Parshat Noah

And it happened, at the end of forty days,

That noah opened the window of the ark

He had made

(Bereishit 8:6)

 

 

At the end of forty days - when the waters began to recede. To me it seems that the correct interpretation is [forty days] from when the ark rested on Mt. Ararat, for how else could Noah have known that the waters had receded? But when it rested on Mt. Ararat, he knew, because he felt that the ark had rested on something solid, and then he waited another forty days so that the waters could recede further and he sent out one of the birds to see if it could find an uncovered tree. The window which he had made - this is the skylight referred to in "Make a skylight in the ark", from there he sent the raven. One may ask, did Noah know on what day the rains had ceased, for, as we have written, why did he not open the window of the ark immediately after cessation of the rain, and it may be explained that Noah still feared that the waves may rise and that in their tumult the waves may climb above and enter the ark through the window, therefore he did not open until the ark had rested on the mountains and then he waited another forty days, and then he knew that the waters had ceased to rise, and he no longer feared their entering the ark, and he opened the window to look out and to send forth the raven.

(RaDaK, ibid., ibid.)

 

Make a skylight in the ark etc - My master, my grandfather [the Baal Shem Tov] may he rest in peace, noted that the word teiva [ark] hints at 'word', for the word teiva also mean 'word', and he, of blessed memory, said that you should be careful to light up the word which leaves your mouth etc.

(Sefer Baal Shem Tov al HaTorah - Parashat Noah)

 

And it happened at the end of forty days - this means: After one merits arriving at the content of the holy Torah that was given to Moshe our teacher, may he rest in peace, in forty days. And Noah opened the window of the ark which he had built - meaning: the Lord, blessed be He who is called Noah because He dwells and rests in His world [Trans. note: Noah also means 'resting'] in order to oversee his creatures, opens for the righteous a gate in His holiness; that he continue to grow in great holiness. And he sent forth the raven - meaning: Scripture counts and calculates the levels of tzaddikim whom the Holy One created in His world, and the meaning of "And he sent forth etc" means that He sent forth the tzaddik into the world. The raven - this is to hint that there are people whom the Holy Once created who are to engage in honest trade in order to support their children and their households, they are called orev [Trans. note: orev means both raven and guarantor] based on the Talmudic statement about those people who are unwilling to support their children, they [the courts] proclaim "the raven cares for his children, but that man does not care for his children", and orev also has a connotation of sweetness, for one who engages in honest trade is pleasant and sweet in the eyes of Holy One and in the eyes of the creatures, and this is the meaning of "And he sent forth the orev - these are the aforementioned tzaddikim who are termed orev.

 (Noam Elimelech on Parashat Noah)

                                                                                   

 

Parashat noah: what is the difference

Between 'mutilating the roots'

And the tower of babel?

Elad Kaplan

"Come, let us build us a city, and a tower with its top in the heavens, to make a name for ourselves" - so say the descendents of Noah, and begin to plan the Tower of Babel, the first skyscraper in history. They know the story about the great flood that inundated the land, leaving only Noah's ark in the world. By erecting a solid and high tower, they hoped to defeat the powers of nature and to provide young humanity with quiet and security. The story begins with an outburst of energy, but ends badly. God does not issue a building permit; instead He scatters the people across the face of the earth and confuses their language. Instead of unity and cooperation, difference and disunity come into being.

At first, it would seem that this is a story of a brave initiative, of cooperation between all men towards a single goal. Were the story to end differently, the Tower of Babel could have become the symbol of human unity. "All the earth was one language and one set of words" is the basis for the blueprint of the tower. One who is not acquainted with the denouement of the story is liable to mistakenly think that the story is about a vision of peace in "the end of days". The proclamation of intent could easily become a Zionist anthem: "Come, let us build us a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, that we may make us a name, lest we be scattered over all the earth." So what is wrong about people building a city and a tower?

According to the plain reading of the verses, it seems that the Holy One, blessed be He, fears Man's power and struggles with him for a position of power. Our Sages, perhaps apprehensive of such a reading, assign covert motives to the tower builders, such as sinning against god, idolatry, attempting to wage war against the armies of heaven, and moral turpitude.

The most mysterious explanation is that of the Ramban, who criticizes the builders' declaration "That we may make us a name":

But one who knows the meaning of "name" [shem], will understand that their intent in saying "we may make us a name" - and will know the dimensions of the intended tower, and will understand the entire matter, that they have evil intentions and that their punishment was to be divided into languages and countries, measure for measure, because they were 'mutilating the roots" [idiom for apostasy.]. Their sin was similar to that of their father, and perhaps that is the reason our Sages homiletically expounded (Bereishit Rabba 38:9): 'which humans built' - Said R' Berechia, [Had the Torah not informed us that humans had built it, what would we have said] "Did asses build it? Did camels build it? [Of course we would have known] that early man had built it, etc" Note that in the flood narrative, the Lord is referred to as "Elohim", but in the Tower of Babel story, His unique name, the Tetragrammaton, is used; this is because the flood was           [punishment] for corrupting the earth, but the division [into nations and languages] was because they mutilated the roots, and they are punished in His great name [i.e., the Tetragrammaton], and this the reason for His 'going down' and similarly in the Sodom narrative. And the wise will comprehend.

