Noach

Last time you and I talked about the word toledót, which means offspring or fruits, and one can translate: “Here are the fruits of Noach”. The word tamím means, on the one hand, blameless, guileless, on the other hand, perfect. Tam – on the one hand, this is simple, guileless, on the other hand, tom – this is end, perfection. There is a perfection that is in simplicity. One can say that Noach was a simple man, simple-hearted and righteous in his generation. Even though all around there was a corrupt generation, Noach was a simple and righteous man. Why is it noted here specifically that it was in his generation? Many commentators say that this is in condemnation of Noach, that in his generation he was righteous against the background of the others, but, supposedly, in our generations he would not have seemed all that righteous. Others say the opposite, that if even in his generation Noach managed to be righteous, when the whole earth had become depraved, then all the more in our generation he would have been righteous. That is, even in his generation Noach was righteous. One can also understand it more simply, more, let's say, guilelessly: Noach was righteous in his generation, in that generation which came after the death of Adam, a generation that did not know the man created by the Most High, did not know the man who communicated directly with the Most High. Noach was a keeper, an heir of righteousness, was a righteous man.

One more detail worth paying attention to before we begin reading further is that Noach's name is mentioned here twice in a row. And the commentators naturally could not pass by this double mention élle toledót nóach nóach. Some say that this is to Noach's credit, that Noach was a peaceable man: with the Most High Noach is peaceable, easygoing, and peaceable with the creatures. Others say (again in condemnation of Noach) that he was peaceable with the Most High, but also did not want to get into conflicts with people, looked for where it was more comfortable for him, and therefore he did not preach to anyone, did not convince anyone of anything. He lived with the thought “The Most High wants to destroy the world, His world – His business; I will not argue.” Here again is a case where a commentary says more about the person himself than about what he is commenting on. Some say that nóach nóach means that it is comfortable, good for him with God before the flood and good for him with God after the flood. Such are the different views on the double repetition of the name. And one does not want to choose the correct ones from these or, the other way round, to label some as incorrect.

Noach walked with God. Later it will be said about Avraham that Avraham walked before God. Noach built his life in accordance with God's will, perhaps this too is one of those well-known condemnations that people like to throw at Noach, that he did not care that others should also walk this way, he did not have a preacher's streak, a preacher's passion, like Avraham. But, what is important, Noach walked with God, Noach understood that walking with God, peace with God, righteousness before God – is the source of blessing.

The eldest son was called Shem. The name Shem is translated literally as name. That is how one can name a child. In another meaning, name – as in renown, estate or, as the builders of the Tower of Babel will later say, let us make a name for ourselves. A name is a person's glory, dignity, a good name or, one can translate it briefly this way, reputation, fame, gloriousness. If we say it in Russian, one can translate the name Shem as glory.

Another son bore the name Cham. The word chám in modern Hebrew means hot, in more ancient Semitic languages it means sun, little sun, in the southern Semitic languages it means slave, servant, or the very youngest, the one who serves everyone. And precisely this is the most probable variant of translating the meaning of this name. The youngest, obliging, servile, always ready to come and help with the household and in everyday life.

The name of the third son is Yefet, it comes from yiftach – he will open, he will widen, that is, the Most High will widen his space, will give him a generous, joyful, happy fate, share, so that everything in his life would turn out well. In later traditions there is this interpretation: Shem (name) is the understanding of essence, that is, a sort of attunement to the right understanding of things. Cham is a hot, emotional fellow, and Yefet (from the word beauty) is an aesthete, aestheticism, the Greek school of worldview. But this is already a midrash of names. Most likely, the original Semitic meaning of these names is not the same as in this midrash, although the midrash itself is quite wonderful.

So, Noach has three sons. Despite the order of the listing, most likely Cham is Noach's youngest son. Why this order? Because very often in Hebrew texts a short word is moved before a long one, this is the stylistics of the language. In Divrei haYamim we read: “These are the sons of Avraham: Yitzchak and Yishmael.” That is, the order can change. And, most likely, Cham is the youngest son, Shem the eldest son, and Yefet – that is the middle son.

Here is one more thing worth paying attention to. About Noach it is said that his first fruit is simplicity and righteousness, and only then children. This applies to any person: first of all, not whom he begot, but what he himself is like, what qualities he reveals in the world. The first thing that is said about Noach's offspring is that he was a simple and righteous man and walked with God, and only then that he begot children.

Corruption in the book of Devarim is connected with idolatry. That is, the relationship between God and man had been violated. As a result, the land was overfilled with robbery, that is, the consequence of violating the relationship with the Most High is always the destruction of the relationships between people. And whatever reasons drive this violation of the relationship with the Most High: cultural atheism, humanism, communism, love for all of humanity – all of this, one way or another, will lead to the earth being overfilled with chamás, overfilled with robbery, violence and so on. And this is a general rule, unfortunately.

So, the earth became depraved in two directions: between man and God and between man and man. We will see both here and in the future that the Most High brings a global punishment into the world, destroys humanity, drives out a people and so on in those cases when the relationships between man and man are destroyed.

We know that man was placed lirdot – to be a dictator over the whole earth. With the fall of man, with this degradation that we read about, the whole earth turned out corrupted, man is made from the earth and connected with the earth. In the book of the prophet Yechezkel, in chapter 14, we read: “Son of man, if some land sins against Me treacherously, then I will stretch out My hand over it and break in it the support of food, and send famine upon it and cut off from it man and beast. And if there are in it three men such as Noach, Daniel and Job, they by their righteousness will save their souls, – the word of the LORD God. But if I send fierce beasts upon this land, and they lay it waste, and it becomes a desert, so that no one passes through it because of these beasts, these three men, as I live – the word of the LORD God, – will save neither sons nor daughters. They alone will be saved, and this land will be a desert.”

We see in the prophet a parallel to our passage, to our events, because the name of Noach is also mentioned. Man's sin changes the earth, and then the earth itself becomes corrupted, stops functioning as a source of food, as a mediator between man and the Most High in providing food, the Most High “switches off” the earth, but can save the souls of the righteous. This is an illustration of the fact that the earth becomes depraved following the actions of man.

The root shachat, which means corruption, is used here like this: “I will turn them into decay; ruin them; rot them on the earth.” In its time the earth appeared from the water, the waters gathered into one place, and the water uncovered the dry land, that is how the earth appeared. We read about all of this. The earth did not stand firm, the earth became corrupt, and now it is necessary, on the one hand, to arrange a mikva – an ablution for the planet Earth, a purification by water, and on the other hand, to return creation to some initial stage. As it is said: “The earth was empty and chaotic (tohu va-vohu), and the Spirit of God hovered over the water.” That is, the whole earth was covered with water at the beginning of creation, and the Most High returns the earth to this starting point. But the Most High has a plan of salvation, so that not all of humanity would be destroyed.

The word tevát (box, little box) is used only here, with regard to Noach's ark, and with regard to the box in which another deliverer of Israel, by the name of Moshe, will float on the water.

The word kiním can be translated as cells, sections, bins, that is, some kind of division into separate pens. A solid ark is built, with everything necessary and with full waterproofing. Here, on the one hand, we see some kind of miracle, there will be many miracles around the ark, nevertheless the Most High tells Noach that this miracle will be made with the participation of man: “You will make this ark. It will not arise in a miraculous way.” Very often a miracle needs a man-made instrument, in our deeds, in order to be realized through our deeds. Everything that will happen around the ark will be miraculous. So, the ark is built by hands, by the hardworking, calloused hands of Noach, possibly without any miracles.

It seems to look almost exactly like a chest, and indeed the simple translation of the word tevá – chest, but if we read the text attentively, both here and further on, we will see that to tevá, to this ark, many verbs connected with seafaring apply. That is, this ark does after all have some form that is not simply that of a chest.

The word tzóhar is translated as window. Some translate it, more as a midrash, as: “Hang in it a precious stone that will shine and light up the ark.” A sort of example of electrical wiring in the ark. But, on the other hand, the word tzóhar can be translated not only from the word tzóhar as white, bright, but also from the word soar, which means lid. And if we compare with the texts of neighboring peoples and with the descriptions of the ark that have survived, and simply with the use of the word, we can see that what is meant is, after all, a lid. Why is this such an important detail? We know that if this is an ark with a lid, there is only one more object that has a lid – this is the ark of the covenant, which is called by another word – netiva aaron (cabinet). But the essence is very similar, and we will see many parallels with the kohanic service in what will happen here.

We said that the height of the ark is 30 cubits (or 15 meters), and from the entrance there is a way up straight to three floors.

The word mabúl means flood. That is how it is traditionally translated, and it is used, actually, only in the story of the flood. Yeshayahu (54:9) says: “For this is for me the waters of Noach.” Here he calls the flood not by the word mabúl, but by the word waters of Noach. “As I swore that the waters of Noach would no more pass over the earth, so I have sworn not to be angry with you and not to rebuke you.” Here one should pay attention to the fact that the waters of Noach are as if at Noach's disposal, coming down for Noach's sake, not for the destruction of the old humanity, but for the salvation of Noach. However, this is just a remark in parentheses. Without parentheses, let us repeat that Yeshayahu does not use the word mabúl, this word is used only here.

Let us dwell on this word mabúl. It can be interpreted from the word naval – killing; turning into carrion. The word carrion (a dead animal) in Hebrew is nevela, from the same root. One can also translate it from the word nabal, which means a huge vessel with water, that is: “I will make the earth a mikva; I will make the earth a huge reservoir.” And the third meaning, and they are all possible with fairly equal probability, is from the root yavel – to pour out some sort of springs.

In verse 18 the Most High says to Noach: “I will restore the covenant with you.” Not establish, not conclude, but literally – I will restore the covenant with you. What covenant can be restored? The covenant with Adam, when Adam was placed in the land, in the garden of Eden, to work it. And even earlier, in the very creation of Adam, he was created for such work, for a special service, he alone was created with some task besides being fruitful and multiplying – he was created to rule over the earth. Adam did not stand firm in this, and the Most High restores in Noach the covenant in which Adam did not stand firm. The word vahakim – to re-establish; to raise up, that is, as a renewal, the word yekum from the same root means creation, everything that has been created. It too will be used in this portion. In contrast to the word likrot brit (to conclude a covenant) – these are different words, and with Noach the covenant is precisely renewed, because originally this is the covenant with Adam. I have already talked about this and analyzed the history of the covenants in detail in separate lessons, and this is important for those who try to understand when exactly the covenant with the gentiles was concluded. Here is an example of a covenant with the gentiles: the covenant with Adam and the covenant with Noach, and further on in history this can be seen.

The animals are listed here, the Most High tells us in this portion about a pair of animals that will come by themselves, as in the garden He brought them to Adam. And Noach only has to bring them into the ark. In the ark the animals will live without feuding with one another, man will get along with these animals. This also recalls the prophecy of Yeshayahu about the times to come, when the wolf will live beside the sheep, and, actually, the events or the story of the Garden of Paradise. A small model of the Garden of Paradise, in which Noach and his family, the extended family, are placed as if as priests over the new earth. And therefore the parallel with the ark of the covenant is also fitting, because it is as if a prototype of Moshe's tabernacle, and of the first Temple as well. We have talked a lot about the parallels of the Temple with the Garden of Paradise, and here Noach is placed over all living things in the literal sense, as the guardian of all living things. In our portion we are so far reading the part where the Most High speaks about two animals that will come to Noach by themselves, and Noach must take care of their food

By the way, in these words too one can see a parallel, when the Most High later gives Moshe instructions for the construction of the tabernacle, the very same phrase is heard there: “And Moshe did everything as the Most High had commanded him.”

We have already talked about what in this generation means.

In the previous chapter it spoke of a pair of every beast, of all living creatures; here we suddenly read several innovations at once. First, according to this command, Noach must take the animals himself; second, here a division into clean and unclean animals unexpectedly arises, which did not exist at all before, and it says to take the clean animals by sevens, and to take the unclean ones, as before, by twos. How can this be understood? For the continuation of the species it is necessary that there be two of each animal; naturally, all the rest will come from a pair. But since Noach is not simply a savior who must restore the line, restore humanity, Noach, as we said, also has a priestly function, he is the one to bring sacrifices, therefore he must himself take and gather five more of each clean animal, to make them up to seven. This is his task. The rest, by 2, will enter the ark by themselves. This is how it can be understood most simply, closest to the text, although other understandings are possible too.

