Shabbat Shalom!
In Sunday’s outstanding SHMUSY play, one of the
hilarious scenes involved an older gentleman being quizzed on his knowledge of
brachot (blessings) by Rabbi Russo before partaking of food from the Shabbos
Kiddush table. The kids and Rabbi Russo enacted the scene with humor and
passion.
As I reflect back on the question of blessings, this
week, my heart is drawn to the beauty of the blessing our tradition offers upon
seeing a rainbow, “Blessed are You, Ruler of the Universe, who Remember the
Covenant.” What covenant does God remember and do we remember when we see a rainbow? Not the much acclaimed covenant
of Abraham and God. No, not the particular covenant between the Jewish people
and the Divine. Rather, the covenant we remember when we see the rainbow,
naturally, is the covenant that God made with Noah after the Flood. Precisely
the topic of this week’s Torah portion.
In Genesis, Chapter 9, verse 13, the Torah reads, “I have set my rainbow in the clouds,
and it will be the sign of the covenant between Me and the earth.” The rainbow
is God’s covenant not with the Jewish people (Abraham has yet to be born) but
rather with the whole of humanity. Looking upon the rainbow, we are reminded
that we too are covenanted not only with our Jewish brothers and sisters, but
also with all those children of God, all those children of Noah, who survived
the same Flood, who came from the same Source, and who deep within our
collective past witnessed the same miracle of a dove, an olive branch, and a
rainbow saying, “life goes on… there is hope… God loves you always.”
In Aharon Yaakov Greenberg’s collection of Chasidic commentary, Iturei Torah, Zion Hillel is quoted sharing this insight: “How does the rainbow symbolize peace, unity, and the continuing existence of the world? Because the rainbow is composed of many colors and shades and they all merge into one unity! And so it is with the differences between people, in all their groups, tribes, and nations. Life is based on understanding and mutual tolerance, on harmony and on peace, and they are the foundation of the continuing existence of the world. "
This Sunday, SHMUSY
President Aaron Kamel and I will be joining Pastor Michael Neal’s community of
Glorious Light Church at 9:30am to deliver the 1500 books donated by the AES
community over the High Holidays to Real Men Read. This project, inspired by
our own youth leader, symbolizes a moment of “remembering the covenant.” We are
partnering with our African American Christian brothers and sisters on the
South Side to provide literacy to those in need of education and encouragement.
We are demonstrating that we remember that we come from one God and that we have
one destiny as children of Noah. We are living out the wisdom of Zion Hillel in
celebrating the Rainbow of Humanity, with all its colors and shades, of which
we are an integral but not a singular part. If you are so moved, we would be
honored to have you join us as we celebrate the coming together of our two
communities, and our shared faith in the covenant of God shown in Noah’s
rainbow, “life goes on…there is hope… God loves you always.”
-Rabbi D'ror Chankin-Gould
