Can We Just Talk?

Noach

Gen. 6:9-11:32

Précis: The story of Noah (Hebrew: Noach) and the Flood appear in this parasha. Noah, called by God, builds the Ark and collects the animals. It rains for forty days and nights. Noah and his family are saved, and afterward leave the Ark, build an altar, and make sacrifices to God. God sets a rainbow as a promise not to destroy mankind again. Noah plants a vineyard, makes wine, and becomes drunk. An odd incident with sexual overtones takes place with his sons. The story of the Tower of Babel is included in this parasha, and it ends with a genealogy of the ancient peoples of the Bible, concluding with Abram.

Gen. 11:1-9 “All the earth had the same language…and as man migrated from the east they settled in the valley… and they said, ‘let us make bricks….and let us build a city and a tower with its top in the sky, and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered all over the earth.’ Adonai came down and said, ‘If, as one people with single voice this is how they have begun to act, then nothing will be out of their reach. Let us go down and confound their speech.’ Thus, Adonai scattered them across the face of the earth.”

            Our text does not provide a clear rationale for the scattering of the people nor for the loss of a common language. The Sages have proposed a host of explanations for Adonai’s actions: that humanity was wrong to challenge the supremacy of God, that they were presumptuously building a tower to prevent a repeat of the Flood, or that God punished them for failing to understand the reasons for the Flood.

            While the text is ambiguous as to cause, the result is clear and specific: the people’s “speech is impeded.” They lost the ability to communicate with each other and began to speak in their own individual languages, and were spread all over the globe.

            I don’t think that it a great leap from this text to the current status of American politics. It seems we have developed narrower and narrower groups who “speak the same language,” and that we have lost the ability to communicate with each other. People on both ends of the spectrum scratch their heads and say “How can they possibly believe that?” We no longer seem to be able to accept common facts, let alone disparate opinions.

            The destruction of the tower and the confounding of speech meant, for that time and place, the end of civilization. A new civilization would be needed, and 10 generations later, its progenitor, Abram, was born. In our time, the loss of the ability to communicate poses a real threat to our American civilization, which can be averted only by a restoration of civility and mutual communication. May it come in our time, and may it come in time.

Shabbat Fences

Bereshit

Gen. 1:1 - 6:8

Précis: The first Book of the Torah, Bereshit (Genesis, literally “in the beginning” or “When God began to create”) begins with the familiar story of creation. The world is created in six days and God rests on the seventh. The stories of Adam and Eve and the Garden of Eden are included, as is the story of Cain and Abel.

            We begin the annual reading of the Five Books of Moses immediately upon its conclusion. Why? Perhaps it is because with each passing year, our experiences allow us to understand more of what life has to offer, and what the text has to offer. Yochanan Ben Bag Bag said (Pirke Avot 5:25), "Turn it, and turn it, for everything is in it. Reflect on it and grow old and gray with it. Don't turn from it, for you have no better standard of conduct."

Gen. 2:3 “And God blessed the seventh day, and hallowed it; because that in it He rested from all His work which God in creating had made.”

                Rabbi Bernard M. Zlotowitz has studied the historical roots of Shabbat (10 Minutes of Torah 10/16/12). While our text tells us that Shabbat was created by God, he notes that some scholars attribute the origin of the concept to Babylonia, where the 7^th, 14^th, 21^st and 28^th days of each month were considered “evil” and that priestly activities were suspended on those days. They called those days “Sabattu.” Other historians contend that the institution was borrowed from Canaanites, who had an agricultural calendar based on a seven-day period. They, however, considered the 7^th day as unlucky. 

            Our ancestors, however, transformed the negative stereotype of misfortunate bad luck into a day of joy, celebration, and sacredness.

            The observances and restrictions associated with post-Temple Shabbat ritual were specified (or enumerated, depending upon one’s personal point of view) in the early Talmudic period (roughly the 3^rd-5^th centuries of the Common Era). The rabbis identified 39 types of labor performed during the construction of the Tabernacle which were, according to the text, suspended on Shabbat. To these they added additional “fences” to avoid the potential of unintentional violation of one of the enumerated forms of labor, or even of the appearance of a violation. [My personal favorite “fence” involves the prohibition against opening an umbrella on Shabbat because it resembles erecting a shelter, a prohibited form of work. However, the “fence” insists one cannot carry an umbrella one has opened before Shabbat (even within city walls, or within an eruv) because it gives the appearance of a forbidden form of labor.]

These laws, Rabbi Zlotowitz, suggests, form a “blueprint” for Shabbat observance. “The Talmud provides guidance concerning travel, work, lighting candles, eating, praying, caring for the sick, sexual relations, childbirth, circumcision, and virtually every other aspect of human endeavor that might occur on the Sabbath.” I would add that over the centuries, customs have varied widely from place to place, and have often assumed the stature of “law” in common practice. One must also, I maintain, decide what customs and laws are applicable to your own life. Should we feel comfortable to carry an open an umbrella inside the eruv? You tell me!