TORAH
SPARKS
Parashat Noah
Shabbat Rosh Hodesh
October 20-21, 2017 | 1 Heshvan 5778
Genesis 6:9-11:32 (Etz Hayim p. 41-63; Hertz p. 26-40)
Triennial | Genesis
8:15-10:32 (Etz Hayim p. 48-58; Hertz p. 31-38)
Maftir | Numbers 28:9-15 (Etz Hayim p. 48-58;
Hertz p. 31-38)
Haftarah | Isaiah 66:1-24,
23 (Etz Hayim p. 64-68; Hertz p. 41-44)
Dvar Torah
Rabbi
Andy Shapiro Katz,
Director of North American Engagement,
Classical Jewish thought
posits that human being have two inclinations a bad one, the Yetzer HaRa,
responsible for appetite, competition, and violence, and a good one, the Yetzer
HaTov, that guides us toward justice, mercy, and holiness. (Those familiar
with Freud are sure to draw a parallel between this and his concept of the Id
and Superego.) But the word yetzer is more accurately translated as form as
it originates in the creation story of Genesis, Chapter 2.
As you may remember from
last week, there are two different stories of how Adam is created. In Chapter
1, Adam, both male and female together, is created on Day 6, the last day of
creation. In Chapter 2, Adam is formed from the dust of the earth, animals are
formed afterwards, and eventually Eve is formed from Adam s side/rib.
Interestingly, the two chapters use different verbs
for these processes. Chapter 1 uses the verbs he made (vayaas) or he
created (vayivra) for everything, including Adam. Adam is made/created out of
nothing, in the image of God, in one step. And God calls this creation very
good.
Dvar Haftarah
Rabbi Mordechai Silverstein, Conservative Yeshiva Faculty
At the opening of this special haftarah for
Rosh Hodesh, the prophet asks a rhetorical question: Thus said the Lord: The
heaven is My throne and the earth is My footstool. Where could you build a
house for Me? What place could serve as My abode? All this was made by My hand
and thus it came into being , declared the Lord. (Isaiah 66:1-2)
What is implied in this statement? The
prophet questions whether building a house for God is appropriate. The reason
for having a house for God was to give people a concrete point of access to
God, but this human necessity also created a religious problem. After all, how
can the created world contain its Creator? It is not difficult to discern how
building a house to contain God might lead some to draw false conclusions
about God. If God indeed lives in His house, then one could draw the
conclusion that His influence might be limited to His house, leaving the miscreant
to assume that it is possible to operate outside God s reach. In other words,
one could sin outside of God s house and get away with it.
Such thoughts led the prophet to decry the
need for building a house for God and to forcefully assert God s power over the
wayward who thought to take advantage of this theological loophole: As for
those who slaughter oxen [as sacrifices] and slay humans, who sacrifice sheep
[inside the Temple] and immolate dogs [as an idolatrous practice] (66:3) God
reminds his followers , in this case the wayward priesthood, that they should
not be misled into thinking that God dwells as a prisoner in a house built for
Him.
Rabbi David Kimche (12th century
Provence) states the problem this way: Like Solomon said: Even the heavens to
their uttermost reaches cannot contain You (God), how much less this house
which I have built (1 Kings 8:27) for I have not commanded regarding this
house that I should dwell in it nor regarding the sacrifices that I should
consume them; I commanded [them] only in order for Israel to incline their
hearts toward Me (God) and so that there should be a special place to pray to
Me and makes offerings, to awaken their hearts and to eradicate evil thoughts
if so when you do evil and then come to My house and sacrifice before Me, you
have lost the proper intention and this is My (God s) mitzvah and you do not
fulfill My will, rather the opposite You anger Me.
Kimche suggests that the people abused an
institution intended for their benefit. The purpose of the Temple was to
facilitate intimacy with God in a manner which was friendly for human beings.
It was not meant as a means of limiting God s reach.