Ramban's words are not clear. What is the meaning of "mutilating the roots" and in what way is one who constructs towers 'a mutilator of roots'? Ramban compares the Tower of Babel to Man's original sin. According to the Midrash Rabba, the reason given in the Tower narrative is "that they built people" [translator's note: The Hebrew text Asher banu bnei adam - usually translated "which men built", may also be read "that they built men"]. This is the similarity between their transgression and that of Adam, the first man.

Reading the texts, we note like structures:

The first man: "And the Lord God said - Now that the human has become like one of us, knowing good and evil, and now may reach out and take as well from the tree of life and live forever". And the Lord God sent him from the garden of Eden to till the soil from which he had been taken." (Bereishit 3:22-23)

Tower of Babel: And the Lord God said, "And now they are one people with one language for all, if this is what they have begun to do, now nothing they plot to do will elude them. . . And the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth and they left off building the city". (Bereishit 11:6-7).

Just as in the case of the Tower of Babel, so in the story of the first man is it difficult to understand God's apprehension. Can Man really "be like one of us"? Is it conceivable that "nothing they plot to do will elude them"? Adam's disobedience of God (for which he was already punished) aside, what is so wrong with knowing good and evil as to warrant expulsion from the garden of Eden? In both stories there does not seem to be any essential flaw in man's actions - knowing good and bad, and building a city and a tower.

Despite this, the Ramban sees these as "mutilating the roots".

The term "mutilating the roots" links us to another figure, the Tanna Elisha ben Abuya, "Acher", who left the Torah world and was affiliated with the Romans. Tractate Hagiga (14b), relates how Elisha entered the Garden and 'mutilated the roots'. This act led to his distancing himself from Judaism and abandoning the Torah.

What did Elisha do in the Garden? Many attempts were made to explain the processes which caused Elisha to leave Judaism, some of them dealing with the meaning of "Garden" as a designation of the mystic teachings and Kaballah. Another explanation appears in the Talmud Yerushalmi's critique (Hagiga 9b) of Elisha's father, who wanted to benefit from the power of the Torah and therefore sanctified his son to Torah study - "Because his intent was not for the sake of heaven, therefore it [Torah] did not last in that person". It may be that Elisha strove, like his father, to discover simple and speedy mystic solutions to achieve high status. Instead of acting "for the sake of heaven" he acted for personal gain. He did not seek the dialogue and discussion of the Bet Hamidrash, and instead of enriching society he mutilated the variety of voices found therein.

We return to the Book of Bereishit - the first man and the Tower of Babel. These narratives belong to the infrastructure of the Creation, the basis of human existence. Such being the case, perhaps we should exchange our understanding of the concept of 'sin' in its specific sense, for a new and wider perception of the essence of man in the world and his commitment which derives from that perception.

Rav Avrhaham Yitzchak HaCohen Kook, in his theological approach, presented the goal of the world as an ongoing process of self-perfection of the perfect divinity. In his opinion, the existence of God is perfect, but in order to be perfect, there is also need for an ongoing process of self-perfection - for constant betterment. To fulfill this need, He created the world - that self-perfecting component, which constantly attempts to advance:

What do we think of the Divine's goal in founding existence? We say that the absolute perfection is inevitable, nothing in it is potential, all is actual fact. But there is the perfection of adding perfection, which cannot be part of the Divinity, for the infinite absolute perfection leaves no room for addition. Towards this end - that also the addition of perfection not be lacking in existence - the universal existence must be in a process of becoming, beginning, according to          this, from the lowest possible nadir, that is to say, from a status of absolute absence, and constantly progressing toward the absolute apex. Existence was created with this feature so that it never cease from ascending, for this is an infinite action... (Rav Kook, Shmoneh Kvatzim I, 443)

'Mutilation of the roots' is simply damaging the growth of the world. The world was created to grow, to continue to perfect itself, to blossom forever. The search for shortcuts stunts the plants. This is what Elisha ben Abuya did when he entered the Garden in search of shortcuts to fame. The first man and the builders of the Tower also mutilated the plants and endeavored to find shortcuts to the goal, forgoing the path. If the first man will eat from the Tree of Life, he will be perfect, thus leaving him with no mission in the world. The people of the Tower of Babel would cut themselves off from the world, would forgo growth, would try to reach the peak, the goal, without developing the new world about them. They joined together only for the sake of "making a name", of self-aggrandizement here and now, even at great cost for the surrounding world and future generations. This cannot be achieved by one language or a single goal, but rather by ability to bridge over gaps and to cope with the differences between men. When the plants grow, the branches develop into diverse shapes and in different directions. - this is the essence of their beauty.

When the Holy One, blessed be He, scattered the builders of the Tower across the face of the earth, there was no element of anger or punishment, just the desire to facilitate further growth of the plants. When we speak in different tongues, live far from each other, and belong to different cultures, we can learn from each other - we have room to grow and advance. The differences between us make it possible for the world to continue to move on a path of advancement and perfection. The task before us, in the light of the Tower of Babel experience, is to sanctify the path without losing sight of the goal, and to strive to reach the goal without forgoing the path.

