Noach 2019

The Power of Prayer

This week's Torah portion is Noah.  Many of the commentaries on this portion focus on Prayer.  But what does prayer have to do with Noah and the flood?  The answer I think lies in a question that is often asked about Noah: Was he really a righteous man compared to Abraham, or only righteous compared to the terrible people surrounding him (see Rash”i Genesis 6:9)? 

Indeed, Noah is the man who never speaks and Abraham is the man known for speaking up.  When God tells Abraham that He is going to destroy the cities of Sodom and Amorah, Abraham speaks up in their defense.  But when God tells Noah that He is going to destroy the world, Noah is silent.  It is precisely here, in the portion of Noah, that we must learn instruction for how to speak up, how to pray, and the power of words.  Only in us speaking and praying with true depth, not just seeing prayer as a reading of words, but as an intense, meditative Godly process can we create a tikun, a fixing, for the sin of Noah, the sin of silent obedience.