With my husband being named Noah, Parshat Noach is a big hit in my house. We have Noach art, Noach decor, and even a Noah’s Ark menorah that proudly sits in our dining room year-round. And as my daughter grows up, she’s getting into it too. She’s one and a half now, and she understands a lot. We talk about the world, we play imaginative games, and we read books, like the ones from PJ Library, that help us learn the stories of the Torah and our people. We certainly have at least a few Noach books in our home.
But as I come to the story of Noah, and I start to joyfully sing Jason Mesches’ “Gather All the Animals” (it’s a good one- check it out), I realize to myself: this is actually a really, really scary story. The darkness. The flooding of every single thing in the world. Only two of each animal being allowed to survive! This does not sound particularly appropriate for my 18-month-old and, frankly, it makes me feel a little anxious myself.
And honestly, Judaism has a lot of scary stories- from the Torah, and throughout our entire history. I think a lot about how I will explain our slavery in Egypt and the plagues that befell the Egyptians there. I think about the various frightening trials and tribulations of wandering in the desert for so many years. The Spanish Inquisition. The Holocaust. The rejection surrounding the formation of the State of Israel. October 7. There’s, unfortunately, no shortage of stories that make us shift in our seats with a pit in our stomachs.
I don’t have the perfect answer for how to teach these things to our children. You might not either, though I am sure each of us has resources, bits of wisdom, and anecdotes from how we have parented our children, grandparented our grandchildren, explained difficult things to friends, and even how we’ve spoken to ourselves when we feel afraid. Our tradition is rich with books, materials, and oral traditions that help us figure out how to tell these stories in age-appropriate ways, how to be truthful without overwhelming, and how to make room for complexity as our children become ready to hold it. I know I have a ways to go on this path of learning.
I do know one thing for certain, though. As I raise my daughter, I want her, when the time comes, to know these things, and to hold all of these things, but not to be Jewish simply because of them.
I don’t think the Judaism of the future can simply be a Judaism of, “We won’t let them win.” I think the Judaism of the future has to be one that wants each of us to win- to win in our strength, our knowledge, our joy, and our courage. I want all of our children, and our, Jewish identities to be built not only out of what has happened to us, but out of everything that is beautiful about being us.
So this year, I will read my daughter a few very simple books about the story of Noach- with a very heavy emphasis on the animals. We will sing some songs about going two by two onto the ark, and we will probably make a lot of animal noises. (One-and-a-half-year-olds just love animals, of course.)
And that will be enough. For now. In years to come, my telling of this story will be different. There will be room for the flood, and the fear, and the questions. Just as, over time, there will be room for more of the difficult pieces of our Torah and our history.
And I hope that, little by little, all of these complex layers will weave together to create a truly strong Jewish identity- one rooted not in fear, but in an understanding of our complex, beautiful, sometimes scary history; an identity filled with enough strength, knowledge, joy, and courage to blossom and grow into the next generation.
Shabbat Shalom,
Cantor Sydney Michaeli
