Noach: Grab the Branch

Dear friends, welcome to this week's virtual dasha. This week we have the privilege para's no and the para contains the dramatic story of the flood. We know already at the end of para's bracious man begins to experience this downward spiritual spiral to the point that felt that there was no choice but to erase humanity and begin again. In the midst of all this darkness finds no that spark of light is going to be the man going to partner with to go ahead and recreate the world. Noah builds the tava, builds the ark, the flood waters come, everything is wiped out. When the rain stops, Noah has to try to figure out is it safe to go out. So what does he do? First, he sends the raven. Now Torah tells us the raven circles, doesn't go anywhere. He then tries a second time with a dove, a yona. And the Torah relates as follows. The Torah says this is chapter 8 vers 11. Ultimately again the dove came back in the evening and the dove was holding an olive branch in its mouth and when Yonah saw excuse me when Noah saw that olive branch he knew that the flood waters had subsided because obviously it was a fresh olive branch. So where did the dove get it? It must have in the waters receded enough that there were trees growing. So when he sees the olive branch in the mouth of the dove, in the mouth of the Yona, Noah knew that the flood was officially over and again he was going to be able to shortly hopefully to disembark from the ark. And the medish asks an interesting question. The mag says also where was the olive branch from? Where where was it from? And the magish records a variety of different opinions. Some say it was from Harabayas, the temple mount. Others say haramishka or haraz, the mount of olives. Third opinion says just in general but then there's a fourth opinion and it's this fourth opinion that I want to focus your attention on of BB says also ultimately again the gates of Ghana were opened and that's where the dove that's where the yona got the olive branch from such a beautiful imagery that this wasn't just stamin olive branch this wasn't just an olive branch just from just even from Harabayas or just from Harazim But rather again this was an olive branch from Ganaden who opened up the gates to the garden. Remember again those gates were closed when Adam was expelled who opened them up and ultimately again allowed the allowed the dove to take an olive branch and bring it back to No. Ra sukman who was a prominent figure in the religious Zionist community aid mufok a primary disciple of cooks a fasting question says what does this mean? says what what does it mean that the olive branch came from Ghana like what obviously the is trying to teach us something and I want to quote to you what he says he says something so beautiful he says when the ended the dove the yona brought to no olive branch from es because contained in that olive branch branch from the garden of Eden. That was the metaphorical representation of the power and prowess of man. How so? Listen to these words. A person in life could start out in can lose it all. That's what happened with had everything. a person. You could start with your olive branch of Khan. You could start with you could have everything in life. You could have everything going for you and then as a result of just poor decisions, wrong turns, you could lose it all. But the opposite is true as well. A person could also start out in a desolate world and turn that desolation into Ghana. That olive branch that the dove brought back represented the potential of Ganaden. And what is the potential of the Garden of Eden? A person could have Ganeden and then lose it or a person could be in the midst of desolation and figure out a way to make that into your Ganed or stated otherwise. You could turn your ganed, your utopian existence into a desolate world or you could turn your desolate world into a utopian Ganeden. And I think Sukman is teaching us is such a profound idea and an idea that we talk about very often. We don't choose so many of our circumstances. We don't choose so much of what goes on around us in the world. We don't choose so many of the different circumstances in our lives. So much of what we live through day after day are circumstances and situations that are conferred upon us. And sometimes when those new circumstances come, my life was so good. My life was so perfect. It was just as I wanted it. And now these new circumstances come, so to speak. Like that olive branch comes and my Ghanaen is turned into a desolate world. And that happens. That does happen. But in that moment when your ganeden turns into desolation, the yona, the proverbial metaphorical dove, shows up with the Allah branch in its mouth and says, "Man, man, mankind, you have a coak now to take a desolate world and turn it into something beautiful." The greatest power we have is to shape our mindset around our circumstances. I may not be able to choose what happens. I may not have a say in many of my life circumstances, but I absolutely decide my perspective. I absolutely decide my outlook and I