"Noah and the Bronze Medal"

Parshat Noah 2010/5771

By Rabbi Charles Savenor, METNY Executive Director 

The United States gymnastics team placed fourth in the 2000 Olympic games. With high expectations before the games for a medal, their fourth place finish was considered a failure.

Upon returning home, these female athletes were not welcomed with their images on Wheaties boxes, but rather an overwhelming sense of disappointment. They had done their best, but it was not good enough, at least according to the judges.

Can you imagine being the fourth best in the world in anything, and still being considered a failure?

Two years ago, however, it was discovered that the 2000 Chinese gymnastics team had an underage athlete, subsequently disqualifying them from the event. This chronological discrepancy was exposed when the same girl competed in the 2008 Olympics, but with a different birthday in her passport.

In rare confluence of events, the US squad, once considered sub-par, was now awarded the bronze medal. At a low-key ceremony, several members of this ten-years-overdue winning team cried as they received their medals. One of new medalist explained that her tears were a mixture. Tears of joy for ultimately reaching her goal were accompanied by painful counterparts from years of feeling less-than. When your country tells you are not good enough, it is not hard to imagine that the message can penetrate and affect how you see yourself.

One day your performance was not good enough, and the next it is medal-worthy?!

At the beginning of this week's parashat Noah, we are told that the eponymous figure is a righteous man in his generation. Our sages praise Noah for not only building an ark that saves the animal kingdom, but also for his rebooting humanity.

But how good is Noah? Is he a gold medalist in a league of his own or a champion fortunate to face a weak field of competitors?

Commentators over the centuries have compared Noah to Abraham and wondered how Noah matches up against the first of the patriarchs. Some believe that Noah is merely the best of a bad lot. By contrast, others assert that Noah's virtue, faith and fortitude are secure in any age.

Righteous just for his day or all time?

While the mental exercise of comparing people can be interesting, the truth is Noah's actions speak for themselves. In a place without another righteous soul, Noah fills that void.  Noah withstands and rises above the temptations and cheatings of his time. In light of this, God entrusts Noah and his wife with the sacred task of being humanity's new progenitor after the flood. 

This performance at any moment of history is medal-worthy and serves as a model for us today.

• Jeremy Fingerman, Executive Director, The Foundation for Jewish Camp
• Ruth Messinger, Executive Director, American Jewish World Service
• Rabbi Alan Silverstein, Spiritual Leader, Agudath Israel, Caldwell, NJ

• MetroImma, an online community for Jewish moms.  Their editor is Karen Bressler Brooks, a METNY USY alumna.
• Kveller, a Jewish twist on parenting from UJA Federation New York. 
• Family in Orbit, a resource for caring adults who strive to guide and keep up with the 21st century children in their lives.  This site was created by Dr. Hilary Buff Greenwood, a past USY International President. Rabbi Savenor also has a blog there.

From the evening of September 25th (motzaei Shabbat) through the afternoon of September 26th the Rakevet Divisional Executive and General Boards convened at the Canarick household for our annual Divisional General Board Overnight.   Through a series of icebreakers, general sessions, planning meetings, and some non-structured schmooze time, we came closer together as a board while learning what it truly means to be a Rakevet leader and part of a solid team.

The overnight was incredibly fun and we accomplished many important things, including a review of the schedule through December, and a very productive business meeting in which we analyzed membership numbers and attendance.   Most importantly, we set our goals for ourselves and our roles in Rakevet USY and set in motion what we hope will be a chain reaction of one great event after another!  

A Mexican movie that won 7 Ariel Awards (that country's equivalent of the Academy Awards) including Best Picture, Nora's Will is about a Jewish man in Mexico whose ex-wife commits suicide just before Pesach, evidently timing her death in a way that would bring all her family together for a longer time before the funeral. This could be used as a trigger film for many discussions about death and suicide.

Nora's Will (also known as Cinco Dias sin Nora, or Five Days Without Nora) has been playing in film festivals around the world. 

 
Family Israel Experience

Just a few weeks ago, at the end of the Neilah service at the conclusion of Yom Kippur, Jews around the world recited the verse - Next Year in Jerusalem!
 
How appropriate and exciting for us - to announce that USCJ has designed a "Family Israel Experience". This dynamic multigenerational trip was
designed for congregations that may not have clergy or have enough
critical mass to offer an affordable family trip. This memorable trip will
take place on July 3-14, 2011.
 
This coming July we invite you to join together with congregants from across North America to form one unit as we fulfill this millennia-old aspiration of the Jewish people, visiting our homeland with those we care about most.

 

You will experience a dynamic and colorful country where Judaism comes alive in a way like no where else in the world. This program will be led by Rabbi Charles Savenor, METNY District Director.
 
For more information, please contact Rabbi Charles Savenor Savenor@uscj.org or Jo-Anne Tucker-Zemlak zemlak@uscj.org or 212-533-0800.
 
http://www.authenticisrael.com/UserFiles/File/USCJFamily.pdf