Noach
Genesis 6:9-11:32; Isaiah 54:1-55:5 (Sephardim: 54:1-10)
G-d commands Noach to build an ark to preserve his family and representatives of every animal species from destruction. For forty days and forty nights, rain pours down on the earth and the waters cover everything. When the waters finally recede, a new humanity can be born. G-d then promises that such a flood will never again destroy the earth, and seals His covenant with the sign of the rainbow[1]. The prophet Isaiah recalls the eternal covenant between G-d and Israel by invoking the “waters of Noach.”
Genesis 6:14
עֲשֵׂה לְךָ תֵּבַת עֲצֵי־גֹפֶר
“Make yourself an ark of gopher wood.” [2]
The Ahrida Synagogue was founded in the 15th century by Romaniote Jews originating from Ohrid, in North Macedonia, and is one of the oldest synagogues in Istanbul. Located in the historic district of Balat, it was rebuilt after a fire in the late 17th century. At the center of the prayer hall stands a tevah[3] in the shape of a ship. It has a rounded hull, painted yellow and outlined in red, an openwork balustrade, and a raised stern topped by a small canopy, which recalls a ship’s quarterdeck.
During the Torah reading, the person called up ascends to a tevah that recalls the one that protected its occupants from the Flood, between the waters above and the waters below[4]. The water that destroys is also the water that gives life, and Jewish liturgy[5] makes it a source of blessing.
[1] Upon seeing a rainbow, halakha prescribes reciting a blessing that recalls the Covenant made with Noach: “Blessed are You, L…, King of the universe, who remembers the Covenant, is faithful to Your Covenant, and fulfills Your word” (Berakhot 59a; Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chayim 229:1). However, it is forbidden to gaze at a rainbow for long, because the prophet Ezekiel compares its appearance to that of the Divine Glory (Ezekiel 1:28; Chagigah 16a; Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chayim 229:1).
[2] Gopher (a biblical hapax), an unidentified type of wood. Tradition understands it as a resinous, rot-resistant wood, such as cedar or cypress (Rashi; Onkelos). The midrash reads a wordplay with gofrit (sulfur/bitumen), recalling the waterproofing coating mentioned immediately afterward: “you shall coat it with bitumen”
[3] The tevah (Hebrew: תיבה) designates, in Sephardic communities, the platform from which the Torah is read. In the Torah, this word is used for only two rescues by water: Noach’s ark, and the bitumen-coated reed basket in which Moses is placed on the Nile (Exodus 2:3).
[4] The waters: On the second day of Creation, G-d separates the waters above from the waters below (Genesis 1:6-7). At the time of the Flood, everything is reversed: “all the fountains of the great deep burst forth and the windows of the heavens were opened” (Genesis 7:11).
[5] In all the Amidot, starting from the Musaf of Shemini Atzeret, the wind and rain are mentioned (Mashiv haRuach umorid hagashem). However, the request for dew and rain as a blessing (VeTen Tal uMatar liVrakha) is made only from the evening of 7 Cheshvan in Israel, in order to give Sukkot pilgrims time to return home (Ta’anit 10a; Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chayim 117:1). In 2026, the request begins immediately after the end of Shabbat Noach. In the diaspora, one follows the Talmudic calculation of sixty days after the autumn equinox (tekufat Tishrei), that is, the evening of December 4, 2026.