As for clean and unclean animals, there is a lot of talk on the question of whether Noach studied Torah somewhere, maybe he received some revelations, much is said on this topic. Among the neighboring peoples we also find mention of clean and unclean animals, fit and unfit for sacrifices: they calmly ate unclean food, but did not offer it as a sacrifice. In the Sumerian story of the flood, a certain Atrahasis, when he gathers the animals into the ark, also takes more clean animals than unclean ones with him. In any case, this is evidence that in Sumer there was a tradition regarding the purity of animals. Perhaps from Adam, perhaps as a result of some revelations, it already existed in the times of Noach. And it is quite possible that Noach's knowledge is knowledge obtained, so to speak, through the experience of the people. But it is quite possible that the Most High instructed him and revealed some secrets to him, for in order to fulfill the will of the Most High correctly, one must be His disciple. What is also important is that here we again see that Noach builds the ark – it does not come into being in a miraculous way. The Most High commands Noach to bring the animals for sacrifice; in this service there is Noach's participation. He does not just walk around as the boss, he must be able to provide for his ark. This is also the answer to a question such as how all the animals, such an enormous variety of animals, could fit into the ark, large, yes, but not infinitely large. The Torah says: “Yes, most likely this was a miracle, the ark miraculously held everyone.” Why then not make a small compact ark that Noach would easily have built in a couple of days? Because it is important that the new humanity lives not only by miracles, but truly cooperates, takes part in governing the world through its labor. And this is part of the great miracle.

Here it does not say ish ve'ishto (man and wife), but male and female, perhaps because in birds the difference between a boy and a girl, between a male and a female, is not so visible, therefore about them it does not say man and wife as something that we determine by appearance, as male and female.

We recently talked about the covenant (brit), that the Most High promised Noach lehakim – to raise up. Here we read the word haykúm (universe) from the same root – everything that stood; all that stands the Most High will wipe out, and with Noach will restore the covenant, as the beginning of a new universe.

What is also interesting here: when we talked in the Torah about the priests, we explained that they prepare for their service for seven days, there was a period when the priests prepared to enter into their priesthood, for seven days the high priest prepared for Yom Kippur. Here we see one more parallel: Noach enters the ark seven days before the beginning of the flood, enters for work, he still has to gather all the animals; but already in the first verse the Most High commands: “Enter the ark,” a seven-day period of preparation begins, as with the priests.

From such a separate writing – the husbands separately, and the wives apart – the conclusion is drawn that the men and the women lived separately in the ark, that in the ark there was no intimacy. One of the facets of this dispute is a continuation of the dispute about the Garden of Paradise, for the ark resembles the Garden of Paradise, and the dispute about whether there was intimacy there, in order to dispute whether there was intimacy in the Garden of Paradise. The second facet is, of course, the priesthood. And again, how permissible is intimacy in this situation? To resolve this dispute is, naturally, in no way possible relying only on this verse; one can say that in times of such a misfortune, which is after all happening outside, a woman needs greater protection and greater covering, and probably one should not keep away from a woman at such a moment. On the other hand, of course, the priesthood is also a factor. Therefore I simply mention this discussion and leave this question open. We will, however, have to return to this discussion once more when we talk about the sons and grandsons of Noach. The thing is that there is a midrash which says that one of Noach's sons (namely Cham) did not restrain himself, went in to his wife, and for this received such a curse that black descendants came from him (the Chamites are considered the descendants of Cham, and these are Africans). We will talk about this separately when we talk about Cham, Canaan and this whole story, and then we will give an assessment of this midrash, and consider others.

So, the animals came by twos; as we said, Noach gathered them further up to seven.

There is a dispute about what this second month is. Some say that since traditionally we read in the book of Shemot that the first month is Nissan, then accordingly the second month is Iyar, a spring month. Others say that it is written about the autumn festivals that they take place at the end of the year, which means one can also count Tishrei as the beginning of the year, depending on which year we are counting, and then the second month will be the month of Cheshvan, that is, literally the days we are in now. In defense of this, the supporters of Cheshvan, the second autumn month, bring this argument, that Cheshvan in Scripture is called Bul, and this sounds like the word mabul; moreover, they say that ma-bul is mem, 40 days from the beginning of the month of Bul, and in this way they bring it down to the month of Bul. The thought that it is after all a spring month is closer to me, although the second position also carries weight.

Sometimes it is very important to pay attention to a small detail. Here the Torah tells us: “In the second month, on the seventeenth day,” that is, 17.02. But why add on this very day? It would seem, two completely superfluous words, we would understand anyway that it happened on this day. When we encounter two such words that seem superfluous to us, perhaps this is like a mark, like a bookmark, it tells us: “Look, where else is this expression used?” It is used first of all in Shemot (19:1). When Israel approaches Sinai, we read: “And it was in the third month after Israel's going out from Egypt, on this very day, they came to Sinai.” In the book of Vayikra (8:33) we read: “And do not go away from the entrance of the tent of meeting for seven days, until the days of your authorization are fulfilled, for seven days your consecration must be performed. As it was done on this day, so the LORD commanded to do for your atonement.” We see that the word this day is connected with atonement. And further, in the book of Vayikra (16:30) we read: “For on this day the priest will atone for you, to make you clean from all your sins, before the LORD you will be cleansed.” What is spoken of here is the Day of Judgment. That is, there is a certain parallel between the expression this day and atonement, and if we follow this mark, we will trace this parallel.

Va'arubbót hashamáyim – a very interesting expression. In modern Hebrew this is a chimney or some kind of pipe. In the neighboring Semitic languages one can see that the word arubba is also used as window or some kind of little window, little door that opens in the heavens. If we look in the prophet Malachi (3:10), in the often quoted verses about the tithe, it says there that the Most High will again open arubbót hashamáyim, the same expression, in order to give blessing. And on the basis of Malachi one can see that arubbót hashamáyim is a figurative expression, and the description itself here does not necessarily correspond to a physical process, it is not astrophysics, not climatic geography, but a kind of description in terms understandable to man.

We will also see later in the Torah that the number 40 is often connected with the number of purification.

On this very same day – this expression is also used in relation to the circumcision of Avraham (Bereshit 17:26, we will still get to it) and is used several times in chapter 12 of the book of Shemot in relation to the going out from Egypt. That is, again we have here a pointer to some key, important event connected with salvation, deliverance, atonement and entering into the covenant. Several times this expression is repeated in relation to the Sabbath day, the entering into the Sabbath, which is also very important.

Unfortunately, we know nothing about the names of the remarkable women who were the wives of Noach, Shem, Cham and Yefet, well, almost nothing. In the book of Jubilees it is written that Noach's wife was the daughter of Raki'el. This, in essence, adds nothing for us, except for such an interesting name. Besides this, there is a midrash that the sister of Tuval-Kayin, Na'ama, was Noach's wife, and in this way Kayin, as it were, became part of the continuation of humanity. This is an interesting midrash, but one must remember that it is a midrash.

Again this is a separate promise, that the animals will come two at a time, they came by themselves, Noach did not look for them. But about the seven, Noach is told: “Take for yourself.”

Here too there is a parallel with the priesthood, we will examine it to the end in the next chapter.

Here the word télech (went) is used. Sailors say: “We don't sail, we go.” Here too we see and the ark went on the water. In fact, the use of these terms – not to sail, but to go – is very ancient, it goes back to the Sumerian and Akkadian slang of sailors, and here we see precisely such a professional seafaring term: the ark went on the water. And these terms are scattered here throughout the text.

Very interesting, I once saw such astonishment in a man who had long lived a secular life, had come to believe in the Most High, and once, going out onto the balcony and looking at the sea, he said: “How amazing! It takes me half an hour to fill a bathtub. How then did the Most High fill all these oceans?” Here it is not about oceans, but about much more. What a miracle is being performed and what a terrible phenomenon is taking place: water covers everything, creation as it were returns to that moment when darkness was over the deep and the Spirit of God (or a strong wind) hovered over the water. Here the ark hovers over the water, and again we can see the connection with the priesthood, the connection with the ark of the covenant.

Literally and the whole man (all of humanity). Everything that was that very ha'adám perished.

Again the word haykúm – everything that has been set up – was wiped out, but we remember that the covenant with Noach will be restored and with it the restoration beginsiThe Russian pronoun here can mean either “him” (Noach) or “it” (the covenant). It is rendered “it”, referring to the covenant, the subject of the sentence..

That is, after 40 days of rain, and after rain there are still springs, and the water still rose and rose for another 150 days after the Most High began the flood. There is water that is the sky, there is water that rises from the earth. And if we recall that parallel about the earth which we already mentioned at the very beginning of creation, when there was not yet the rakia that separates the waters above and the waters below, here the waters above and the waters below again, as it were, mix, the upper and the lower mix – one more aspect of the return of the earth to its original form. Here the interaction of the Most High and man begins, when man takes part in the miracles that the Most High does. Therefore one can repeat the thought which is not explicitly written out here (and I by no means turn it into some kind of dogma), that Noach is a prototype, he is the first priest in the history of humanity, the first high priest in the history of humanity. Not for nothing did Peter compare salvation with the salvation in the ark from the flood, this is important to remember.

Noach found favor in the eyes of the Most High. It is interesting that the name Noach, if you read his name backwards, reads as that very word chen – favor, which Noach found in the eyes of the Most High. This is a mirror word. There is such a play on words.

Can God forget or remember? Of course not, God is not a man, that He should have forgetting and remembering. When we say that God remembered someone, we can say that in the plan of the Most High the time had come to act in relation to this someone. That is, the plan of the Most High had reached that point when the Most High would again act in relation to Noach, intervene in those processes that take place in Noach's life.

The word hachayá comes, actually, from the word chai (alive), that is, all the animals. But it refers more specifically to wild animals, wild beasts.

Wind (ruach), of course, means not only wind, but also Spirit, and this refers us to the very beginning of creation, when over the chaotic earth covered with water a strong wind or the Spirit of God was hovering. And here the earth is in that state of the beginning of creation, as in the first verses of the book of Bereshit, where the earth is covered with water, and over it hovers the Spirit of God or a strong wind. We begin everything from the start, God acts to restore what was destroyed.

The word sacher means a bolt. If at the very beginning we read that all the springs of the depths were opened, here we do not read all, but simply the springs of the depths were closed. This tells us that some springs remained open, for example, hot springs, scattered here and there around the world, there are very many of them in Iceland, and there are some in Tiberias, and there are some practically all over the world, somewhere they remained open.

That is, for all this mathematics there exist different ways of understanding, and, so as not to overload the talk with mathematics, I will stop at one of the variants. For 40 days the rain fell, for another 150 days the water kept rising, at the end of this time the waters began to recede.

We read in the previous chapter that the water covered the highest peaks of the mountains by 15 cubits (or by 7.5 meters). Now we are reading about when the water goes down. And if we compare all the dates, it turns out that the water went down over the course of 60 days. During this time the water went down by those very 15 cubits (or 7.5 meters). If we count from the month of Tishrei, according to most opinions, it turns out that on 17 Iyar the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. A question arises regarding the two calendars and regarding an old, long-standing complaint about why Jews celebrate Rosh haShana at the beginning of the 7th month. The point is that in the book of Shemot in chapter 12 we read about the spring month of Nisan: “This month is for you the beginning of all months.” The Most High gives Moshe a command how to count the months, but before this, too, they counted somehow, and if tradition says that the world was created in Tishrei, then they counted the beginning of the year from the creation of the world. Therefore the first month, before Nisan became it, was Tishrei. And this is a quite logical opinion, which also has a right to exist. After all, in the Torah too the time of the autumn festivals is called the end of the year. Hence two calendars and hence two different approaches regarding when all this happened, but the difference between them is small.

So, on 17 Iyar the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. The fact that it is written on the mountains tells us that it was not specifically on Mount Ararat, there where Sis and Masis are, not on Greater and Lesser Ararat, but generally on the range of the Ararat mountains. There is a whole heap of disputes about where this was, there are certain comrades who have even found the ark, and there are very many disputes on this score, but we will not now go into either archaeology or its fakeology.