Elad Kaplan is a lawyer, responsible for public and legal policy for Machon Ittim.

 

 

The renowned French king said, After me the deluge,

And Noah, the righteous, said, before me the deluge,

And when he left the ark he said the deluge is behind me,

And I say, I am in the midst of the deluge

I am the ark, and I am the unclean animals and the clean animals

And I am two, male and female...

And I carry on my shoulders a strange and empty ark

Holding remnants of love and memory of prayers, and a little hope.

 (Yehuda Amihai, from "Open, Closed, Open" p. 29)

 

The Sign of the Covenant, a Sign for Peace, Memory, and Responsibility

...it has been said, as rationale for this sign, that He did not place the bow with its two ends facing upwards, which would make it seem as if it were shooting from the heavens, He shoots his arrows and scatters them over the earth, but He did the opposite, to demonstrate that it will not shoot from heaven, for this is the custom of warriors, to turn the bow backwards in their hand when they call for peace with those who oppose them. And furthermore, the bow has no string with which to shoot the arrow.

(RaMBaN, Bereishit 9:12)

 

A Tower with its Head in the Heavens as a Project that Ignores Human Beings

There were seven steps to the tower from the east, and seven from the west. The bricks were brought up on one side, and [the workers] descended on the other.

If a man fell and died, no one paid attention to him, but if a single brick fell, they would sit down and weep, saying, "Woe unto us! When will another one be brought up in its stead?"

 (Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer, 24)

 

One Language? One Set of Words?

When they expressed this intention ("and let us make ourselves a name") God fully understood their intention and well knew that their end would be the opposite of what they thought. On the contrary, there exists the possibility of a unified nation. When? When a people is dispersed and scattered, with no one having dealings with his fellow - then can it be one people. But should they gather together in one place in order to escape from international conflicts, they will then fall into an even greater war, one man's sword against his fellow, because assembly of the wicked is bad for them, and because they said "Let us make for ourselves a name", everyone will want to rule over his fellow and be higher than him, for this is common among groups who do everything for the sake self-aggrandizement, so therefore it is better to disperse them and prevent them from this construction.

(Kli Yakar on "Noach")

 

Not only was there a single language; there were no different dialects. This accounts for their success; differences in dialect sow discord, but unanimity of expression fosters love.

(Igra D'Kalla, p.78b)

 

Great is peace - despicable is discord

No remnant remained of the Generation of the Deluge, but there were survivors of the Generation of the Scattering. The Generation of the Deluge was awash with larceny, as is written, (Job 24:2) "People remove boundary stones; they carry off flocks and pasture them", therefore none of them survived. But of these [the Generation of the Scattering], because they loved each other - as is written, "And all the world was of one language and one set of words" - there remained survivors.

Rebbi said: Great is peace, for even when Israel worships idolatrously, if there is peace among them, the Omnipresent says: I, as it were, cannot control them, because there is peace between them, as is written, (Hoshea 4:16) "Efrayim is bound up with idolators - let him be" - but when there is division among them, what does He say? (ibid. 10:2)"Now that his boughs are broken up, He feels his guilt". Thus we learn: Great is peace, despicable is discord.

(Bereishit Rabba, Chap. 38)

 

These are the begettings of the sons of noah" - we are all the sons of one man

Know that all the stories that you will find mentioned in the Torah occur there for a necessary utility for the Law; either they give a correct notion of an opinion that is a pillar of the Law, or they rectify some action so that mutual wrongdoing and aggression should not occur between men... As it is a pillar of the Law that the world was produced in time, that at first a single individual of the human species, names, Adam, was created, that that approximately two thousand five hundred years elapsed between Adam and Moses our Master, men, if they were given this information only, would rapidly have begun to have doubts in those times. For people were to found scattered up to the ends of the whole earth; there were different tribes and different and very dissimilar languages. These doubts were put to an end through an exposition of the genealogy of all of them and of their branching by mentioning the names of the famous men among them - such and such, the son of such and such - and their ages and by giving the facts regarding their habitats and the reason that necessitated their being scattered up to the ends of the earth and their languages being different in spite of their having at first dwelt in one place and having had all of them one language, a fact that was a necessary consequence of their being the children of a single individual.

(Maimonides, The Guide of the Perplexed, III, 50) 

 

Therefore was man created singly - to teach you that whoever destroys a single soul, is considered by Scripture to have destroyed a complete world. And whoever maintains a single soul, is considered by Scripture to have maintained an entire world. And [another reason why man was created singly] for the sake of peace between men, that one should not say to his fellow: My father is greater than your father. And that the heretics not say "there are many rulers in heaven. And to proclaim the greatness of The Holy One, Blessed Be He - that man mints a number of coins with a single seal, and all are identical. But The Holy One, Blessed Be He, imprinted every man with the seal of the first man - yet not one is identical with his fellow.

(Mishna, Sanhedrin 4:5)

 

 

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