Sermon Tone Analysis

Fear and relief

In this weeks Parshat we have a lot of events that are recorded.

The event that was brought to my attention was the escape of Lot and his daughters from the destruction of Sodom and Gamorrah.

There are many similarities between this event, experienced by Lot, and the event experienced by Noah.

In both cases the men where warned of a coming calamity and instructed to warn others.

In both cases only their wives and children heeded their warning.

In both cases their society is completely destroyed.

In both cases only Noah and Lot and those that are with them survive the destruction.

In both cases the men to turn to alcohol to help soothe the emotions from what must be an incredibly tragic and traumatic event.

I was thinking about what it must have been like to survive.

It is reasonable to say, these men probably had a mixture of emotions, and most of them not necessarily good.

Sure they survived the calamity, but for what?

From their perspectives it would be starting the whole world over.

Survivors guilt is a well known mental condition in which a person feels guilty when they did not succumb as others, due to a fatal event.

There is also despair to see all that a person has worked for be destroyed and to have to start over from literally only what one could carry.

An even heavier responsibility to carry on and create a life for those that are with you.

Frustration and more guilt at not having done more previously to try and change what happened, save more people, be better prepared, avoided everything entirely, or just react better than they did.

I can imagine Noah wishing he had been more fervent with his neighbors or Lot wishing he had his wife in front of him rather than behind him as they fled.

In spite of having some of their family around them they may have even felt lonely.

No doubt a drink would have been a small comfort after everything.

In both cases Noah and Lot took comfort in things they brought from the world they lost.

I was focused on this thought, that after everything that had happened to them, why where they not more cautious?

I think the answer is fear.

Both of the men seem to fear what is to come.

Noah was literally in a world that had 8 people counting himself in it.

As well I think it is reasonable for us to assume nothing was the same as before.

Lot’s daughters at least assumed there was no other men to take as husbands.

They had just watched fire rain from the sky to destroy the cities they had called home.

In both cases everyone may have been afraid.

It is not hard to figure out why these men where not more cautious, because how often is this pattern repeated in all people?

How often when we have escaped something and still fear the future do we do the same thing as Noah and Lot.

We might be quick to think to ourselves, “I do not get drunk” yet we escape in to movies, shows, or music that is of the world, perhaps we seek diversion with video games, social media, work, or secular studies and not enough time seeking the solace found in our heavenly father.

We have become good at justifying self-care and being aware, to relieve fear even if just for a little while.

Yet if I am honest it becomes a distraction from the one who saved us in the first place.

When our minds are full of fear, there is no room for other thoughts.

What events have transpired or are transpiring in our lives that we are going to survive?

How will we react after we escape from the danger that we are in?

Do we dwell on fear or do we turn as we always should to HaShem?

What if instead of focusing on relief from the fear through worldly distractions and means, these men had turned to singing praises, prayer, and obedience that these distractions could also be a worship or service of HaShem?

Their stories might have ended differently.

There is a lot happening and has happened in the world today.

I have survived it and Bezerat HaShem, God willing, I will survive what is to come.

What then?

Do I focus on a fear of what is next or do I focus on a gratitude that yet again in spite of my unworthiness my creator has rescued me.

Do I take comforts in the very same world that I had to survive or do I allow the elevation of my soul through the illumination of HaShem’s goodness that is pervasive in all things and the goodness that comes through praises, prayer, and obedience to his Torah to comfort me.

If I am honest I owe everything to the one who saved me and I need to continue to put distance between that which I survived and myself.