So the prophet in our haftarah comes to
remind us to be discerning and conscientious when we think about God, so as not
to allow ourselves to be misled.
Vered Hollander-Goldfarb, Conservative Yeshiva Faculty
Last week we
learnt about the creation of the world, and now we read about the destruction
of this amazing enterprise because of the corruption of all living things. As
life returns after the flood we read about the nations of the world that come
from Noah s children, and begin to focus on Abram.
1)
The Parasha of Noah introduces his 3 sons at the very beginning (6:9-10),
before God announces the destructions of all living things. Why do you think
that they are introduced here? Why are they mentioned after a verse describing
Noah s relationship with God?
2)
The children of Noah begin to have their own children after the flood (chapter
10). The Torah gives us lists of the children of each branch. Why do you think
that the Torah devotes space to this? Are you familiar with any of these
nations?
3)
Look at the dimensions of the ark that Noah is instructed to build (6:14-16).
While it is often drawn as a ship, that does not seem to be its shape. What
shape is this structure? What disadvantage does that have in comparison with a
ship? Why do you think that God did not instruct him to build a more
hydrodynamic shape?
4)
After many months in the ark, while the world was submerged in water, the ark
stops on the Ararat Mountains. What does Noah do to find out what the situation
outside is like (8:6-12)? Why are both the crow and the dove let go on their
missions? Do they go simultaneously or one after the other? Why?
5)
Noah offers sacrifices to God after leaving the ark (8:20-22). What do you
think was his intention? How does God respond? Did Noah live up to his name, as
we saw in 5:29, last week
(Dvar Torah continued from
front page )
But Chapter 2 does not say that God
created or made Adam. Instead, we are told that God formed (vayitzer) Adam
from the dust of the earth. God takes from already existent earth and uses it,
like a potter uses clay, to FORM Adam before blowing into his nostrils to bring
him to life.
In Chapter 2 God doesn t say whether this
form is good or bad. And in the chapters that follow we see that, in fact,
human beings are NOT good. In Chapter 3, Adam and Eve disobey God and try to
hide it and shade the truth. They are more responsive to their own appetite
than God s instructions. In Chapter 4, competition and jealousy lead Cain to
kill his brother Abel, despite God s warnings.
It is in Chapter 6 that God assesses the
form (yetzer) of human beings and pronounces it bad. The Torah says in 6:5:
The LORD saw how great was man s wickedness on earth, and how all the yetzer
(form) of the thoughts of his heart/mind was ra (bad) all his days. And God
regrets making humanity and resolves to wipe them out, along with everything
else. Put simply, the Yetzer HaRa is the reason God brings the flood!
We all know what happens next. Noah and his
family and various animals are saved. They ride out the storm in the ark and
emerge again onto dry land to re-populate the earth. And in line 8:21, God
promises to never bring another flood to destroy the world:, Never again will
I doom the earth because of man, since the yetzer (form) of man s mind is
ra (bad) from his youth.
Wait. So God destroyed the world because of
the Yetzer HaRa, and then vows not to do it again because of the Yetzer HaRa?
That makes no sense. And it reinforces the basic fact that nothing has changed:
Noah may have been better than his contemporaries, but he still has the same
Yetzer HaRa as all human beings! By token of being human, he shares their
defect.
So how do we explain God s change of heart?
The answer may lie in the subtle difference
between God s statements. 6:5 says bad all his days, but 8:21 says bad from
his youth. Perhaps the phrase from his youth should be read BECAUSE OF his
youth! Based on this the Sages, in the work Avot d Rabbi Natan, developed that
idea that human beings are born with a Yetzer HaRa, but don t develop a Yetzer
HaTov until the age of 13.
So God recognizes that even though it LOOKS
like humans are ONLY our Yetzer HaRa, in fact we just need to grow up, both
individually and as a species. Fortunately for us and the world, God realized
this and committed to engaging with us as a parent/teacher, to give us Torah to
help us develop our Yetzer HaTov, so that we can indeed merit being called
very good.