Shabbat Shalom, Friend!

October 28, 2022 * Parshat Noach

Click here to Join us for Shabbat Services!

For the Kabbalat Shabbat and Ma'ariv Lev Shalem Siddur, click here.

For the Shabbat Morning Lev Shalem Siddur click here.

God's World (Beta)

I like to think of the first few parshiyot of our Torah as God’s beta testing phase. First, there’s the creation of the world. It was beautiful. But there are some bugs. Last week there was the Garden of Eden evacuation after the characters in the story had a mind of their own and took over control of the program. While that was an interesting development and God allowed it to continue, we see that this week it didn’t go so well. So to fix this bug, God is going to rebuild, keeping the same elements, but ditching anything and everyone that was corrupt. We learn that this means everyone except Noah.

Noah is informed by God that the world would be destroyed. Noah is told to build an ark. He builds. For 120 years. Noah is told to bring a number of animals on to the ark which he has to build. Following the flood, Noah sends a raven to find dry land and it does not return - its selfishness another bug of the system. Then Noah sends a dove to find dry land and when it does return to tell Noah that there is land, only then can his family depart the boat.

Noah’s family is used as a prototype to build the rest of the characters. They were fairly good compared to everyone else. They build for a good cause. When the project is ready to go live, Noah kind of breaks down, but much of the rest of the characters move on to complete their mission: Be fertile and increase on the earth.

Except here, when we reach the Tower of Babel, is where the program fails once again. How? Why? Because they build a Tower? Is it because they want to build a tower to God? Is God concerned that the humans will take over? First, they made their own decisions and now they are going to take over the world! (It's like the reverse issue we have with the possibility of robots having their own mind.) But the people are now good, right? They communicate! They build! Except they weren’t supposed to build in this release of the program! In fact, they are building for the wrong reasons. They are building to stay together when the goal of God’s game is to cover the earth with people.

As we experience updates to our own lives, I hope that we hold on to whatever original features made us true to ourselves and upgrade only the things that need improvements or debugging.

Shabbat Shalom!

Rabbi Blatt

Tree of Life

Idina Menzel co-wrote this beautiful song in memory of the victims of Pittsburgh's Tree of Life Shooting, which occurred four years ago this past week.

The song was written for HBO's new documentary film, A Tree of Life: The Pittsburgh Synagogue Shooting. The films not only at the horrible act of violence, but how the community and people of all faiths came together to rebuild and learn from the past. It also looks at how antisemitic groups feel empowered in today’s climate. This will be the topic of our discussion Shabbat Morning

Have a Chat with Rabbi Blatt

No matter the reason, you can always pull up a seat in Rabbi Blatt's office! To schedule a time, call Joanna in the office at 813-962-6338 or click the link below to be connected directly to Rabbi Blatt's calendar.

Click here to make an appointment online!