absolutely decide how I'm going to move my life forward. The greatest kak of Adam is the ability to take something beautiful and destroy it and to take something destroyed and rebuild it. That is our says so beautifully. If you believe that you have the ability to destroy, then believe that you have the ability to build. If you believe that you could turn Ganen into into desolation, which we did, then believe that you could take the most desolate of circumstances and turn it into Ghana. Now it may be that that's expression of taking desolate circumstances and turning into a utopian ganeden maybe that's a little bit hyperbolic and maybe maybe that's not fully actualizable but the message is still the same which is when we find ourselves in the midst of difficult circumstances and I I I think that we are all feeling a certain level of heaviness in the beginning of this year I think on Oshana Rabba When the hostages came home, I think we felt for the first time in a very long time a certain almost like weight that was lifted, a certain euphoric feeling, a certain sense of just overwhelming simha that maybe, you know, maybe there's maybe there's a light at the end of the tunnel and then we found ourselves overwhelmed by just difficult circumstances, whether it was, you know, here in Baltimore and the Orthodox Union and throughout so much of the from world we lost a great visionary leader Rabbi Mosha Hower. Then we heard the tragic news of this past month Shabas of four precious bakrin killed coming home after bay man in vacation shabas and there's more tragedy and there's more difficulty and sometimes it feels that like rabbi I think many of us felt that there was just a little bit maybe just like a little slice of ganeden and it could feel sometimes that like that slice of ganeden now turned into a desolate world, a world of heartbreak, a world of difficulty. And then what happens gives us paras Noah. And in paras Noah, what happens? You know, Noah is sitting there on the table and in desolation. You know, it's true. Noah was rescued with his family. And we often think to ourselves that like, you know, Noah was some type of pariah, which he probably was on some level, but I'm sure he had friends and he probably he had siblings and he had extended family and everyone was gone. So, Barak Hashem, his wife was saved, his children were saved, but he lost so much. And here he is literally again floating in a rudderless boat. literally a rudderless boat on on these storm waters on top of a world that he knew that had been destroyed. And in that very moment, what happens? The dove shows up, perches itself on the ledge of the ta with an olive branch from Ganen. From Ganen, telling Noah, Noah, you have a Kawak to turn this desolate world into Ganen. You have a kak to take destruction and turn it around. You have a kak to take compromised circumstances and somehow figure out how to utilize them for your growth, for your self-actualization. You have the kak to take the greatest amount of heartbreak and somehow use it to fuel your journey forward. Man has the greatest kak, the kawak to destroy and the kak to rebuild. And we've done both. We've had Ghan and we destroyed it and we've taken destruction and rebuilt it. And dear friends, that's the great co that has endowed each of us with. And this is a co that has fueled us over the last 2,000 years as a people, as a nation. How many times have we been on the brink of extinction? How many times, how many times did the future look so bleak and so desolate? How many times did we think to ourselves, "My gosh, the sky is falling. The world is coming to an end for us." And what happens in those moments? The same yona, the same dove that perched itself on the ledge of the table of the ark, perches itself on our shoulder, on our national shoulder, gives us the Allah branch of Ganed and says, "Go take a destroyed world and rebuild it." We've done it. We've done it as a people. And as individuals, we must find that same kak as well. Life sometimes saddles us and overwhelms us with circumstances that are difficult, that are painful, that are overbearing, that are overwhelming. And you have one of two choices. You could lament the Eden that has been lost. You could bel you could lament the tranquility, the happiness, the that you once have that is no longer here. But lamenting really only gets more lamenting and more sadness. Doesn't really do anything. Or you could grab hold of that olive branch from Ghana and say, "I got this. I got this. Someway somehow, I'm going to take this broken world. I'm going to take this destroyed personalistic world. I'm going to take these overwhelming circumstances and I'm going to turn it back into Aiden." Armed with my olive branch of hope, optimism, and belief in the greatest koak I have, I can take any set of circumstances, no matter how destroyed, no matter how compromised and figure out how to rebuild my personal Ghana, may to find this as a people and may to find it and to utilize it as individuals as well. Wishing everyone a good night of Shabas and a beautiful Shabas Kesh.