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"I'll Paint Rainbows All Over Your Blues"
Synoptic Abstract
Last week's parasha ended with the birth of Noah and his three sons. It described the evil taking place on earth at that time. Our parasha continues with the Flood story, the
In studying this week's parasha, we need to review a few verses (listed above Gen. 5:28-6:05) from last Shabbat. Noah was Methuselah's grandson and his name in Hebrew (Noach) means "rest" or "comfort." When he was five hundred years old he fathered three sons: Shem, Japeth, and Ham. It is said that the Semites are descended from Shem. A Midrash says that Noah's wife was Naamah, who was Tubal-Cain's sister. Naamah means "lovely" in Hebrew. Noah was born 126 years after Adam died in the Hebrew year of 1056. These calculations are derived by taking the dates in the Torah literally.
At the end of last week's parasha we learn that "the sons of the rulers saw that the daughters of man were good and they took for themselves from whomever they choose" (Gen. 6:02). Man was so wicked at this time that "every product of the thoughts of his heart was but evil always" (Gen. 6:05). It was not that some thoughts were bad some of the time, but that all thoughts were bad all of the time. God actually had second thoughts about having created Man and the world. God is said to "reconsider" and have "heartfelt sadness" (Gen. 6:07). Luckily, though, Noah had God's grace (Gen. 6:08), and so begins this week's parasha.
"Noah was a righteous man, perfect in his generation" (Gen. 6:09). This line sparked much debate among our sages. What does the Torah mean by saying "in his generation?" Wouldn't Noah have been righteous in any time? Some rabbis look at it this way; if Noah was righteous during the corrupt times in which he lived, imagine what a righteous man he would be in more moral times! Rashi (Rabbi Shlomo Yitzhaki, 1040,
Verse 6:11 says that the world was corrupt and filled with robbery. God was going to destroy the world for this corruption and robbery. This seems awfully harsh, especially in today's world where corruption and theft seems commonplace. Rashi says a better translation of corruption is immortality and idol worship.And the best translation for robbery, chamas, is terror. The Midrash says that adultery, incest and stealing were all part of man's daily schedule. Powerful men would take any women that they chose. The Midrash also says that a major sin of this generation was sexual relations purely for lascivious gratification. Talmud Tractate Sanhedrin 57A says that the world was immersed in jealousy, greed, theft, violence, lying, impatience, intolerance, deception and fraud. The worst of all the transgressions according to both Rashi and Ibn Ezra was that people exploited each other sexually. Sounds rather familiar, doesn't it? Hold on, there's more.
The Midrash Vayikra Rabba says: "Everyone and everything became amoral. Even animals became so morally corrupt and decadent that one species mated with another species – dogs with wolves, horses with donkeys, snakes with birds. The generation of the Flood was finally wiped away when they started writing songs extolling cohabitation of males with males and males with animals." Another Midrash says that males just didn't sodomize other males, but that they signed ketobot (marriage contracts) legalizing these relationships. Another Midrash says: "The custom of that generation was to take two wives; one for having children and one for pleasure. The one for having children would sit ugly and neglected like a living widow while the one taken for pleasure would be sterilized and would sit by him, made up with cosmetics like a harlot."
Rabbi Chaninah, in the
What could Noah have done differently during this horrible time that the Torah would call him righteous in "all" generations and not just in "his?" In Tractate Sanhedrin 108A Rabbi Lakish supports Noah. Rabbi Yochanon, not so much. Yochanon said that Noah merely reacted to the immorality of his time and believes that Noah would not have been inspired to do more than his everyday tasks had he lived in Abraham's time. The Midrash says that Noah "believed and did not believe" that God would bring a flood. He believed in his mind, but not in his heart. He carried out God's blueprint to the cubit, but after spending 120 years building the ark, he did not physically enter it until the flooding began (Gen.7:06). Rashi says that Noah had only modest faith. During the 120 years it took Noah to build the ark, he was not able to convince a single person of the coming disaster. If Noah believed God's word more than merely intellectually, perhaps he could have persuaded his neighbors to repent. Perhaps if he had believed on a visceral level, Noah could have made a greater impact.
In Midrash Devorim there is a story of a conversation between Moses and Noah in Heaven. Noah boasts to Moses that he is greater than Moses because he was saved from the generation of the Flood, to which Moses replies: "No, you saved yourself, but were not able to save your generation. When did I save my generation? When God said, 'Desist from me and I will destroy them.' (Deut. 9:14) I pleaded with God and was successful in saving both my generation and myself. Therefore I am greater than you." The Kabbalistic Zohar points out that this is why this week's Haftarah in Isaiah 54:9 refers to the Flood as the "waters of Noah." Noah is to blame for not being able to save his generation. While Moses prayed for everyone, Noah cared only for himself, his wife, and his sons. The Zohar puns on the words with which Moses pleaded to God after the sin of the Golden Calf. In Exodus 32:32 Moses says to God: "Now if you would forgive their sin, and if not, erase me, I beg you." The Hebrew for "erase me" is "m'heni," which is an anagram of "mei Noah" (waters of Noah).
