Confounded Speech

 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 a 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.”

            Here is the familiar story of humanity’s decision to build a tower toward heaven. The Sages seemed to believe that God’s decision to “confound their speech” was to make it impossible for them to be unified and to challenge God’s will. In effect, confounding of speech became the basis for division among the people “scattered across the face of the earth.”

            Is that not where we find ourselves today in America? We may speak the same language, but we don’t comprehend what or how the other person can possibly believe it. The divisions in our society are greater than at any time in my memory (and that includes school integration in the 50’s, VietNam and civil rights struggle in the 60’s, the Women’s Liberation Movement of the 70’s, and etc.). Virtually every issue is now political, and “facts” seem to require quotation marks. Some commentators suggest we have not been so divided since the 1850’s, which of course led to the Civil War.

            And yet. We have just completed a season of hope that atonement can be achieved for harms done, and that there is hope for the future, despite the looming calamities of climate change, income inequality, racial animus, antisemitism, and war. Indeed, this parasha ends with the introduction of Abraham, selected by God to transform humanity. We must pray and take action for such a transformation, because surely it has happened before and must happen again.

Once Again

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. Yohanan 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. 1:26-27: “Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of heaven, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every moving thing that moves upon the earth. So God created man in His image, In the image of God He created him, male and female He created them.”

 

Gen. 2:7 “The Lord God formed man from the dust of the earth. He blew in his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living being.”

 

As we begin our new cycle of Torah reading and studying, I find that there is always something new for me to consider, as is the case with these verses. Simply stated, there are two different stories about the creation of humanity. In the first (1:26-27) God creates “man” (although the Hebrew might more properly be translated as human, since in Hebrew “adam” can be inclusive of both males and females). In the second creation story (2:7), God clearly forms the male first, and subsequently creates a female companion (help-mate?) from the man’s rib. How do we reconcile these alternative stories?

It does seem to me that the compiler of our text was drawing from two separate oral histories when both tales were included. But what lesson can we infer from them? I suggest that the first iteration was designed to indicate full equality (indeed unity) between male and female human beings. The second was an indicator of the patriarchal society which developed in human history.

So, to those who still believe patriarchy is justified, I urge them to look again at the words of Gen. 1:26-27: “In the image of God He created him, male and female He created them.”