Parshat Noah: A Loving Bath

(The following is an extensive rewrite of a d'var that I wrote about a year ago and is a bit long, but please enjoy.)

As children, when we thought of the story of Noah we often related it to the story of animals entering an ark two by two. Perhaps we felt some unease at the idea of Hashem destroying the world, and maybe that is why teaching Noah seems to often focus on the story of the ark and its inhabitants. Nobody wants to focus on our failures, or on Hashem’s seeming vengefulness. Which is exactly what the story seems to portray at first sight, man failed and Hashem punished him. Often, we instead focus on the element that shows hope and mercy in the form of God saving Noah and his family. There can be great depth to reading the story as one of punishment, focusing on negative.  However, I feel that different conclusions can be reached from reading this story, one that portrays a more positive message. 

Even before Parshat Noah begins we learn that the world is going down the wrong path. Hashem looked upon the Earth and saw that there are wicked men, men who have only evil inclinations and thoughts. This saddened Hashem, and gives us the first notice that destruction is coming. Then Parshat Noah begins, and we further learn why Hashem is considering this destruction. The world had become corrupt and filled with violence, and therefore the world and everything on it would be destroyed.  

Ok, so we don’t learn exactly what was wrong with the world. What is "corruption"? Is it corrupt in that there is violence? If so, does that mean that the animals are also violent? This conclusion can definitely be reached, but if that was it there would be no reason for the text to state that the world was both corrupt and filled with violence. Solely stating that it was filled with violence would convey such a message sufficiently enough. The great commentator Rashi states that the term used for "corruption" is a term that refers to sexual immorality and idol worship. We see slight hints of this with the story of Lamech, who is the first man stated as having two wives. The commentators explain that he had one wife for children and one wife for pure pleasure, even forcing her to drink contraceptive potions. As the whole world was corrupt, not just humans, one could say that the sexual immorality also extended to the non-human, possibly pointing to the existence of bestiality. Perhaps from a pshat perspective we can stop there, say bestiality, and other forms of sexual immorality, were rampant alongside idolatry, but we can take this further. Bestiality and sexual immorality in general, can be considered an issue of relationships. In a world where people have formed what Martin Buber would refer to as I-Thou relationships with one another, sexuality can be respected, but without this relationship people, and animals, are viewed as objects to be used for pleasure. This sexual morality of the age points to the deeper issue in that humans were relating to the world on a completely I-It level, objectifying the world and everything within it. 

The other part of Rashi’s definition of corruption was that there was idol worship. Idolatry is a religion of materialism. When a person worships an idol, they come to it for material reasons; they pray for rain or sunshine, money or children. Even their relationship with the metaphysical and divinity is one of an I-It relationship.  They pray to a physical object, because their minds, so clouded by materialism, cannot perceive a higher entity. This materialistic belief system alongside the objectification of the world work together as signs of how humanity’s value system placed material desires at the top. This is how the world had become corrupt. Man had been created in order to serve and guard the world, to uplift it, yet instead everything had lost meaning and importance, transformed into a material object for the usage by man. 

Mankind’s materialism was only one part of the whole equation leading to destruction. There was also the issue of the world becoming filled with violence. Once again, we could go with the pshat of the text, saying that mankind was literally violent. We see this with the story of Cain and Abel, and of Lamech in his lament over his own acts of murder. However, these two cases can also be used to disprove that murder was the reason for the flood, as with neither story did God respond with destruction. Also, these two stories serve as evidence that murder at the time was not a common issue, so much so that when someone committed a murder it was so rare that it had to be mentioned as a part of the Torah. Then, what is this violence that fills the world? Rashi’s commentary is once again informative, and a great stepping stone for further interpretation. Rashi translates the word for violence as meaning theft. Theft was strong enough of a reason for God to destroy the world? No, but if we look back into the history of the world we can see just what kind of theft and violence was filling the world. In the last chapter of Parshat Bereishit, we learn of the B’nei Elokim who looked upon women and took for wives those they chose. Growing up, we hear this story and often think that the B’nei Elokim were the sons of God, or angels, who came down and laid with human women, creating monstrous giants in their coupling. However, Rashi and several other commentators believe that the B’nei Elokim were judges, or government officials. If this were so, then we can read of a story of government officials using their power to force women to be with them. This story harkens back to the stories of the nobility in the Middle Age who would claim any woman they desired, even taking women on the nights of their weddings. With this story in mind and Rashi’s definition of violence as theft, I would argue that the violence that filled the world was actually the misuse of power, or tyranny. A tyrannical government is one that uses violence in order to steal from its people. It can steal the rightful dues of their labor through enslavement or even through heavily unjust taxation. It can use its power to take land from the people, or corruptly allow a privileged few to steal from others, such as in the example of the B’nei Elokim. 

