Thoughts on Parashah Noach

8 Cheshvan, 5774

Thoughts on Parashah Noach:

-          Unlike Abraham and Moses, Noah utters not a single word in Humankind’s defense, nor does he even attempt to try to negotiate for Humankind’s redemption. And this is the figure that both The Torah and God see as the epitome of righteous during Biblical time? If so, what does this say about righteousness? That it does not include empathy or sympathy?

-          "What’s a cubit?"

-          It is interesting to note how the ancient Israelites (and other first readers of The Torah) imagined an ELE (Extinction-Level Event)…not by plague or invasion or assimilation or even Sarah Palin but by flood.

-          Gen. 7:8: “God then remembered Noah…” If we’re not indulging in anthropomorphism, then God does not forget (like I do every morning when searching for my keys). If God does not forget, what is God really doing when “God remembers” (which God will famously do with the pleading Israelites enslaved in Egypt.) Perhaps ‘remembering means acknowledging (which in of itself does not hinge on forgetting?) (Although it does carry its own value-laden meaning.)

-          Gen: 8:20: What is the significance of the animals in the Ark being pure at this point of The Torah? After all, there has been no mention of Kashrut Laws yet (which are derived from Leviticus and Deuteronomy) nor have there been any instructions regarding the individual’s or community’s state of purity/impurity (i.e. – handling a corpse).

-          Gen. 8: 21: God notes Human’s continued reverence even after surviving an apocalyptic event of God’s making…and through this revelation believes Humans transcend their own innate and inevitable “evil inclination”. (Yes, I will probably ponder this. For. The. Rest. Of My. Life.)

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The Babel Story

-          I love reading this tale as an anthropologic look at how the ancients struggled to understand diversity. 

-          I think The Women’s Commentary is spot-on in noting that, as per The Torah, God sees a danger in  cultural/societal homogeneity and does not condemn diversity as its remedy. (Although I am amused by the story’s implication that God understands Humankind will see Diversity and Homogeneity in the exact reverse.)

-          I think one cannot overemphasize God’s role as instructor here, for like any good professors, God pushes God’s students beyond the borders of their comfort zones, knowing this is the only lasting way they will learn. Welcome to The Struggle.