Earlier, before this 6th verse, we read nothing about Noach making some window in the ark. There were commentators who said that the word tzóhar, which the Torah uses in the previous chapter, means window; others said that it is a precious stone, and we said that there is also a third variant – a lid. And if someone said that it is a precious stone, then what is he to do now, since here it is said that Noach opened the window? One can read it this way: “Noach opened the window that he made.” That is, after the ark came to rest on the Ararat mountains, Noach made a window in the ark. Before this the window would simply have been flooded by the rain.

And the raven flew back and forth – here, with regard to the raven, there is an expression that is very hard to translate. Here one can also understand that it flew out for a short while and returned to the ark, or one can say that it began to fly in circles around the ark. A completely incomprehensible action, it is hard to translate the expression that is used here, because it is written vayetzé – and it went out, yatzó vashóv – by entering and returning. And this incomprehensible action it did until the waters dried up. That is, the raven's actions are not entirely understandable; besides that, it is not clear why Noach sent it. In general, by tradition, the sailors of that time had such a custom, such a rule of sending off birds in order to check whether the land had dried. In the Babylonian myth about the flood (there are very many different myths about floods) we read a similar story. I will read it, but remember that this is a myth: “On the seventh day I released a dove and let it fly away, but the dove flew a little and, finding no refuge anywhere, came back. Then I released a swallow and let it fly away, the swallow circled a little, but, finding no refuge anywhere, came back. Then I released a raven and let it fly away, the raven flew away and saw that the water had subsided. It pecked at food, made its way through the puddles, cawed, but did not come back. Then I brought everyone out of the ship and let them go in all four directions.”

The historical background is completely unimportant to us here, and I do not at all undertake to work out the order in which the birds flew out of the ark, I just mention this in order to say that, in general, it is in the tradition of sailors to release birds in order to check whether land is far away. Noach has the richest assortment, he could send even the white-tailed swift – it is the fastest bird on earth, it can reach up to 170 km per hour horizontally. But Noach has nowhere to hurry, and besides, the swift, as they say, never lands on the ground. Noach sends specifically a raven, and in the East there are many stories about carrier ravens, that is, there is evidence that in antiquity ravens, like doves, were used as messengers. Some commentators say that Noach entered the ark together with his house, that is, together with his property, and he had doves and ravens, which were bred at that time, and this is true: both the one and the other were bred for various purposes. Therefore at Noach's home, on his estate, there could have been ravens and doves, and perhaps he sent his own. It is not clear why he did not find a faster bird. Nor is it clear in the text of the Torah why he sent the raven, he simply opened the window and sent it, even if one translates literally: “He opened the window and drove out, chased away the raven.”

Why, then, is the raven sent off if it receives no task at all? One can imagine, if we compare it with the story of creation, that on the earth birds must appear first of all. First, on the fifth day, the birds appeared, and on the sixth day the animals and man were created. Therefore it is natural that the fish are already there, but the birds need to be released, and the raven, as it were, symbolizes the first bird that Noach releases. Such an understanding will be a parallel to the story of creation. One can say that the orev (raven) is considered the most insolent of the birds. Jewish tradition says this. It asserts that among the peoples the most brazen is Israel, and the most brazen of the birds is the raven. Of course, after all that time of living and being in the ark one wants to break out into the open, one wants not just freedom, but simply to take a walk, and Noach releases the raven so that it would, so to speak, “let off the steam” of the ark. The first experience in many months of going outside, not even of freedom, but simply of going out. This is probably understandable and close now to those who went through quarantine in countries and places where for a long time it was not allowed to go outside, though not for a whole year. All the same, this way the value of going outside, beyond the limits of the quarantine space, is more understandable. And in the fact that the dove later flies off and will return there is also the merit of the raven, which was the first to get out into freedom, although it did not reach anywhere.

In short, there are many versions of what happened with the raven, of why it was sent at all. The midrashim tell completely strange stories. For example, the story that the raven was afraid to fly away, fearing that Noach would take its female for himself. This would seem an unthinkable thing, but, on the other hand, the earth before the flood was so depraved and dissolute that who knows what perversions the raven had seen in its lifetime and what it was afraid to see from man.

Other commentators say that if it flew away from the ark, then its little female would no longer be able to find it and the raven kind would perish forever, after all there are only two of them. And still others say that it was afraid that something would happen to itself, because, go know what is happening there on the earth. Various motives are ascribed to the raven, and again this says more about the commentators than about the raven. But it is simplest not to ascribe some bad qualities to the raven, but simply to say that the raven flies around the ark and does not take on itself any other missions. And besides, nowhere is it said that Noach sent it for some purpose, unlike the dove.

He sent the dove from himself. One has the impression that there is some special kinship, a special warm attitude of Noach toward the dove. We will see this again. One can return to the idea that Noach kept a dovecote and took the whole dovecote with him, or perhaps he simply made friends specifically with the dove, after all, of the birds the dove is the friendliest toward man. If the raven received no task at all, nowhere is it said why it was sent, then here we see that the dove was sent with a specific mission, and besides that, it is said about it that Noach sent it from himself.

Manóach means repose, but manóach in the book of Rut is used several times in the meaning husband, that is, some abode of rest, and of course, noach and manoach, and the bird that flew away from Noach (minoach) and found manoach (rest). This too is a certain play on words. Noach was, as it were, the master, the ruler of creation, including the dove as well, she needs another place of rest, another point of support for her little foot, another place where she could already rely on herself.

Returned to him into the ark. Noach sent from himself, and the dove returned to him into the ark. Here again is a double repetition for emphasis. Further on we also read about the outstretched hand. The Torah shows us the dove's attachment to Noach. There is some special tenderness when Noach stretches out his hand, takes this dove and brings her into the ark.

When we read in this verse: “And he waited seven more days,” we can say that this also means that after the raven as well, before sending the dove, Noach waited seven days. After all, the Torah says that he waited seven days more.

In the second part of the verse it is no longer written from himself, that is, the relationship between Noach and the dove changes a little, they move away from each other.

Here leteva (into the ark) is not written. As if in passing, the Torah again points us with one more marker to the fact that yona (the dove) becomes, as it were, more independent.

What does it mean that the dove returned in the evening? It means that she already had quite a long way to fly.

If it began with the dove being such a tame bird, which returns into Noach's hand, then here we see that the relationship has changed, that the dove too has gained independence. On the one hand, the animal world serves man, on the other hand, a certain separation takes place between them.

In the 601st year of what? Of Noach's life. We read that Noach entered the ark when he was 600 years old.

Noach removed the lid of the ark. We said that only an ark has a lid, here and with the ark of the covenant.

The surface of the earth had dried up. But the surface may still be silty, muddy, therefore Noach waits longer.

So, the flood is over, the earth has dried up.

The commentators who, as we mentioned, claimed that there was no intimate life in the ark say that here is one more proof. Here they are no longer listed separately: Noach and the sons, Noach's wife and the sons' wives, but Noach with his wife and the sons with their wives. So now they were permitted to live together.

Here we see: the sons and the wives are listed separately.

Why is it written by their families? The commentators say that here the animal world promised not to mix the species with one another, that each animal would live in its own family, and an end would be put to the debauchery that had happened because of man's debauchery.

But we will go back a little bit and ask ourselves this question: if Noach goes out by the revelation of the Most High, if he goes out after the Most High has turned to him and commanded him to go out, then why does Noach send birds to check whether the water has subsided on the earth? Well, wait, if you are waiting for the revelation of the Most High, then why are you checking yourself? If we look at the very simplest meaning of the text, then the answer is also simple – the Most High encourages Noach to go out of the ark. He says: “Yes, go out, I bless you.” In this case this is not a command, it is a blessing, when He turns to Noach and tells him to go out of the ark. He confirms his decision, confirms his choice. Man gets the opportunity to make certain decisions in managing the ark, managing life, even in managing everything living. And the Most High says to this “yes and amen,” comes and says to him: “Go out. Yes, the time has come to go out of the ark. One cannot stay in the ark all the time, the universe cannot stay in the ark. You must go out, and you must fill the earth.”

No one commanded Noach to build an altar. This is his own decision, one can say, as the fruit of the kohanic preparation we talked about, the fruit of priestly preparation. First, this is the first case when someone builds an altar, second, this is the first case when someone offers up a burnt offering. Before this we did not read that Kayin or Hevel built altars, we read only that they brought a mincha, here it is already about burnt offerings.

Some commentators say that here Noach's sacrifices smelled of Avraham, that is, the LORD smelled humanity's potential to give birth to Avraham and to begin the establishing of a new people on the earth.

I have already talked about this and will repeat it once more, since this is such a very interesting observation: in his heart (be-libo) only the evildoer speaks. “The evildoer said in his heart: ‘There is no God.’” The evildoer speaks in his heart, his reason is already in his heart, he already accepts his heart the way it is, and according to this heart he changes the world, transforms himself according to his heart. When we talk about the righteous, the righteous man speaks le-libo (toward his heart) or el-libo (to his heart) and only so. The actions of the righteous man are directed at changing, transforming, transfiguring his heart, he speaks to his heart, as if to educate his heart. This difference is consistent and runs through the whole Tanach. So in his heart, as if ruling over his heart, the evildoer man speaks; to his heart the righteous man speaks, well, and the Most High, since the Most High does not have a heart as such, and the Most High does not speak with His heart, but these are images that are conveyed to us. But still, we are told: to His heart.

I will no longer curse the earth on account of adam. This is roughly the same thing that the LORD said before the flood, so what has changed here? One can understand this phrase in several ways.

The first way. “I will no longer punish the earth for this eternally bad adam, let adam answer for himself, the earth is no longer responsible for him.” The new man is no longer that Adam who was originally made from the earth, this is a new humanity, and the earth is not responsible for it.

The second variant. The Most High says: “I will no longer punish man in this way for evil, and I will no longer punish the earth for man's evil. Well, he is evil, and this needs to be changed, rather than destroying him. This new humanity I will teach and change.”

There is one more way to look at these words of the Most High. It often happens that the Most High changes the method of action. For example, when Israel sinned with the sin of the calf, the Most High said: “You remain here for forty years.” This is, so to speak, the Most High's plan “B.” And here the Most High says: “I will no longer build the purity of the earth, I will not transform the earth through some individual righteous people. Yes, everyone sinned, but there is Chanoch, there is Noach – they are righteous, single righteous ones among the whole earth, among the whole population of the earth. I will create a people of holy ones, a royal priesthood, and I will now nurture a community in which I will live.” As Yeshayahu said: “The people that I created for glory to Myself.” Not specific righteous people, but precisely a community. There are many different reflections on this topic, and again one can say that the commentators speak more about themselves than about what they are commenting on.

Lo osíf. From the fact that the Most High says this twice, the language of an oath is derived. As Mashiach teaches us and as the oral Torah teaches, the language of an oath. “Yes, yes” (a double repetition of “yes”) – this is an oath; a double repetition of no (lo, lo) – this is an oath. Ken, ken (yes, yes) or lo, lo – this is the language of an oath in court. Osif, osif – this is also the language of the Most High's oath. Yeshayahu says: “I swore about the flood.” Yeshayahu cites the words of the Most High. Where is the oath? The oath is in the double repetition of these words. The Most High says here: “I will no longer destroy all that lives, as I have now done.”

One can draw the conclusion from this that at the time when there was the ark, when the ark was sailing, when there was the flood, the seasons did not change. And indeed, how would the seasons change if it is overcast with rain all the time? Now the Most High says that this order, this establishment of nature will operate constantly. We will read about the new rules in the next chapter as well.

We are reading a solemn moment, when a new stage in creation begins: renewed humanity in the person of 8 people and the renewed animal world come out of the ark. As in the first and second chapters of the book of Bereshit, the Most High blesses man. The word perú comes from the root perí (fruit), the word rvu comes from the word rav (multitude). Indeed, the correct Russian translation is be fruitful and multiply, but let us pay attention to this detail: in Hebrew there is a rule that if 2 letters of the root in words are the same (the first two letters), then the words belong to the same semantic cell. If we look at the word perú (be fruitful) and the root perí (fruit), we will see that this is connected with breaking boundaries, with dividing into parts, lefrít (to divide), lehafrísh (to separate), lifróm (to rip along the seam), lifró'a (to tear into pieces; to change form), peré (wild, knowing no boundaries). And, thus, the root perú or perí – this is breaking forward, just as in Russian, completely by chance, it begins with the letters pr – to break through forward. Here we can say that perú means qualitative changes, that is, improve, change, while rvu is quantitative changes – multiply: become better and become more.

