All over the world, Jews are spending part of their Saturday in the same way that Jews have been spending their Saturdays for more than 2,000 years. They read a portion of the Bible that we call the Torah. Part of what makes us Jews is that we argue among ourselves as to the source and accuracy of the stories. We even create more stories to make sense of the stories. In our family, we certainly honor this tradition of arguing.

What I like about Reconstructionist Judaism is that we focus on the meaning of these stories. We know that the Jewish people have provided the World with a set of ideas that continues to be far more important to the World than whether one version of a story is better than another. On this day, we read about Noah. Everyone seems to know the story. To quote one great Biblical Scholar, if you ask folks about Noah, they'll tell you he built the Ark. As this sage considered the story, he rightly wondered whether, after Noah had collected all the animals in the World in the Ark, was it Noah or G-d who had to clean out the bottom of the Ark?

Little kids, Christians and Jews, learn that Noah put all the animals on the Ark so they could survive a Great Flood. The story of Noah is often used to explain that Jews love animals, and rainbows are G-d's promise never to flood the world again. These ideas make no sense to me. A Supreme Being doesn't need a flood to kill people; the Bubonic Plague was pretty horrible. The idea that Jews love animals is strange, since Jews have rules that include eating animals. If there was a promise not to have a flood, then there must have been a mistake, since there was a terrible flood in New Orleans and a Tsunami killed thousands of people in Indonesia and Sri Lanka.

I'm not saying that the Torah is wrong about a Flood. There is evidence of a great flood. Science tells us that, at the end of the ice age, the ice melted and floods resulted. A Great Flood flood created the Black Sea, which is salt water like the Mediterranean Sea. About ten years ago, scientists discovered an ancient coastline and fresh water about seventeen meters below today’s coastline. What I am saying is that the point of Noah's story is what it tells us about Judaism, and the best way to understand Judaism's values is to compare the Noah Story to another culture's story about the same flood.

Noah had three married sons. They lived in a world in which people stole from each other and killed each other. G-d became furious with this corruption and decided to destroy the inhabitants of the Earth. Because Noah’s family was good, G-d wanted to have this good family survive. He told Noah to build an ark to protect him and his family from the flood G-d was sending. G-d told Noah to go out into the world and collect seven pairs of some land animals, two pairs of others, and seven pairs of birds that can fly in the sky.

When the flood came, every living thing not in the Ark died. The rain lasted forty days and forty nights. The flood itself lasted about three months. Noah first sent a raven but the raven never returned. Later he sent a dove to see if the Earth was dry enough for the plants to grow back. After three weeks of trying, the dove finally came back with an olive stem in its mouth. Noah and his passengers left the Ark and went to rebuild their species. Noah made G-d promise to never flood the Earth again. G-d agreed. Many generations later, the descendants of Noah and his sons got together and built a tower “to make a name for their selves.” G-d saw this and became very upset and angry. G-d scattered the descendants all over the world and made them speak different languages.

The Torah is not the only ancient book with a story about a flood. The Babylonians have the same basic story with a few differences in the “Tablets of Gilgamesh.” There was a man named “Utnapishtim.” He was summoned to the Temple of G-ds. The G-ds told him that they were going to flood the earth “with their hearts.” He was told to build an ark. He was also told to get one male and one female of every species. Utnapishtim brought only his wife and the animals he had collected.

The flood came and lasted for about three months. After many weeks, he decided to send a dove to find dry land. The dove never returned. Eventually, Utnapishtim sent a raven, which found dry land. Utnapishtim released the animals and summoned a god. The god was shocked to discover that Utnapishtim had survived the flood. The god called upon other gods, and the gods decided to make Utnapishtim a G-d. He and his wife then lived forever apart from the rest of human society.

The similarities between the stories show that there were similarities between Jews and Babylonians. In both stories, there was a flood and the flood was caused by G-d or a god. In both stories, one man builds an ark to float on water and survive the flood. Both men gathered all of the animals of the world onto their arks. They both sent birds to find dry land. Also, they both used doves and ravens.

The differences between the two stories tell us what makes Judaism special. Noah brings his wife and his children, while Utnapishtim only brings his wife. That shows that Judaism values family. In the Noah story, G-d destroyed the world with the flood because he saw corruption. In Utnapishtim’s story, the gods never gave a reason for flooding the world. Jews therefore expect a reason for divine action. After the flood, Noah renews the human race, and Noah makes G-d promise never to flood the Earth ever again. At the end of the Gilgamesh story, Utnapishtim lives forever with his wife away from humans. Judaism’s emphasis on human behavior comes from G-d’s promise not to destroy the world again. When Noah is restarting human civilization, Jews believe that it’s up to people to decide what happens in the world. For Jews, no man is better than another in a Judaic society. Judaism emphasizes that we should do something to help the greater good, not to be looking out for number one. It is up to us to create a world, without the corruption that caused the Flood.

Jews call the act of doing a good deed for someone else a “Mitzvah”. Today marks my acceptance of the expectation that, now as a man, I must perform Mitzvah(s).

I would like to thank everyone who helped me get me to this point. First I would like to thank my Dad for the countless numbers of hours we spent working and perfecting my Torah portion and Haftorah, and other prayers, Adlai’s Torah portion, and his own Torah portion. Next would be my Mom. She has her own Torah portion, hand-made my talis bag, and if I continued, we’d be here all day. Third in line would be my brother Adlai. Though I don’t often give him credit, he is in the 10th grade. From what I can imagine, it’s probably not all butterflies and rainbows, but more like thunder and lightning. Although his portion was small, he probably was under lots of stress, so thank you Adlai. Last I would like to thank all of you watching and listening to me give my speech. In one way, you have had some impact on my life.