Dear Friends,
This week’s Torah portion is called Noah – obviously it includes the story of Noah, Noah’s Ark, Noah’s communication with God, Noah’s saving the animals, Noah’s family – for better and for worse, and the new covenant with God which emerges from the Noah experience.
But, why should we call it Noah’s Ark? Was it really his?
To the elephants on board, wasn’t it their Ark, as well? So too the zebras and the mosquitos?
And so too for his Wife, and his daughter’s-in-law – wasn’t the Ark the vessel of their salvation, no less?
These questions evolve from a webinar I attended this week, sponsored by the Central Conference of American Rabbis – the Reform rabbinic organization – addressing implicit bias in our work and in our lives. The data are so compelling that we live with unexamined and unconscious biases which can affect our relationships across racial boundaries, our gender encounters and professional expectations, among others. Implanted in us are foundational cultural biases and assumptions, all too often unstudied, which render unfounded judgments as to who someone is and what he or she can do or achieve.
We automatically interact by our inner psychological programs and inner rules. But, doing so, we may include or omit persons inauthentically. Who says that Jews are only Ashkenazic – what about Jews of color, or Asian background? Why do men more regularly interrupt women in conversations, but not other men? Why do we perpetuate racial disparities? How come Jews are still denigrated and vilified in some corners, especially noted this week with the Kanye West situation? Why was it Noah’s Ark¸ and not his Wife’s Ark?
These questions have vexed us as we continue to study inner assumptions in present society.
And, there are ways to address this. Firstly, we can ask these very questions, and be willing to listen to those who live with the ramifications of bias. Secondly, we can look at history and learn that biased policy follows biased attitudes, witness Hitler’s Germany, but also that biased policy can follow biased attitudes – witness current treatment of refugees from Latin America. Thus, we need to reconsider our own biases towards biases. Thirdly, each of us can look at our own entrenched stereotypes and attitudes and be willing to admit when our positions are troubling. It is not easy – but it is a calling of our day.
Perhaps, it was Noah’s wife’s Ark!
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Douglas Kohn
This week’s Torah portion is called Noah – obviously it includes the story of Noah, Noah’s Ark, Noah’s communication with God, Noah’s saving the animals, Noah’s family – for better and for worse, and the new covenant with God which emerges from the Noah experience.
But, why should we call it Noah’s Ark? Was it really his?
To the elephants on board, wasn’t it their Ark, as well? So too the zebras and the mosquitos?
And so too for his Wife, and his daughter’s-in-law – wasn’t the Ark the vessel of their salvation, no less?
These questions evolve from a webinar I attended this week, sponsored by the Central Conference of American Rabbis – the Reform rabbinic organization – addressing implicit bias in our work and in our lives. The data are so compelling that we live with unexamined and unconscious biases which can affect our relationships across racial boundaries, our gender encounters and professional expectations, among others. Implanted in us are foundational cultural biases and assumptions, all too often unstudied, which render unfounded judgments as to who someone is and what he or she can do or achieve.
We automatically interact by our inner psychological programs and inner rules. But, doing so, we may include or omit persons inauthentically. Who says that Jews are only Ashkenazic – what about Jews of color, or Asian background? Why do men more regularly interrupt women in conversations, but not other men? Why do we perpetuate racial disparities? How come Jews are still denigrated and vilified in some corners, especially noted this week with the Kanye West situation? Why was it Noah’s Ark¸ and not his Wife’s Ark?
These questions have vexed us as we continue to study inner assumptions in present society.
And, there are ways to address this. Firstly, we can ask these very questions, and be willing to listen to those who live with the ramifications of bias. Secondly, we can look at history and learn that biased policy follows biased attitudes, witness Hitler’s Germany, but also that biased policy can follow biased attitudes – witness current treatment of refugees from Latin America. Thus, we need to reconsider our own biases towards biases. Thirdly, each of us can look at our own entrenched stereotypes and attitudes and be willing to admit when our positions are troubling. It is not easy – but it is a calling of our day.
Perhaps, it was Noah’s wife’s Ark!
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Douglas Kohn
