Our Mission

The Flood came to its complete end when the earth dried up.This occurred exactly one solar year (365 days) after the rain began.

The sun and moon symbolize our spiritual and mundane pursuits, respectively. The Torah and its commandments are like the sun in that they are self-illuminating; we feel G-d’s presence when we engage in them. Mundane activities, in contrast, are like the moon, in that they do not possess their own intrinsic light. They only shine after we illuminate them with Divine consciousness.

The Flood is a metaphor for our engagement with the mundane aspects of reality and their potential to drown us in their pursuit, and therefore relates to the moon. The fact that the Flood lasted for a complete solar year indicates that it is the synthesis of the two modes – the sun (the spiritual) and the moon (the mundane) – that fulfills the purpose of creation, since the purpose of holiness and Divine consciousness is to permeate mundane reality, as well.

Thus, whenever we enter “lunar mode,” descending into the “floodwaters” of our mundane activities, we must illuminate them

with the “sun,” the self-illuminating acts of studying the Torah and observing the commandments.

—From Daily Wisdom 3