NOACH 6:9-11:32
Come gather 'round, people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You'll be drenched to the bone
If your time to you is worth For the times they are a-changin' savin'
And you better start swimmin'
Or you'll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin'
Anne-Louis Girodet de Roussy-Trioson, 1806, Deluge
The precursor for the destruction of humankind is found in the previous Parshah, exemplified at 6:7 -
“And the LORD said: 'I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and creeping thing, and fowl of the air; for it grieves Me that I have made them.”
וַיֹּאמֶר יְהוָה, אֶמְחֶה אֶת-הָאָדָם אֲשֶׁר-בָּרָאתִי מֵעַל פְּנֵי הָאֲדָמָה,
מֵאָדָם עַד-בְּהֵמָה, עַד-רֶמֶשׂ וְעַד-עוֹף הַשָּׁמָיִם: כִּי נִחַמְתִּי, כִּי עֲשִׂיתִם
Mankind had a choice to either choose good or to choose evil. We opted for evil, evil in the nature of violence. I think we have always been that way. From the get-go human beings have been creatures of violence.
We still are.
Wickedness is to be totally obliterated. This concept again comes to the fore when we are commanded to annihilate the wicked Canaanite nations.
The blessing given to mankind 'to be fruitful and multiply' with the exception of one family has been taken off the table. Everyone else is going to die.
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From a geologic point of view until very recently I had a problem with the volume of water needed to cover the entire planet Earth from sea level to a height above Mt. Ararat, at least a two mile high thick ring of water. There just was not a volume of water, atmospheric surface or groundwater available to meet the requirements needed for the Flood.
However, some years ago I read about a mineral only discovered in 1969 called ringwoodite. This mineral is a form of magnesium silicate (Mg2SiO4) and is formed at high temperatures and pressures in the Earth's mantle. This places it at a depth between 326 and 410 miles below the Earth’s surface.
Ringwoodite is able to bind oxygen and hydrogen together within its crystalline structure as hydroxide ions. This is the wherewithal for water. It is estimated that 2.6% of ringwoodite is H2O. It is theorized that the volume of water contained in ringwoodite is equivalent to one to three times the volume of water in the Earth’s oceans, enough to supply the requirements of the Flood. This is another instance where science is able to reconcile itself to words of Torah.
At 7:11 the Torah says: “…בַּיּ֣וֹם הַזֶּ֗ה נִבְקְעוּ֙ כָּל־מַעְיְנוֹת֙ תְּה֣וֹם רַבָּ֔ה…”
“…on this day, all the springs of the great deep were split,…”
Water coming up from the Earth’s mantle under landmass locations must have been very hot and under great pressure. Nothing would survive.
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A Restoration Scene From the La Brea Tar Pits Museum, California
In support of the proposition that from the get-go human beings have been creatures of violence consider what it said about Mega-Faunal Extinctions:
In biology a mega fauna is a large animal, such as an elephant or a camel or a horse, an animal weighing at least 100 ponds. While today most non-domesticated mega-faunal animals are only found in Africa or southern Asia there was a time when they were wide ranging and found all over the globe.
For example in North America alone until about 13,000 years ago there were large populations of giant sloths, giant tortoises, the saber-toothed tiger, llamas, camels, horses, giant beavers and many others. In what amounts to a geologic instant tens of mega-faunal genera were wiped out concurrent with the first appearance of human beings on the continent. And the extinctions were not limited to North America.
Look at this chart. There is a correlation between times of first appearance of humans and unique megafaunal extinction pulses on different land masses. You can not but conclude that human beings have always been violent by their nature.
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In a shiur regarding Parshat Noach Rabbi Eric Levy informs us that the Parshah begins with the Toldos of Noah and ends with the Toldos of Terach. Toldos is often translated as "history of" or "offspring", but it may also have an implication of a change in spirituality
6:9
אֵ֚לֶּה תּֽוֹלְדֹ֣ת נֹ֔חַ
These are the offspring of Noach…
11:27
ְאֵ֨לֶּה֙ תּֽוֹלְדֹ֣ת תֶּ֔רַח
And these are the offspring of Terach…
As per Rabbi Levy, at the beginning of the Parshah we see a change in the spirituality of humankind during the time of Noah. It is a change for the worse.
By the end of the Parshah, at the time of Terach, we also see a change in spirituality, this time for the better.
Rabbi Levi said that within Parshat Noach there is an implication of a positive change in mankind's spirituality:
https://outorah.org/p/1248/https://
With all due respect Rabbi Levy, I have a different take on the subject:
At the time of Noach, Hashem warns Noach of the impending disaster. For his own safety, at Hashem's command, Noach is instructed to build an Ark; take refuge in it while the Flood will wipe out all of the corrupt human species.
Besides being ever complacent, Noach has no other place to go.
Terach is in a similar circumstance: At the age of 70 he fathers three sons. One of his sons, Abram, was born in the year 1948 BCE. They all live in the city of Ur. However, one of the sons, Nachor, has left Ur and settled in the city of Harran, far distant from Ur about 600 miles to the North, in what is now northern Syria, close to the Turkish border.
