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!