Now, with these definitions of corruption and violence, a depressing picture of the world Hashem wishes to wipe away can be seen. Instead of a world of wicked men who thought evil thoughts that was in need of punishment, we can see a world of despair. The world is one in which humanity has become shackled, both physically and spiritually. Mankind could not reach Hashem, despite their calling of Hashem's name, because their minds were weighed down by the material objects that they have chained themselves to. In their need for safety humans built governments, only to find themselves enslaved to those tyrannical governments that they formed. Hashem looked upon the earth and was filled with sadness, not the anger one would imagine coming from a vengeful angry god, but the sadness of a god that cares and loves humanity. Hashem sees the shackles mankind had unwittingly enslaved themselves within, and Hashem felt regret. The regret stems from the sadness of seeing these poor creatures tormented by their own existence. It is not anger or disgust, rather the emotion that is attributed to Hashem is sadness, and it is with this sadness that Hashem destroys the world. 

There is a silver lining, a man named Noah who is both righteous and simple. He is righteous in that he does not use violence to control man. He is simple in that material possessions are not vital to him. Noah is what Hashem wants to see in human society, yet just as Adam had a hopeful start Hashem knows that in a world filled with temptation even Noah and his descendants could not help but one day become corrupt too. No longer destroying all existence in order to put it out of misery, Hashem decided to give the world a bath washing it free of its filth and placing Noah and family as the new starting point.  

The ark that Noah builds before the flood became a microcosm for the world once Noah, his family, and the animals are aboard. During this time the men and women came separately, not engaging in sexual activities for the course of their journey, and the animals are not used as food. Nobody, nothing, is used as an object, materialism is non-existent, violence and control unnecessary as they live harmoniously in the hands of Hashem. It is a hopeful beginning to the coming world. 

Sadly it is said that after the journey Noah was a failure. He came off the boat, performed a sacrifice, and then proceeded to grow a vineyard from which he created wine to get drunk. Some believe that his failure was that his sacrifice was not an honest one coming from a place of love, others that it was because he made wine to get drunk from rather than to sanctify Hashem. However, based off the idea that the failure of society was related to tyrannical governments Noah’s failure was not that he became drunk, but it was how he responded to his son’s entering his tent. Rather than punishing the one that had harmed him, Noah cursed Ham’s son Canaan and all his descendants. What makes this terrible is that Noah’s curse is that Canaan will be a slave to the rest of mankind. Hashem had just freed humanity from controlling violence, and Noah went and set future generations to be victims of this same violence!. This is where Noah truly fails. 

Man’s continual failure to be free is shown again when the story of the Tower of Bavel arises. Near the end of the story of Noah we find that men came together to build a great tower together. What is the purpose of this tower? Rashi explains that the tower was meant as a challenge to Hashem, the people, having seen the destructiveness of Hashem wished to build a tower up to heaven where they could topple Hashem and defend themselves. Yet, Ibn Ezra argued against Rashi saying that it was meant to mark a great city that they would build. The tower was meant as the center and foundation of a growing civilization. Why would Hashem destroy mankind’s attempt to work in unity toward building civilization? Once again, the earlier mistakes of mankind can be seen as the reason for Hashem’s response. Materialism played a major part in their creating the tower, rather than valuing spirituality and ethical behavior the people of Bavel felt they needed to build a grand physical tower in order for them to earn their name. The tower could also be connected to a ziggurat, a structure often used in idolatrous practices. If this is so, than we see the people returning to idolatry, further evidence of the sway of materialism. The tower could also be evidence of the return of tyranny as a place in which a ruler or government sits high above the people. This tower is a vantage point from which the government could impose fear upon its people and effectively control them. 

Hashem, once again with the best intentions for mankind, prevents the tower from being built by causing their languages to be mixed. In doing so, work on the tower is stopped and the people split apart into several different languages. How could the loss of a chance for humanity to be unified be positive? In breaking the people apart, Hashem gave mankind a stronger chance to grow towards a preferable state of existence. Hashem had witnessed that throughout history, before and after the Flood, mankind was drawn towards violence and corruption. With all of humanity united, if some fall all would fall. Now, physically separated, one group’s failure does not need to bring down the rest of humanity. Perhaps, in creating separate groups one group may even find they value the spiritual over the material, freedom and love over tyranny and violence. 

A reading of the story of Noah as one in which Hashem is angered and disgusted by humanity, and therefore punishes the world by destroying it can be very troubling. While a lesson of Hashem’s justice and mercy can be found in such a reading it shows the justice side heavily without acknowledging any importance to mankind or teaching any deep lesson. We are an experiment gone wrong, yet if we behave well Hashem may spare us. However, if mankind is acknowledged as being loved by Hashem a more positive message can be gleaned from the story of Noah. Rather than a story of Hashem’s punishment, we have one of redemption, of Hashem saving us by washing away the chains that hold us down. It also can teach us valuable lessons. We see evidence of Hashem’s love with this reading, and we learn can learn what it was that made Hashem sad, violence in the form of tyranny and corruption in the form of materialism. We learn from this that if we want to reciprocate Hashem’s love we must reject this violence and corruption. There is built a moral obligation for us to not only reject tyranny against ourselves, but throughout the world, as it was a world that was filled with tyranny that needed to be washed away. Materialism is shown as corrupting, destroying the relationships we have with others, both human and non-human, and that we too must try our hardest to reject this. Noah is than used as a template for how Hashem wishes to see humanity, just in our politics and simple in our desires.