Noach: Genesis 6:9-11:32
What a great time we had at the zoo today. And despite some raindrops we didn’t find any rainbows. Thanks to the Scientists in the Synagogue grant we were able to learn lots of things about animals.
Parsha Summary:
This is the story of Noah who G-d commanded to build an ark out of wood to rescue the animals. 7 pairs of the 7 clean/pure/able to be eaten animals, a pair of each of the other animals. Noah was a righteous man in his generation. He did exactly what G-d commanded. Noah walked with G-d. After building the ark and loading all the animals. It rained for 40 days and nights. How long did Noah, his family and all those animals stay on the ark? Like much in Judaism, we argue about that from the text. Most agree given the timeline in the text it was 365 days, a full solar year. Where was all the food? How did they keep the animals from fighting with each other? Think of the noise! Think of the stench!
Eventually, the rain stopped. After 150 days, the ark came to rest on Mount Ararat, wherever that is. After another 40 days, Noah opened the covering of the ark. He sent out a raven and a dove to see if the earth had dried out. The dove could not find dry land. So Noah waiting another 7 days. This time the dove brought back an olive leaf in its bill. Then he waited another seven days, sent the dove out again and it did not come back. G-d told Noah to bring everything out of the ark. Imagine what that would be like! (Some have said that it would be similar to all of us who spent more than a year in our houses, isolated during the pandemic. Are there parallels here?)
Paralleling the beginning of Genesis, G-d tells Noah to “be fruitful and multiple and fill the earth,” but this time G-d makes a covenant. A covenant with Noah and for all times. I will maintain My covenant with you: never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.” The sign of the covenant is the rainbow. God further said, “This is the sign that I set for the covenant between Me and you, and every living creature with you, for all ages to come. I have set My bow in the clouds, and it shall serve as a sign of the covenant between Me and the earth.”
Have you ever chased a rainbow? I’ve come to the conclusion that if you go looking for one you will not find it. You need to be surprised by one. It requires the perfect balance between sun and rain.
The science of rainbows is important. It is what give us the color spectrum. Sometimes people talk about G-d’s paint brush. While I enjoy some black and white photography I am grateful for the full spectrum of colors.
Ultimately, a rainbow is a multicolored arc made by light striking water droplets. (Or light through a prism, which is what a raindrop is). In fact, a rainbow is an optical illusion. It depends on where you’re standing and where the sun is shining. It has to be a precise angle, 42 degrees, which is why I said it take the perfect balance between sun, rain and angle.
According to National Geographic, “Rainbows are the result of the refraction and reflection of light. Both refraction and reflection are phenomena that involve a change in a wave’s direction. A refracted wave may appear “bent”, while a reflected wave might seem to “bounce back” from a surface or other wavefront. Light entering a water droplet is refracted. It is then reflected by the back of the droplet. As this reflected light leaves the droplet, it is refracted again, at multiple angles.”
If this is a covenant, what then is our responsibility? One of my Bar Mitzvah students who had this portion pointed out that the whole earth is our ark and that we must take care of it.
At the end of the portion, after a very long genealogy with names we seem to never use anymore, with ages that don’t seem to fit our rational minds or lives, we come to the story of the Tower of Babel. G-d again seems to be annoyed with the people on earth who are building a tower to reach to the heavens. What is G-d afraid of? That they will reach G-d? Is it some kind of Wizard of Oz moment where G-d doesn’t want to us to see the workings behind the curtain? In any case, G-d decides to “confound” their language, thus ending the budling project and the cooperation between people.
Table Topics:
- What is a cubit? How big was this boat?
- Some people think they know where Noah’s Ark landed. Perhaps in Turkey. Does it matter to you? Why or why not? Bruce Feiler in his book, Walking the Bible discusses going to visit one site. Here is a very recent article. https://www.israelhayom.com/2021/10/04/archaeologists-claim-to-have-found-true-location-of-noahs-ark/#:~:text=The%20discovery%20was%20made%20in,in%20the%20Book%20of%20Genesis.
- How did Noah keep the birds on the ark? Wouldn’t they fly away?
- Do other traditions like the Epic of Gilgamesh help us understand the story of the flood? What are the major differences between the two?
Bonus Question: This parsha also tells us the story of the Tower of Babel. Linguistics is a science. How do you understand the “confounding of language” as described by the Tower of Babel. What do you think of G-d’s role in this.
Labs at Home: How to make a rainbow
https://www.childrensmuseum.org/blog/saturday-science-make-a-rainbow
Songs:
Other honorable mentions: “Rise and Shine”, a good old-fashinoned camp song and “Green Alligators”.
Act of Kindness:
The Talmud tells us that we should feed our animals before we sit down to eat. How can you help people take care of their animals? Can you volunteer to walk a dog? Pet sit? Provide pet food to a food pantry?