Rabbi Howard Morrison

While God brought on the flood as recorded in the story of Noah, most modern people of faith understand that hurricanes and other natural disasters are products of weather systems and are not brought on by God as some kind of moral lesson. With the devastations caused recently by hurricanes Fiona and Ian, as well as previous hurricanes, what can we learn from these terrible disasters? How can our tradition help us in coping with the challenges raised from these and other natural disasters? As I pose these questions,  we pray for all who have been impacted. We pray also for Jewish communities who are forced to approach the High Holy Day season very differently this year.

Like the hurricanes, this season of the year reminds us that life is fragile, and our existence on this earth is temporal. The prayer, U'Netaneh Tokef, recited on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, takes on new meaning after the recent events: "Who shall die by fire, and who by water?" We feel for the families who have lost loved ones, and we feel for the millions of people unable to leave their homes to purchase food and water, and for those living without electrical power.

Are natural disasters simply part of a system we cannot control? Or is humanity's refusal to be good stewards of God's planet now having an effect? How we answer these questions may have severe consequences in the future life of humanity on this earth.

On Simchat Torah, we will finish and begin the Torah. The Sages of the Talmud teach us that the Torah begins and ends with divine acts of kindness. In Bereishit (Genesis), God clothes Adam and Eve. In Devarim (Deuteronomy), God buries Moses. So too, we are commanded to imitate God's attributes by performing deeds of kindness.

Lessons imparted to us by hurricanes and other natural disasters can only reinforce our religious mandate to practice deeds of kindness.

Gmar Chatima Tova,

Rabbi Howard Morrison