The Torah Speaks

There are a number of Scriptures that I would like to bring to our attention from this week's Torah reading, I think you will find them very interesting and challenging as I discuss and explain them.

Bereshit {6:11} The earth was corrupt before G-D, and the earth was filled with violence.

At first glance this verse appears to be very straight forward. HaShem destroyed the earth because it was corrupt and filled with violence. However when we read the original Hebrew of this verse we find something that is very interesting. The word HaShem used for violence is Chamas. Because English speakers can not make the guttural "ch" sound as in "Bach," the word chamas is normally written and pronounced as Hamas. Is it coincidental that the terrorist group which has most infiltrated the world and the one that constantly torments Yisrael (Israel) is called Hamas? With all the other things that are taking place in our world today, (definite signs of the times) can this be another sign HaShem has given His people, a clue of His imminent return?

The next group of verses I would like to bring to our attention are:

Bereshit {7:1} HaShem said to Noach, "Come with all of your household into the ark, for I have seen your tz'dakeh (righteousness) before me in this generation. {7:2} You shall take seven pairs of every tahor (ritually clean) animal with you, the male and his female. Of the animals that are not tahor, take two, the male and his female.

Two things come to mind when I read these passages. First, how did Noach know which animals were tahor and which were not? The Torah had not yet been given; in fact Avraham (Abraham) had not yet been born so there was no Hebrew nation. There was no such thing as Yisrael and there was no such thing as the Jewish people. Yet here in the chronicles of creation we find the knowledge of tahor (ritually clean) and tamei (ritually unclean) animals already known.

The above fact leads me into the other point that came to mind from this passage. If the knowledge of tahor and tamei animals preceded the Hebrew nation, the giving of the Torah and the Jewish people, in that order, then man even prior to being carnivorous (man prior to the flood was vegetarian), knew which animals HaShem considered kosher (meaning proper). This brings me to the next verse I would like to discuss:

Bereshit {9:3} every moving thing that lives will be food for you. As the green herb, I have given everything to you.

From this passage we can conclude that it did not make a difference what Noach and his descendants ate, every plant according to HaShem was food for them as well as every thing that lived and moved on the earth (after the flood man became carnivorous). This would certainly nullify the separation of kosher and non-kosher animals from our diets. But is this really the case? Is the plant Poison Ivy food? Are not some animals poisonous and inedible, unfit for human consumption? The fact is Noach already knew which animals HaShem considered proper. Not only was he instructed to offer only those which were tahor to HaShem but he was also instructed to bring seven pairs of tahor animals on the ark instead of the two for tamei animals. I think Rav. Shaul (Paul) explained it better when he said:

Korintim alef (1 Corinthians) {6:12} "Everything is permissible for me"-- but not everything is beneficial. "Everything is permissible for me"-- but I will not be mastered by anything.

Knowledge gives us the wisdom to make the right choices. Noach had the knowledge from HaShem as to which animals were tahor and which were tamei, now the choice of which to eat was left up to his free will and to his tz'dakeh!

The next verse I would like to bring to our attention is:

Bereshit {7:6} Noach was six hundred years old when the flood of waters came on the earth. {7:7} Noach went into the ark with his sons, his wife, and his sons' wives, because of the waters of the flood.

Often people ask why children get sick and die. They can understand older people dying but it is difficult for them to understand children dying or having to die. Well we learn something very interesting from the above Scripture. Although there must have been hundreds of thousands of children in the world during the generation of Noach, not one entered the ark! Only eight humans made it aboard the vessel and none of them where children. Have you ever thought of this, and if you have, have you ever wondered why? I believe the answer can be found in Scripture. The following verses contain the thirteen attributes of HaShem as found in the book of Shemot (Exodus). It is the last one I will comment on.

Shemot {34:6} HaShem passed by before him, and proclaimed, "HaShem! HaShem, a merciful and gracious G-D, slow to anger, and abundant in lovingkindness and truth, {34:7} keeping lovingkindness for thousands, forgiving iniquity and disobedience and sin; and that will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the avot (father) on the children, and on the children's children, on the third and on the fourth generation."

HaShem told us in the beginning of this Parasha that Noach's generation was an evil one. That evil, because of HaShem's righteous judgement, was visited upon the children of that generation. And seeing as neither Noach nor his children had any young children, none were therefore on the ark because Noach was the only one of his generation found tz'dakeh. Noach's children and their wives, although they were not youngsters, made it on the ark because of this promise from HaShem:

Devarim (Deuteronomy) {5:10} and showing lovingkindness to thousands of those who love me and keep my mitzvoth (commandments).

I hope you parents realize, the extreme responsibility you have in keeping HaShem's commandments and teaching them to your children. The next generations depend on it!

The next verse I would like to draw our attention to is:

Bereshit {8:13} It happened in the six hundred first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried up from off the earth. Noach removed the covering of the ark, and looked. He saw that the surface of the ground was dried.

We all should know that the first month of the biblical calendar is the month of Abib also known as Nisan (Shemot 12:2). So is it coincidental that it was on the first day of the first month that the waters were dried up from the earth and it was inhabitable again? Therefore is it any wonder that HaShem made the month of Nisan the beginning of months, it was after all a new beginning for man and for the e arth.

There is so much more we can glean from Parsha Noach but I have to leave something for next year so I will stop here. Baruch HaShem!

Rabbi Jack "Yaacov" Farber is the spiritual leader of Congregation Melech Yisrael in Toronto, Canada.

Copyright 2004