster to sustain himself spiritually, emotionally
and physically.
Karl Bushby
also felt the metaphorical (and at times physical) floodwaters battering his confidence. He survived being stranded in distant countries
where he didn’t speak the native language, denied entry to those he did (such as
the USA), running out of money and at times, losing hope.
And Odysseus
also braved storms and faced his own demons to finally make his way home across
hostile landscapes.
All three
were able to continue their journey due to their refusal to allow the obstacles
to hinder their paths. Whether this consisted
of having belief in a Higher Being or in themselves, this was the ‘ammunition’ they
carried on their respective treks.
The journeys
that all three undertook were filled with uncertainty and peril, yet in their own
ways they overcame the challenges and, in the end, achieved their goals. That Odysseus’ story is fiction should not distract
from the message it teaches us. Our refusal
to give up and persevere despite the odds stacked up against as, lead to the outcome
we strive for.
In our own
ways, we are also determined to find our way back home, whatever ‘home’ means and
however we define it. For Noach and his family,
their journey ended after a year. For Karl,
it is 28 years and for Odysseus, it was 20.
It will have
taken Karl 28 years to circle the earth by foot. In Judaism, we believe that the sun goes through
a cycle of 28 years to return to its original location in the sky on the day it
was created. There is even a Bracha called
‘Birchat HaChama’ (the blessing of the sun) we recite when this happens. I have been fortunate to say this twice. Once when I was in school in 1981 and in 2009
in the car park of Edgware United Shul. May
we all come together to recite it in eleven years on Wednesday, 8th April
2037, corresponding with the Hebrew date of 23 Nissan 5797.
We are currently
facing many challenges on our own journeys.
May Gd give us the faith to continue to move forward, to refuse to give in
to those who wish us harm and ultimately find our way home. Please G-d, like Noach, Karl and Odysseus, we
shall overcome, someday, hopefully without facing the same challenges that were
thrown in the direction of our trio of heroes.
Their message is ‘never give up’ and as Jews, we know this better than anyone
else on earth - To be a free nation in our land, The land of Zion, Jerusalem.
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