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Volume 26
No. 2
NOACH
SHABBAT ROSH CHODESH
5 October 2013 • 1 Cheshvan 5774
Artscroll p.30
Hertz p.26
Soncino p.34
Maftir p.890
Maftir p.695
Maftir p.944
Daf Hashavua
Shabbat ends in London at 7.16 pm
Haftarah p.1208
Haftarah p.944
Haftarah p.1188
The Foundation of Humanity (Part 2):
Avraham Cements the Future
by Rabbi Dr Moshe Freedman, Northwood United Synagogue
And I, behold, I am setting up My covenant with
you and with your seed after you. (Bereishit 9:9)
The Mishnah (Pirkei Avot 5:2 – see green siddur,
p 552) teaches us that G-d held back from
destroying mankind for ten generations from
Adam to Noach. This demonstrates
that G-d is slow to anger in the face
of mankind’s mistakes. Yet ultimately,
G-d resolved that mankind had corrupted itself and the entire world to
such a degree that it was necessary
not only to destroy mankind but also
to weaken the ‘connection’ between
heaven and earth. This in turn reduced
mankind’s physical and spiritual
potential. G-d then sought to begin a
new lineage through Noach.
The second part of this Mishnah
parallels the first; just as there were ten
generations from Adam to Noach, there were
also ten generations from Noach to Avraham,
once again describing a unit in our genealogy.
This second stage of humanity had been humbled
by living in the aftermath of the flood. In order
to have a functioning relationship with G-d,
mankind had to be shown its place in the
cosmos; there is only room for one Creator and
mankind’s role is to be His servant.
Yet as the narrative continues, the next ten
generations from Noach to Avraham became
beguiled by another obstacle in G-d’s mission to
nurture and mould mankind into a morally
sensitive being.
Mankind was united in language and
purpose and could have achieved
greatness by following the path of
monotheism. It chose to follow
Nimrod. According to the Midrash
(Bereishit Rabbah 37:3), Nimrod
encouraged others to worship idols.
It was his arrogance in thinking that
he could wage war against G-d
which led to building the Tower of
Babel (Bereishit 11:4).
Rabbi Yitzchak Arama (d. 1494)
explains that since the building of this tower was
a result of a united front against G-d, He
punished them measure for measure by creating
disunity. Mankind had once again corrupted one
of its greatest gifts, that of unity based on
monotheism, forcing G-d to remove that unity.
The difference on this occasion was that this
period of history ended with Avraham and Sarah,
the couple who would successful take on G-d’s
mission to bring morality to the world and
elevate the whole of mankind.
‘Before and After –
Small Changes which
Make a Huge Difference’
At the end of last week’s sidrah (Bereishit),
we read of G-d’s ‘despair’ at mankind’s
wickedness… “G-d saw that the wickedness of
mankind was great upon the earth and that
every impulse of the thoughts of his heart was
always only evil” (Bereishit 6:5).
In this week’s sidrah (Noach), G-d undertakes
never again to visit wholesale destruction
upon mankind: “since the impulse of the heart
of mankind is evil from his youth” (8:21).
Rabbi Osher Weiss, one of Jerusalem’s greatest
present-day sages, queries
how the very reason which
occasioned the cataclysmic
flood is seemingly the reason
why the waters would never
again be allowed to destroy
the world as a whole. How
can it be that the inherent
‘evil’ of the human condition
both unleashes unprecedented destruction and
yet mitigates against the future recurrence of
such devastation?
To answer this question, Rabbi Weiss identifies
four subtle but significant differences between
the two passages:
1. The first section describes ‘all’ of mankind’s
thoughts as being evil whilst the latter one
refers to ‘his thoughts’, but not ‘all’ of his
thoughts.
2. Before the flood, the thoughts are described
as ‘only’ evil; this emphasis is absent in the
post-flood narrative.
3. Before the flood, the evil thoughts were
present ‘all day’, whilst after the flood they
were only there in mankind’s ‘younger years’
4. Prior to the flood, evil was embedded in
mankind’s very thoughts, afterwards it was
by Rabbi M.S. Ginsbury
Hendon United Synagogue and Director, P’eir
only that he suffered from an
evil inclination, not that
mankind’s actual thoughts
were themselves evil.
Rabbi Weiss offers a fascinating observation as to what
may have triggered these apparently small but
nevertheless significant changes. The verse
(7:2) in which Noach is instructed to take
seven pairs of every ‘clean’ (i.e. kosher) species
of animal into the ark refers to these animals
as those “which in future would be ‘clean’
for the Jewish people (to
eat)”. Rashi (d.1105) quotes
the Midrash that ‘we learn
from this that Noach studied
Torah’. The difference between the pre and post flood
generation was the critical
fact that, using his prophetic
insight, ‘Noach studied Torah’.
The Talmud (Kiddushin 30b) teaches that G-d
says: “I have created the evil inclination and
I have created the Torah as an antidote to it”.
Rabbi Yisrael Salanter (d.1883) used to teach
that the transformative capacity of the Torah
is not always evident in quantum leaps.
Rather it is small, steady and consistent
changes that make the difference.
That is how we squeeze evil out of the world
and create a new and better reality – small,
sustainable, meaningful and real change.