At the very beginning, when the Most High created man, He said: “You will rule (be dictators) over the whole animal world.” But this was a law that implied cooperation. We remember that the animals came and Adam gave a name to each of the animals. This was coexistence in cooperation under the clear leadership of Adam. That is how it was meant to be. But here we see that the relationship is already unfriendly, this is not a friendship of the animal world and man, but upon the animal world there is fear and dread before people. Why? Because we read in verse 3:

Now there is such a fashion among vegetarians, there are such products that resemble meat in taste, while being a vegetarian dish. There is some vegetarian salad with the taste of chicken liver, there are vegetarian schnitzels, vegetarian beef stroganoff and vegetarian steaks, that is, with plant food they try to recreate the tastes of meat food. Here the Most High says the exact opposite: “I will give you meat like grass. The taste qualities of all your little herbs you will now get from meat. Now you will eat animals.” The relationship has changed. From this comes fear, since now man can eat an animal. Is this a promotion in man's service or a demotion? Is this the fruit of humanity having risen to a new level, or did it after all go down? If we look at the King of kings, at the Holy One, blessed be He, who rules over everything, He does not need anything, He, God forbid, does not eat any of His subjects, does not take anything from them, He does not eat the sacrifices that we bring, He does not need the breads that we bring, He does not need the money that we bring, He does not feed and does not depend on us. And, of course, blessed is the king who does not depend on his subjects, but man here went down a level and has been placed in dependence on his subjects, having received the possibility to eat animals. But with certain restrictions.

Blood enlivens the flesh, blood makes any living creature alive, therefore it is said that nefesh – the very life of the living – is in the blood. And we are allowed to eat the dead that is in the living, the dead part of animals, but not the living life of animals. So that they would not feed on the life of animals, but would feed on their flesh and raise it, this flesh, to their own level. We have received one more new task: not only little apples and oranges can we now raise to our level, but also animals. Although this is also a degradation. A question arises: if now it is permitted to kill in order to eat, then such a seditious but logical thought may creep into one's head, that maybe it is permitted to kill a person as well? The Most High says in verse 5:

That is, the law about killing and eating is not mutual. Man has the right to kill and eat animals, but animals do not have the right to kill and eat man. So, the animals also receive their own prohibition. Later the Torah will speak about an ox that gored a man and killed him, that this ox is not simply killed, it is stoned, as by a court's sentence. That is, the animal is subject to judgment if it has killed a man. And the Most High says: “I will require it from the animal that kills you.” Neither animals nor people may kill people. The fact that we are now allowed to eat animals does not mean that we can kill each other off.

The Most High gives here such an indirect instruction, saying that there will be a judgment and the murderer who shed the blood of a man must be judged by people, and his blood too will be shed. When we strike down a person, devour a person, this is after all a portrait of God, which each of us carries within himself, and it is not so simple to kill and eat it.

This is the blessing of the Most High to Noach and his sons, which, besides everything else, also contains an account of the new order of creation.

How this will extend to the seed, we will see in the following weekly portions.

This is a covenant not only with Noach and with his sons, but also with all of creation, with everything living.

This is the content of the covenant, the covenant here is one-sided, the Most High promises this to humanity and to all of creation, requiring nothing in return.

So, first of all, let us understand why exactly the rainbow is the symbol of the covenant. There are many, as is always the case, different interpretations and different understandings. The simplest understanding – the rainbow is connected with rain. When a heavy rain begins, what can happen to a person or to any living being that has survived such a traumatic event as the flood? Naturally, a person and an animal may think that the flood is beginning again, that the Most High again wants to flood and destroy the earth. Precisely at the moment the rain appears, when such fear can grow stronger, precisely at this moment the rainbow appears, and it assures us that there is peace between us and the Most High. Here the Most High says: “I will remember.” And we talked about the word remember, about what remembered the covenant means. Every time it rains and a rainbow appears, it is like a mark, when the Most High shows His mercy, establishes peace between man and between Himself, between the universe and between Himself. What was destruction before is now a sign of peace between man and God. There are many disputes about whether the rainbow existed before the flood or whether it was created only at this very moment. We often see that the Most High calls heaven and earth as witnesses, He does not create them for this, He calls as witnesses what already exists. And here too we can say that this sign, the rainbow, existed in the world before this as well, but the Most High made it a sign of the covenant. There are other commentators who say that the Most High strengthened the action of the sun, of sunlight, so that the rainbow could appear. This is what the Jewish sages say, referring to the Greek sages, that sunlight changed. There are such reasonings as well. There are reasonings connected with the physics of elementary particles. Very briefly, one can say that the physics of elementary particles says that the whole universe, everything the Most High created, is made, woven from tiny little particles, there are many different kinds of them, and most of them change, most of them are unstable and not steady. But it is known that there are only six stable elementary particles, that is, only six unchanging elements of the world, which no one can change and no one can split: the photon, the electron, the quark, the graviton, the gluon and the neutrino. Of these six only the photon can be seen by the human eye, only the photon (the light-bearing particle) can be visible to a person, depending on what energy the photon has. If it has low energy, then it carries the color red, this is the lowest energy. There is even lower, and then it is the infrared color, and we do not see it. There are photons that have more energy, and they are violet in color. There is even higher, ultraviolet, but we do not see it. The photon is an indivisible particle, it has its own standard energy, and what we see is a constant mixing of photons. Sometimes we do not see certain photons, and that is why, for example, the sun is red at sunset, because the blue photons disappear. I am retelling this in a very simplified way. In the rainbow something unusual happens, the photons are laid out by their level, as if the basic unchanging elements of the universe are sorted onto their shelves. And the rainbow can, if one looks at the physics of elementary particles, as it were symbolize the order and the arrangement of the world in the whole world. All the diversity of the universe and of human creation that we see, everything is interconnected, and the rainbow is our window into the structure of the Universe, it embraces the whole visible world in all colors, and as it were sorts everything we see, everything we know about the Universe, onto shelves. This was a corner, rare for my talks, of “Torah and science.” And of course much more can be said about the rainbow. There are many commentaries. I am sharing only what is interesting to me.

Why is it said: “Cham – he is the father of Canaan”? We will try to understand this further on. That is, the Torah listed for us the three sons of Noach who came out of the ark, mentioning that Cham – he is the father of Canaan. There are many different answers to the question “why,” and we too will try to give an answer.

That is, the offspring from these spread over the whole earth. How it spread we will read in the next chapter of the book of Bereshit. And the story that we will read now will tell us what interrelation will be established between the offspring of the three sons of Noach and why it will be exactly like this.

Apparently, the earth was renewed, transformed. Perhaps Noach felt a special connection with the earth. There are those who say this in condemnation of Noach, that he stopped being ish elohím (a man of God), and became ish ha'adamá (a man of the earth), but it is quite possible that Noach simply began to work the land. One must remember, however righteous Noach was, he lived through a terrible event. Apart from the fact that the people closest to him were saved, perhaps some friends, acquaintances died. This is not so easy to live through.

It is worth paying attention to how the word aholó (his tent) is written. It is written with the little letter ה at the end, instead of being written with the little letter וֹ at the end. If we do not see the vowel points, then it looks more like her tent than his tent. Again, when we read something unusual, as here, that instead of the little letter וֹ there stands the little letter ה, and why the Torah writes it this way, then we can look where else it is written this way. And it is written this way, for example, in the book of Bereshit (35:21): “And Yisrael set out and pitched his tent beyond Migdal-Eder. And it was, while Yisrael dwelt in that land, Re'uven went and lay with Bilha, his father's concubine; and Yisrael heard.” That is, here, when it says aholó (his own tent), one can see in this a certain hint that this is not quite his own tent, but the tent of his wife or of his concubine. And the Torah speaks about this in clean language. The same thing we also read in the book of Bereshit in chapter 12 about Avraham: “And he moved from there to the mountain, east of Beit-El, and pitched his tent toward Beit-El from the west, and toward Ai from the east; and he set up there an altar to the LORD and called on the Name of the LORD.” The commentators ask, why is aholó written with ה? Because it is Sara's tent. And we can understand, comparing these texts, that it is quite possible that Noach drank and uncovered his nakedness in the tent of his wife.

When the Torah forbids a person to uncover the nakedness of the father's wives, the Torah says that this is “the nakedness of your father,” that is, a quite possible understanding is that by the nakedness of the father the nakedness of the mother is meant. This is one variant of understanding.

What happened? Here is where there is free rein for all kinds of commentators. Already in the times of the Talmud there were two main opinions. Some commentators say that Cham slept with Noach, others say that he castrated him. Of course, if we look again at the prose of the Middle East with its various gods and its various mythology, then we will see it that way, but the mythology of the Middle East is not always a good source for interpreting this or that event in the Torah. On the other hand, there is a law of Eastern culture about respect for the father in those same Sumerian manuscripts, where it says: “Even if your father has gotten drunk, do not laugh at him, but carry him on your shoulder and take him home.” That is, it is quite probable that nothing beyond seeing the father's nakedness and running to tell the brothers that the father is lying around naked, nothing except mockery happened there. But mockery too is enough for this to be an incredible disrespect toward the father. On the other hand, from what we are saying, that perhaps the point is that Noach was there with his wife, there are commentators who went far, and they say that at this moment Cham lay with his mother and from this Canaan was born, and that is why it is precisely Canaan who is cursed later on. And when at the beginning the Torah says that Cham is the father of Canaan, this is, as it were, an introduction to the story of how it came about. But since the Torah lowers the curtain of modesty over this story, it is probably hard to add anything to this. Very close to me is the understanding that this was simple mockery and nothing more, and this mockery was enough to say everything about Cham.

We have already talked about the fact that Cham is the youngest of the sons, although traditionally they say Shem, Cham and Yefet, and I explained why this is so.

The greatest blessing that a person has – that is his freedom; the greatest curse – that is slavery, slavery to another person, slavery to sin, slavery to a dictator, to some community. Here is a terrible curse on Canaan – he will be a slave of slaves. It can't get any worse. And it is very unclear: if Cham did this, then why does Noach curse Canaan, the son of Cham? Why not the other sons, but only this one? To this question, too, many different answers have been given. The simplest is that the Most High already blessed Cham at the very beginning. One cannot curse what the Most High has blessed. It is the same as that one cannot bless what the Most High has cursed. And therefore Noach cannot curse Cham and curses Canaan. Others say that this is not a curse at all, but a prophecy, and Noach says that if Cham behaves like this, then Canaan is cursed; with such a dad he will be a slave of slaves to his brothers. There are many different understandings on this matter.

And right away Noach blesses his two other sons.

Blessed be the LORD, who placed ShemiThe Russian says literally that the LORD “placed” or “set” Shem. The exact sense is unclear, so it is translated literally., for Shem – if we go back to verse 23, there it says vayikách shem vayéfet (and took Shem and Yefet), that is, it is written in the singular, not “they took, Shem and Yefet,” but “he took, Shem and Yefet.” As if Shem took this covering and asked Yefet to help him. And Noach blesses Shem, saying: “Blessed be the God of Shem, blessed be that image of God in which Shem believes, and Canaan will be his slave.”

We said that the name Yefet is from the root yaft (he will widen, give more space): God will adorn the beautiful one; give splendor to the splendid one; give room to the roomy one. Yefet, for his realization, needs Shem; he is good, but he needs Shem in order to manifest this góodness.

Let us return to that midrash we talked about earlier, regarding the names of Noach's sons. Perhaps this really is a late midrash, but let us consider its very meaning. Shem – literally name. When a boy is circumcised on the eighth day, the móhel asks what this boy will be called, what his name will be. Imagine, his father answers: “His name is Name.” Shem, according to the midrash we mentioned, is the one who penetrates into the essence of things. Yefet from the word yaffé – aesthetics, Cham from the word chum (hot, sensual, emotional); this means that Cham is that part of a person which draws its inspiration from sensual experiences, from emotions. We see that such a path can lead to emotions taking a person the wrong way, as they took Cham.

Yefet is an aesthete, he needs a sense of beauty, harmony, splendor in this world. Shem is a being slightly not of this world, who lives by the essential and understands the Divine order of the world, strives to penetrate into it. The inheritance of Shem was later inherited by the descendants of Avraham, therefore toward those who try to live by the Law of God there is “anti-Shem-ism” – antisemitism. We say this word within the framework of the midrash.

