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June 23: Noah’s Ark
Lawrence Bush
June 22, 2016
According to religious sources that believe the Earth to be only 5,776 years old, today marks the date in 2105 BCE when Noah’s Ark lodged on the still-flooded summit of Mount Ararat in Armenia. Current projects to save species from global climate change and other sources of habitat destruction include The Frozen Ark, a consortium of zoos that save DNA samples from endangered species; Saving Species, which mobilizes science to drive conservation decisions; the International Fund for Animal Welfare; Sea Shepherd, which is oriented towards the oceans; and numerous other groups oriented towards individual species and/or regions of the planet. Harvard’s esteemed biologist and insect expert E.O. Wilson urges in his new book HALF-EARTH that approximately half the planet be set aside as a wildlife refuge to allow the planet’s diversity to recover and flourish.
“When Noah, on leaving the ark, saw the destruction wrought on the world, he began to weep, saying: ‘Lord of the world, You are merciful; why have You not pitied Your children?’ God answered him: ‘Foolish shepherd! Now you implore My clemency? Had you done so when I announced to you the Flood, it would not have come to pass.” —Midrash Tankhuma
Lawrence Bush edited Jewish Currents from 2003 until 2018. He is the author of Bessie: A Novel of Love and Revolution and Waiting for God: The Spiritual Explorations of a Reluctant Atheist, among other books. His new volume of illustrated Torah commentaries, American Torah Toons 2, is scheduled for publication this year.
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