Noah: How to Survive a Storm Silent Center of Things
Parshat Noah teaches us how to survive the storms of our lives – the deluges of uncertainty, loss, grief, and pain that enter with very little (if any) warning, and leave us scared and adrift on tumultuous waters. Noah is not about creating a battle plan or an escape route to sunnier climes. Noah is about figuring out how to be in the dead center of the storm and survive
Recognize that this is happening.
And God said to Noah, "The end of all flesh has come before Me, for the earth has become full of robbery because of them, and behold I am destroying them from the earth.
for yourself an ark of gopher wood
And Noah did; according to all that God had commanded him, so he did.
Elizabeth Kubler-Ross
noted in her 1969 book, On Death and Dying, our first
humans when hit by a major loss or unexpected
news is to deny its existence or
hearing the news of the World Trade Center attacks on my way to class at NYU. I turned to a fellow student and asked if she thought classes would be canceled. I’ll never forget the look
woke up the morning of September 11, 2001,
her face as she stared at me in disbelief.
Class?” She said.
of people have died.”
the fog of denial in order to process the
brain was fighting hard to break
is actually happening.
a very helpful practice for working with very difficult emotions that arise in practice and life. It is called R.A.I.N., which stands for: Recognize, Accept, Investigate, Non-identification.
is the first step – seeing a thing for what it is, even if we
the
to
is
able to do both. He understood that the storm
are
and for them,
I do to solve this?”
it
really
For Noah, there wasn’t a choice. There was simply the truth of what was happening. The rains were on their way, whether Noah liked it or not. And so Noah did what God asked and got to work.
asked at
of anxiety and frequent panic
very
be
don’t you focus less on ‘fixing’ and more on asking yourself,
ease right now?’”
replied.
can I do to give myself
high
this happened many years ago, it is still my go-to question when a treacherous storm of fear or sorrow hits my life. What can I do for myself right now? How can I create as soft a landing spot as possible for the very sharp pain delivered from the world?
softening
Noah
a food source,
times in the parsha
Noah
life
they will get very bad)
will not be
In addition
Noah and his
(God and Noah) are bonded
God cared for him. “Why is Noah
that Noah cares for the animals
"righteous"?”
4)
is asked in midrash Tanchuma
he fed the creatures of the Holy One, and became like his Creator. Thus it says, "For the Lord is righteous, loving righteous
We can model this behavior in times of our suffering. We too, like Noah, can practice caring for ourselves with softness and kindness and extending that care to those around us, even when it feels like we don’t have much to give.
Step Three: Surrender to the waves of fear, pain, and/or uncertainty.
18. And I will set up My covenant with you, and you shall come into the ark, you and your sons, and your wife and your sons' wives with you.
Bereshit 7:18
The storm has arrived. This part of the journey is the most difficult. Forty days and forty nights can feel like an eternity. We start to feel scared and alone. We feel filled with pain. The waves are knocking us this way and that. Solid ground is nowhere to be found. What do we do?
We can find one answer in the directions for surviving a rip tide – a very dangerous current that claims many lives on beaches every year. The instruction is: Don’t panic. Don’t try to fight the current that is taking you away from shore. Instead, soften your body. Swim parallel to the shore. Wait for the tide to release its grip, which it always will, eventually.
David Wagoner puts it beautifully in his poem, “Lost”:
Stand still. The trees ahead and bushes beside you Are not lost. Wherever you are is called Here, And you must treat it as a powerful stranger, Must ask permission to know it and be known.
If we open ourselves up to the feelings of loss and pain and confusion, we will suffer less than if we fight them. It is not easy to surrender – to let go into the pain – but it is our way out.
Step four: Ask for help.
“Being in great distress, Noah prayed to God to shorten the time of his suffering.” (Tan., Noaḥ, 17; Midrash Agadat Bereshit l.c. iv. 12)
Norman Fischer, a Jewish and Buddhist meditation teacher writes: “there are times when there is nothing to do but pray, to ask someone or something for help this is one of the great lessons we learn from…our journey home: though we must make tremendous efforts, we can’t go it alone.”
Whether the help is from a professional, a friend, or from God, nobody can make it through the storm without support. Sometimes the simple word, “help” is the most important thing we can say “I can’t solve this myself. I don’t know how this is going to end. I’m afraid. Help.”
Step Five: As you locate dry land, move gently.
It takes fourteen days from the time the rains end to the time Noah sets foot back on dry land. Elizabeth Swados, author of the graphic novel, My Depression describes this period of time as “surviving a little at a time.” She illustrates small things like the ability to taste tomato sauce, thread a needle, or hear a bird as signposts of this gentle return to recovery. When she makes it through the bout of depression, she illustrates a triumphant picture of herself doing the splits, saying “remember, you got through this once, you can do it again!”
The rainbow – that bent shape of beautiful light – is our version of this triumphant picture. We made it! And once we’ve made it through total destruction, future storm clouds won’t look so ominous.
We’ve made it before, and we can do it again.
The Institute for Jewish Spirituality’s mission is to develop and teach Jewish spiritual practices so that individuals and communities may experience greater awareness, purpose, and interconnection.
Learn more jewishspirituality.org
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