Parashat Noach - The Consequences of Creation II

BS”D

Bereshit 6:9 – Noach ‘ish tzadik tamim hayah be-dorotav. This opening clause is translated: “Noach was a righteous and perfect man in his generations.” ‘Et ha-Elokim hithalech Noach. “Noach walked with G-d.”

Or, we can read the words of the Hebrew on the level of simple meaning, out of their context. This worked brilliantly last week, when Cain’s famous quote, usually translated as “I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?” was seen to read equally well – and with more profound effect – as “I did not know that I am my brother’s keeper!” How does our friend Noach fare when subjected to the same treatment?

“Noach is a simply righteous man; he was in his generations. Noach made himself walk by means of G-d.” And there, I say, you have the whole story.

The Zohar, commenting on the notion that Noach was Tzaddik and Tamim – generally translated as Righteous and Perfect – tells us that Noach was born already circumcised. But Noach’s Righteousness is suspect: indeed, as Moshe stands in the hour of his own death, the Midrash tells us how he argued both with G-d and with all the righteous of Israel. Of Noach, Moshe says to G-d, “Do not mention me in the same breath as you name that wicked man!” Moshe reminds Noach that he, Noach, was told of the destruction of the world, yet spoke not a word to save anyone. Moshe, by contrast, was told repeatedly of the impending destruction of Klal Israel, yet every time he stepped boldly forward and argued to save us all.

Let us dissect this complex and mysterious hero.

First, to the notion of Tamim. The word is related to Tam, meaning Whole or Simple. Ya’akov will be described as ‘ish tam- a simple man, or perhaps, a quiet man. A dweller in tents. The word comes from the root meaning Whole, and actually signifies a closed circle. Tam – spelled Taf, Mem – is Simple. Tamim is Whole. Tamam is Perfect. Through consonantal substitution, a process not uncommon in the development of the Hebrew language, the word Tamei, spelled not with the letter Taf, but with Tet, also derives from the same root, and evokes an image of the edges of a hole swelling up until they seal the hole closed entirely. What are we to make of this?

When one is Tam, the circle is clear, is simple. The purpose of the circle is to create an emptiness, a space that invites. Invites what? Other peole? The Divine? But here is the crux of Tam: there is space in the center and one waits to be filled. When one is Tamim or Tamam, the circle begins to thrive, to take on a significance unto itself. Now the space at the center is no longer more important than the boundaries that form the circle. But what is a circle, if not merely an imagined limit to a round, empty space? When the Mishkan is build, G-d will speak to Moshe from the center of just such a circle. Yet, Noach did not have to build a Mishkan, for he was born in simple perfection.

Finally, when the circle becomes all-powerful, the center is closed off. Forgotten. Whatever inhabited that center space – other humans, family or society… G-d – gone, all of it crushed under the weight of the ego. Tam has transmuted into Tamei. Significantly, when one is Tamei, one must leave the circle, for the ritually impure – which is what the word means – are forced to leave the camp for a prescribed period, until they are cleansed of their impurity. Social groups take their identity in two basic ways: either by Inclusion, or by Exclusion. You are One of Us – or We are not allowed to become One of Them.

So was Noach. Born circumcised because, unlike the first Creation, G-d did not want to take the risk that Free Choice would bring the entire project tumbling down a second time. Creation was moving along just fine until Life entered the picture. So G-d decides to do away with all Life, selecting one man and his immediate family to be survivors. As G-d will strut and swoop and rage later on to impress the Egyptians, G-d here seems convinced that, if G-d can show one person concretely just how powerful G-d is – and if G-d can make just one person eternally grateful for that person’s relationship with G-d – then Free Choice will not be a threat to order. We say that G-d created the world for us, for each and every one of us. Noach was the only person for whose sake G-d destroyed the world. A bad point of departure, to be sure. But who knew?

It is a commonplace to say that this Parasha is a re-Creation; that Noach is Creation’s second chance. Perhaps the imagery is itself the message. At the beginning of Parashat Bereshit, we read that (1:2) “… the Spirit of G-d hovers on the face of the water…” There is water before the first Act of Creation. G-d’s first act – to speak – comes immediately after G-d’s spirit hovers on the waters. The very next Pasuk, in fact. Perhaps, then, the G-d who is the protagonist of this book perceives a world covered with water as a null point, a point of departure for Creation. In any event, this is exactly the situation G-d re-creates in this Parasha: the earth is covered with water, and from this primeval point, G-d launches the Second Act of Creation.

