| | Parshas Noach The New Heavens and the New Earth...
Dear Haverim,
It is with great sadness and love that we dedicate this shiur to the memory of our friend Shimon Yosef (Shimmy) Grama, z"l, who was tragically taken from us this past week at the tender age of 21.. May the memory of his many acts of Hessed, his kindness and gentle demeanor be a source of inspiration to all of us who were privileged to know him and a source of consolation to his bereaved family. Yehi Zikhro Barukh.
For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, says Hashem, so shall your seed and your name remain. (Yeshaya 66:22)
I
WHAT WE'VE DONE IN PAST YEARS...
In previous years, we have discussed and analyzed the question attributed to R. Yitzhak, cited by Rashi in his opening comment on the Torah:
The Torah should have begun with "This month is unto you the first of the months" (Sh'mot 12:2) which is the first Mitzvah by which Yisra'el were commanded.
In providing an expansive approach to R. Yitzhak's answer, we raised, inter alia, the thorny issue of the timing of Sefer B'resheet. Three potential times were suggested for the original Divine presentation of Sefer B'resheet:
A. Har Sinai (depending how we understand the reference to Sefer haB'rit in Sh'mot 24:7)
B. Arvot Mo'av (as that is the first time that we encounter a [presumably] complete Sefer Torah)
C. Pre-Sinai (in Egypt) - as we found in the Midrash (see also the comments of R. Bahya ibn Pakuda in Hovot haL'vavot in this regard)
(to clarify one point from that shiur - regarding the Pre-Sinai "Revelation" of Sefer B'resheet: According to the simple reading of the cited Midrash - Sh'mot Rabbah 5:22 - the narratives found in B'resheet were accessible, in written form, to the slave-nation of the B'nei Yisra'el while in Egypt. That does not mean that the entire Sefer was not "re-revealed" to Mosheh [somewhere between Sinai and Arvot Mo'av]; as indicated last week, there is an explicit comment of Rashi in BT Hullin that gives Mosheh an editorial hand in the formation of Sefer B'resheet. Besides that, since all of the Torah is regarded - Halakhically as well as Hashkafically - as Torat Mosheh, reflecting that unequaled level of prophecy, it follows that Mosheh must have received it at some point during his career as a Navi. Nevertheless, it may very well be that the entire Sefer, including all of the critical narratives, was accessible in its "pre-Mosaic" form to his brothers and sisters in Egypt.)
In that shiur, we reviewed the ten major narratives of Parashat B'resheet from the putative perspective of the earliest potential audience of the Sefer (the slaves in Egypt) - with an eye towards responding to R. Yitzhak's challenge by finding a meaningful message in each of these narratives for that target readership.
II
...AND WHAT WE'LL DO THIS WEEK
Although we will take a somewhat similar approach to Parashat Noach, the nature of the Parashah and its overwhelming emphasis on the flood and its aftermath dictates a slight variation on that earlier analysis.
[Although it would be intriguing to compare the "Generation of the Flood", their indictment and sentence with those of the "Generation of the 'Palagah' (dispersion)", we will have to leave that for another year]
We will analyze some significant features in the description of the flood and its eventual subsiding, then take note of how these features would have impacted on each of the three possible original target audiences of Sefer B'resheet.
As I pointed out in several earlier shiurim - and in the first chapter of Between The Lines of the Bible, Volume 1, understanding how the message was heard by the original audience is always helpful in learning how to "hear" the narrative in contemporary terms. This is a well-worn, tried and true path of the Hakh'mei haM'sorah, Rishonim and Aharonim alike - and we will not hesitate to tread, warily yet confidently, in their footsteps.
