Noach
R. Bachya ibn Pakuda on Parashat Noach, read on Shabbat Noach — with one of this week's three questions for the two of you.
Noach is the parsha of devastation followed by promise. The world is undone in water. The ark holds what survives. And then, when the dove finds dry land and Noach steps out, God places a sign in the sky — the rainbow — as a permanent reminder. Bachya, in Shaar HaBitachon, teaches that bitachon is not the trust of one who has never seen difficulty. It is the trust of one who has seen the floods, lived through them, and now knows that floods do not have the final word. The rainbow appears after the storm, not before. It is the sign that God's larger promise outlasts any particular devastation. The one who trusts walks into the next storm with that promise quietly in mind.
What is one 'flood' in our shared life — past or present — that we have walked through? What was the rainbow, when it came?
The full week — the passage itself with its source, the other two questions, and the closing verse of hope — lives in the app. Together Tomorrow on the App Store.