What makes a righteous person?

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdSxjSP86u4

טו  וַיְדַבֵּר אֱלֹהִים, אֶל-נֹחַ לֵאמֹר.	15 And God spoke unto Noah, saying:
טז  צֵא, מִן-הַתֵּבָה--אַתָּה, וְאִשְׁתְּךָ וּבָנֶיךָ וּנְשֵׁי-בָנֶיךָ אִתָּךְ.	16 'Go forth from the ark, you, and you wife, and you sons, and you sons' wives with you.

 

0	אֶפֶס
1	אַחַת
2	שְׁתַּיִם
3	שָׁלוֹשׁ
4	אַרְבַּע
5	חָמֵשׁ
6	שֵׁשׁ
7	שֶׁבַע
8	שְׁמוֹנֶה
9	תֵּשַׁע
10	עֶשֶׂר

 

 

 

 

 

11	אַחַת-עֶשְֹּרֵה
12	ֹשְתֵּים-עֶשְֹרֵה
13	ֹשְלֹש- עֶשְֹרֵה
14	אַרְבַּע- עֶשְֹּרֵה
15	חֲמֵֹש-עֶשְֹרֵה
16	ֹשֵֹּש-עֶשְֹרֵה
17	ֹשְבַע-עֶשְֹרֵה
18	ֹשְמוֹנֶה-עֶשְֹרֵה
19	תְֹּשַע-עֶשְֹרֵה
20	עֶשְׂרִים

 

 

#2 Textsploration

#3-  Noach

Ilana Dvorin Friedman, PhD

 [Our son] Zev may have caused a "mabul*" through the house while we baked, but in the end we celebrated the beautiful rainbow challahs we created in honor of Parshat Noach. Over the years, I have read very powerful ideas about the word keshet which means both a rainbow and a bow (like bow and arrow). It amazes me how this word connotes both a symbol of love and trust/faith and an image of war and pain. This duality in meaning reflects our complex emotions as humans as we interact with the world and develop relationships. Right now, as we experience many conflicting emotions and needs, this parsha with ideas of destruction and hope (and quarantine on the teyva/ark) may resonate in new and surprising ways... 

 

*Mabul is the Hebrew Bible’s  term for the flood.

5.    Noah’s Ark.  Any scientists? Problems with the story? 

https://ncse.ngo/yes-noahs-flood-may-have-happened-not-over-whole-earth

1) BEFORE THE FLOOD  (Bereysheet Ch. 6)

This is the family of Noach.—Noach was a righteous man; he was blameless in his generation; Noach walked with God.   Noach fathered three sons: Shem, Kham, and Yafet.  

The earth became ruined in front of God; the world was filled with cruelty.  When Adonai saw how ruined the land was, for all humanity has ruined everything in their way on land,  Adonai said to Noach, “I have decided to put an end to all humanity, for the earth is filled with cruelty because of them. I am about to destroy them with the land….

“For My part, I am about to bring Ha’Mabul— the deep waters onto the land—to destroy all flesh under the sky in which there is breath of life; everything on land shall perish.  But I will establish My brit/covenant with you, and you shall enter the ark, with your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives.”

--------------------------------------------

AT THIS POINT IN THE STORY,  we get instructions for the ark, which is built, and then it gets really wet everywhere, and all sorts of people realize they should have bought boats

Now, everyone thinks the ark looked like this:à

But the description in the Torah makes more of something like this: à

Pretty darn different.  It’s meant to float, not sail.   It’s long. It’s not pretty.   But it is big…

 

Questions on that chunk of Chapter 6:

1)     Noach is called  a ish tzadik/righteous man in the Torah. How do you define a righteous person?  Explain what makes them different from other people. Give three examples.

 

 

 

2)    What the heck does it mean to “Walk with God” if God is not a human being with feet?         What is your interpretation of this phrase?   Give your own definition and an example.

 

 

 

3)    What ruins the land enough for God to want to destroy it?    And just how does that ruin the land?  Explain your logic- clearly.

 

 

 

 

4)    God says that God will establish a brit/covenant with Noach.  What the heck is a Covenant?   And why do you think that should that give Noach comfort in the face of disaster?

 

 

 

 

 

2) AFTER THE FLOOD (Bereysheet Ch. 8 and 9)

God spoke to Noach, saying,  “Come out of the ark, together with your wife, your sons, and your sons’ wives. Bring out with you every living thing of all flesh that is with you: birds, animals, and everything that creeps on land; and let them swarm on the land and be fertile and increase on land.”  So Noach came out, together with his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives.