That is the difference between complete evil
which begets destruction and ameliorated evil
which is the pathway to forgiveness. That is
where studying Torah can be decisive – when
applied properly and steadily, it is the ultimate
balm in facilitating the emasculation of evil
and the nurturing of good.
Limits of Language: The Tower of Babel
by Rabbi David Lister, Edgware United Synagogue
The story of Creation has the mysteries of
language at its heart. G-d created the
universe and arranged our world with words
(Bereishit ch. 1). The first sin was born of
a conversation between Eve and the
snake (Bereishit 3:1), and G-d tried to use
conversation with Adam and Eve to induce
them to repent of that sin (Rashi to
Bereishit 3:9).
We see language as a creator, destroyer and
healer in people’s lives at the start of the
Torah. In this week’s sidra, Rabbi Shimshon
Raphael Hirsch (d. 1888)
explores the story of the Tower
of Babel (Bereishit 11:1-9) and
teases out from it an
understanding of language
as a force that works on
macrocosmic and microcosmic
scales, moulding minds and
civilisations alike.
It is easy to appreciate the role
of language in shaping the
individual human psyche. Language is not
just a means of communication; it also forms
our world view. So, for instance, most
languages have a verb meaning have, but
Hebrew does not. In Hebrew, instead of
saying, “I have...” one says, “Yesh li” – “there is
to me...”. There is a sense here in which one
has an association with possessions, but that
they are not entirely one’s own. Whenever
Hebrew speakers try to glory in their wealth,
they end up admitting that their grip on it is
tenuous and temporary.
The story of Babel shows us language
overheating, making minds march in lockstep,
with one international dialect standardising
thought and threatening the value of
individual life altogether. The peoples of the
world, captivated by their own unity, gathered
together and resolved to build a mighty
skyscraper that would “make a name” for
them all, giving them a common identity and
binding them together into one contiguous
superstate. They readily sacrificed their
individuality altogether for the sake of the
collective. The Midrash vividly depicts this
shift in social norms, saying that if a person
fell off the tower and died, no-one cared, but
if a brick was dropped and broken everyone
lamented its loss.
G-d saw that their common
language was at the root of
this (Bereishit 11:6). In His
mercy, He intervened to
rescue the people of Babel
from themselves. He dissolved the bond that united
the people by fragmenting
the language which made
them think in the same way. Language
became diverse, ideas suddenly developed in
different directions, and people began to see
the world in different ways. Their common
purpose was lost, and the very thing that they
feared – “lest we be scattered over the Earth”
– became suddenly attractive. G-d’s assault
on their language meant that they scattered
over the whole Earth, thinking in different
words and different ways.
The Ethnologue organisation identifies 6,809
languages spoken nowadays. We can see this
bewildering array of speech as an echo
of Babel, a trace of how much G-d prizes our
divergence and individuality.
This Week
in History
Sputnik Satellite Blasts into Space (4th October 1957)
by Rabbi Yisroel Binstock, United Synagogue Rabbinic Intern
Kabbalah, like rocket science, requires serious
study in order to be understood correctly.
Yet there are some ideas from both of these
fields of knowledge which can be practical and
relevant to everyone.
the batteries ran out. After spending three
months in orbit, travelling a distance of 70
million kilometres at a speed of 8 km/s,
Sputnik 1 finally burned up as it re-entered the
earth’s atmosphere on 4 January 1958.
In his famous work Derech Hashem, Rabbi
Moshe Chaim Luzatto
(known by his acronym
RaMCHaL d. 1746) considers how our actions can
have greater ramifications
that we may think. Our
deeds in this world affect
metaphysical realms. Once
these realms have been
affected, their ‘response’
can in turn cause consequences here on earth. This
idea may seem a bit
ethereal, so let’s try to
understand it better with
the help of some rocket science and an event
which took place this week, 56 years ago.
While the Sputnik launch was a single event,
it marked the start of
the space age and ushered
in new political, military,
technological, and scientific developments.
On October 4, 1957, when the Soviet Union
successfully launched Sputnik 1, history
changed. This was the first man-made object
ever to leave the Earth's atmosphere. The
artificial satellite was a polished metal sphere
about the size of a beach ball (58 cm in
diameter). It weighed only 83.6 kg, and took
about 98 minutes to orbit the Earth on its
elliptical path. It had four external radio
antennae which continued to transmit
information to scientists for three weeks, until
An action here in this world
– the Sputnik launch,
caused a satellite to travel
out of this world’s atmosphere, which in turn had
consequences all over the
physical world. The analogy
to the spiritual system may
not be perfect, but I believe
it sheds light on the RaMChaL’s teachings.
There is a valuable insight here. As Rabbi
Yehudah Hanassi (Rabbi Judah the Prince
d.217CE) reminds us at the beginning of the
second chapter of Ethics of the Fathers (Pirkei
Avot, green siddur, p. 528), we must be careful
with all our actions, not just the ones we
perceive to be especially important, because
ultimately we do not know what the full
ramifications will be. Sometimes we may
consider our deeds to lack significance beyond
themselves, but their effect may travel the
length of the world and even beyond.
United Synagogue Daf Hashavua
Produced by the Rabbinical Council of the United Synagogue, together with US Living & Learning
Editor: Rabbi Chaim Gross Editor in Chief: Rabbi Baruch Davis
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