The Kabbalah also compares Noah to Abraham. Noah died when Abraham was 58 years old. While Noah doesn't sin like the rest of his generation, he doesn't do any good deeds either. The Zohar says that after the Flood Noah cried to God that He was not compassionate. God responds: "You are a foolish shepherd. Now you say this? Why did you not say this at the time I told you that I saw that you were righteous in your generation, or afterward when I said I will bring a flood upon the people, or when I asked you to build an ark? I constantly delayed and I said, 'When is Noah going to ask for compassion for the world?' And now that the world is destroyed, you cry?" Not exactly a ringing endorsement, is it? God is criticizing Noah – calling him a foolish shepherd – because he could not even save one member of his flock in 120 years.
The Zohar's rebuke of Noah continues. It says that Abraham prayed for
After 150 days in the boat, what does Noah do when he comes to dry land? How does Noah cope with the destruction and his role in it? He plants a vineyard. Noah "drank of the wine and became intoxicated...and Ham (his son), saw his nakedness and told his two brothers outside. And Shem and Yafet took a garment and laid it upon both their shoulders, and walked backward, and covered the nakedness of their father; and their faces were backward, and they saw not their father's nakedness. And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done to him" (Gen. 9:21-24). The Talmud Tractate Sanhedrin 70A says that either Ham sodomized Noah, or he castrated him. Ham had so much rage against his father for Noah's passivity. Remember, Noah was the only just man of the time. That means that his sons were like the rest of the people. They were saved due to Noah's merit. Noah failed at educating one of his own sons (Ham) in sexual morality. Whereas in the beginning of this parasha Noah is called righteous, after the flood he is called "debased" and a "man of the earth" (Gen. 9:20). We will learn that Moses starts out being called an "Egyptian man" (Exodus 2:19). He ends up being called a "man of God" (Deut. 33:1). Noah did not learn the lesson of the flood. He did not plant an orchard to help feed the population that soon would be born. He did not try to raise cattle. He immediately sought individual pleasure. Noah plants a vineyard and Abraham plants an orchard (Gen. 21:33).
Three hundred-forty years later, while Noah is still alive, man again tries to rebel by building the
The Midrash also compares Noah to Adam. Both have a problem with fruit. Adam was responsible to care for all the trees and not to eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Noah was responsible for replanting all of that was lost in the Flood. He was warned against grapes, according to the Midrash. The Midrash says that Noah's vines produced grapes on the same day they were planted. Both Adam and Noah thought that they were above the effects of these fruits.
Even the raven that Noah sent out to look for dry land has suspicions about Noah. No human or animal was allowed to have sex while on the ark, says the Midrash. The raven circles the ark and did not complete his mission (Gen. 8:7). Tractate Sanhedrin 108B says that the raven suspects Noah of having "improper intentions" toward his mate. The raven feels it has to keep an eye on Noah. Therefore he circles the ark so that Noah will not steal Mrs. Raven. Before he goes on his mission the raven complains that, of all the birds, why is he chosen? Noah answers: "What does the world need you for? You are not edible nor are you fit to be offered as a sacrifice." The Midrash is making an interesting point about Noah. Noah has not learned anything from the Flood. All life has value. Years later it will be ravens that save the world. Elijah placed a curse during the time of the evil King Ahab that would dry up the entire world in drought. He had to hide in the wilderness. The ravens fed him and kept him alive so that he could remove his curse and save the world (Kings I 17:6). Without ravens the world would have had another disaster. Ravens mate for life. The raven was concerned about his wife. As we have learned, the men of Noah's time were not concerned about their marital obligations (Tractate Pesachim 113B). Noah could not appreciate the raven's morality.
What you should learn from this parasha is that we all have an obligation not only to do no harm, but to actively to do good deeds. Building big homes with all kinds of collections – our arks – is fine so long as we teach our children proper values. Leave the ark – in your gated community or suburb – to help those who are less fortunate. The Torah used this portion as the place to announce what are called the Seven Noachide Laws that predate the Ten Commandments in the book of Exodus. Unlike other religions with dogma saying that if you do not believe in their specific way you are "voted off the island," Judaism believes in the righteousness of all nations regardless of their belief systems, and that all are equally beloved by God and have an equal share in the world to come. Anyone who follows these seven rules is defined as righteous (Gen. 9:01-07):
1. Not to eat a limb or meat that was severed from a live animal.
2. Not to curse God.
3. Not to steal or rob.
4. Not to commit adultery, incest, or rape.
5. Not to murder.
6. To have a fair justice system.
7. Not to worship idols.
As Jews, our goal is not to convert people to Judaism. Our goal is to lead a moral life and to actively work to do good in order to make this world a better place. We all can do better than Noah did. By actively doing Tikun Olam (repair of the world) and truly loving our fellows, we can be a "light unto the nations."
Shabbat Shalom:
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