Parshat Noach and the Sins Committed at the DC Mikveh

This past week, the Greater Washington community has been dealing with the outcome of a terrible crime that was committed in Georgetown. Rabbi Barry Freundel, the rabbi of the synagogue, (allegedly) committed awful acts of electronic voyeurism in the mikveh. The initial evidence is damning and is becoming worse every day. Many members of our shul previously were congregants of the accused and have been greatly impacted by the events. I have been struggling with how to respond and I think that this week’s parshah, Parshat Noach, can help us at least begin to discuss this topic.  

Upon leaving the Ark, G-d utters one of the most dramatic and surprising commandments in all of the Torah:

פרו ורבו ומלאו את הארץ

procreate and multiply and fill the Earth.

Why is this so dramatic? Isn't this pretty standard fare for the Bible? Well the truth of the matter is that this is not the first time we hear this command. When did we hear it first? Back with Adam and Eve.

On the 6th day after creation the Posuk says

וירא אלקים את כל אשר עשה והנה טוב מאד

“G-d saw everything he had made and it was very good.” The plants, the animals, the rivers, mountains, and valley; everything was beautiful. Now Adam and Eve were asked to procreate. To go out and do good, to create and to achieve. “Everything was good.”

But in between the two commands to procreate, much negativity takes place. First, Adam and Eve sin with the Tree of Knowledge. Then we have the first murder as Cain kills his brother Abel. Things go from bad to worse until G-d decides to bring the flood and destroy the world.

Well what was the terrible sin that finally convinced G-d to destroy the world?

The Torah at the end of last week’s parshah tells us the sin.

ויראו בני אלהים את בנות האדם כי טבת הנה. ויקחו להם נשים מכל אשר בחרו.

The sons of Elohim (we will translate this word in a second) saw the daughters of people that they were good (or beautiful). They (the sons of Elohim) took whichever women they wanted.

Who were the sons of Elohim. Rashi says that Elohim means judges and princes, meaning the powerful men. In other words, men who were in position of power abused their power and authority and took advantage of women who were vulnerable. Ibn Ezra says that these were people who upheld the “Mishpat Elohim” or divine law. The judges or those who upheld divine law, the Dayyanim and members of the Bet din were the abusers. They took women who they chose without consent. Nachmanides makes it even more damning.

הדיינים, אשר להם לעשות המשפט, בניהם עושים החמס בגלוי ואין מונע אתם.

The judges, those who we turn to for justice, those who we trusted, they and their children committed acts of violence and theft in the open and those who should have stopped it and did not (loose translation).

And how does G-d respond. G-d says

אמחה את האדם אשר בראתי

I am going to destroy humanity which I have created.

I recently saw  the Darren Aronofsky movie “Noah.” One of the themes of the movie was that G-d’s original plan (at least as Noah understood it) was to destroy all of humanity forever. Noah and his family were supposed to save the animals. After the flood, the animals would survive but Noah and his family would die. The world would revert to the 6th day of creation before Adam and Eve. It would be a world of plants and animals and rivers, lakes, mountains, valleys. A pristine and pure world without humans to mess it up. There is a actually a midrash that somewhat supports this reading. The midrash juxtaposes אמחה את האדם….ונח - “I will destroy humanity and Noah with it…”

But then what happens. At some point during the flood, G-d remembers Noach and the Brit (covenant). G-d remembers why he created the world to begin with. G-d remembers all of the potential for good. I dont think G-d will ever say again that “he saw everything that he created and it was very good.” It is simply not true. There is murder, sexual abuse, theft, crime. There are people who are in power who take advantage of the vulnerable. But even if not everything is good, there is still so much good and so much potential.

And this leads me to the verse that I opened with. After the flood, G-d’s first command to Noah is the same as he commanded Adam and Eve. Procreate, Multiply achieve wonderful things in this world. Not because everything is good. There will still be bad. In fact, the verse preceding the command to procreate discusses the laws of murder. But still go out and fill the world. We must learn from our mistakes, we must change and then we must continue as before.

The crimes that we have been learned about in the last 10 days have completely sullied some of the most beautiful aspects of judaism. The Mikveh, the conversion process, trust in leadership and rabbis who have taught amazing Torah.

Our job is now threefold. 

First we must do everything we can to support the victims. Of course the primary concern is for those who directly were the victims of voyeurism and then we must also support all users of the mikveh and all converts and congregants of the accused.

Second, we must make change. I have heard it said that we as rabbis have to do more to protect the female converts. This is not the correct approach. We dont need more men protecting women. We need women to be empowered in our community. We need to give the Keys of the Mikveh to the women (see here). We need to do a better job at regulating the rabbinate - I say this as a pulpit rabbi (see here). We also must figure out a way to greatly expand women’s spiritual leadership in our schools and shuls. In fact, I should not be the one giving this speech. We should have a professional female spiritual leader at Beth Sholom who should be offering her reflections on the past 10 days and how we should move forward. There are many wonderful programs that train orthodox women to be spiritual leaders ranging from Yeshivat Maharat to Rabbi Riskin’s program in Israel, the Yoatzot Halacha, Stern/YU GPATS. While Beth Sholom had a Maharat Intern last year, this is not enough. We must look to the above programs to find strong female spiritual leadership at Beth Sholom. And finally, we must do a better job following the laws of Yichud (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yichud). Male rabbis (and really all males) should not be meeting women alone at night in the shul office or other private places. This will protect the women and the rabbis. It is amazing that if we only followed our ancient traditional laws, many of our problems would be averted. One challenge of the laws of Yichud, especially as applied to rabbis and congregants, is that female congregants might not have as much access to their rabbis for pastoral and spiritual counseling. To remedy this, see my comment above about the necessity to have female spiritual leadership in shuls.

Third - After we have supported the victims and after we have made the necessary changes that allowed this to happen in the first place, we must remember the first command after the flood. We must continue building and strengthening our Jewish community and Mitzva Observance. We must learn to trust (with necessary safeguards) again our spiritual leadership (male and female) and we have to reclaim all that is good in Orthodoxy, Mitzvoth and Judaism. We will do this not because there is no bad but because there is so much good.

May Hashem give strength to the victims and may we all have the courage to learn from our mistakes and create a better future for all of us.