NAMAAH, NOAH, EARTH

Noah's wife Naamah is called upon by God to gather the seeds of every type of plant on Earth and bring them safely onto the ark before the great flood.

Noah’s Wife: The Story of Naamah by Sandy Eisenberg Sasso. Library section 11 A: Pre-K, Religion & Character Building. While Noah and sons were busy building the ark we can assume Noah’s wife wasn’t just sittin’ around filing her nails. If she was like any other mother, she was a multitasker, busy feeding and tending to her family, all the while getting ready for the adventure trip of a lifetime. Noah’s family had no idea how long or arduous this trip would last. They were definitely “going on faith” just as Abraham did. Imagine the faith Noah’s wife must have had in Noah and God when Noah told her what God had told him to do! There must have been disbelief and doubt at first. “Are you sure about this, dear? Shouldn’t we just take a plane to Mt. Ararat?”
This award-winning story book gives Noah’s wife a name, Naamah. ( She was NOT Joan of “Ark” as some kids suppose.) Sasso imagines Naamah’s God-given task: to gather two of every seed, every living plant, creating a garden on the ark. After the waters receded she was to replant the earth’s garden. How clever and how probable. (My Mom would often go into the woods on our vacations at a hunting camp and dig up a few tiny plants to plant in a sweat jar to last all winter, so Naamah’s actions seem perfectly on target!)
In creating this story, Sasso, the first reconstructionist Jewish female rabbi, and together with her husband the first practicing rabbinical couple, has created the type of story that in Hebrew is called midrash. Midrash are stories written down by ancestors and told and retold until they come to feel very old, as if they were always a part of religious tradition. Here Sasso has created a modern-day midrash story that eventually has already become part of our religious experience. It’s a unique book that emphasizes the centrality of women in families, something often left out of Biblical narratives, since they were written by men!
Sasso has won many honorary doctorates and awards. She is particularly interested in developing the religious imagination of children. This, as well as a number of other books she has written, are published by Jewish Lights Publishing, but all are nondenominational and nonsectarian, able to be enjoyed by children of all faiths. You will see me review a few more of them from time to time and place them in our library. ( )

TWO COPIES.