Noah:the end of passivity

The end of the antediluvian world is passive:

נִשְׁחָתָה : it had become destroyed, the world had destroyed itself!The catastrophe was the salvation. The absence of divine intervention, the laissez-faire approach had led to terminal degradation. the only solution was a hard reset, control-alt-delete.

That process involved a decision about whom to save. Two from each species. The core of love would survive. Seven of all the pure ones (3 sons of Noah, their wives and Noah’s wife = 7).

Every audience is an audience of survivors, the descendants of survivors.

When the world is restarted, the rule is clear: You are your brother’s keeper. Gd will demand reponsibility from the lowliest, (from the person that considers himself a) wild animal.
וְאַךְ אֶת-דִּמְכֶם לְנַפְשֹׁתֵיכֶם אֶדְרֹשׁ, מִיַּד כָּל-חַיָּה אֶדְרְשֶׁנּוּ; וּמִיַּד הָאָדָם, מִיַּד אִישׁ אָחִיו--אֶדְרֹשׁ, אֶת-נֶפֶשׁ הָאָדָם.
5 And surely your blood of your lives will I require; at the hand of every beast will I require it; and at the hand of man, even at the hand of every man's brother, will I require the life of man.

The parsha ends with the descendants of Terach: Avram and his brothers. The brothers are N(o)ach[or] and the variant spelling CHAraN. Names that reflect a connection to the savior of the world, the father of the world, the king of the world. Av-ram is the father on high or the father of all {and the father of Rome}. Also a regal name. Terach sets them off for Cannaan...

May we all be selected for life and love.

Bereshith: error

The Yiddish lullaby, Oyfen Pripichuk ( more correctly der Aleph Bais) contains a stanza with the words: Yeder Unfang is shver - every beginning is hard. So is the beginning of the world described.

The heaven-and- earth first created is tohu vovohu, a desolate black hole. Light is the first good thing created.

The human ( note that the Latin reflects the intention of the Hebrew: Humus is earth, Human is earthling; analgous to Adama - earth, Adam- earthling) violates his single explicit commandment - not to partake of the Knowledge Tree. The consequence: the earth ( adamah) is punished. It is ironic that the first (weekday) bracha in the Amidah, after the three blessings of acknowledgment, is Atah Chonen Le’adam Daath - Acknowledging Gd as the granter of (this stolen) knowledge.

Cain kills Hevel. He did not know that such an act disrupts that whole earth ( קוֹל דְּמֵי אָחִיךָ, צֹעֲקִים אֵלַי מִן-הָאֲדָמָה ). His error makes him a wanderer and ultimately urban (וַיְהִי, בֹּנֶה עִיר). Cain’s descendents continue in his ways. Yaval becomes a cattle man. Note that eating animals has not yet been permitted. Tubal-cain sharpens metal implements, generations before Noah invents the plow.

All of those begats: demonstrate only one important child per family... until Noah and his three sons. By Noah’s time, it repented the LORD that He had made man on the earth, and it grieved Him at His heart. (Gen 6:6). It was all a big mistake!

And we are the product of that mistake …. and it’s corrections.

Zoth Habracha: The Man of the Gd

The last parsha of the Torah is Moshe’s blessing to the Bnei Yisroel and a description of Moshe’s death. It is a reminder (during the 10 days of penitence) that everyone dies and life hangs in continuous delicate balance. Even Steven Jobs ( who bought a liver transplant) had to die (young). Like Moshe, Steven Jobs was a powerful man, and Ish HaElokim.

This title, Ish HaE... can also be interpreted as a man of the Gd. The CEO of the earth subsidiary of the Host. The definite article implies the unity (a critical element) of the Gd. The necessity for mentioning the definite article reveals a sense of novelty with the concept. We usually do not feel that the definite article is needed when referring to the Greatest (set of) Power(s) in the Universe. We skip that first name because the concept is familiar. Calling Moshe Ish HaE.. reminds us that Moshe had to figure out what this Gd is.. That may be a good model for us as we enter Yom Kippur.

Our scientific based worldview describes events as a consequence of probabilities. It is a MonteCarlo# World. Einstein said the Gd does not throw dice. Am I praying to the Gd that loads the dice, that knows how to win, and helps me win at craps?

Consider the name of another powerful man. El, in Hebrew, means power. In Latin the word is vis.

May the force be with you.

Gemar Chathima Tova.

Hazinu: listening

Sound, the stuff of listening. is the vibration of air molecules Breath (ruach) pushes the particles of the gas mixture that we live in ( the atm#osphere) in special ways, aided by the musical instruments that are Incorporated into the head and neck - the vocal folds, tongue, lips, nose.
The vibrations, the sounds, continue until their energy is dissipated by meaningless collisions with other particles. These collisions impart energy, movement, change of position to the new molecules. The sound does not die. It creates unforeseen and usually unrecognized changes.
When a person understands speech, the process is similar. The consequence includes unforeseen and unrecognized changes. Perhaps the prophet is the one who can foresee the changes

Hasinu asks me to ask my father. I can’t. He’s dead. I can, he is in me. I have his DNA codes, He spoke to me. He spoke to others in my presence. I absorbed the kinetic energy of his ruach. Maybe “ask your father” simply means to bring that absorbed energy to awareness and maybe action. But I must be very careful not to overinterpret signals that are degraded even before they are released.

Even the heavens are moved by speech.