What's important in the Flood story
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David Seidenberg
Oct 31, 2024, 11:31:34 AM10/31/24
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Features of the Noach story that tell us what's important, but are often overlooked.
1) The first covenant in Torah is not with humanity but with all life and with the land. We usually think of covenant as something that happens between God and human beings. That is not how the Torah sees it. This foreshadows the fact that the covenant with Abraham is matched by God's covenant with the land, which takes precedence over God's covenant with the Israelites.
2) The problem before the flood is not that humanity become corrupted, but specifically that humanity's evil was corrupting the land itself. The flood comes to protect the land from humanity. In fact, the idea that humanity was ruining or corrupting the land is mentioned seven times, because this is what is most important:
YHVH saw, that the human’s evil ra`at ha’adam in the land was tremendous, and every leaning of his heart’s thought was only evil/bad all day. And YHVH drew-in vayinachem, for god made the adamwithin the land, and god was pained unto god’s heart. And YHVH said: I will blot out the adam I created from off the face of the ground, from human to beast to crawler to bird of the skies, for I am withdrawn-against nichamti my making them…And the land was ruined before the Elohim and the land was filled up with violence. And Elohim saw the land and here, her ruin, for all flesh ruined his way on the land. And Elohim said to Noach: The end of all flesh comes before me, for the land is filled with violence from before them. And here, I am going to ruin them with the land. Gen 6:5-13
3) In the verses about the covenant with all life and with the land, which includes humanity, the word covenant is used seven times:
And Elohim said unto Noach and unto his sons saying: And I, here I am erecting my covenant with you and with your seed after you and with the soul of every animal with you / every soul living with you kol nefesh hachayah itchem, among the bird and among the beast and among every animal of the field kol chayat hasadeh with you…And I will erect my covenant with you all, and all flesh will not be cut-off anymore from the flood waters, and there will be no more flood to destroy the land. And Elohim said: This is this covenant-sign which I place between me and between you and between every living / animal soul kol nefesh chayah which is with you, for generations, for all-time: my bow I have set in the cloud, and it will be a covenant sign between me and the land…And I will remember my covenant between Me and between you-all and between all the nefesh chayah of all flesh… and the bow will be in the cloud, and I will see her, remembering the covenant for all-time between Elohim and between all flesh on the land. And Elohim said unto Noach: This is the covenant sign which I am erecting between Me and between all flesh which is on the land. Gen 9:11-17
4) The statement, "and YHVH said unto his heart: I will not add to cursing anymore the ground for the sake of humanity ba`avur ha’adam" means that up til now, God imagined that humanity and the soil could be kept in close connection even if humanity became distant from God -- hence "cursed is the ground/soil for your sake arurah ha’adamah ba`avurkha." After the flood, God gives up on keeping adam and adamah together.
5) All of this change is grounded (pun intended) in the fact that the purpose of the human is to "serve the land" -- not to serve God, but the land. The Torah says this three times. The flood story is the story of humanity failing at its purpose.
6) God gives up on the relationship between humanity and the land. Instead, the goal shifts: bring together one people and one land to create a model for right relationship.
7) That was the mission of the Israelites. To divert civilization onto another path that would not destroy the earth. The Jewish people did not succeed at that mission. The destruction of Gaza is only the most present failure. But the mission remains.
kol tuv, shabbat shalom,
David Seidenberg
Resources on neohasid.org:
1) http://www.neohasid.org/pdf/Genesis-Shmitah-covenant8.3.3.pdf
2) http://www.neohasid.org/pdf/Genesis-covenant-tamtzit6.5.pdf
3) Large print versions -- go to: http://www.neohasid.org/torah/genesis-shmitah/
1) The first covenant in Torah is not with humanity but with all life and with the land. We usually think of covenant as something that happens between God and human beings. That is not how the Torah sees it. This foreshadows the fact that the covenant with Abraham is matched by God's covenant with the land, which takes precedence over God's covenant with the Israelites.
2) The problem before the flood is not that humanity become corrupted, but specifically that humanity's evil was corrupting the land itself. The flood comes to protect the land from humanity. In fact, the idea that humanity was ruining or corrupting the land is mentioned seven times, because this is what is most important:
YHVH saw, that the human’s evil ra`at ha’adam in the land was tremendous, and every leaning of his heart’s thought was only evil/bad all day. And YHVH drew-in vayinachem, for god made the adamwithin the land, and god was pained unto god’s heart. And YHVH said: I will blot out the adam I created from off the face of the ground, from human to beast to crawler to bird of the skies, for I am withdrawn-against nichamti my making them…And the land was ruined before the Elohim and the land was filled up with violence. And Elohim saw the land and here, her ruin, for all flesh ruined his way on the land. And Elohim said to Noach: The end of all flesh comes before me, for the land is filled with violence from before them. And here, I am going to ruin them with the land. Gen 6:5-13
3) In the verses about the covenant with all life and with the land, which includes humanity, the word covenant is used seven times:
And Elohim said unto Noach and unto his sons saying: And I, here I am erecting my covenant with you and with your seed after you and with the soul of every animal with you / every soul living with you kol nefesh hachayah itchem, among the bird and among the beast and among every animal of the field kol chayat hasadeh with you…And I will erect my covenant with you all, and all flesh will not be cut-off anymore from the flood waters, and there will be no more flood to destroy the land. And Elohim said: This is this covenant-sign which I place between me and between you and between every living / animal soul kol nefesh chayah which is with you, for generations, for all-time: my bow I have set in the cloud, and it will be a covenant sign between me and the land…And I will remember my covenant between Me and between you-all and between all the nefesh chayah of all flesh… and the bow will be in the cloud, and I will see her, remembering the covenant for all-time between Elohim and between all flesh on the land. And Elohim said unto Noach: This is the covenant sign which I am erecting between Me and between all flesh which is on the land. Gen 9:11-17
4) The statement, "and YHVH said unto his heart: I will not add to cursing anymore the ground for the sake of humanity ba`avur ha’adam" means that up til now, God imagined that humanity and the soil could be kept in close connection even if humanity became distant from God -- hence "cursed is the ground/soil for your sake arurah ha’adamah ba`avurkha." After the flood, God gives up on keeping adam and adamah together.
5) All of this change is grounded (pun intended) in the fact that the purpose of the human is to "serve the land" -- not to serve God, but the land. The Torah says this three times. The flood story is the story of humanity failing at its purpose.
6) God gives up on the relationship between humanity and the land. Instead, the goal shifts: bring together one people and one land to create a model for right relationship.
7) That was the mission of the Israelites. To divert civilization onto another path that would not destroy the earth. The Jewish people did not succeed at that mission. The destruction of Gaza is only the most present failure. But the mission remains.
kol tuv, shabbat shalom,
David Seidenberg
Resources on neohasid.org:
1) http://www.neohasid.org/pdf/Genesis-Shmitah-covenant8.3.3.pdf
2) http://www.neohasid.org/pdf/Genesis-covenant-tamtzit6.5.pdf
3) Large print versions -- go to: http://www.neohasid.org/torah/genesis-shmitah/
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