A Taste of Torah in honor of Shabbat
from Rabbi Avi Weiss

Parshat Noach
NOVEMBER 3-4, 2000/6 CHESHVAN 5761

LIFE IS MADE UP OF A BALANCE BETWEEN SAMENESS
AND NEWNESS

At the conclusion of the deluge, God proclaimed that "while the earth remains…day and night shall not cease."  (Genesis 8:22)  Rashi deduces from this verse that the natural progression of day and night, ceased to exist during the time of the flood.
 
Since this verse mentions day before night, the position of Rashbam that at creation day preceded night makes sense.  Before the Great Flood, we were sun people with the day being paramount.

Only much later, after we left Egypt did God proclaim that we were to become moon people-that the day would begin at night.

What then is the conceptual difference between the sun and moon?  There is a deep difference between these two approaches.  It has been noted that the sun represents sameness.  This because it is always the same size.  Kohelet writes "there is nothing new under the sun." (Ecclesiastes 1:9)  In other words, tomorrow is no different than today, today is no different than yesterday.  When facing challenges there is little hope that there can be any change--everything seems to be the same as it was and will always remain stagnant.

The moon, however, fluctuates in size.  It diminishes and eventually vanishes only to reappear.  Thus the Hebrew word for moon, chodesh, is similar to chadash which means new.  The moon teaches that no matter the obstacles, we have the power to renew ourselves and overcome. 

While our calendar is primarily lunar, it is solar as well.  Every few years a month is added to the lunar year so that the lunar cycle be in sync with the solar.  The emphasis on the ever-changing moon with a need to acknowledge the consistent solar cycle, teaches that life is made up of a balance of sameness and newness.  Some things remain as they always were; other things have the capacity to change.

Events in Israel speak to this balance.  On the one hand, all seems the same. Jews are being murdered because they are Jews.  The world by and large blames us.  The message of the sun is alive and well.  Things today seem no different than throughout history.

In the same breath, the lunar side of our calendar reminds us that all need not be the same.  One should not be overly pessimistic.  No doubt we face serious challenges, the likes of which I believe we've never faced since the establishment of the state. 

So while we were originally sun people with day preceding night, we, in time, learned to infuse the sun with the spirit of the moon.  Night precedes day.  No matter how bleak and how the same life seems, we must always be alive and hopeful for a different reality than before, a new dawn - when our people can live in unity without fear - when real shalom will prevail.

Rabbi Avi Weiss

Shabbat Shalom!