Parsha Notes (Noach)

Here we go with a new DovBear series (remember this one?) in which I will attempt to briefly summarize all that is odd and interesting about the current Parsha. [Others]

Noach

Things everyone should know:

(1) There are two flood stories, that appear to be woven together, that themselves are uncomfortably similar to the Gilgamesh epic. [Mis-nagid had a post on this a few years back, that made the facts as clear as day.] Sure, the Divine Author may have done this, but the differences between the Bible's two stories, and the parallels to the other source call out for commentary.

(2) The Ibn Ezra says that those who believe Cham and/or Canaan were published with blackness have forgotten that Nimrod, the first king mentioned in the bible was from Kush and presumably Black. [More on why teachings about Cham are terrible]

Famous Argument

Rainbows: The Ibn Ezra says that rainbows never existed before the flood, and that we see them now because God made the sun stronger. The Kli Yakar says that rainbows never existed before the flood and we see them now because God dissipated the thick cloud cover that had existed from the time of creation. The Ramban says that rainbows always existed, nature didn't change. The Ranbam further says that we should rely on science, which would demolish the views of both the Kli Yakar and the Ibn Ezra together with lots of things lots of Rabbis say, and have said, about the world.

Irony

The man who brings the first recorded animal sacrifice is immediately killed. The man who brings the second recorded animal sacrifice is violated. Message: Divine acceptance of offering provides no protection. (This jaded view of Genesis toward sacrifice is observed by Alter.)

Word Play

(1) Gen 7:17 : וַיְהִי הַמַּבּוּל אַרְבָּעִים יוֹם, עַל-הָאָרֶץ; וַיִּרְבּוּ הַמַּיִם, וַיִּשְׂאוּ אֶת-הַתֵּבָה, וַתָּרָם, מֵעַל הָאָרֶץ.
The identical verb appears here, and earlier when God instructs the animals to "Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth" (פְּרוּ וּרְבוּ וּמִלְאוּ אֶת-הָאָרֶץ) Says Alter (paraphrase): "The multiplying waters are made to destroy the living creatures who were enjoined to proliferate with the same verb."

(2) Gen 7:11 tells us "In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened."
This sounds like a reversal of the second day of creation, when "God said: Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so."

(3) Gen 5:29 וַיִּקְרָא אֶת-שְׁמוֹ נֹחַ, לֵאמֹר: זֶה יְנַחֲמֵנוּ מִמַּעֲשֵׂנוּ, וּמֵעִצְּבוֹן יָדֵינוּ, מִן-הָאֲדָמָה, אֲשֶׁר אֵרְרָהּ יְהוָה.
"And he called his name Noah, saying: 'This same shall comfort us in our work and in the toil of our hands, which cometh from the ground which the LORD hath cursed.'"
How did Noah bring comfort? With the plow he invented, Rashi says. Before Noah man had to contend with the thorns and thistles mentioned in Adam's curse (Some support: the root 'zb appears here (וּמֵעִצְּבוֹן יָדֵינוּ) and at the curse (בְּעִצָּבוֹן תֹּאכְלֶנָּה)). But I wonder: Perhaps the comfort Noach brings the workingman is wine?

Mussar

God commands Noah to leave the Arks secure isolation and to engage the world with all its dangers and all its challenges.

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