III
THE FLOOD - A SECOND CREATION
The world which God created, as presented in B'resheet 1:1-2:3, is markedly similar to the world which was redeemed after the flood. Even a cursory look at the description of the "new world" of Parashat Noach reveals numerous literary associations with the creation of Parashat B'resheet. [This comparison itself does not represent an innovative approach - see Rashi's comments at 7:11]
Here is a comparison of the major stages of Creation, as presented in the first chapter of B'resheet - and the significant stages of "re-creation" (or "restoration) of the post-flood world as outlined in Chapter 8 of B'resheet (I am indebted to R. Joshua Berman's illuminating and enlightening presentation in Megadim 9:9-14 - highly recommended):
Day 1: "...and a wind from God moved upon the face of the waters" (1:2)
After the Flood: "God made a wind to pass over the earth" (8:1)
Day 2: " 'Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters' " (1:6)
After the Flood: "The fountains also of the deep and the windows of heaven were stopped, and the rain from heaven was restrained" (8:2)
Day 3: " '...let the waters under the heaven be gathered together to one place, and let the dry land appear...' " (1:9)
After the Flood: "...in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, were the tops of the mountains seen." (8:5)
Day 3: " 'Let the earth bring forth grass, herb yielding seed, and fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth...' " (1:11)
After the Flood: "And the dove came in to him in the evening; and, lo, in her mouth was an olive leaf plucked off; so Noach knew that the waters were abated from off the earth." (8:11)
Day 4: " 'Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years....' " (1:14)
After the Flood: " 'While the earth remains, seed time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.' " (8:22) - [note also that in 8:12, the dove comes to Noach "in the evening", the first mention of any distinct time of day after the flood; evidently, night and day were blurred during the entire cataclysm]
Day 5: " '...let the waters be filled with many kinds of living creatures, and birds that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.' " (1:20)
After the Flood: "And he stayed yet other seven days; and sent forth the dove; which did not return back to him any more" (8:12 - i.e. the dove returned to its earlier station as a "bird that flies above the earth")
Day 6: " 'Let the earth bring forth all kinds of living creatures, cattle, and creeping things, and beasts of the earth after their kind; and it was so...let us make man in our image, after our likeness...'...and God blessed them, and God said to them, 'Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.' " (1:24,26,28)
After the Flood: " 'Go out from the ark, you, and your wife, and your sons, and your sons' wives with you. Bring out with you every living thing that is with you, of all flesh, both of bird, and of cattle, and of every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth; that they may breed abundantly in the earth, and be fruitful, and multiply upon the earth.' " (8:16-17)
(note that here, unlike the "first" creation in B'resheet, Mankind comes before the animals; we will address this below.)
Besides these fairly clear parallels, the denouement of the first Creation is, of course, the institution of Shabbat. Even though there is no explicit parallel in the Noach narrative, the final phrase of Chapter 8 - " 'While the earth remains, seed time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease' " - uses the same root - (Sh*B*T*) as does the word used twice in the Shabbat narrative (2:1-3) to describe God's ceasing creative activity.
All in all, the Torah does seem to be telling us that the world which Noach re-entered was a re-creation of the first world, a world which became so polluted and corrupt that it was sentences to an Orwellian "non-worldhood".
Here we pose two questions:
A) How was this world different from the first - what would guarantee its survival?
B) What possible import could this message contain for each - or any - of the three generations who first read Sefer B'resheet?
IV
VIOLATIONS AND LIBATIONS
Before addressing these two questions, I'd like to raise a [seemingly] irrelevant question as a challenge to two comments of Rabbenu Ovadiah S'forno in later Humashim.
The Torah refers to the daily Korban Tamid as "a continual burnt offering, which was performed at Mount Sinai for a sweet savor, a sacrifice made by fire to Hashem." (Bamidbar 28:6). In other words, the daily Tamid is a reminder/reexperience of the offerings brought at the foot of Sinai in the wake of the Revelation. S'forno notes that although there were no libations ("N'sakhim") or meal offerings ("M'nachot") brought with the original offerings, they were commanded as part of the Korban Tamid:
"And a tenth part of an ephah of flour for a meal offering, mixed with the fourth part of a hin of beaten oil....and the drink offering of it shall be the fourth part of a hin for one lamb..." (ibid. 5,7)
S'forno is also sensitive to the fact that the command regarding bringing N'sakhim and M'nachot to accompany personal offerings is presented in the Torah directly in the aftermath of the sin of the scouts (Bamidbar 15:1-16)
He sees these two introductions of the obligation of N'sakhim and M'nachot as more than coincidental: Until the sin of the Golden Calf, there was not Divine intent to have N'sakhim (nor M'nachot) brought with any offering; subsequent to that grievous transgression, we were commanded to bring N'sakhim and M'nachot to accompany communal offerings (such as the Korban Tamid).
As a consequence of the sin of the scouts (and the people's rejection of the Land), God commanded us to bring N'sakhim and M'nachot with personal offerings as well.
Our third question is one of cause and effect:
Why does the S'forno align these particular sins with the increased obligations regarding wine and meal offerings? In other words, what is the relationship between the sin of the golden calf and the obligation to bring N'sakhim and M'nachot with communal offerings - and what is the relationship between the sin of the scouts and the obligation to bring N'sakhim and M'nachot with personal offerings?
We will return to this question after addressing our first question - how was this world different from the recently destroyed "first" world? | |
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| Mikra, Copyright © 2011 by Rabbi Yitzchak Etshalom and Torah.org. The author is Educational Coordinator of the Jewish Studies Institute of the Yeshiva of Los Angeles. |
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