Every animal, every creeping thing, and every bird, everything that stirs on land came out of the ark by families.  Then Noach built an altar to Adonai and, taking of every clean animal and of every clean bird, he offered burnt offerings on the altar.

Adonai smelled the pleasing odor, and God  said to God’s self: “Never again will I doom the land because of humanity, since the inclination of the human mind is evil from its youth; nor will I ever again destroy every living creature, as I have done.

“So long as the earth endures, 
Seedtime and harvest,
Cold and heat,
Summer and winter,
Day and night
Shall not cease.”

Adonai blessed Noach and his sons, and said to them, “Be fertile and increase, and fill the land. The fear and the dread of you shall be upon all the beasts of the land and upon all the birds of the sky—everything with which squirms on the ground—and upon all the fish of the sea; they are given into your hand. Every creature that lives shall be yours to eat; as with the green grasses, I give you all these.  You must not, however, eat flesh with its life-blood still  in it!

And for your own life-blood I will require a reckoning: I will require it of every beast; of man, too, will I require a reckoning for human life, of every man for that of his fellow man!  For whoever sheds the blood of (kills)  a person,
By people shall his blood be shed;
For in God’s image
Did God make man!”

 

 

Questions on the bits of Chapter 8 and 9

1)     The waters are gone at  last, and God tells Noach and his family to leave the ark.  Why, in your opinion, do they have to be told?  Why don’t they just leave the ark on their own?

 

 

 

2)    God says “the inclination of the human mind is evil from its youth.”  What is an inclination?   What do you think that tells us about human beings and our world today?

 

 

 

 

3)    If human beings have an inclination to do evil, do they have an equal inclination to do good? Give three supporting reasons  or examples to your argument- either way.

 

           

 

 

4)    God allows humanity to eat what it wants after the flood, but not animal flesh that still has blood within in.  What will this law possibly prevent or achieve?

 

 

 

 

5)    God makes murder a capital crime.    Why does God need to make this rule clear to the survivors of the flood, or attach this punishment to it?  Isn’t it obvious that murder is wrong?   Give an explanation with two reasons!

Feed those in need

 

MISHNAH, PEAH, 1:1

אֵלּוּ דְבָרִים שֶׁאֵין לָהֶם שִׁעוּר. הַפֵּאָה, וְהַבִּכּוּרִים, וְהָרֵאָיוֹן, וּגְמִילוּת חֲסָדִים, וְתַלְמוּד תּוֹרָה. אֵלּוּ דְבָרִים שֶׁאָדָם אוֹכֵל פֵּרוֹתֵיהֶן בָּעוֹלָם הַזֶּה וְהַקֶּרֶן קַיֶּמֶת לוֹ לָעוֹלָם הַבָּא. כִּבּוּד אָב וָאֵם, וּגְמִילוּת חֲסָדִים, וַהֲבָאַת שָׁלוֹם בֵּין אָדָם לַחֲבֵרוֹ, וְתַלְמוּד תּוֹרָה כְּנֶגֶד כֻּלָּם!:

 

A) These are the things that have no fixed limit:

·       The Pay’ah/Corners of the field set aside for the poor ;

·       The Bikurim/First-fruits donated to the Mikdash;

·       The Re’ayon/”Being Seen” offering on pilgramage to the Mikdash;

·       Gemilut Chasadim/acts of loving kindness; and

·       Talmud Torah/Torah study.

B) The following are the things for which a person enjoys the fruits (the interest)  in this world while the principal (the act itself) remains  (invested) for that person in Olam Habah/The World to Come:

·       Kivud Av Ve’Eym/ Honoring one’s father and mother,

·       Gemilut Chasadim/acts of loving kindness,

·       Hava’at Shalom Beyn Adam Lechavero/the making of peace between a person and their fellow,

·       And the study of Torah is equivalent to any of these!

 LEKET, SHIKHHAH, AND PE’AH 

(Heb. לֶקֶט, שִׁכְחָה, וּפֵאָה; "gleanings, forgotten produce, and the corners of the field"), are the Talmudic designation of three  mitzvot  of the harvest where the farmer was commanded  to leave food for the benefit of the poor and the stranger. These mechanisms to fight poverty are among the mitzvot that work to build a more just food supply.  Pe'ah ("corner") and leket ("gleanings") are commanded in Leviticus 19:9–10:

ט  וּבְקֻצְרְכֶם אֶת-קְצִיר אַרְצְכֶם, לֹא תְכַלֶּה פְּאַת שָׂדְךָ לִקְצֹר; וְלֶקֶט קְצִירְךָ, לֹא תְלַקֵּט.	9 And when you reap the harvest of your land, you will not fully harvest into the corner of your field, neither will you gather the last little bits of your harvest.
י  וְכַרְמְךָ לֹא תְעוֹלֵל, וּפֶרֶט כַּרְמְךָ לֹא תְלַקֵּט:  לֶעָנִי וְלַגֵּר תַּעֲזֹב אֹתָם, אֲנִי  ה אֱלֹהֵיכֶם!	10 And you will  not pick bare your vineyard, neither will gather the fallen fruit of your vineyard; you will leave them for the poor and for the stranger: I am Adonai your God!

