The Language of Lineage

Noach by Ben Russell

Parashat Noach – October 19, 2025 / 27 Tishrei 5786

Before the story of Noach begins, the Torah pauses on a long list of names—a genealogy stretching from Adam to Noach. It’s tempting to skip it, but hidden in those names is the story of humanity in miniature: from dust to descent, from praise to peril, from mortality to rest.

Each name in the genealogy tells a piece of the human story: Adam, the human from the earth; Sheit, the appointed one; Enosh, the mortal; Kenan, the one who grasps; Mahalalel, who praises God; Yered, who descends; Chanokh, who dedicates; Metushelach, whose death will bring; Lemech, power or lament; and Noach, rest and comfort.

Read together, the names form a kind of poem—humanity descending, forgetting, searching, and finally finding rest. By the time we meet Noach, the Torah has already told us what it means to be human: to rise, to fall, and to begin again.

This week, we’re invited to step into Noach’s story—to listen for what renewal might sound like after the storm, and to wonder what it means to find rest and comfort in a world still learning how to begin again.

,שבוע טוב

Ben