Noach: Survivorism

Noach: Survivorism

The Judaism I grew up with emphasizes survival.  My parents survived the holocaust.  The great Jewish question of my time was whether Judaism could survive assimilation in the new, tolerant environment. In school, I was taught that survival (of the fittest?)  is the basis of biology.  Parshath Noach deals with survival and selection. 

The first story in Noach involves the selection of representatives of the land animals of the world for survival from the great flood that would wipe out every other representative of the species. The survivors are selected by Gd as mating pairs.  Darwin's Origin of Species begins with observations about species that are selected by the intelligent overseer: the human. Selection determines the future. 

There is an understory in the Flood: the feelings of. and toward, the unselected. Perhaps they were cynical when Noach built the ark, but once the rains came did they not feel  that they were treated cruelly by this conspiracy between Gd and Noach?  Perhaps a person had done some small misdemeanor; should that keep her from admission onto the ark? 

How did Noach feel about excluding his father, brothers, friends from rescue? When the rains came and the fountains opened, did they not claw at the ark? Did Noach and his family not hear them scratching at every surface? 

The holocaust survivor won the selection process. It was not just the cruel left or right of the concentration camp; it was the work permit given to some Jews and not others; it was the Judenrat selections; it was finding a section of a room in the ghetto. These struggles for survival make Divine grace a banal process.  ( Hannah Arendt)

The structure of parshath Noach emphasizes selection.  It begins with the selection of Noach and ends with the genealogy and early travels of Abraham. This genealogy which identifies a single descendent in each generation - who was a necessary link to the ultimate hero - reflects a basic biological principle: all intermediate states must be viable. A person's role in history may be defined by her descendants. 

The penultimate story in the parsha, the tower of Babel, illuminates the beginning of the parsha. Presumably, in the antediluvian ( pre- flood) world, everyone spoke the same language.  

 הֵ֣ן עַ֤ם אֶחָד֙ וְשָׂפָ֤ה אַחַת֙ לְכֻלָּ֔ם וְזֶ֖ה הַחִלָּ֣ם לַעֲשׂ֑וֹת וְעַתָּה֙ לֹֽא־יִבָּצֵ֣ר מֵהֶ֔ם כֹּ֛ל אֲשֶׁ֥ר יָזְמ֖וּ לַֽעֲשֽׂוֹת׃ 

and the LORD said, “If, as one people with one language for all, this is how they have begun to act, then nothing that they may propose to do will be out of their reach   

Their power will be too great. Presumably  the flood disposed of any threat they may have posed.  Now the survivors needed to be hampered from overwhelming collaboration ( world communism?), so they were dispersed; and the idea of the foreign was instilled, limiting their ability to conspire, יָזְמ֖וּ , since they would now redirect their projects  against each other. (Esperanto did not work to reverse this edict.)  The flood had not been  an adequate adverse  selection. This communal destructive trait needed more work. 

Doing the math, it seems that Abraham had lived through the dispersion in the aftermath of Babel. He had survived the cataclysm of his generation and was selected to be the hero of his age.  He made the decisions that showed a path in this new world of separate nations... nations that would conquer and enslave one another. 

The curse of slavery by the hungover Noah is another selection.  Destiny would be assigned at birth: to comfort  or to oppression. The hierarchy of slave and master is the prequel to  Jacob and Esau. Isaac's blessing to the disguised Jacob included: 

יַֽעַבְד֣וּךָ עַמִּ֗ים (וישתחו) [וְיִֽשְׁתַּחֲו֤וּ] לְךָ֙ לְאֻמִּ֔ים הֱוֵ֤ה גְבִיר֙ לְאַחֶ֔יךָ וְיִשְׁתַּחֲו֥וּ לְךָ֖ בְּנֵ֣י אִמֶּ֑ךָ ...׃

Let peoples serve you,
And nations bow to you;
Be master over your brothers,
And let your mother’s sons bow to you.

 

 It may also be the motivation for the sale of Joseph which leads to the enslavement in Egypt. Joseph's brothers may have  imagined that they would be relegated to a  servile relationship. 

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After the waters recede, Noah sends birds to determine whether or not it is safe to open the ark. The raven never returns.  It has plenty of carrion to eat and treasures freedom over his mate.  The dove always returns. She is faithful to her community and ultimately brings back a signal of safety: the olive branch. It is a reminder of the mating pair, the unit of selection. We notice the monogamy of Noah and Abraham ( Hagar comes later; for now we see Abraham staying with his wife despite their childlessness.) 

Since Noah is an origin  story, it is an opportunity to ask why.  Why is  mating  a prerequisite for reproduction in almost all multicellular organisms?   I asked this question of Dr. Ilan Rubin, a student of evolutionary biology.  He sent me two scholarly papers and an erudite summary.  The answer is blowing in the wind.  There is little clarity, alternatives to mating  exist in nature, and they are mathematically superior. Mating was selected. 

Noach is a foundational parsha. It emphasizes choice and selection.  In my mind,I can choose the chooser; it need not be random.