Parashat HaShavua - Bereishit

What can our response be when we encounter the seemingly outlandish beliefs of others? At the end of this week’s reading of Bereishit, we read a bizarre story that seems to precipitate the deluge to follow:

“The nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the divine beings would approach the daughters of man, and they would have their children... (Gen. 6:4)

הַנְּפִלִ֞ים הָי֣וּ בָאָ֘רֶץ֘ בַּיָּמִ֣ים הָהֵם֒ וְגַ֣ם אַֽחֲרֵי־כֵ֗ן אֲשֶׁ֨ר יָבֹ֜אוּ בְּנֵ֤י הָֽאֱלֹהִים֙ אֶל־בְּנ֣וֹת הָֽאָדָ֔ם וְיָֽלְד֖וּ לָהֶ֑ם...״

This was apparently very bad. God observes in the next verse that “humanity’s evil was great on earth, and every inclination of his heart was only always evil / וַיַּ֣רְא יְהֹוָ֔ה כִּ֥י רַבָּ֛ה רָעַ֥ת הָֽאָדָ֖ם בָּאָ֑רֶץ וְכָל־יֵ֨צֶר֙ מַחְשְׁבֹ֣ת לִבּ֔וֹ רַ֥ק רַ֖ע כָּל־הַיּֽוֹם.” As a result, “the Lord regretted making humanity on the earth, and God’s heart was saddened / וַיִּנָּ֣חֶם יְהֹוָ֔ה כִּֽי־עָשָׂ֥ה אֶת־הָֽאָדָ֖ם בָּאָ֑רֶץ וַיִּתְעַצֵּ֖ב אֶל־לִבּֽוֹ.” This, in turn, caused God to say, “I will erase humanity, whom I created, from upon the face of the earth; from humanity to cattle to creeping things to the birds of the heavens, for I regret that I made them / אֶמְחֶ֨ה אֶת־הָֽאָדָ֤ם אֲשֶׁר־בָּרָ֨אתִי֙ מֵעַל֨ פְּנֵ֣י הָֽאֲדָמָ֔ה מֵֽאָדָם֙ עַד־בְּהֵמָ֔ה עַד־רֶ֖מֶשׂ וְעַד־ע֣וֹף הַשָּׁמָ֑יִם כִּ֥י נִחַ֖מְתִּי כִּ֥י עֲשִׂיתִֽם.” (Gen. 6:5-7)

Rashi quotes a midrash explaining that they were called nephilim from the word nafal -  “fall” - because “they caused the word to fall / הפילו את העולם.” 

Thus the stage is set for the earth’s full reset save for Noach, his family, and select animals. All others are tragically erased.

Or are they? When Bnei Yisrael scout out Canaan, and ten of the twelve scouts return frightened and discouraged, they report: “There we saw the nephilim, the sons of giants, descended from the nephilim. In our eyes, we were like grasshoppers, as we were in their eyes / וְשָׁ֣ם רָאִ֗ינוּ אֶת־הַנְּפִילִ֛ים בְּנֵ֥י עֲנָ֖ק מִן־הַנְּפִלִ֑ים וַנְּהִ֤י בְעֵינֵ֨ינוּ֙ כַּֽחֲגָבִ֔ים וְכֵ֥ן הָיִ֖ינוּ בְּעֵֽינֵיהֶֽם.” (Nu. 13:33). This is the last straw for the nation, who in response “raised their voice, called out and cried all night,” (Nu. 14:1)

In other words, these nephilim first cause the earth’s downfall and then the downfall of Bnei Yisrael. But how did they even still exist the second time?

One is reminded here of the line from the song Hotel California, when “in the master's chambers / They gathered for the feast / They stab it with their steely knives / But they just can't kill the beast.” Why not? Because it is hard to kill something that doesn’t actually exist.

And so it is with the nephilim of Bereishit, who help cause the downfall of humanity and reappear after they should have been erased by a forty-day deluge, only to help cause the downfall of a generation of Israelites when they scout out the land by turning a trip of forty days into a forty-year ordeal. This second time, the scouts internalized so much the idea of the nephilim that it changed how they saw themselves: in their own eyes they were “like grasshoppers,” which - according to them - is how the nephilim saw them.

In other words, the attempt to erase the nephilim fails miserably. You can’t just “kill the beast” - the views of others that seem ridiculous to us - but rather somehow find a way to engage them, because they will likely endure. As Yuval Noah Harari writes in his book Sapiens, “only Homo Sapiens can speak about things that don’t really exist, and believe six impossible things before breakfast,” and we “do so collectively.” (27) Elsewhere he elaborates: “The real difference between us and chimpanzees is the mythical glue that binds together large numbers of individuals, families and groups. This glue has made us the masters of creation.” (p. 42)

May we find ways to strengthen this “glue,” to engage even with the beliefs of one another that seem most outlandish, and strive to be the best possible partners in creation with each other and with God.

Shabbat Shalom

Rabbi Jack Nahmod
Middle School Judaic Studies Head
Rabbinic Advisor