Ur had been a magnificent metropolis. During the period that is called its third dynasty, from 2030 – 1980 BCE, Ur may have a population of 65,000 people, the largest city in Mesopotamia. It was a political, cultural and religious hub. That all ended in about 1940 BCE when the Elamites completely destroyed the city. Survivors not taken into captivity were faced with starvation as the fields had been torched and the water supply had become contaminated (Mesopotamia, G. Leik, 2002, page 137).
At that time Terach was probably in his 70’s. He and his family left the devastated region, going up river. It is my belief, similar to many people today, Terach’s family became refugees and fled to Harran the home of Nachor. This was their “Ark”.
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וַיִּקַּח תֶּרַח אֶת-אַבְרָם בְּנוֹ, וְאֶת-לוֹט בֶּן-הָרָן בֶּן-בְּנוֹ, וְאֵת שָׂרַי כַּלָּתוֹ,
אֵשֶׁת אַבְרָם בְּנוֹ; וַיֵּצְאוּ אִתָּם מֵאוּר כַּשְׂדִּים, לָלֶכֶת אַרְצָה כְּנַעַן, וַיָּבֹאוּ עַד-חָרָן,
וַיֵּשְׁבוּ שָׁם
“And Terach took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran, his son's son, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram's wife; and they went forth with them from Ur of the Chaldees, to go to the land of Canaan; and they came unto Charan, and they settled there.”
Alternative Ending:
I think that if Terach had realized his initial intention of going to the land of Canaan, he would have been in line to be the first Jew in place of his son and daughter-in-law.
This week's Parsha, in the concluding Aliyah at 11:31 has Abram's father Terach and family starting out on a journey, in part physical, and perhaps spiritual.
We Olim have done the same, with one important difference:
Unlike Terach we have settled in Israel.
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In terms of spirituality we have come a long way.
If Joshua has anything to say about, let there be no mistake: Terach and the whole Mishpacha, including our Patriarch and our Matriarch worshipped idols. Any Midrash that says that Abraham learned about monotheism from an Angel or from his mother in a cave while hiding from Nimrod is just a white-wash.
In the Book of Joshua at 24:2 it says:
הַנָּהָ֗ר יָֽשְׁב֚וּ אֲבֽוֹתֵיכֶם֙ מֵֽעוֹלָ֔ם תֶּ֛רַח אֲבִ֥י אַבְרָהָ֖ם וַֽאֲבִ֣י נָח֑וֹר וַיַּֽעַבְד֖וּ אֱלֹהִ֥ים אֲחֵרִֽים
“And Joshua said to the whole nation, "Thus said the Lord God of Israel, 'Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the river from earliest time, Terach, the father of Abraham, and the father of Nachor; and they served other gods.”
And please spare me the Midrash that has Terach as an idol manufacturer and has Abraham as a youth smashing the idols. In this instance I’ll refer to you Frank Sinatra:
Fairy tales can come true, it can happen to you If you're young at heart For it's hard, you will find, to be narrow of mind If you're young at heart
It is pretty clear to me that we do not now worship idols. In its stead, however, we worship science. For my part I would caution you not to worship science as if it were a religion unto itself. In doing so, at best you will be engaging in a form of polytheism resembling a form of idol worship that our Prophets railed against.
The question remains: How did Abraham learn about monotheism?
My guess is that his learning came from his wife, Sarah, who was definitely smarter than him.
At 21:12 Hashem says to Abraham:
כֹּל אֲשֶׁר תֹּאמַר אֵלֶיךָ שָׂרָה, שְׁמַע בְּקֹלָהּ
"...In all that Sarah says to you, listen to her voice..."
I rest my case.
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In the final verses of the Parsha we learn about the Tower of Babel:
At 11:12
וַיְהִ֖י בְּנָסְעָ֣ם מִקֶּ֑דֶם וַיִּמְצְא֥וּ בִקְעָ֛ה בְּאֶ֥רֶץ שִׁנְעָ֖ר וַיֵּ֥שְׁבוּ שָֽׁם
“And it came to pass when they traveled from the east, that they found a valley in the land of Shinar and settled there”.
Where and what is Shinar, שִׁנְעָ֖ר?
Shinar is a variant of the land called Sumer.
Shinar was mentioned earlier at 10:10 as the beginning of Nimrod’s kingdom, and which encompassed all of Babylonia which was part of Sumer.
The Sumerians were great innovators. Among many other things, way back, 5,000 years ago they are credited with creating time and writing.
Before the Sumerians, a day began with the sunrise and ended with the sunset. People went to work from when the sun was positioned at a certain height in the morning sky and returned to their homes when it set. It was the Sumerians who divided the day from the night by time, by increments of sixty-second minutes and sixty-minute hours which made up twelve hours of night and the twelve hours of the day. Cuneiform writing is said to be Sumerian in origin.
To their credit, the builders of the Tower of Babel invented writing and the division of time into hours and minutes.
Did this go part and parcel with Hashem's concern?
A related point: Terach and his family lived in Ur, a Sumerian city. Sumerians were great intellects, in my mind they were "Proto-Jews". They had the capacity to see beyond idol worship.
We are their result.
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