Our Sacred Buried Remnants
At the end of last week, an article appeared on the News Nation platform about recent claims by researchers to have found evidence that identifies the ancient ruins of Noah’s Ark beneath the hills in Ararat, Turkey. Written by Elizabeth Vargas, the article focuses on the work by archaeologist Andrew Jones and his team. While I consider myself invested in archaeology and the biblical narrative, I couldn’t help but wonder about the heightened significance of these findings when considering how lost we feel today.
I am still reeling from the murder of Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky in Washington DC last Wednesday Night. My social media feed was filled with pictures of their beautiful faces filled with love and hope, and promise of the future. Most American Jewish families that I know dream of their daughters making the life choices that might place them in the Israeli Embassy like Sarah did. I fear that her murder might dissuade us from that encouragement. I find myself wondering whether their murders will begin a chain of copycat crimes by the face-covered thugs who have joined the global terrorist intifada, or whether this will be the wake-up call for America about the dangers and the implications of continued hate speech in the public square. I find myself wondering whether the Jewish community in America has woken up to the reality that these repercussions carry with them a serious threat for ourselves and for our children.
I haven’t seen those photos of them in my social media for a couple of days. When I think about the absence of the pictures, I find myself tearing up because I consider that Sarah and Yaron’s beautiful spirits might be forgotten a week after their brutal murders. Can our community not even mourn for a week anymore?
Today’s world is focused upon the fleeting stories of our ever-shortening news cycles. Who can possibly live in such a social state mired in disaster when our minds are endlessly filled with news loops about trade, stocks, sports, and celebrity trials? War barely breaks onto the front page anymore. Stolen humans held for 600 days of captivity does not faze us. Rampant Jew hatred has been accepted as a social norm. It feels to me like years since anybody has acknowledged humanity’s tragic loss of the Bibas family, like centuries since we suffered the horrors of September 11, 2001. This time today does not demand that we only search for lost objects. We need to find our way forward.
Within the shifting sands of the moment, we seek to tether ourselves in pursuit of the eternal. With the exception of the Garden of Eden, there is no biblical narrative earlier in Genesis than Noah’s Ark. In some manner, the remains of Noah’s Ark stand as conclusive evidence of the biblical narrative and proof of the divine. While I look forward to reading the work of Andrew Jones, I do not need it to support my sense of God’s presence in the world or solidify for me the stature of the Hebrew Bible.
If you are looking for proof of the unbroken chain of Jewish tradition extending out from the Hebrew Bible to the present, you need not search for the remains of Noah or Abraham and Sarah, you need not look further than the smile of Sarah Milgrim. To understand the values of wisdom, one need not hunt for the treasures of Solomon, but rather understand the life and profession of Yaron Lischinsky. Their life choices stand as beacons of light during this dark period of time. Their dedication to Israel and the Jewish people exemplify the promise of our youth. Their memories stand as a blessing for us all.
This is a time of epic civilizational struggle along the lines of biblical proportion. Sarah and Yaron’s deaths represent the diminishment of light in the world. It feels like this is a time when societies across the world must begin again.
Ironically, this is a time when we must look back at stories concerning global rebirth. Perhaps our most famous example of such a story is about Noah. That story begins with the claim that, “… the earth had become filled with Hamas (translated as violence, corruption).” (Genesis 6:12) How many Sarahs and Yarons had to die for the world to merit a reboot? The buried remnant of humanity we must seek is Sarah and Yaron. We should, in fact, all begin digging deep within – for the collective will to push back the growing darkness around the world.
