"What World Will We Create?"

What World Will We Create?

The month of Mar Cheshvan, which we have just entered, is unique. It has no Jewish holidays—no festivals, no fasts, no celebrations.

After two intense months of Elul and Tishrei, filled with spiritual preparation, prayer, and joy, Mar Cheshvan invites us to pause, breathe, and let everything we have learned take root.

It’s a time to let inspiration settle into daily life, to consolidate, to take stock.

For me, this month holds both joy and sorrow—birthdays of my daughter and two grandchildren, and yahrzeits of my son and my father.

New beginnings amidst profound loss.

Birthdays and yahrzeits both ask us to reflect on where we’ve come from and where we are going.

In this week’s Torah portion, we meet Noach, who was named by his father Lamech because,

“This one will bring us comfort from our work and from the toil of our hands, from the ground which Hashem has cursed.”

Noach’s very name reflected his father’s hope—that he would become a source of comfort and renewal.

The parsha opens with a world steeped in corruption, which God decides to wash away.

Noach, righteous in his generation, is chosen to build an ark—to protect his family and every living creature from the flood.

The world would begin again with him.

His challenge was not only to survive, but to help create a new and better world—one aligned with God’s vision, one grounded in righteousness and compassion.

Each of us stands in a similar place.

We are all builders, shapers of the world we inhabit and the world we will leave behind.

Like Noach, we are called to “walk with God” and to bring comfort, healing, and hope into our surroundings.

The question is not only what kind of world have we inherited, but what world will we create?

Will we be sources of comfort and kindness—now, and for those who come after us?

May we each be inspired to help build a world that is gentler, safer, healthier, and more loving—so that when our time comes, we will leave behind a legacy of compassion and hope.

Much love and Shabbat Shalom and Chodesh Tov

Elissa