Mishy Harman on Genesis 7-8 – “Noah’s Ark: The Essence of Our Existence”

The Rabbi's Husband

Mark is delighted to welcome Mishy Harman, Co-Founder, Host and Executive Producer of ‘Israel Story’, to the podcast today. Essentially an Israeli version of ‘This American Life’, ‘Israel Story’ chronicles the story of Israelis, including Eli Beer of United Hatzalah, and has hundreds of thousands of listeners in over 190 countries around the world. Mishy is a Jerusalemite who has served in the IDF, graduated from Harvard, and received his Ph.D at the Hebrew University. He has chosen ‘one of the great passages of the Bible’, Genesis 7-8, to discuss with Mark today. Mishy begins by sharing his summary of the passage, its significance for him, and some examples of flood stories from other cultures. He and Mark then explore God’s reason for choosing Noah, the sources of this story, Noah’s righteousness and his response to God, and the notion of walking ahead of God rather than with Him. They also examine why God doesn’t destroy everyone in this story, and what would be put in the ark these days. Mishy draws the conversation to a close by sharing the lessons he has learned about humankind, along with examples of these lessons, and the ways that people can surprise us. As Mark states, this is an ‘awesome and eternal passage which continues to yield lessons every time anyone studies it’, and today’s episode offers a prime example of this fact. Episode Highlights: · Mishy’s summary of the passage and why it’s significant for him · Flood stories from other cultures · Why God picks Noah · The sources of the Noah story · Noah’s righteousness and his response to God · Walking ahead of God · Why God doesn’t destroy everybody and start over · What would we put in Noah’s ark today? · The lessons that Mishy has learned about humankind · Examples which illustrate these lessons · Being surprised by people Quotes: “In many ways, the ark is a Voyager.” “It’s kind of a collective reward, really. They, and we as an extension, are reaping the benefits of Noah being righteous.” “God gave us the gift of creation and of re-creation, but that gift is in words, and Noah never uses them.” “He’s waiting for Noah to, sort of, pushback, and then nothing happens?” “It is so hard to be a good person in a bad culture.” “He never inspires anybody.” “God’s waiting for an argument that never comes.” “There’s something, sort of, I think, similarly beautiful about that kind of hopefulness that comes out of this mass destruction.” “God loves diversity, properly understood.” “God said He won’t destroy the world again, but He doesn’t say ‘You won’t’. It’s an ominous passage, particularly for the atomic age.” “We have indeed subjugated the entire planet to our purposes, and that is leading us in very scary and disastrous directions.” “I’ve learned how different we all are really fundamentally, and…how similar we all are.” “What I’ve learned…is…how rarely people actually conform to these stereotypes that we apply to them.” “By stripping the visual element and just hearing a voice, it allows you to actually listen to what people are saying, and not have it tainted by your stereotypes.”

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