 Shikhḥah ("forgottens")  is a mitzvah found in Deuteronomy 24:19–21:

יט  כִּי תִקְצֹר קְצִירְךָ בְשָׂדֶךָ וְשָׁכַחְתָּ עֹמֶר בַּשָּׂדֶה, לֹא תָשׁוּב לְקַחְתּוֹ--לַגֵּר לַיָּתוֹם וְלָאַלְמָנָה, יִהְיֶה:  לְמַעַן יְבָרֶכְךָ  ה אֱלֹהֶיךָ, בְּכֹל מַעֲשֵׂה יָדֶיךָ.  {ס}

19 When you reap your harvest in your field, and you have forgot a sheaf/bundle in the field, you will not go back to fetch it; it shall be for the stranger, for the orphan, and for the widow; that Adonai your God may bless you in all the work of thy hands. {S}

Corresponding to leket in grain is peret in the vineyard. So if during the grape harvest one or two grapes fell to the ground, they constituted peret for the poor (Pe'ah 6:5). The olelot ("small clusters with few grapes") in the vineyard also belonged to the poor (Lev. 7:4), in accordance with the verse, "You will not pick bare your vineyard, neither will you gather the fallen fruit of your vineyard; you will leave them for the poor and for the stranger."  The word for vineyard,  kerem,  includes orchards as well,  which means olives were also covered by these mitzvot. 

Professor Rabbi Moses Maimonides of the University of Fez in Morocco notes: Similarly, with regard to leket: If one transgresses and gathers them - even if ground them into flour and baked them, one must give it to to the poor, as it states there: "Leave it for the poor and the stranger." If this produce is lost or consumed by fire after one gathered it, but before one gave it to the poor, one is liable for lashes! Similarly, if a person is binding sheaves of wheat into bundles,  and one transgressed and gathered it - even if one ground it into flour and baked it, one must give it to the poor, as it states: "They shall be for the stranger, the orphan, and the widow."

 

Foods that are not seasonal and do not grow from the ground are not obligated in these mitzvot, and do not apply outside the land of Israel. FurthernmoreThe challenge for us today is this:  how do we insure a more just and accessible food supply to those in need?

 

Dog tags are being allowed to mellow

Prayers for captives in shul we don’t bellow

20 hostages are back

So some things are going slack

Jews are putting away those ribbons of __________

 

 

 

The arrest is quite shocking,  here’s the jist

Mahmoud at-Moutaadi, we may have missed

At the immigration booth

He omitted the truth

He May be an October 7^th _________?

 

 

The speaker of the house said “that’s not us”

Praising hitler and against gays- who did cuss?

In a released group chat

young republicans said all that

JD Vance says “don’t make a big__________

 

 

For so many jews it’s a speed bump

To say it puts in their throats a lump

20 lives saved is nice

But look at the behavior of ICE

Mixed emotions we have about )________

 

 

Teachers unions did not stay still

“Debate on Israel, this surely will chill”

Law to fight hate of Jews

Comes the California news

Governor Newsome has just signed the _____________

 

This story is the strangest in the reader

A rally in the Bronx was a pleader

Not for gaza to have peace

But for Israel to cease

Yes this rally mourned hamas’s ________

 

 

 

 

 

https://www.jta.org/2025/10/13/religion/letting-go-jews-retire-hostage-rituals-with-gratitude-and-grief

 

https://www.jta.org/2025/10/17/united-states/palestinian-man-who-allegedly-participated-in-oct-7-attack-on-israel-arrested-in-louisiana

 

https://www.jta.org/2025/10/16/politics/mike-johnson-denounces-young-republicans-group-chat-that-praised-hitler-as-jd-vance-downplays-uproar

 

https://www.jta.org/2025/10/17/politics/ny-state-young-republicans-chapter-disbanded-amid-racist-antisemitic-chat-scandal

 

https://www.jta.org/2025/10/09/politics/california-creates-new-office-to-combat-antisemitism-in-public-schools-after-newsom-signs-divisive-bill

 

https://www.timesofisrael.com/ny-anti-israel-activists-hold-vigil-for-oct-7-hamas-chief-sinwar-on-anniversary-of-his-killing/