Parashat HaShavua - Noach

Before there was Rashi, and even before the midrashim of the Rabbis, a biblical commentary was already taking shape in the Tanach itself, as words, phrases, passages and even entire stories built upon, learned from, responded to, and integrated each other. As Michael Fishbane succinctly states and then explores in The Garments of Torah, “the foundation document of Judaism, the Hebrew Bible, not only sponsored a monumental culture of textual exegesis but was itself its own first product.” (p. 4)

This week’s Parashat Noach and Sefer Yonah (which we read on Yom Kippur) are a compelling example of this phenomenon. In her book Subversive Sequels in the Bible, Judith Klitsner shows the deep connections between these two stories and convincingly demonstrates how the story of Yonah can be understood as a corrective to Noach. This week in Noach, the world is destroyed when “the flood was on the earth for forty days / וַיְהִ֧י הַמַּבּ֛וּל אַרְבָּעִ֥ים י֖וֹם עַל־הָאָ֑רֶץ.” (Gen. 7:17) That same number forty appears in Sefer Yonah as well, in the context of the dire warning that Yonah conveys to the people of Nineveh that “in another forty days Nineveh shall be overturned / עוֹד אַרְבָּעִ֣ים י֔וֹם וְנִֽינְוֵ֖ה נֶהְפָּֽכֶת.” (Yonah 3:4) There, however, Yonah’s warning prevents destruction when “the people of Nineveh believed in God, and they proclaimed a fast and donned sackcloth, from their oldest to their youngest / וַיַּֽאֲמִ֛ינוּ אַנְשֵׁ֥י נִֽינְוֵ֖ה בֵּֽאלֹהִ֑ים וַיִּקְרְאוּ־צוֹם֙ וַיִּלְבְּשׁ֣וּ שַׂקִּ֔ים מִגְּדוֹלָ֖ם וְעַד־קְטַנָּֽם.” (Yonah 3:5)

As a result, in Sefer Yonah “God saw their deeds, that they had repented of their evil way, and the Lord relented concerning the evil He said he would do to them, and He did not do it / וַיַּ֚רְא הָֽאֱלֹהִים֙ אֶת־מַ֣עֲשֵׂיהֶ֔ם כִּֽי־שָׁ֖בוּ מִדַּרְכָּ֣ם הָֽרָעָ֑ה וַיִּנָּ֣חֶם הָֽאֱלֹהִ֗ים עַל־הָֽרָעָ֛ה אֲשֶׁר־דִּבֶּ֥ר לַֽעֲשֽׂוֹת־לָהֶ֖ם וְלֹ֥א עָשָֽׂה.” (Yonah 3:10) This week we also see God reversing course, but to the opposite effect: “the Lord regretted having made humankind on earth; with a sorrowful heart, the Lord said, ‘I will blot out from the earth the humanity who I created’ / וַיִּנָּ֣חֶם יְהֹוָ֔ה כִּֽי־עָשָׂ֥ה אֶת־הָֽאָדָ֖ם בָּאָ֑רֶץ וַיִּתְעַצֵּ֖ב אֶל־לִבּֽוֹ; וַיֹּ֣אמֶר יְהֹוָ֗ה אֶמְחֶ֨ה אֶת־הָאָדָ֤ם אֲשֶׁר־בָּרָ֙אתִי֙ מֵעַל֙ פְּנֵ֣י הָֽאֲדָמָ֔ה.” (Gen. 6:6-7) Thus can the forgiveness in Sefer Yonah be seen as a corrective to the harshness of this week’s parsha.

And, of course, not to be overlooked, is that when the rain stops, Noach sends out a yonah (dove) to seek out dry land. At first there is none, and the yonah quickly returns; a second trip, and the yonah brings back an olive leaf; a third trip, and it doesn’t return. (Gen. 8:8-12) This is how Noach learns that the dry land is increasing, and almost two months later they disembark. All of this, however, is too late to save humanity. By contrast, the dry land in Sefer Yonah saves Yonah when he is spit out by the big fish, after which he saves Nineveh.

All of this is nice, but how does it help us now when reading Noach to know that its narrative of destruction is subverted later in Sefer Yonah? One of the beauties of our ritual reading of Tanach is that it folds upon itself, loosening some of the bonds of strict chronology; what is later also comes before, and the earlier is read after, like Sefer Yonah on Yom Kippur coming before this week’s reading of Noach. In other words, when we learn so many different selections of Tanach based on Shabbat and the holidays, we can better appreciate how they are all in conversation with each other.

However, returning our attention to Noach and Sefer Yonah, there is no ignoring what happens first, what we are reading this Shabbat; the sequel of Sefer Yonah might subvert Noach but doesn’t make the story itself any better.  Sefer Yonah can’t – and shouldn’t – be understood to make the story of Noach or any other similar tale of destruction magically disappear. Rather, let us find comfort in our knowledge of Sefer Yonah while reading Noach. What we can gain from knowing what comes later – what can come after – is still of great value and meaning to us all: a vision of, and the hope for, a better future.

Shabbat shalom,

Rabbi Jack Nahmod
Middle School Judaic Studies Head
Rabbinic Advisor