The Allegory of Noah

This week’s Torah portion is Noach: the story of Noah, the flood and the ark. It is a story that is so well known but whose meaning is difficult to comprehend. For me, it answers the question, why do bad things happen in this world, which I wrote about last year. But perhaps there is another approach to understanding the story. Noah, is described as a wholly good person. The Torah introduces him by saying, These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, perfect in his generations. Noah walked with God. Already we are suspicious. In a corrupt world, full of robbery, as we are told, Noah was completely good. This story, then, is a tale of archetypes, not of real people. We can look upon it not as history but as allegory. Noah’s name is allegorical and means satisfaction, tranquility, rest, even nachas, pleasure and comfort, as Midrash rabba suggests. How did he get that way? How can we travel to that place? Noah is portrayed not in speech, but in actions. Noah hardly speaks more than one sentence in the whole portion named after him. God speaks to Noah and Noah simply acts, building the ark, the shelter, which also means, word, according to Rabbi Noam Elimelech. Noah constructs his words in silence, speaking only as much as is absolutely necessary. His quietude is the shelter from which his contentment comes. He is not the kind of person to argue with God as Moses did. He is there to serve. In Midrash rabba it points out, Noah fed and sustained [the people and animals in the Ark] twelve months, as it says, And take thou unto thee of all food that is eaten (Gen.VI,21). When tranquility meets service, shelter, nourishment, and safety are born. But Noah also has generations, actions, that are human births. He has three sons, whose names are also allegorical: Shem, the Name of God, Ham, warmth or heat, and Japhet, pleasantness or beauty. Rashi has said that the offspring of the righteous are good deeds. In this story, Noah’s actions bring forth Shem, the Holy name of God, whose name is existence or being. Tranquility brings forth life and holiness. It also brings forth warmth, spirit, élan, the heat of love and the warmth of human and Divine companionship, which form a three legged support when beauty and pleasantness are added. Noah is saved because of his righteousness, which teaches that Goodness is precious to God. Where there is goodness, there will be protection. Though Noah lived at a time when most people were not at his level of goodness, he saw himself when he looked at his neighbors. He projected his own goodness on them. He only saw the good in others and lived in peace with them, literally holding his peace, not being critical of others or arguing with them. The Maggid of Mezritch interpreted the statement, know what is above you as know that everything above all that transpires in the spiritual realms is from you, dependent on your conduct. Rabbi Menachen Mendel Schneerson, the Lubavicher Rebbe noted that Each of us has the potential to influence even the most elevated spiritual realms. He said, Noah and his offspring implanted their qualities among their fellow men and drew down the spiritual gifts from above. Every person affects his environment. Therefore our thoughts, words, and deeds can inspire tranquility, both above and here, below. Our deep spiritual center provides the Noah in us, showing us the way to satisfaction, tranquility, rest, even nachas, pleasure and comfort. Our actions can magnify these qualities and reflect them out into the world, creating Japhet: beauty, pleasantness, Ham, warmth, and even Shem, manifesting the presence of the Divine.

Sukkot Reflections

At the daily morning service during the Feast of Tabernacles a libation of water, in addition to the usual libation of wine, was poured out on the altar. This was drawn from a pool on the first night, and carried in procession to the Temple amid great rejoicing; (cf. Suk. 53a):In the Talmud it is written: the person who has not seen the rejoicing of the Water-Drawing has never seen rejoicing in his life. Sukkot is called Z’man Simchateinu, the time of our rejoicing. It is the time of plenty: of a bounteous harvest, of ease after spiritual effort and physical labor to bring in that harvest. The water drawing ceremony, one of pouring out water, was, in a sense a physical manifestation of overflow: letting a renewable resource go to waste, in the service of The Eternal. The juxtaposition of harvest, gathering, and spilling, going to waste, retention and abandon, protection and being unprotected permeates this holiday. We are on the edge of winter, still looking back to the hot weather we so recently left behind, balanced between two poles. We have the illusion of plenty in the hut that does not shelter us. This is the holiday that makes its point through paradox: from where do our blessings come? What offers protection? What is real and what is illusion? The custom of reading Ecclesiastes, attributed to Kohelet, or King Solomon, also urges us to take a look at the deeper meaning of our lives.

In the mussar literature, Living Mussar every day by Rabbi Zvi Miller quotes from the sage, Moshe Chaim Luzzatto, who said that the sukkah is related to the clouds of glory that accompanied the Israelites in the wilderness, after a verse in the Zohar. The clouds led them by day and by night. Insubstantial as they were, yet they comforted the people because they knew that the clouds represented Divine protection, sustenance, and plenty. The clouds imparted spiritual elevation, bathing them in spiritual benefits, with supernal light from the Eternal, The sukkah too, insubstantial as it is, creates an aura around us of the spiritual benefits that are more real than material; more important than that which can be seen. Kohelet sums up a whole life of material treasure and power with the simple words: The end of the matter, after all has been considered. Revere God, and keep God’s commandments; for this is humankind’s whole duty. For God will judge every deed, even everything hidden, whether good or evil. Kohelet urges us to value the insubstantial, to reverence what cannot be seen: to sit in the sukkah and, while we are enjoying the fruits of the harvest, to take a deeper look into reality. As the Hindus say Life is an illusion, On sukkot we have the opportunity to peel away the mask from our eyes and see the power that is concealed by the mundane. As we sit in the sukkah, we are transported into the miraculous existence of our ancestors, basking in the light of the Shechina, seeing clearly, that what seems is not what is; that there is Divine light and the potential for enlightenment, which is the true power in the Universe. May our eyes be opened as we sit in the sukkah and ponder our existence. As Rabbi Miller writes, May the light of God’s glory illuminate our souls, nurturing them with exquisite light and holy emanations on this holiday of Sukkot.