Noah: invasion of privacy [chezek rei...

Noah: invasion of privacy [chezek reiyah]

 

 

 

The parsha and daf hayomi come together this week. 

 

One of the major stories in Noach  deals with the invasion of Noach's privacy.  וַיַּרְא, חָם אֲבִי כְנַעַן, אֵת, עֶרְוַת אָבִיו  Ham, the father of Canaan viewed the  ervah ( nakedness, genitals)  of his father.  On Yom Kippur we had read that this is forbidden to Israel( but  it is the custom of the aboriginal people of Canaan)  עֶרְוַת אָבִיךָ וְעֶרְוַת אִמְּךָ, לֹא תְגַלֵּה:  אִמְּךָ הִוא, לֹא תְגַלֶּה עֶרְוָתָהּ.}  (Vaykra 18:7) follows כְּמַעֲשֵׂה אֶרֶץ-מִצְרַיִם אֲשֶׁר יְשַׁבְתֶּם-בָּהּ, לֹא תַעֲשׂוּ; וּכְמַעֲשֵׂה אֶרֶץ-כְּנַעַן אֲשֶׁר אֲנִי מֵבִיא אֶתְכֶם שָׁמָּה, לֹא תַעֲשׂוּ, וּבְחֻקֹּתֵיהֶם, לֹא תֵלֵכוּ. ( Vayikra 18:3) 

 

The exact meaning of ervah is not clear.  I imagine it is related to airom, the nakedness of Adam and Hava [in turn related to arum, the cleverness of the serpent].   The ER  part is the name of the firstborn of judah ( who died beacause his  sexually related activities displeased Gd).  The word is also a homonym for erev, meaning either "mix "or "evening" ( the meanings are brought together by the 1970's "mixer" which also recalls the wine aspect).  

 

Does watching  harm the person who is watched? This would seem to be related to an issue that threads through Bava Bathra: Violation of privacy seems to be a tort. 

 

Ultimately, the gemarrah (BB 59a) relates this idea to the story of Bilam.   When Bilam sees  how the children of Israel arranged  their tents, he says Ma Tovu Oholecha Yaakov.  He sees that the tents are arranged such that no one can easily observe a neighbor.   The word Ohel is used in this story of Noach as well, in that Noach reveals himself in his Ohel (tent)  and the abberant spelling of the word Ohel  leads Hazal to relate Noach's Ohel to the tents of the Tribes of Israel seen by Bilam. 

 

 Ham sees Noach's drunken nakedness (ervah is whatever embarasses Noah) and he tells (literally) every person in the world.  That emasculates Noach ( cf rashi quoting Chazal that Canaan castrated Noah)  This permits the Tower by cancelling the power of Noah to object.

The tower may may have been set up for "observation"  More hezek reiyah ( the tort of looking).

 

None of this happens without the wine, the fruit of the tree of daath, the source of covering the nakedness, the source of embarassment. Ah, the human condition ... on drugs.

 

 

 

 

 

Bereshith: the end

 Bereshith: the end

 

 

IN Pirke Avoth we hear that the Chacham is the one who sees the consequences, the end of his creation.

 Certainly The Creator is a chacham.  The first word, Bereshith, contains the word Rosh, the head, the seat of chachma.

 

The word bereshith , if one removes the weak letters ( aleph and yod) consists of the second ( and then the frist) letter followed by the last three letter, the beginning foresees the end

 

 

The idea of the beginning implies something outside, and thus raises the possibility of an end, a return to something outside.  

 

If one removes the weak letters and the prefix (beth) and the suffix (Tof) one is left with Rash: the big bang. 

 

The word Bresith can be an acronym:
beth: Bohu ( the potential  state of primordial matter)

Raish: Ruach 

Aleph; Or: light

shin: Choshech: darkness

yod: Yehi: let it come into being

Tof: Tohu: the primordial matter that begins with the last letter, the end.

 

Anything we do has consequences and ramifications.

 

The Eitz Hadaas gave us the ability to imagine. TO create worlds.  To be like gds.

The good gd has the end in mind at the begining

Vzoth habrachc: what do you want?

Vzoth habrachc: what do you want?

 

 

Perhaps the Brochoth given by Moshe in this last parsha constitute the 12 basic human  desires:
Reuven - life

Shimon - anonymity

Levi - technology

Yehuda - survival

Yosef  -  having the best

Zebulon - adventure

Yissachar- rest

(and Yissachar and Zevulon together - relationship )

Gad - victory

Dan - courage (lion)

Naftali - satisfaction

Asher - wealth  

 

It is a start

 

Gemar tov

 

Sukkoth

Sukkoth

 

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Sukkoth is the holiday of physical symbols.  The hut, the branches, the fruit. It feels like a throw back to a ritual that Fraser might  describe in the Golden Bough. Water symbols, fertility symbols, trees, vegetation.  Sukkah comes from the word meaning cover.  We cover our behinds.

 

The sukkah has a special symbolism for me( i.e here comes the holocaust stuff).  I think of how my mother lived in the Polish woods during the war.  She did not have a Sukkah, not even that meager protection from the cold was available to her.  She did not have warm clothes. nothing.  Now she is dead and out in the cold again. She is the source of tumah.  The sukkah may not be made from material that is susceptible to tumah.