Now imagine that these three qualities are in every person: Shem, Cham and Yefet. And this most sensual, emotional part of ours must be subordinated both to the Divine reason, to the understanding of God, to standing before God, and to the sense of the beautiful. We used to be told: “Acting like that is ugly,” not wrong, not mean, not vile or bad, but precisely ugly. This belongs to Yefet. Cham must submit. First unlawful, ugly – and only then feelings. And if we transfer this to the qualities of the soul, then this is what Noach says here, if we extend this midrash to the care of souls.

But even without giving the names such interpretations, we see here that there is Shem, who is the initiator of the action, Yefet, who helps him, there is Cham, whom they oppose. And there is also Canaan, and possibly (we said that there is such a supposition) he was born of Cham's lawless union with his own mother. Perhaps Noach curses him because he cannot curse those whom the Most High has blessed. Perhaps Noach sees that it is precisely these bad qualities of Cham that Canaan inherits. One can imagine that, just as Noach passed on as an inheritance to one the emotional, to another the aesthetic, to another the spiritual component, so Cham passed on something to Mitzrayim, something to Kush and something to Put, three of his sons, and something to Canaan. And Noach sees the continuation of this in Canaan, and curses precisely him.

Noach was able to live longer than Adam, and there is a certain rectification in Noach's life, as the commentators point out, which allowed him to live longer than Adam lived. In the next chapter we will read about the 70 nations and about how this is connected with the sons of Israel, about how the Most High scattered these nations.

This is one of those chapters that many simply flip through, and some, especially persistent and disciplined ones, pull themselves together and force themselves to read with the thought “oh, genealogies again, again a dry listing of names.” Here the 70 descendants of Noach are indeed listed, the sons of Shem, Cham and Yefet, the forefathers, the original founders of the 70 nations of the world. And, it would seem, why do we need all this? The book of Devarim says that when the Most High set the boundaries of the nations, He set them according to the number of the sons of Israel. Here we read 70 forefathers, 70 nations, and when Israel, the family of Yaakov, goes down to Egypt, it consists of 70 souls. The Most High already provided, in the descendants of Noach, 70 nations in accordance with the 70 souls of the sons of Israel. Not Israel according to the number of the nations, but the nations according to the number of Israel. This says that the Most High has a plan for the whole history of humanity, and we know that the crown of this plan is Mashiach. Although the number 70 is not named here directly, and I say this to show that there is a special importance in the attentive study of the genealogy.

At the same time, and this is not unimportant with regard to these descendants, since we are talking about 70 nations, there are very many different disputes: some of the nations existing today claim to descend from someone among the people listed here; with regard to some of the people listed here there are disputes about whom they begot, which nations this or that person became the father of. There is an endless multitude of these theories. And when we read and we are told that this man Gomer was the progenitor of the Cimmerians, we will have to climb into an encyclopedia and look up who the Cimmerians were and where they even lived, and then it turns out that there is another scholar who thinks that these are not the Cimmerians at all, but, for example, Cameroon. And there is no end to this.

Therefore we will take a slightly different path, we will try to look at this from a somewhat more general view: where possible we will touch on the origin of the nations, where possible we will touch more on history. But I would like to consider this chapter more generally, and not in detail. Usually I don't do this, but today this is what is on my heart, so as not to stir up disputes between different nations, because I have seen, for example, how Armenians and Georgians, on the whole friendly nations, argue over Togarma, which of them exactly descended from him. And the friendship suddenly switches off, and a completely different mode switches on in people. Since one does not want this to lead to disputes, and we cannot say or judge anything unambiguously, therefore let us read this chapter as a look at the plan of the Most High, economizing as far as possible on the historical and geographical speculations that are often connected with this chapter. Perhaps it will be a little less attractive, but more candid.

We spoke about the general tendency, that the sons of Yefet are those who go north of the Mediterranean Sea, that is, into modern Europe and modern Asia Minor. Roughly so.

About Gomer we said that these are the Cimmerians. Who the Cimmerians are, look it up in an encyclopedia. Magog are the proto-Scythians, living somewhere in the region of the Black Sea coast, the Greeks called this land Magogia. Magog, thanks to the prophecy of Yechezkel, became a very attractive figure for researchers of Scripture. Relying on the mentions of Scythia in Flavius and on other sources, many try to interpret the prophecy of Yechezkel as relating to Russia. At the same time one must remember that the Magogia Flavius speaks of may not correspond at all to the lands of Magog that the portion Noach speaks of. Besides that, there is also Maggez, from which Gerges came, in the country that is called Lydia. And there was a king whose name was Géges, with a very interesting story told in Herodotus, who carried out the most enormous conquests and became a byword. And perhaps Yechezkel uses his image in order to tell us something about Magog. In any case it is important to refrain, as I already said, from historical and geographical speculations. Yes, Flavius connects Magog with Scythia, others connect Magog with the territory north of Germany, with the country of Denmark. The Irish also consider themselves connected to Magog. So judge for yourselves how complicated everything is and how much we want to clearly identify some country that, in our view, by its historical and cultural features fits the role of Magog. One must remember that the Torah is not just one thousand years old, and one must be careful in interpreting it.

What Madái is, we know – it is Madian. Yaván is Greece. Concerning Tuval and Meshech there are very many disputes, we will not go into them. Tirás in modern Hebrew means corn, because at one time this word was used for Turkey, and corn came from Turkey, and so tirás became corn. And in our case Rashi, for example, comments that it is Persia, so go figure out where Persia is here, where Turkey is here. We have lost very much of the tradition of identifying these peoples, and these peoples have also been erased and dissolved already in other peoples.

In modern Hebrew, in the modern tradition, Ashkenáz is Germany, but here, most likely, it is again the Crimea. Rifát is the Caucasian peoples. Concerning Togarmá – there is a dispute, I already spoke about this, the Armenians and the Georgians argue over who descended from whom there.

Elishá is Elisea, a region in Greece, in the direction of Macedonia. Tarshísh is, apparently, for that time the islands of Greece. Kitím and Dodaním are all islands of Greece, all the islands of the Mediterranean Sea. And here one more remark, so to speak, in parentheses: the Mediterranean Sea, or yam hatichon (central sea), is located, from the point of view of the Torah, in the middle of the earth, in the middle of the universe, and all the countries, of course, cling all around this Mediterranean Sea. The land of Israel and the whole region is the “navel of the earth,” and everything that is around it is an appendage. Therefore we look at the map, we see that on our map the Mediterranean Sea is the center of our universe, the center of the inhabited world.

For now, at the moment when we are reading, up to the moment we have read to, the languages have not yet divided. But since we are reading a historical chronicle here, it also tells us what will happen later, how the languages will divide, the story of the origin of the languages. Probably everyone knows it well, we will read it in chapter 11.

If the sons of Yefet, as we said, belong to the European culture, if the sons of Yefet go north, then the sons of Cham go south. Cham is the forefather of the African peoples. Kush is Ethiopia, and from this same name comes the Hebrew word kushi, meaning a black-skinned person. Mitzrayim is, probably everyone knows, Egypt.

Kush, I will repeat once more, is most likely Ethiopia, Nubia, Central Africa. Sevá – we know that the queen of Sheba was from Ethiopia. Perhaps here her future dominions are meant. Maybe further on, when we read about Sheva, we will talk about her. Chavilá is also mentioned in the description of the garden of Eden, in the second chapter of the book of Bereshit, and it is most likely part of the Arabian Peninsula. Concerning Savtá, it is not clear where it is. Raamá is connected with Rajima in Yemen. About Savtechá again nothing is known. Shevá and Dedán – about these names I know nothing.

Concerning Nimrod. The name Nimród means let us rebel, let us raise a rebellion. In the midrashim, in Jewish tradition, this is most likely a negative character, the one who rebels, who wages wars against the Most High. Tradition, midrash and many Jewish legends say that Nimrod inherited the shirt, the garment that the Most High made for Adam, and this garment gave him a certain power over the animals: the animals themselves, as it were, fell prostrate before him and surrendered to him without a fight.

Nimrod's heroism from God became proverbial, became a saying. If they wanted to say about someone, “What a great talent at hunting,” or “Here is a person from God in some craft,” then among the peoples they would say: “Like Nimrod the hunter.” How does tradition understand this verse, why is this being talked about here at all? The people around believed that Nimrod was, as it were, a hunter from God, that God himself had given Nimrod talent, and Nimrod enjoyed such fame and such a reputation, but in reality the whole thing was in the shirt. I am retelling a midrash. Where does a midrash arise? It arises where there is some lacuna and something is not clear to us. Can this be an invention? Very often a midrash is an invention, it can be an attempt to understand something, to reach something, to guess something, or it can simply be reflections. Where to draw the line between reflection and invention, an attempt to understand – each one decides this for himself. When we talk, I usually try to keep to the simple meaning, but if it is not clear, then why not introduce some explanations, so that, at least, we understand how the readers of that time pictured this, who lived not only by the text, but also by oral tradition. Not everyone could read, and therefore oral tradition often dominated the text.

So, Nimrod was considered, perhaps, a hunter from God.

Ve'akkád vechalné be'éretz. Here the regions of the land of Shinar that Nimrod conquered are listed, that is, there where later they will build the tower of Babel.

Ninevé means fish city; the city of fish. Rechovót – wide city. Kálach already means big-big city.

Résen – from the word lirasen (to hold back, to restrain, to limit force). Apparently, this is a military city, judging by the name. Ninve is that very Nineveh to which the prophet Yona at first refused to go.

Who the lehavím and naftuchím are is hard to say.

These are all Hamitic peoples, which dissolved and turned into another people. Pelishtím in Hebrew means invaders, strangers. This is what the Philistines are called, and today the Palestinians call themselves so. The name Palestine, by which the Romans called our country, also comes from here. This was such a claim of the Palestinians, of the modern people that calls itself Palestinians, to call themselves the native inhabitants of Palestine. In reality, Palestine means conquered land, and Palestinians means invaders. So their language gives them away.

Yvusí is the people that lived in Yerushalayim before David conquered it.

What peoples came from the arkí and siní, we do not know. The commentators say that they too dissolved in other peoples.

That is, they themselves did not remain one single people, but split up into many families.

Note that Canaan is the only locality whose borders are spoken of in this chapter. Tzidón is a city in the south of Lebanon, that is, in the very north relative to Israel. Gerár is the southern border, almost Aza, where Yitzchak lived. All of this is a description of the borders of the land of Israel. We said earlier that they are similar to the description of the borders of the Garden of Eden. So the Torah describes the borders of Canaan, and this is not for nothing; as always, in the Torah nothing is ever for nothing. This is a description of the Canaanite land, which will be given to Israel. The lands of Canaan, that very Canaan cursed by Noach, will all be given to the people of Israel.

Whom have we forgotten? We have forgotten Shem, the eldest of the children. Why will the Torah speak about the eldest, Shem, at the end? Because further on, after this genealogy, the talk will be mainly about the sons of Shem, and, as Stierlitz said, the last thing is remembered best. Therefore the Torah ends with the listing of the sons of Shem, in order to talk about them further on.

And who are the sons of Ever? These are the ivrim, the descendants of Ever, Hebrews, HebreansiThe Russian gives two words for Hebrews here, the usual one and a rare variant. English has no such pair, so the variant is rendered “Hebreans”..

Elám was traditionally considered Iranian territory, but apparently for some time, since Shem is the father of all Semites, a Semitic people lived there. Arpachshád is the leader of the kasdim people.

Utz is the land in which Iyov lived, and regarding it, too, there are many different interpretations: from Uzbekistan to the north of Ethiopia. What land Chúl is, we do not know. Géter and Másh are different Semitic peoples.

Arpachshád is the one who begot the kasdim, from the root kashád, the same as kasdim – Chaldeans. Shálach is the one who is sent, the one who received a mission. Éver, as I already said, is the forefather of all the Hebrews. The word Hebrew comes from the name of Ever. The name Éver is from the verb laavor, avar is the past, what has passed, the one who crossed over some boundary. One can say, the one who survives, the one who overcomes difficulties. One can say mockingly – a rogue, or one can say – a pioneer.