There is a poetic structure to the opening Parshiyot that underscores the intellectual and spiritual development of our tale – one could argue that it is G-d who is developing. As we shall see at the end of this Parasha, nothing about the world or humanity changes, for all the hard work G-d puts in, but we also see at the end of this Parasha that G-d learns a valuable lesson.

The opening Pasuk of our Parasha repeats the name Noach: ‘Eleh toledot Noach – Noach ‘ish tzaddik tamim haya be-dorotav. This mirrors the opening words of the first Parasha – Bereshit bara- where the three letters Beit, Resh, Aleph, repeat in successive words. Next week, of course, we shall read the opening words Lech lecha – spelled identically, pronounced differently. The poetic symmetry of this repetition – Bra / bra – Noach / Noach – Lech lecha – is undeniable. These three Parshiyot do repeat the fundamental theme of Creation. The first time, G-d creates humans with Free Choice, assuming that we shall naturally choose to do exactly as we are told. The second time – today’s Parasha – G-d removes Noach’s Free Choice, making him a perfect Tzaddik from the moment of birth.

The outcome is a failure – as should have been predictable. No sooner does Noach exit the Ark then he slaughters animals on an altar. Tellingly, Rashi says that Noach reasoned that G-d could only have told him to bring seven each of the Tahor (Pure) animals in order for him to bring sacrifices after the flood abated. And no sooner does G-d smell the smoke of the offerings than G-d rethinks the entire project of Creation. At 8:21, G-d smells the sacrifices and soliloquizes: I shall not curse the Earth for the sake of humans any longer – this is a literal retraction and reversal of the Curse of Adam, where G-d cursed the earth “for the sake of humans.” Here, now, G-d comes to an important realization: “For now I see that the imagination of the mind of humans is evil from youth.” The language is slightly ambiguous – it is not clear whether the antecedent of “from his youth” is the human, or the imagination of the human. The traditional translation is that the imagination of the mind of humans is evil from their childhood – the childhood of humans. This implies that we come up with wicked thoughts from the time we are able to think on our own. The second reading has G-d reflecting that the human imagination is intrinsically evil; that all our thoughts arise from an evil impetus. Either way, it is not felicitous. In fact, it is most probable that both readings are correct. It is most likely for this reason that Rashi comments on this verse as he does. Why does Rashi give us Noach’s thought process? By giving us this insight into Noach’s mind, Rashi is clearly pointing to the fact that G-d never commanded him to bring sacrifices – and to the likelihood that perhaps G-d never intended this. After all, humanity does not have a good track record where bringing offerings is concerned.

So G-d removes the curse of the earth, in effect relenting. G-d has learned that humans are incorrigible. That even destroying the entire world for the sake of one man does not buy Noach’s cooperation. On a homiletical level, just as G-d gave Cain the ‘ot – the Letter – this time, G-d placed Noach in a teva – a Word. It does not seem to have helped much. G-d recognizes that this is a difficult lesson to learn. I will place my bow in the heavens, G-d says, so that when I lose my temper, it will rise before my eyes and remind me. I make my Covenant with you, G-d says to Noach. Go ahead, G-d says, eat meat, take and dominate the Earth, for I realize that I can not prevent you. This theme will repeat, perhaps most notably when we are wandering in the Midbar and G-d gives us permission to eat Meat of Appetite. G-d has placed Free Choice into the mix. This remains the one aspect of Creation that G-d can not dominate. Indeed, G-d will repeatedly have tremendous difficulty coming to terms with it. If the rainbow does not appear in the sky, G-d says, if the bright flashing bow of light does not strike across my eyes, I may forget my Covenant, for all that I have sworn it.

Noach, who is famously silent throughout the Parasha, finally opens his mouth as a result of drinking wine. This is a repeat, of course, of the Chava and Adam tale with the forbidden fruit. Let us recall that the Gemara, in discussing the story of Adam and Chava in the Garden, argues about the identity of the fruit. One of the opinions is that it was grapes. Wine.

Noach’s first words are the curse he pronounces upon his own grandson, Cana’an, in the aftermath of his drunkenness. Echoing G-d’s first Act of Creation – introduced by the same Vayomer – And he said – Noach creates the situation that dominates our history to this day: the antagonistic relationship that is destined to prevail through all of human history between the sons of Shem and the sons of Cana’an. The curse of Noach will be mitigated from time to time by the blessings of Abraham, of Yitzhak, of Ya’akov upon their own children. But the scene has been set and will remain immutable for all time. It is for us to live with its consequences, to make the world perfect in spite of this.

Yours for a better world.