Noach: selection

 

Creation is followed by selection. From The Beginning, the good light is selected and separated  from the non-descript, pre-existent darkness; the land is selected from the  water, the human is granted hegemony over the animals. In this week’s parsha, a pair of animals from each species is selected to regenerate an improved population of that kind; Noah and his family are selected to regenerate humanity.  Gd chooses the winners and losers. The text suggests that this Divine intervention is a way to support the righteous, who may otherwise have been destroyed by the physically stronger or more cunning wicked. Thus:

נֹ֗חַ אִ֥ישׁ צַדִּ֛יק תָּמִ֥ים הָיָ֖ה בְּדֹֽרֹתָ֑יו

Noah was a righteous man; he was blameless in his age;

The sentence implies that Noah was special, perhaps unique, in his generation because of his righteousness. The problem is: righteousness is in the eye of the selector. .

Modern biology purports to be based upon the concept of natural selection. In The Origin of Species, Charles Darwin writes that he came to understand the force of genetic selection from his observations of the results of dog breeders (p17, 1859ed.).  He saw the   power of the arbitrary decisions of breeders, based upon fashion and whim (the breeders evolving concept  of righteousness?), upon the biology of previously feral animals.  He then, famously, extrapolated that power of selection to the demands of the ecologic niche; theorizing that incidental variations in plants and animals would make them more or less likely to thrive in any particular environment, hence natural selection. As humans modify the environment, the criteria for selection become an accidental partnership between humans and Gd.   

Selection implies that the few are chosen from the many. We have sympathy for the rejected.  They are brothers and sisters and friends. We could have been them.  We question the criteria.  The process appears cruel.  To an American, selection looks like a great crime.  It is not fair! The logical assumption for any individual entering a selective process is that she will not be chosen. The process is frightening. It maximizes hope.

Noah begins with : 

וַתִּשָּׁחֵ֥ת הָאָ֖רֶץ לִפְנֵ֣י הָֽ

וַתִּמָּלֵ֥א הָאָ֖רֶץ חָמָֽס׃

The earth became corrupt before God; the earth was filled with lawlessness (Hebrew Hamas).

The system that emerged from Gd’s laissez faire policy, allowing humans to evolve without Divine interference, had led to an unacceptable, corrupt and violent world. Each person’s claim was backed by that person’s strength and cleverness. Left alone, the earth would self-destruct.  Gd explains the basis of the flood plan to Noah:

  קֵ֤ץ כָּל־בָּשָׂר֙ בָּ֣א לְפָנַ֔י,

the end of all flesh has come before me. 

 The current patterns of behavior will, necessarily, on their own  destroy all life.  The deluge, and the selection it entailed, was a way to save a remnant of creation.  

After the flood, the selection process resumes, driven by humans. Noah cultivates grapes for wine. He works to produce the agent of intoxication. He wants the release of inebriation. His compromised state entices the misbehavior of one of his three sons. Noah reacts with a curse of servitude that is to last through the generations. The descendants of one child will serve the descendants of the others. Ethno-chauvinism is born.

We are all the children of the selected survivors. 

Choose wisely