Noah. The Ultimate Parashat.

The historical speed with which we read Parshiot Bereshiet and Noah are mindboggling. In Noah we are ten generations and 1656 years further. The average age of each generation comes to 912 years, with Methusaleh taking the first price for living to a ripe old age of 969 years. If you fast-forward your DVD player while watching a movie, you still wouldn’t be able to catch up with the speed with which we are reading the beginnings of the Torah. Bereshiet teaches us history in light speed: We go from nothing to Gan Eden, from Adam to Cain. Alas most importantly, in Bereshiet we end on a very bad note.

The writing’s on the wall: mankind can be bad. We can divide the totality of sins in four stages: 1- Adam’s sin, 2- Cain’s sin, 3- Lemech’s sin and 4- The Collective Sins -(see Rosh Hoshana Liturgy). The decline of mankind is in fact so bad and so bloody and murderous, that HaShem sees no other way than to completely start over. This is the grim reality and the reason why Noah is selected and being called upon for help. While today we can buy Fisher Price toys with Noah, the Ark and multiple animals for children to play with; and while we can observe newborns sleeping under a Noah Mobile turning gently around and around playing a lullaby, not many parents realize the dark side of the story. So dark and so desperate, that HaShem is willing to destroy what He has built and literally re-start Ha-Olam. Noah, is chosen and he’s the first man in the Torah to receive titles of distinction. “Noah was a man, righteous (Tzadik) and whole-hearted in his generations.” Avraham received the same title of whole-hearted: “Walk before Me and be thou whole-hearted.” Clearly being whole-hearted – tamim, is a character trait more important than anything else. It’s what Avraham and Noah have in common. Meanwhile many of our Sages have discussed the phrase “For thee have I seen righteous before Me in this generation.” Rashi carefully admits that some Rabbis think that had Noah lived in a righteous generation, he’d be even more righteous, while had he lived during Avraham’s time, he’d be worthless. Pretty tough and harsh terms. In Levush Haora, Rabbi Mordechai Yaffe comments that both of Rashi’s observations pretty much mean the same: Noah was a mediocre man. Still, if we look at the circumstances and at the times in which Noah lived, then he must have been quite a righteous and good man. All and everything around him was against everything he stood for. We are talking about a society so much in decline and so bad, that only Noah and his direct family were chosen to survive what is to come next. Noah will become the next Adam. Noah will become the new and with that the first generation from which everyone else will arise. That makes this Parashat arguably the most complete and ultimate of all Parshiot.

Think about it, we have the new (read second) beginning of Olam, the lesson of bad versus good, a new leader, a new generation to start mankind with and seven brand new Noahhide laws to adhere to. That makes this Parashat the most complete lesson of all Parshiot. And most importantly, in time to come, we are now allowed to develop and refine the lean pastrami sandwich. We are no longer vegetarians. The most often quoted reason for that is the literal realization that all vegetation on earth had to grow back after the flood and that there was not enough food otherwise. Rav Kook, in Tallelei Orot, beautifully puts the meaning of suddenly being allowed to be carnivorous, in a different way. He believed that since mankind had let go of its moral instincts before, he was now allowed to kill an animal rather than his own kind. It was for this reason that mankind had been granted the permission to slaughter animals for food. But he called it a transitional tax, something temporary until the brighter era would be reached. From Isaiah -“Nation shall not lift up sword against nation neither shall they learn the arts of war anymore.” In this message, Rav Kook believed to hear that man’s compassion would extend to the animal Kingdom as well.

It is interesting to notice that the seven Noahide laws or shevah mitzvot bnei Noah, almost all are shaped to prevent what was before the flood. The seven laws listed by the Tosefta and the Talmud are: 1- Prohibition of Idolatry, 2- Prohibition of Murder, 3- Prohibition of Theft, 4- Prohibition of Sexual immorality, 5- Prohibition of Blasphemy, 6- Prohibition of eating flesh taken from an animal while it is still alive, 7- Establishment of courts of law. By this time HaShem realizes that man with his own free will, can easily engage himself in bad ways - of which the foolishness of Babel is the prime example. With the sin of Babel this Parashat comes finally to an end. In the next Parashat thankfully a better generation emerges. Thank God for Avraham.