Parashat Hashavua: Noach
The brilliance of the Torah is on full display when we examine its earliest characterizations of humanity’s relationship with nature. Best known, perhaps, is Rabbi Soloveitchik’s rendering of “Adam One” and “Adam Two,” from Bereishit: Adam One of the first chapter “will dominate the fish of the sea, birds of the sky, cattle, all the land and all the creeping things that creep on land / וְיִרְדּוּ֩ בִדְגַ֨ת הַיָּ֜ם וּבְע֣וֹף הַשָּׁמַ֗יִם וּבַבְּהֵמָה֙ וּבְכׇל־הָאָ֔רֶץ וּבְכׇל־הָרֶ֖מֶשׂ הָֽרֹמֵ֥שׂ עַל־הָאָֽרֶץ.” (Gen. 1:26) The narrative of Adam Two, by contrast, is “placed in the garden of Eden, to work it and tend it / וַיַּנִּחֵ֣הוּ בְגַן־עֵ֔דֶן לְעׇבְדָ֖הּ וּלְשׇׁמְרָֽהּ.” (Gen. 2:15) (The Lonely Man of Faith)
However, despite the seemingly equal treatment in Bereishit between these two perspectives on our relationship with the natural world, to me the overwhelming message from Bereishit and Noach is actually that the world is not ours to do with what we please; and if we do, then the world – and we – pay a steep price.
Take for example last week's linkage between eating from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Bad and consequences for the land. God tells Adam: “Cursed be the ground because of you; by hard labor shall you eat of it all the days of your life / אֲרוּרָ֤ה הָֽאֲדָמָה֙ בַּֽעֲבוּרֶ֔ךָ בְּעִצָּבוֹן֙ תֹּֽאכְלֶ֔נָּה כֹּ֖ל יְמֵ֥י חַיֶּֽיךָ.” Why should our knowledge impact the land in this way?
The message seems to be that human arrogance – a tendency to think that our intelligence reaches the level of divine wisdom – inevitably causes damage towards our surroundings. Leading up to the flood, “the Lord saw how bad humanity was in the land / וַיַּ֣רְא יְהֹוָ֔ה כִּ֥י רַבָּ֛ה רָעַ֥ת הָאָדָ֖ם בָּאָ֑רֶץ,” (Gen. 6:5) so “regretted having made humanity in the land / וַיִּנָּ֣חֶם יְהֹוָ֔ה כִּֽי־עָשָׂ֥ה אֶת־הָֽאָדָ֖ם בָּאָ֑רֶץ.” (Gen. 6:6) However, God’s response is to “end all creations / קֵ֤ץ כׇּל־בָּשָׂר֙!” (Gen. 6:13) And strikingly, when the flood finally ends, it is not for humanity’s sake that God pledges not to bring another. Rather, as Noach makes an offering to God, “the Lord smelled the pleasing odor, and said: “Never again will I curse the earth because of humanity / וַיָּ֣רַח יְהֹוָה֮ אֶת־רֵ֣יחַ הַנִּיחֹ֒חַ֒ וַיֹּ֨אמֶר יְהֹוָ֜ה אֶל־לִבּ֗וֹ לֹֽא־אֹ֠סִ֠ף לְקַלֵּ֨ל ע֤וֹד אֶת־הָֽאֲדָמָה֙ בַּעֲב֣וּר הָֽאָדָ֔ם.” (Gen. 8:21) Thus is undone the impact on the world of humanity’s eating from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Bad.
Are there signs of hope in all of this? Yes, albeit subtle. One remarkable feature of the flood narrative is that when the Ark finally comes to rest on the top of the mountains of Ararat, it was “the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month / בַּחֹ֣דֶשׁ הַשְּׁבִיעִ֔י בְּשִׁבְעָה־עָשָׂ֥ר י֖וֹם לַחֹ֑דֶשׁ.” (Gen. 8:4) Do you notice anything about the timing? It is the third day of Sukkot, the holiday during which we actually pray for rain! How can that be?
Therein, perhaps, lie seeds of hope. We believe that rain can come at the right time in the right amount – that God will hear our tefillot for that to happen – despite all the difficult occasions it has not, up to and including the flood. We continue to have enough faith in ourselves as well, despite evidence to the contrary, that we can act responsibly towards each other and the world around us. It is noteworthy that the language in Noach actually echoes creation, the creation that will be undone but can yet be redone. The root “to do / עשה,” appears almost as many times here as it did during creation. All the living things are to be “according to their kind / לְמִינֵהוּ,” and here too there is reference to all that is “edible / לְמַאֲכָל.”
May we recognize the impact of our actions on the natural world, and our responsibility toward it, and, even within and during the most difficult circumstances, may we perceive and pursue the positive creative forces that are ever present.
Shabbat shalom
Rabbi Jack Nahmod
Middle School Judaic Studies Head (Ivrit/Limudei Kodesh/Tefillah)
