In the story of Noah and the Flood, we actually know very little about the reactions to Noah’s grand carpentry scheme.
Try to imagine what went through Noah’s brain upon hearing the divine command to build the Ark. Did he immediately believe God’s transmission? How did his family react to seeing him with hammer in hand? Did he – or they, perhaps – think he was on the verge of mental collapse, a sure candidate for the psychiatrist’s couch? What kind of reaction did he stir up among his neighbours?
Answers to these kinds of questions come to the fore in the recent adaptation of Noah’s dilemma in the film Evan Almighty (2007). Buffalo, N.Y., newsman Evan Baxter is elected to Congress on the slogan “Change the World!” (This sounds all too familiar as we tune in to the upcoming U.S. election.) He’s tapped by a corrupt senator to co-sponsor a land-grab bill that would lead to ecologically damaging development in national parks.
But in steps God, who gently orders Evan to build an ark (à la Noah) and to prepare for a personal flood. TV reporters and neighbours gather to belittle his antics. Drought grips Washington, D.C., his family deserts him, but still Evan believes. With conscience and faith working at full throttle, he risks family, career and his sanity.
In one sober scene, God lays down the primary spiritual lesson of human free will: “Let me ask you something. If someone prays for patience, you think God gives them patience? Or does he give them the opportunity to be patient? If he prayed for courage, does God give him courage, or does he give him opportunities to be courageous? If someone prayed for the family to be closer, do you think God zaps them with warm fuzzy feelings, or does he give them opportunities to love each other?”
I have long contended that if the talmudic rabbis were living in our day and age, they would become movie producers, directors and, for sure, actors. Like the written genre of midrash, the medium of film so very often conveys deep insights about humanity. Moviemaking at its best is privileged to delve into the complexities and perplexities of the human condition.
Here, then, are some spiritual insights from Evan Almighty to which our Sages would have surely said amen:
• Freedom to choose blessing or curse is God’s gift to us as humans. Translation: it is our privilege to make a “green” heaven on earth, or to ruin the earth’s sensitive ecosystem.
• How do we change the world? Through one single act of random kindness at a time.
• Like Noah of old, and Evan in the film, listen to your conscience, and be true to yourself!
Rabbi Harvey W. Meirovich is a rabbi at Beth Tzedec Congregation in Toronto.
