The flood. Virtually every tradition has a mythology about the world begun, destroyed, and begun again. Whether it’s an environmental catastrophe or an act of divine wrath, the plot is pretty consistent: something’s gone terribly wrong since creation and it’s time to hit the reset button. There’s a link, sometimes tenuous and sometimes explicit, between the old world and the new; and a new covenant between a creator/destroyer/re-creator and the next incarnation of humans.

That’s an anthropomorphic view of the Noah story and a great time to address how this blog will deal with “the G word” which will almost always be HaShem, the Name. I’m more concerned with the metaphor of self and how Torah speaks to self-exploration and development, both spiritual and emotional.

This parshah gives us great advice. Bring all the seeds you can find into your future. You’ll need them to energize your new life. And like Noah counting up the species, inventory every aspect of self that you value, that you want to preserve.

No matter how you try, you’re only human. You’re gonna bring along the cockroaches as well as the deer. But perhaps we need them in our psychic ecosystems. Maybe we need those darker edges to push against. Taoist Judaism 101: there’s no yetzer tov (the good inclination) without a yetzer hara (the evil one). There’s always duality in the land, old or new.

My favorite interpretation of the Shema, Judaism’s essential prayer, goes roughly like this: Listen up God-wrestler, it’s all the same. The world of spirit and the world of matter are all part of the same truth, and you’re responsible for seeing and keeping it all together. For holding everything in the ark of your being, keeping the ship afloat until you reach dry land and then making it better the next round. For doing tikkun olam (healing and repair) in a shattered world. Or in this case in this flooded one.

So what’s this week all about? Taking your commitment to change, to living with greater awareness and intention, to a deeper level. Harvesting your best qualities and letting your worst ones be washed away. Cleansed in the literal sense, even if it takes many applications of hot water and the occasional emotional thrashing to clear them from your psyche and daily behaviors.

We’re the ones who’re responsible for re-creating our worlds. We have friends and partners and teachers great and small in all the wonderful and painful aspects of our lives to help us learn and grow. But in the most existential of ways, we’re each a single speck in the cosmic consciousness. We’re each responsible for making the whole story a better story. How can you do that, for yourself and the rest of us?

Follow the hyperlinks if you want to read or listen to a longer dvar on Noach.

The first few words of Genesis are usually translated as In the beginning or, as I prefer, With beginningness. And that’s the core of this week’s parshah (Torah reading).

This is a week when you should look at yourself and your life with new eyes, artist’s eyes. As though you had the ability to start from scratch. To create and re-create any and all parts of yourself with a sense of complete and open possibility.

There’s a lot of imagery in this reading about separation – a theme that’ll show up often in the Torah. Form from void. Light from dark. Water from land. But you can make it personal: Who am I; who am I not? Who have I been; who am I becoming?

It’s a time to think about your life with what spiritual teachers often call beginner’s mind, unhindered by old habits, assumptions, and fears. Not one oblivious to the constraints of reality, like mortgages or calories. But rather one that says, Yeah, I have to deal with that, and I can choose how I do it. Now and in every conscious moment going forward. The kind of thinking that gives you the freedom to believe you can create your world closer to how you want it to be and feel.

There’s a great Hebrew word, kavannah, that means intention. One of my cornerstone values is the importance of living with awareness and intention. This reading invites and encourages that consciousness.

Another highlight of this parshah is what happens when we don’t stay conscious. When we jump for instant gratification or make other wrong choices. When we don’t listen to our inner/higher voice. The voice that instructs and offers: Here’s a great life. Just don’t do that one act of self-sabotage. In Genesis it’s the story of a man, a woman, a snake, and an apple. The metaphorical journey from paradise to a very different kind of beginningness. The kind that’s sometimes thrust upon us and imposes different lessons.

Most of us haven’t been homeless refuges. But we’ve all faced unwanted crises of our own: The death of a partner or parent. The loss of a job or home. A tough diagnosis. It takes a different kind of visioning to cope with that kind of reality. Deep resilience and an ability to redefine oneself that doesn’t always include the luxury of time, or too many chances to screw up, apologize, and screw up again. The habituated, recidivist way that I, and many of us, often learn. This second kind of beginningness says: You gotta change now!! It’s the wake-up call with no more snooze buttons.

No one’s expecting you to recreate your world in six days. But there’s some great teachings here. This week, ask yourself: How can I look at my life with artist’s eyes and a beginner’s mind? How can I make my world a more joyful and nurturing place, for myself and those I love?

If we all ask, listen, and respond, we’ll become part of what Judaism calls tikkum olam, the healing of the world. That’s a story we’re all still working on. Stay tuned.