2: Noah
Welcome to TLDR Torah: a synopsis of the weekly parsha based on a reading of Robert Alter’s translation, plus a question to spur your Shabbat dinner (or any!) conversation. Please share interesting discussions that result!
Parhsa Noah (6:9–11:32)
TLDR:
God observes that “the earth” is corrupt. God commands Noah, a “righteous man”, to make an ark to save himself and his family from the impending flood.
After providing specific architectural plans to Noah, God also instructs him to save the animals. Noah receives two maybe contradictory directives: first, he’s told to bring one pair (male & female) of all animals, and secondly, there’s an addendum for “clean” animals (the internet has had fun determining the precise number of animals that would have been on the Ark).
The Flood starts! It’s not just torrential downpour. The water also comes from below ground. Everything is wiped out — except the fish.
Finally, the wind subsides, the water recedes, and Noah sends out birds to test for landfall. Raven #1 fails. Dove #1 fails. Dove #2 gets an olive leaf and an enduring symbol. Dove #3 never returns to the Ark.
Noah gets off the boat, and makes an offering to God. God must like it, as he says “I will not again damn the soil on humankinds score. For the devisings of the human heart are evil from youth.” Cue unresolved debates about human nature, free will, and expectations of humankind broadly.
God makes a deal, inked by a rainbow. Humans need to be fruitful and fill up the Earth. If they do this, God promises not to wipe out the Earth again - at least by means of a flood. (Lawyers can determine whether that precision indicates that God CAN do it by other means).
…interlude where Noah’s son Ham sees Noah naked, and then Noah curses Ham’s grandson for some reason…
Following a long lineage explaining how humans branched out across the Earth, the Torah returns to a time when everyone spoke the same language.
The people come together to make a city and tower with “its top in heavens” to avoid being “scattered over all the Earth.” God sees what they’ve done, doesn’t like it, and baffles their language, scattering the people everywhere.
Question:
Ok, some multiple choice. What did the people of Babel do wrong?
(a) Such egoists! They thought they could displace God by building to the heavens.
(b) The people concentrated in one place, and didn’t “fill the earth” per the covenant made with Noah.
(c) The people focused on proptech, instead of on serving God. A parable against urbanization and over-reliance on technology.
(d) The tower itself was a form of idolatry, and idolatry is generally bad in the Torah.
(e) God saved them from catastrophic flooding. If the people breached the heavens, they would have caused another Flood.
Along similar lines, why did God command Adam to “fill and conquer the Earth” but only tell Noah to “fill the Earth”? What changed?