I woke up on Monday morning feeling depressed and somewhat empty. After a jam packed month of non-stop chagim, the vacant week ahead of me seemed rather anti-climatic. I didn’t have a moment to spare between stirring Rosh Hashana services, fasting on Yom Kippur, Sukka construction in various parks and joyful Simchat Torah dancing. For the first time in a month I managed to relax, and all that accomplished was to make me feel like a deflated balloon.
What now?
I rang my friend Mendel, a fellow Chabad Rabbi in Doylestown, PA, suggesting we get together to study some Torah over the phone. As it worked out, that session was the perfect antidote for my dejection, for what we learnt not only soothed my soul, it also stilled my agitation.
This week’s Torah portion of Noach presents the well-known tale of the flood that wiped out the corrupt society that inhabited earth at the time. The timelessness of Torah means that the 4000-year-old flood still holds relevance in our day and age and retains a lesson even for our ultra-modern generation. Each of us, at some point in our lives, finds ourselves drowning in a flood. The waters are created by the anxiety and stress of daily life: business deals don’t always go the way we planned; an argument with a spouse leads to frustration. The tumultuous whirlpools of these daily pressures threaten to engulf us and take us down. And through it all we find ourselves clutching at whatever we can get hold of, only to find we’ve been grasping at straws and sticks.
The key to floating, however, is to enter Noach’s ark. The word used by the Torah for ark is “teiva”, which also translates as “word”. Or more specifically, words of Torah. Just as Noach saved himself and his family by entering that structure, so too are we to enter the haven of Torah. Studying Torah, praying and living the mitzvot form the only boat sturdy enough to keep us afloat.
It was then that I realized that the closure of a lively holiday season need not be cause for gloom, on the contrary, the inspiration and joy experienced over the month serve as oars, steering our boat faster through the raging sea of life.
Ship ahoy!