10:30 am - 11:30 am
Genesis Chapter 6, Verse 13 tells us that “God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.” Of what kind of violence was God speakiing? What could be worthy of the destruction of human beings on the earth? Those who read the narrative of Noah and the Flood as a children’s story and those who read it casually, all too often miss the point! Let’s together read this episode, its prologue and epilogue, a little more carefully and truly understand the message of this classical tale.
Rabbi Merrill Shapiro, the President of the St. Augustine Jewish Historical Society studied Electrical Engineering at Cornell University and New Jersey Institute of Technology, Jewish Studies and Education at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America and The Ohio State University and served as a Graduate Research Assistant at Melton Research Centre for Jewish Education in the Diaspora at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. He has also been a Yad Vashem Scholar at Israel’s Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem. He was an Instructor of Jewish History at the University of Central Florida and a frequent Road Scholar and currently an OLLI Educator at the University of North Florida.. Shapiro served congregations in Columbus, Ohio, Orlando, Florida and Richmond, Virginia. Shapiro is the Immediate Past National President of Americans United for Separation of Church and State. He and his wife Robyn live in Palm Coast, Florida and have two daughters and five grandchildren.
Worship Leader: David Austin
Accompanist: Gary Smart
Location: BBUUC
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