Péleg – division. What does in his time the earth was divided mean? Some commentators say that the Babylonian division, which we will read about in the coming chapter, happened in the times of Peleg, and his name was a prophecy that in his time the earth would be divided. Others say that Peleg lived 200 years, less than all of the Patriarchs, and that this is the first person from whose birth onward the life span of people began to decrease. Yoktán (will decrease) – one can say that this is also connected with the decrease of the life span.

Almodád – the one to whom God measured out. Shálef – leaf fall, the falling of leaves. Chatzár-mót can be translated as courtyard of death; one who is in death's courtyard; on the threshold of death; one in whose courtyard is death, that is, death is already in the courtyard and is about to come into the house. Yárach – moon.

Adoram – the one who lives temporarily as a stranger; fleetingly; in temporary housing. Uzál – the one who will quickly leave. Diklá – palm branch, the one who is breakable, fragile, tender, like a palm branch.

These are sons about whom it is hard to say anything.

Despite the fact that Yoktan means will decrease, this decrease clearly does not concern the number of sons.

Unfortunately, we can say little about this description. There are various reconstructions that say different things, but we cannot say anything specific.

As often happens, in the Torah there is not only a heading for a chapter, but also a peculiar heading-epilogue: here is what you have heard:

Such is this tenth chapter of the book of Bereshit, not easy to read, and someone will say uninteresting.

At the beginning of this chapter the Torah interrupts the listing of genealogies and tells us a story (which is not quite like a story) about the Tower of Babel. The Talmud argues about what exactly the problem of these people who built the tower was, and some teachers say that the Torah does not reveal to us at all what this generation was punished for, what exactly they did wrong. But who will we be if we do not try to understand? Let us try to read, comprehend, rethink and understand what is being talked about here.

Some translate, for example the Synodal one: “one language and one dialect.” Why is it impossible to translate it this way, why is this an incorrect translation? First, because the phrase dvarím achadím speaks in the plural; one would have to translate one language and one dialects, but then it is not clear what that would mean. Second, because the word dvarím means either objects, or ideas, or speeches. The original name of the book of Deuteronomy in Hebrew is Devarim. Dvarím – Speeches which Moshe spoke to the people of Israel. So, dvarím is either speeches or ideas. And what does it mean that on the whole earth there was one language? People used the same words and said roughly the same thing, everyone had the same ideas. They were united by a common ideology, an identical worldview, and in general everything was the same. We know societies in which people speak the same speeches. And right away, as soon as a person reads something like this, he already senses something unkind.

The valley of Shinar is the territory of roughly present-day Iraq, a place which, as we will read today, will later be named Babylon.

Of course, this need not be understood literally, that they walked around and whispered to each other, repeated this phrase like some slogan. It simply means that an idea was ripening in society. They kept tossing some idea around, and they liked it.

Where stone was usually used as building material, brick began to be used. Progress is plain to see. The beginning of the construction industry. Humanity, united by a common ideology, develops construction, technologies appear. What would seem to be bad about that? And technologies, if they exist, it would be good to use for something useful.

So, they decided to build a tower as high as the sky, and a city. Why is this bad? We all know the interpretations, and often the interpretations (what has already been explained to us) keep us from reading. When the scouts returned from their expedition and told the people of Israel about what they had seen in the land, they reported, among other things, that they had seen cities with towers up to the sky. Cities with towers up to the sky arise and exist, and the problem is not exactly in that. The midrash says that they wanted to build a tower and put on top of this tower a statue of an idol, a statue with a sword in its hands, so that it would be seen as though it were leading into war, a protecting statueiThe Russian sentence is grammatically loose here (literally “as if it leads to war, a protecting statue”), so it is translated literally.. The beginning of idolatry. The essence of idolatry is that a person determines what God is to be like, what God will like and what He will not like. Sometimes a person determines how God will look, what He will eat and much more. Man decides for God. As a result the people want and say: na'asé-lánu shem (let us make us a name). We have talked about the fact that one of Noach's sons was called Shem, which in translation means name, literally the way the people say here: “Let us make ourselves a name.” Shem the son of Noach is named so prophetically, because he will be the one who is able to discern the inner essence of things, to reveal it outward – this is a name. Here people planned something completely different, they planned la'asot shem (to make a name). That is, not to discern the essence, but to assign it, not to come to know the image of God, but to invent the image of God. As an example, one can give a name to one object or another on the basis of understanding its essence. If it shines, we can call it a lamp, if it warms, we can call it a heater, if it measures temperature, we can call it a thermometer – this is what is connected with the name Shem, which was given to Noach's son. But here, if one understands precisely the midrash, it is about people deciding to impose an essence on God through the names that they would give him, to invent for Him an image, a character, an outward appearance and everything else.

Well and, of course, let us make ourselves a name – and we will be such as we name ourselves. We do not need to change, we do not need to change our inner essence, to tune it somehow: with our “pocket,” invented God we ourselves will have that image, that public image, which we choose and invent for ourselves. Such, by and large, is the nature of idolatry.

So that we are not scattered over the earth. So that we do not run off to different ends of the earth, do not lose this single image of God and of ourselves, suitable for everyone, invented by everyone. From the point of view of the midrash, the problem here is theological, the problem is idolatry: we will now build one, single, big and beautiful idol, and we will all unite around it, whoever is not “all,” we will punish, so that no one goes anywhere, does not scatter over the earth, does not turn aside from worshiping our idol. We know societies in which they love to build big, tall statues, sometimes with swords, sometimes on a horse, sometimes with an outstretched hand. Nothing new under the sun.

There is also another commentary, another view. It is cited by the Natziv of Volozhin, a disciple of the Vilna Gaon, this is already almost our own times. He says: “It is completely unimportant what ideas there were in this society. Any society that demands uniformity and sameness of idea, in which there is no possibility of expressing another opinion, different from the generally accepted one – that society is hostile to the Most High, because the Most High created the world in its diversity.”

Let us look at the history, say, of the French revolution in September 1792. A revolution takes place, proclaiming, by and large, wonderful principles: liberty, equality and fraternity. Who is against that? But in June of the following year, 1793, a multitude of enemies of this revolution appears. Enemies, conspiracies, haters, mercenaries and spies arise everywhere, for the first time in history terror, in French horror, develops. Terrorism, mass killings – all of this comes from there, from that society which proclaimed such wonderful ideas as liberty, equality and fraternity. For a year the terror went on, all potential enemies of the revolution were destroyed, all those who were against liberty, equality and fraternity were killed without trial or investigation. This, unfortunately, is the problem of every society in which an ideology is imposed. In July 1794 there was, as it is customary to call it in Soviet historiography, a counterrevolution. Robespierre himself was killed, and another era began in the history of France. But this is only one small example of how one common ideology, when imposed, corrupts a society and allows it to sink to incredible depths of vileness.

Here it is not said specifically what these people were guilty of. They created a common ideology, they decided to immortalize it. And atheistic, completely atheistic ideologies also love statues of their leaders, some megalomaniac constructions that glorify or immortalize their ideas, something the highest, the deepest, the widest – all this is very much loved by all ideologies.

Thus, we see two approaches to what actually happened. The first approach is theological. It says that people began to worship idols and thereby set themselves against heaven. The second approach says that the blame for everything lies with a corrupted society, for whatever good ideas are put forward (be it humanism, be it equality, be it liberty), uniformity of ideas is always war with the Creator, it always leads to the society, as a result, becoming corrupt. Through prohibitions, through restricting freedom, a person does not become more righteous and purer. This is one more approach to what happened. Probably this is the case where there is no point in choosing the correct option of the two, and there are more than two of them, I am putting the emphasis on two. It is quite possible that both the one and the other were a problem of this society. And in our time both the one and the other can be a problem of society. This is what we must remember and draw as a lesson from this story.

So, people either wanted to begin worshiping idols, or turned some ideology into an idol.

This is, of course, a metaphor symbolizing Divine intervention in earthly events. Naturally, the LORD did not come down by taking a ladder, a stepladder, or by calling an elevator, and did not descend from the heavens.

For them nothing is impossible, not only in good, not only in technological progress. It is not the technological process that God wants to stop, and not the tower that they are building. The tower does not bother God. Would He really be frightened that someone might decide to climb up to the heavens and make war with Him, since we know that He is not in the heavens. The Most High says that they can go far in their fitting of all people to common standards, or in imposing an image of God. And this too is a kind of fitting of people to one and the same standard in the worship of God.

There is a dispute every time the Most High speaks in the plural: let us make man, or let us go down. It is quite possible that here it is precisely about the Most High going down with angels, who will be the angels of the nations. There is a probability that we are again dealing with the plural of majesty – a special grammatical form that exists in many Semitic languages, when a king (or an important person) speaks of himself in the plural. And, for example, Daniel, retelling the dream to the king, says: “We will tell the king the dream.” And there is a possibility that this is a kind of stylistic answer to what the people say among themselves, they say háva na'asé (we will make), and the Most High answers in tune, answers stylistically to their form of speech.

So that they could not hear. Not even so that they could not understand, but so that they could not hear. After all, we can disagree with a person without understanding him. As people also say: “You are not listening to me,” “and I do not even want to hear you.” The Most High says: “I will put a division in such a way that it will be impossible to penetrate into the personal world of a person, into his thinking, into his worldview.” They will not be able to force a person to say something in an imposed uniformity. People are diverse, all of creation is diverse. Just look what a diverse world the Most High has created. And every time one of us reads the Torah, says a prayer, it is always a dialogue between the Torah and the person who reads the Torah. If parents look at their own children who have just been born, they already have some character given by the Most High, which we cannot remake, neither by upbringing nor by anything else, something that remains forever. This is a gift of the Most High. Here the Most High says: “I will make it so that you will not be able to understand the reasons for the multiplicity, you will no longer be able to conspire together, you will no longer be able to impose some understandings on each other. You will not have one common idol.” And when there are many different idols, even if idolatry develops in humanity (and it will), it will not be a single idol. Unity is a category of the Creator. What your idol will not have: it will not be one.

The problem, as we see, is not even in the tower; it was not the tower they stopped building, but the city. They stopped building a society united by an ideology.

Let us try to modernize this story a tiny bit. Modern man is called Homo sapiens (rational man). There are ideas that are called humanism – this is a universal human value that is proclaimed. Into this little bag the humanists put everything they want: tolerance toward some minorities, the absence of the death penalty, some other values that they consider humane and inhumaniThe Russian really says “humane and inhuman”. The second word was perhaps meant differently, but it is kept as in the original.. Whoever does not agree to carry this little bag, to live in the city called Humanism (Humaneness), is not a human being at all. Well, and what rights does a person have who is not a human being at all? This seeming freedom, like the one the French Revolution proclaimed, can turn out to be unfreedom if everyone is required to be the same. What the Most High did – He did it so that humanity will no longer be united by one ideology or worship some one idol. Let there be false ideologies, let there be false idols, everyone can be mistaken, whole nations can be mistaken and fall into idolatry, adopt some terrible ideologies. There are many examples of this. But it will not be imposed on all of humanity, because people do not hear each other, and in this there is a certain blessing. The unity of humanity will be on earth when the prophecy of Zcharya is fulfilled: “On that day the LORD will be King over all the earth, on that day the LORD will be one and His Name one.” It is worth again paying attention to the word Name. But Zcharya speaks of His Name, not of the name of people, but of the Name of God, which will be one; there will be one single King over all the earth, and all the diversity of the universe, in its diversity, will be subject to the King. Not in uniformity, but precisely in the variety of all creation.

The word blela in modern Hebrew means dough.

This verse again reminds us of the parallel with the prophecy of Zcharya, connected with all the earth and with that blessing which the Most High gave to humanity at the very beginning, and to Noach when he came out of the ark: to spread over the earth, to become ever more diverse and more diverse, to become a multitude of different nations, so that over all this diversity, over all this many-faceted and diverse creation, one King would reign, when the LORD will be one over all the earth and His Name will be one.

So, humanity's plan to create an alternative name failed with a crash. Humanity did not manage to set something up against Shem, the son of Noach. And, when this counter-Semitic, antisemitic rebellion in the form of the Tower of Babel was suppressed, the Torah returns to Shem:

We talked about the name Arpachshad in the previous chapter.

Shalach – messenger.

