Floating Through Floods

Dear God,

Even with your mistakes
(flooding the world doesn't make anybody all bad)
and choosing Noah (who cursed his grandson's descendants to be a slave of slaves)
I'm so grateful we
with all our mistakes,
are here, because of You, Noah
and his offspring
and with you all
learning from our mistakes
how to float through floods
and be fruitful and multiply.

Back To The Garden

Margaret wrote: "Another sadness in this new world, which was '''created by violence'',
that man's relationship with animals has fundamentally altered.
Those creatures now live ''in fear and terror of man." and man..."


You words about Genesis inspire me to want to go back to the time when all creation was good and we were "very good."

Here's my song to find our ways to the good ol' days:

Back to the Garden

god is found
in the ground
so let’s flirt
with our dirt
till we’re weeds
spreading seeds
loving
earth
giving
birth

Just Parents

What a sweet question, Dear Margaret: "Do parents, having created, ever regret their children?" I have dear friends who are very sorry they begot children. It seems you never have regretted having children.
*****
Genesis attracts me because it gives me a chance to explore the deadly feelings of parents towards children.

Noah is furious but less deadly than God towards children:
After discovering that Ham saw him naked, Noah cries to Ham's son: "cursed be Canaan. The slave of slaves will he be to his brothers" [9:25].

This verse might have been a justification for the tribes of Israel to slaughter the folks in Canaan in biblical times.
This verse was a justification for slavery for thousands of years.
Israel is still wrestling to treat the present inhabitants of Canaan, the Palestinians, justly.
***
Our dear God regrets murdering almost all of us with a flood and promises "Never again."
I pray we children of Noah will also regret cursing any of our children and will promise "Never again."

Never Again

Margaret wrote: "End of Genesis ch 8 and beginning of 9, we have that duty imposed on man and creatures again which God gives at the first creation of the world: be fruitful and multiply.
So this is a re-birth of mankind, ..."

In yeshivas, students study the Bible in pairs--wrestling out new meanings for our lives. So thank you so much Dear Margaret for being my yeshiva partner and keeping our biblical conversation going. I'm sure God-and-Goddess are grape full and will bless us and all we love.
*****
I'm touched that God, seems so repentant after He floods the earth. Now, when even an animal takes human life, "his blood will be shed" [9:5-6].

However evil we are, have been, we can all ways begin again. With new guidelines we cry "Never again" [9:11].

Dancing With Divinity

Margaret wrote: "Struck me that when Noah sends out the birds from the ark: raven, dove, and then dove again, that there is no mention beforehand of God telling him to do this
Which made me wonder: was Noah jumping..."

I love the mantra: "God helps those who help themselves." There's an old Jewish mantra, "God punishes us for the fruits we have not tasted."

I love our relationship to divinity to be a dance. How challenging to discover when to lead and when to follow. May we be like Noah dancing with birds on a bobbing ark.

How Human is our Divinity?

How Human is our Divinity?

Can we see/feel personality in everyone and everything?

A new friend suggests I call the tree on my rooftop "Sophie." I thank Sophie for staying alive which makes my rooftop much more beautiful.
I feel love for Sophie while I type this.
**
When I look at a lobster swimming at the butchers, I tell my nephew, "There's Larry the Lobster." I wonder, while my nephew eats Larry, if it is a special meal for him. It is certainly fun for me to say goodbye to Larry while my nephew is chewing.

**

I play with the host when I am young at the chapel on campus -- offering it to my Jewish friend who has no intention of eating it. When I really feel the matzoh is Jesus, I feel my flesh and bones digest him and he digests me. I wonder who’ll we’ll be.

Genesis 1:1 Welcome to the Beginning

One of the Jewish ways of interpreting the Bible is called  "peshat" -- the "plain, simple or direct meaning.

I'm enjoying reading the first chapter of Genesis and all that follows trying to feel/think that the simple meaning of the words are true.

It’s awesome imaging we are present while our God is creating the skies/heavens, earth and humanity.

So for me what scientists call the big bang and evolution are just the way our mysterious imaginative power creates our wonder full creative universe.

Forget full Divinity

I like a god who forgets.

Kierkegaard wrote that “God not only forgives he forgets.”

I sometimes think of god as an energy field who is like the wind.

Sometimes our divine energy field is spirited away and then returns.

Nietzsche wrote that if you want to find how folks should behave, read the New Testament.  But if you want to find out how folks are – read the Hebrew Bible.

I think the same is true for our divine energy field.  (S)He does forget.  So we are in good company when we forget.  And then, like God we can promise “Never again,” and hopefully remember.