Parashat Noah

Most of the students wrote a short devar Torah with their class in Hebrew.  Morah Donna’s class this week had the treat of having her write it for them because we ran out of time.  The students should be able to read this to you in Hebrew and share with you in English the gist of what it says.

Just so you can know what to expect—

We asked the question.  Why did Noah have to build the ark himself?  Couldn’t G-d have just saved him and all the animals somewhere and saved him all the trouble?  The Rabbinic answer that we read said that because Noah spent so much time building the ark, it gave the people around him time to decide to change their ways and do Teshuva.  To start doing good things and to be kind to each other.  This did not happen and so the flood came. 

We also read a modern story (a joke really) where a man wanted to win the lottery so he could do good things with the money.  He prayed his whole life and when he died he asked G-d why he never let him win the lottery.  G-d said “why didn’t you buy a ticket?”   This story was particularly fun to dramatize.

In both cases in our life and in noah’s time—we have to do our part.  We can’t just expect good things to come to us without making any effort ourselves.

Happy Torah study and Shabbat Shalom,

Morah Donna, Morah Yiska, and Morah Hannah

Please let us know if this was an especially difficult assignment for your child.