We have already talked about Ever; this name means one who crossed over, one who passed through something or one who left something behind. The name ivri (Hebrew) comes from this name.

We also talked about the name Peleg; in his time the earth was divided.

Re'u means neighbor; one who wants to be close, or one who shepherds, one who cares.

Srug – this is bound; woven; one who is interwoven; joined with the Most High. Some say that this means twining vines, and that this is the beginning of the name of a geographical locality, that is, Srug is an inhabitant of a place called Sarog, a city in modern Turkey.

Every time the Torah says that he begot sons and daughters, we read this constantly. But why does the Torah not list the sons and daughters? Because the story is not about them. The Torah concentrates on the main thing.

Strictly speaking, it was precisely toward them that the genealogy was working its way, which we will now learn about and which we will read about in the following chapters. And, since the genealogy was working its way toward this, it begins this story as a new chapter, in order to show respect to Avraham, who will be spoken about.

Avram, Nachor and Aran – the three sons of Terach, the tenth generation after Noach, exactly as Noach was the tenth generation after Adam.

Many commentators say that Yiska is Sarai, and there are many disputes about this, into which, probably, we will not delve now.

We do not know whether Sara herself knew about this, or whether she tried to get pregnant, each time hoping that she would be able to get pregnant. And Avram waited for her to be able to give birth. This is what the Torah partly reveals to the readers, reveals because it is an important element for the further plot. If we have read only up to this point, we will already understand that this will be an important element of the further story. We do not yet know anything about Sarai, or about Avram, let alone about Sara and Avraham, but it is already important for us to know that Sarai is barren and has no children.

They did set out for the land of Canaan, but they did not reach the land of Canaan. Why did they not reach it? There can be a multitude of reasons for that. They did not reach it, although they did set out. Why they set out, for what reason they set out, we do not know that either.

Everyone probably knows that there is a people living in the neighborhood of the people of Israel, the Samaritans. Their history is described in quite some detail, and they keep their own Pentateuch, which in some questions differs from the Pentateuch that we have. In the Samaritan tradition Terach lives 145 years, not 205. Why such a difference, and why is this fundamental? If Terach lives 145 years, then Avram leaves after the death of Terach; if Terach lives 205 years, then Avram leaves while Terach is still alive. It is possible that it was precisely on the Samaritan tradition that Stephen relied in Acts, when he said that Avram went out after the death of Terach. In any case, from the Masoretic text, from the text that we have, something a little different follows.

The Torah says about Noach that he was a righteous man in his generation. Such an ambiguous expression gives ground for the commentators. The well-known commentator of the Torah Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki (Rashi) says: “Some comment on this as praise, saying: ‘Since even in his generation Noach managed to be a righteous man, all the more so in other generations he would have been a righteous man.’ Others say it as censure: ‘Only in his generation was Noach considered a righteous man against the background of all those who surrounded him, but in our generation, so to speak, he would not have measured up to a righteous man.’ Any divergent reading can always be interpreted in the direction of praise and in the direction of censure.”

It is amazing that something similar happened with the sons of Noach too. In chapter 9 of the book of Bereshit, from verse 20, we read:

And Noach began to cultivate the earth. And he planted a vineyard, and he drank of the wine, and became drunk, and uncovered himself in the middle of his tent. And Cham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father and told his two brothers outside. And Shem and Yefet took a garment, and, having laid it, both of them, on their shoulders, they walked backward, and covered the nakedness of their father, and their faces were turned backward, and the nakedness of their father they did not see. And Noach slept off his wine and learned what his younger son had done to him. And he said: “Cursed be Canaan!”

We are reading an amazing story. Noach is a patriarch, a man thanks to whose merits his whole family was saved, and in his family all of humanity was saved. It is probably hard for sons to have such a great father. It is hard to be an apple that can, God forbid, fall far, far away from such an apple tree. And so it happens that Noach drank, showed weakness, and lay down, and uncovered himself in his tent, and Cham saw his nakedness. He thought: “Ah, our dad, it turns out, is not only a great patriarch, but also sometimes a plain drunkard! Here are his weaknesses. Here are the scars on his body. Here, here are his weak spots!” And he hurried to tell about this, about his weak spots, about his nakedness, to his brothers.

And a question stood before the brothers: do they want to accept his weak spots too, so that precisely like this, weak, vulnerable, he would stay in their memory? Or will they after all remember only the great Noach, that righteous man by whose righteousness they were saved from the flood and all of humanity was saved?” And the sons decided that they would not look at the weaknesses of their father.

We all have weaknesses, scars inflicted by our not-simple life and not always healed. And we do not want our children to associate us with these weaknesses and all the more to inherit them.

How do we make it so that our children do not inherit our weaknesses? First of all, admit that we have these weaknesses. Of course, every person has weaknesses. But look at our other side. Reveal your positive sides to your sons. And what is most important – it is much more important not to notice the weak spots of our children. It is so easy to see them and to begin to manipulate these weak spots and to make the child, instead of a personality, only one weak spot. Then the child will look at our weak spots and will inherit them.

Why did Noach curse not Cham, but Canaan, the grandson? Not only because Cham was blessed by the LORD. But because this is a curse: “Your son will inherit your weak spots, like what you wanted to make out in me.”

Let us take care of our children, see the good in them and show our own good.

Today we will talk about the name Noach itself. We first meet it in chapter 5 of the book of Bereshit, when Noach has just been born. We read how his father prophesies:

There was such a hope, a trust, that the curse with which the LORD cursed the earth, saying: “In sorrow you will obtain your bread,” – would pass together with Noach, that Noach would deliver humanity from this curse. Therefore the first connection that we see here in the meaning of the name Noach – Noach and yennachem from the verb lenachem – to comfort or, what to comfort means in Hebrew, – to open some other possibility.

What is comfort? When a person grieves and sees no way out, they comfort him and say: “There is still life! There is still a possibility! There are still paths! Not everything has closed!” Even when someone close has passed away, some grief has happened. Yenachaménu means will open for us another possibility, will open for us another path. There was a hope, I repeat, that Noach would deliver humanity from the curse of the earth.

What does the name Noach itself mean? I have already spoken about the phenomenon of mimation, when after guttural sounds the sound m, was added, and Noach perhaps earlier sounded like Nochm, and then Noach and yennachem are a very understandable parallel. But if we read Noach simply as noach, then in modern Hebrew noach is convenient, comfortable, will finally give us the possibility to live not in sorrow but with a certain convenience, to feel more at ease on the earth, more comfortable. And, although today for many believing people it has, unfortunately, turned out that comfort is almost a swear word, I want to say that a believing person must feel inner peace, inner rest and inner comfort. Here, the words rest, convenience, comfort are translated by the word noach. And this is how one can understand the name Noach.

In Bereshit (6:6) we read:

This is usually translated literally like this. One can say that the Torah speaks here in human language. Of course, the LORD did not change Himself, did not reconsider. And the Russian word repent can be understood here as an image. But if we talk about the word yináchem (and we have already said that this opens some other path), then one can say that the Most High said: “There will be a plan ‘B’! I will develop humanity along a different path. I created man, I will move his development forward along a different path.” Here we again meet the very same verb. If Noach's father said: “Yenachaménu,” then here too it is the very same verb yináchem. One can say that the Most High was comforted at having created Adam, saw another variant of development or switched on another variant of development, since we are talking about the Most High after all. And so the verb noach and the words connected with the root noach, are present in all the key places of our weekly portion.

In the eighth chapter we read:

Literally: and the ark laid itself down, and came to rest. The very same verb, the very same root noach – the ark “got noa-ed,” “got noach-ed”, one can understand it this way too. In this same eighth chapter we read about the dove that Noach sent out of the ark. It is said that the dove came back because it

Again we see this very same root.

And in conclusion we see, when Noach builds an altar and raises up an elevation on the altar, it is said:

The word nichoach (fragrance) is literally translated giving pleasure, bliss. Gratifying also comes from this amazing root noach.

Well, and let us return, probably, to the key mention of the name Noach in Bereshit (6:8):

The word chen (grace) consists of the very same letters as noach, only in a changed order. The name Noach is written with the letters נח – nun chet, and the word grace – chen – חנ is written with the letters chet nun – the letters simply changed order.

Rest is the manifestation of grace in our world. What does “Noach found grace in the eyes of God” mean? Noach was able to manifest grace in our world, in our reality. Reality in Hebrew is from the word matziyut – finding, that which is found. That is, through Noach the grace of the Most High was realized. This compels us even more to think about the meaning of the name Noach.

What are these two little letters chet and nun, nun and chet, of which this name consists? The gematria of the letter ח (chet) has the numerical value 8. We know that the world exists on the basis of the seven-day week – six days work, the seventh day – Shabbat. We also know, I have often spoken about this in various talks, that the eighth day is the day when Moshe renewed the Temple, when Moshe set up the tabernacle, set up the relationship with the Most High. The eighth day is the day of drawing near to the Most High, a day that is above the nature of this world, supernatural. In exactly the same way also the fiftieth year, the jubilee year, when all laws, all worldly ties are released, a complete liberation from the bonds of this world takes place. And the name Noach consists of the letter נ (nun), whose numerical value is 50, the fiftieth year, the fiftieth day from Pesach, Pentecost, and the letter ח (chet), which signifies, one could say, symbolically, the eighth day of the week, the first day, which is the eighth day of the week, the day of renewed humanity.

Noach, thus, and chen (grace) – this is the manifestation of the supernatural in the natural, the revelation of the Divine grace in the created world, in the physical world, the revelation of something supernatural that acts above the laws of nature. The supra-natural in the natural, the manifestation of Divinity in this world has begun.

The first person who found this grace, realized it in the world – this is Noach. And that is just what he is called; from the letters of his name one can form the word grace. And his name itself means rest, also a manifestation of grace in this world.

Why did this not work out? Why this revelation of grace did not bring humanity into rest, did not lead to all of humanity coming to rest from its deeds, we will yet talk about, with God's help.

It sometimes happens that in order to understand one weekly portion more deeply, one needs to turn to another portion. Therefore today you and I will talk about the weekly portion Noach, but we will not read the weekly portion Noach; instead we will reread the story of the golden calf. We will read from chapter 32 of the book of Shemot. In the 7th verse, when Moshe is with the Most High on the mountain, the Most High says to Moshe:

The situation begins to resemble the story with Noach, because the events of the flood began after all flesh on the earth had corrupted itself. And there, at the end of the weekly portion Bereshit, the very same verb is used. Further, in the 10th verse, the Most High says to Moshe:

This is a verb with noach, the very same verb noach – allow Me, let Me calmly do something.

…and I will become angry with them, I will pour out My wrath on them.

And further the Most High says to Moshe: “…from you I will make a new people.” Look, what a parallel. The Most High says that the people has corrupted itself, and in exactly the same way as it was said to Noach that a new humanity would come from him, in the same way, here the Most High says to Moshe: “From you will come a new people of Israel.” The situation is very similar, and we see that here there are very similar verbs: shichét (went astray) and hannícha (allow Me, the verb noach). What does the Most High say to Moshe? Why use such a verb, hannícha – allow Me, let Me, as if Moshe could fail to allow the Most High something?

One of the understandings of the name Noach – convenient, comfortable, that it is convenient for him, comfortable for him, cozy for him, and he, so to speak, is not bothered by what is happening to the humanity around him. He does not plead with the Most High for humanity, does not pray for it, perhaps does not even worry about it. At any rate, nothing is said about this. And one can understand that the Most High is saying here: “Be Noach for a little bit. Act like Noach. Noah did not moan, so don’t you moan. Do not intercede for humanity, allow Me now to pour out My wrath on them, do not plead with Me, do not hold Me back.”

Moshe answers Him, we read in the 13th verse:

Remember Avraham, Yitzchak and Yisrael, Your servants, to whom You swore by Yourself and said: “I will multiply your offspring like the stars of heaven, and all this land of which I spoke I will give to your offspring, and they will possess it forever.”

Eternal possession, they will possess forever in Hebrew is venachalú; although this verb does not share a root with noach, the two common first letters speak of the semantic unity of the verbs, the verbs belong to the same semantic cell. They will live calmly forever, they will inherit calmly forever, here too it is about rest. Moshe says to the Most High: “You swore to give this people rest.” Moshe refuses to be Noach. He refuses to be Noach as the one on whom the new people of Israel will be founded, and refuses to be Noach as a person for whom it is noach, for whom it is convenient, that humanity will perish.

