Once again, it is time for my Torah thoughts on the parsha (weekly Torah portion). This week’s parsha is called Noach (Noah), which means rest, and is named after our famous flood-faring captain, Noach.
Our story begins with us being told that Noach was a tzadik (a righteous person) and innocent/simple/whole in his generations, and that he walked with haShem (god).
After we are told of Noach’s three sons, we learn that all flesh on the world was corrupt and god was going to destroy all flesh on the earth. God tells Noach to make an ark because god is going to bring a flood to destroy all flesh on the world. God also tells Noach that he will make a brit (covenant) with him and that Noach, his wife, his sons, his son’s wives, and one male and one female from each animal that lives on the earth are to be brought onto the ark to be saved.
Noach does as he is told, and the flood hits and all flesh, except what is in the ark dies. Eventually the waters recede and Noach and the animals leave the ark, and god tells Noach to let the animals swarm the earth and that they should be fruitful and multiply.
At this point, Noach builds an altar and sacrifices the extra pure animals that haShem had him collect.
HaShem smells the pleasant aroma and says in his heart that she will never again curse the land because of the Adam, and that all the days of the earth, sewing and harvesting, cold and hot, summer and winter, day and night will not rest.
God then blesses Noach and his sons and tells them to multiply and fill the earth and that the animals will be in awe of Noach and his sons for the animals are being given into their hands. They are told they can eat anything, flesh and vegetation, however not to eat the blood because the nephesh (soul) is the blood.
God also establishes a brit with Noach, his children, and all the animals that they will never be cut off again by floodwaters, and god gives the rainbow as a sign of this brit.
Now we read that from the three sons of Noach, humanity is dispersed throughout the entire world.
Immediately after, we read that Noach became a man of the earth and planted a vineyard and got drunk and was exposed in his tent. Cham (one of Noach’s sons), and the father of Cnaan, saw his father’s skin and told his brother’s outside. The other brothers (Shem and Yephet) put a garment between them, walked in backwards, and covered their father’s nakedness, and their heads were turned backwards and they did not see their father’s skin. When Noach awoke and saw what his younger son did to him, he cursed Cnaan to be a slave of slaves to his brothers.
Right after this episode, we read of the generations of Noach’s three sons and where their lands were. After this we read how they traveled east and started making bricks and started to build a city and a tower that reached to the heavens in order to make a name for themselves and not be dispersed over the land.
HaShem came down to take a look at what was being built and decided to disperse everyone and give them separate languages and the building stopped.
The parsha ends with a recounting of the generations from Shem to Avram and how Avram and his wife and his father and his nephew Lot left their home and traveled to Charan where Avram’s father died.
This is where we leave off.
I keep saying this every week, but so much is here. I sometimes think we should spend a year on each parsha instead of just a week. However, we only have a week, and we are all so busy, so I will only write a thought or two on what excited me in this parsha.
The first thing in the parsha that got me thinking is right at the beginning.
The parsha starts with us being told that Noach was a tzadik in his generations, and we also read that the people in that generation were very corrupt.
The obvious question here is why does the Torah need to tell us that Noach was a tzadik IN his generations? Does this mean he would not be a tzadik in other generations, such as the generation of Abraham?
This year I saw the text a little differently. I didn’t see these additional words, “in his generations,” put in to imply that Noach would not be a tzadik in other generations, so much as to tell us what it means to be a tzadik.
A tzadik is a person that does right. I have said this in previous thoughts on this parsha, but it is worth repeating. The word tzadik comes from the verb that means, “To be right.” Hence a tzadik is a person that does what is right.
By adding in these extra words, “In his generations,” what we are being told is that sometimes, to be a tzadik, to walk with god, one has to stand completely outside of what the world is doing.
In other words, to be a tzadik, one must stand by their convictions and beliefs and not cave in to peer pressure.
When I was growing up, my mother would teach me this in the following way: I would want to be allowed to do something, and she would say no. I would say, “But all the other kids are doing it,” and my mom would answer by saying, “If all the other kids jumped off a cliff and killed themselves, would you jump off the cliff too?”
To not assimilate, to not be like everyone else, to not join the pack is a very hard thing. Nobody ever said being a tzadik was easy.
However, my experience shows that if you stand up and say, “No, I won’t do this because it is not who I am,” most people will respect and honor you more than if you give in and don’t do what you feel/know is right.
This is a tzadik, in all generations, good ones and bad ones. This is Noach, whose generations include the one that was destroyed by the flood and the generation of Abraham.
Now I could stop here, because what I just said is a pretty nice teaching. However, there was one other idea that grabbed me in this parsha just as strongly, if not more strongly. It has to do with verse Breisheit (Genesis) 7:9. Noach has been told to gather the animals in pairs, male and female and bring them into the ark. This we read in 7:2-3.
Verse 9 reads: Two by two they came to Noach, to the ark, male and female as god commanded Noach.
What is up with this verse? If the animals came, then how does the Torah get away with saying the Noach did as god commanded him?
I struggled with this for a bit of time before an answer came to me. The answer works like this:
God gave Noach a task. When god gives somebody a task, she also provides the means for the task to be accomplished. Noach did everything that god asked of him by not getting in the way of god and by making room and allowing the animals to come to him and to the ark.
In other words, this verse is teaching us that we don’t have to force things.
It is teaching us that we need to pay attention and do our part, and trust that god will do his part, and together we can fulfill god’s requests.
Too often, we feel we have to do everything ourselves and not only does this make the task impossible, it also gets in the way, and tramples the beautiful process that god has put into place for the task to be accomplished.
On the other hand, we can’t just sit back and do nothing.
The trick this verse is trying to teach us is to pay attention to what we are being asked to accomplish, and to do what we can, and to trust that haShem will take care of the parts that we cannot. And in the end, when the process is complete, we can look back and be amazed at how it all came together, and know that we did a job well done.
If you want to read what I wrote about this parsha last year, click here.
About the Author
Shmuel Shalom Cohen spent 10 years studying Torah in Jerusalem. Six years ago, he started Conscious Torah to help Jews connect to their tradition in ways they didn’t think possible. Shmuel also started, and is the executive directory of Jewish Events Willamette-valley, a non-profit whose mission is to build Jewish community, pride, and learning. In his free time, Shmuel likes walks in nature, playing music, writing poetry, and time with good friends.