After the Flood: hope and promise

Our times compel a search for wisdom, if not distraction. We survey the landscape of snarky-yet-telling memes and self-help bromides. Eventually, when eyes weary of our umbilical, glowing beacons, we plumb the depths of more enduring traditions. Perhaps the most iconic account of global cataclysm, the Bible’s Flood Epic, comes readily to mind and heart in these strange days, less as facile fable of punishment for evil than as an embrace of catastrophe as opportunity.

Judaism’s take on this ancient, shared saga goes beyond the mythic hero’s journey or clash of deities reflected in other’s quest...