We read in the 14th verse:

We both read and talked about this verb, that usually the Torah translates this as repented or reconsidered, but here it is as if switched on another plan, chose another path of development.

And Moshe says to the Most High, among other things:

If You are going to destroy this people, erase me from the Book that You have written. If You do not forgive this people, erase me from the Book that You have written.

erase me

In the word mechéni there are also the letters ח (chet) and נ (nun). Moreover, when the prophet Yeshayahu (54:9) speaks about the flood, he calls it מֵי נֹחַ – mei noach – the waters of Noach. The letters of mei noach make up the word macheni. Moshe offers an alternative. When Noach was told to build the ark, Noach did not intercede for humanity, Noach did not say to the Most High: “Have mercy on these people, give them a chance, call them to repentance.” Noach did not propose and did not say: “If You want to destroy humanity, erase me, erase me from the Book that You have written.” But Moshe does this. Moshe, in a very similar situation, instead of mei noach, instead of the waters of Noach, says: “macheni (erase me) from the Book that You have written.” Moshe in a similar situation behaves completely differently. And in the thirty-third chapter of the book of Shemot we read, when Moshe says to the Most High: “You will go before us,” the Most High answers him:

About this expression there are very many disputes, which we will not go into now.

And I will set you at rest, I will give you rest.

Moshe, unlike Noach, in a similar situation does not say: “I will be the new Noach, the Noach of Israel, Noach the founder of the people of Israel, of a new humanity. I will save the whole people of Israel on my ark. I will not agree to anything less.” This is not mei noach, not the waters of Noach, it is macheyni – erase me, if You are not ready to forgive my people.

One can, of course, see many more parallels, just as it is said of Noach that he found grace in the eyes of the Most High. We spoke about how he made this supernatural grace real in our world. Many times this expression is used in relation to Moshe, that Moshe found grace in the eyes of the Most High. Here, in our passage that we read, we see that Moshe began to pray, as if he began, as it says here, to work the Face of the Most High (Shemot 32:11):

In exactly the same way it is said of Noach that he began to work the land. Two different vectors, two different directions, but the same words are used. When we see the same words, it is important to pay attention to this.

There are quite a lot of other parallels between Noach and Moshe as well, but the general meaning of these parallels, I think, is clear.

I will give this warning: when you have found a similarity, be sure to start looking for differences. That is, not everywhere there are two identical words can you point a finger and say: “This is one and the same.” Especially if we are reading from a translation: there it may be that in the original there are different words altogether. But even in the original, if you have found two identical words, that still means nothing, but when there are many parallels, they of course merge and testify to something. I will repeat the rule: when you have found some similarities, be sure to look for differences.

We see that humanity has entered a completely different stage. Moshe is a different spiritual level, not Noach. It is the level when a person is already ready to lay down his soul for his people. And this difference, this comparison, perhaps opens up the weekly portion Noach for us in a completely new light, although we practically did not talk about it.

Today we will talk about one fragment from chapter 9 of the book of Bereshit. We will start reading from verse 20:

AND NOACH BEGAN TO CULTIVATE THE EARTH. AND HE PLANTED A VINEYARD. AND HE DRANK OF THE WINE AND BECAME DRUNK, AND HE UNCOVERED HIMSELF IN THE MIDST OF HIS TENT. AND CHAM, THE FATHER OF CANAAN, SAW THE NAKEDNESS OF HIS FATHER AND TOLD HIS TWO BROTHERS OUTSIDE. AND SHEM AND YEFET TOOK A GARMENT, AND, BOTH OF THEM HAVING LAID IT ON THEIR SHOULDERS, WENT BACKWARD AND COVERED THE NAKEDNESS OF THEIR FATHER, AND THEIR FACES WERE TURNED BACKWARD, AND THEY DID NOT SEE THE NAKEDNESS OF THEIR FATHER. AND NOACH SLEPT OFF HIS WINE AND LEARNED WHAT HIS YOUNGER SON HAD DONE TO HIM.

Cham happens to enter Noach's tent and sees him not quite dressed, probably as a result of alcoholic intoxication, drunk, undressed, maybe not very clean Noach in his tent. And Cham hurries with joy to tell Shem and Yefet: “Look, look, what's with our father!” Shem and Yefet are filled with fear, and they, backing away, cover their father's nakedness.

Noach slept it off and learned what his younger son had done to him.

And what did the younger son do to him? The commentators answer these questions differently. Some say: “He castrated him,” others say: “He raped him.” And they tell other terrible things, supposing what Cham could have done to his father.

But there is also another understanding, one can look at it from a different angle. Actually, what happened? Cham went into the tent and saw that his father, his own father, a righteous man, a man whom the Most High Himself called righteous and perfect, this time is lying in his tent drunk, naked, maybe in his own vomit. He has to hurry and tell his two brothers, maybe even his son: “Look what our dad is really like!”

This incident, when Noach stumbled once, or maybe some period that was difficult for Noach, had to be turned into a label, this scar had to be made into Noach's distinguishing mark, and in this way all his merits, all the other traits of his character, crossed out. To make it so that, let it be associated: “Our father, Noach, really, maybe once was a righteous man, maybe once was perfect, but in fact, the real Noach, the genuine Noach – is simply an alcoholic.” This is what Cham did to Noach. He stuck a label on him. He wanted to show, to reveal the “true” essence of Noach.

This happens among us too. We can often take some behavior of a person who stumbled, who fell for some time, and stick a label on him, whether of an alcoholic, of a fornicator, of a thief, of a liar. And everything else that he does or ever did will no longer have any significance. There, Noach went on a drinking binge, he is an alcoholic, and it does not matter what else there was, and when.

So children inherit such a memory of their father, children remember the scars on their father's body, and not the father's body itself. Children remember some label that is stuck to the father, maybe in vain, maybe because of one lapse, and not the behavior of the father himself.

This is what Cham did. And for this Canaan is punished. We said that Cham could not be cursed, because he was blessed by the Most High. But the point here is also that precisely as a punishment Canaan could inherit some of Cham's labels, that is, the punishment was quite symmetrical. Such are today's short thoughts on the weekly portion Noach.

At the very beginning of chapter 7 of the book of Bereshit we read:

And the LORD said to Noach: “Come, you and all your household, into the ark, for you I have seen righteous before Me in this generation.”

Let us pay attention to these amazing words: “…for you I have seen righteous before Me.”

The LORD pays Noach a direct compliment, gives him direct encouragement. If about Moshe it is said that he is humble among people, that is not something the Most High said to his face. Here the Most High comes and supports him at the very beginning of a very difficult journey in the ark. He supports Noach with the words: “You I have seen righteous before Me in this generation.”

This compliment, like any other, also teaches us how to pay compliments. That is, not just to acknowledge and say: “I see how well you draw!” but: “How well you draw. A great artist will come out of you. A good artist could come out of you,” “How well you wrote the essay. A wonderful writer could come out of you,” “An excellent lathe operator could come out of you,” “A good dancer could come out of you.” We do not simply record it and say: “Look what a righteous person,” “Look what a graceful person,” but as it were assign him something, entrust something to him or ask the Most High to entrust something to him, saying: “Here is this person, the way he dances now, the way he plays the violin now, the way he writes now. He can do much more.” And to tell a person to his face: “You can do much more. You are capable of much more.”

This is what kindles a person, what really moves him to do more than he can do now. And this is what the Most High teaches us.

There is a fairly well-known tale about Thomas Edison and his mom. The tale says that once Thomas Edison found his mom reading a letter and crying. And then he asked: “What is written there?” She told him that it was the school principal writing: “Your Thomas is such a smart boy that we can no longer teach him. Let him look for another educational institution.” According to this tale, later Thomas Edison found this letter, and it said that he was a terrible, dull-witted student and the school could not keep him. All of this, of course, is a tale, in reality it was all not like that. Here is how Edison himself tells it: “Once I overheard a conversation in which the teacher told the inspector that I was dull-witted and there was no sense in keeping me in school any longer. The last part hurt me badly, I burst into tears, ran home and told mom everything. She went back to the school with me and angrily told the teacher that he did not know what he was talking about, that I had more brains than he himself, and so on. “It was out of this,” as Edison himself later said, “that my mom made me.” He was made by his mom, who paid him compliments, who told him: “You can do much more. Today you are able, but you are capable of more.” This is the best way of paying compliments.

We are bad at paying compliments. Because of this we often do not notice that our compliment is not a compliment at all. A husband sits there, eats soup and says: “What wonderful soup! What a wonderful pie!” And the compliments seem to go to the soup and the pie, and not to the one who cooked it. You pay your woman a compliment, pay a compliment to the one who cooked it. Support her and say: “You can make things so wonderfully. A wonderful cook will come out of you, you are a wonderful homemaker.” Praise her in what she can do, revealing her potential, and support yourself in the same way, and support those close to you in the same way. “You I have found in this generation.” For me today you are the best cook, the best musician, the best artist, you can reveal yourself better and more.

Let us pay each other compliments that will reveal our potential, call us to reveal our potential. Let us not be shy to praise and support each other.

The LORD Himself came to Noach and said to him: “You I have found righteous. You have earned it.” This is so great!

Very often I quote the commentaries of Rabbi Sholom Noach Berezovsky, also known by the name of his book “Netivot Shalom.” I very much like his unusual approach, his ability to look at one or another place of Scripture from a different angle.

Commenting on the portion Noach, Rabbi Sholom says that this portion has to do not only with the generation of Noach, not only with the generation of the flood, but also with each of us, with each of the generations throughout all of Jewish history. Any one of us can end up in a situation where there is a flood around us. Perhaps not so global, not so terrible, but, one way or another, we can be enveloped by troubles, hardships or feelings of troubles and hardships, the feeling that everything around us is collapsing, as in the times of the flood, that the old world is being destroyed and the only relevant question arises: where to run? And Rabbi Sholom says that in our time too, in times of hardship, one can build an ark. We have three arks which we can occupy, in which we can find a place.

The first ark is the Torah. When we study the Torah, immerse ourselves in the study of the Torah, we can forget ourselves, withdraw from all troubles, from the misfortunes that we feel. This is our first refuge.

The second ark that we have is Shabbat. For six days we are busy doing our work, the seventh day is a return to the Most High. A day when one can forget about everything, forget about all worldly affairs, about debts, about problems, about a business that failed, about a business that needs to be built, about all hardships and about all worries, and immerse oneself in the Divine presence.

Rabbi Sacks was the Chief Rabbi of England, he died recently, and very, very recently his students restored his commentary on the portion about Noach. And he speaks about Shabbat like this: “Our life is full of things that fall into two categories: urgent and important. And so sometimes one can see that we sit and occupy ourselves with urgent things, putting off important things.”

I remember, I was sitting and doing something at the computer, my son came up to me and said: “Dad, play with me.” I said to him: “In a moment, in a moment, Anvehu. I’ll just finish, and we’ll play together.” Some time later, he came up and said: “Dad, read to me, please.” Well, I answered him the same thing. Coming around for the third time, he, a patient boy, said: “Daddy, draw with me.” And when I answered him: “Right now, sorry, I’ll finish my things,” he put the question point-blank, asking: “Daddy, do you love me?”

Thank God that I have Shabbat, that I have the possibility to replace urgent matters with important ones, to be with my family, to be with friends, to engage in some reflections about myself, to walk in the park, to breathe fresh air, to pray to the Most High from all my soul without hurrying, to thank Him for the events of the week. This is the second ark, into which we can run away from our troubles and from our flood.

And the third ark is called veyachad (together). There is some community, some friends, companions, with whom together we can spend time, can together discuss some problems and even, perhaps, solve some problems. Companions together, if they are real companions, if they are real friends, can also help to survive the flood.

These are the three arks that we have, that each of us has (Thank God!) in order to survive our floods. Perhaps someone has the possibility and wants to create another ark in order to survive his own flood, someone has his own ark. All this is great, all this is wonderful, one just needs to remember that from every flood there is an ark and there is a place where one can be saved from the flood. Sometimes the ark needs to be built, sometimes it has already been built before us. But, thank God, the Most High gives us the possibility to have a refuge from every disaster!

Continue studying: Bereshit, Lech Lecha, covenants and weekly portions of the Torah.