posts so far for parshat Noach

2010

1. Noach sources -- improved and expanded.
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2. Demons on the ark, and the Kotzker's famous elu ve'elu --  Rashi and Chazal against Rambam. The Kotzker resolves this by having the Rambam effectively pasken demons out of existence. But does this work for a rationalist? Does it work with the words of the Rambam? Doesn't it go against a Mishnah?
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3. A quick and fun etymology of Noach and Utnapishtim -- Utnaishtim min haTorah minayin?
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4. Rav Yonasan Eibeshutz's Rocket Ship -- It is not really true that Rav Yonasan Eibeshitz described the migdal Bavel as a modern space ship, blasting off into outer space. He says something similar, and related, but there is a big difference. In this post, I present what he does say. In another post, bli neder, I will contrast it with what people, who have not read him inside, attribute to him, and point out the important differences. Also, it seems that he also holds that there was at least the possibility of a local flood.
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5. An analysis of Rav Yonasan Eibeshitz's Space Elevator -- Rav Yonatan Eibeshutz did NOT describe the Tower of Bavel as a rocket ship, though this is the common presentation of his idea. In this post, I'd like to provide a bit of analysis.
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6. Animal husbandry and wifery -- Are the animals husband and wife? Are the birds explicitly pure birds? How Onkelos does not reflect a different textual tradition, and how another textual tradition might have developed.
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7. Why no avian husbandry and wifery? Bringing to the fore the Tur's explanation of this deviation, of ish veIshto being used for animals but not for birds, in terms of creatures brought onto the teiva.
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8. Rashi's rocket ship -- On the heels of my discussion of Rav Yonasan Eibeshitz's (nonexistent) rocket ship, here I discuss whether a Rashi in Chagiga asserts that the tower of Bavel flew. While a quick, surface reading of Rashi might give one this impression, a more careful reading will reveal that it is simply not so.
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9. Rambam's Iron Airship -- As a further followup, I present the Rambam's iron airship. In condemning the over-use of imagination, the Rambam accidentally demonstrates its power.
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10. Rabbi Menachem Tziyuni's Hover-Tower -- The best evidence of a position that the tower of Bavel itself flew. But the reference is to the sod of what seems to be a different, Israelite, tower, and since this is after all kabbalah, which could very well be allegorical, I am not entirely convinced that he understood the migdal Bavel as literally a flying ship.
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11. The Tower of Bavel as Launching Pad, showing the dangers of scientific inquiry -- analyzing a parsha sheet. I disagree with them as to R' Eibeshitz's intent, and explain why, but at least they got Rav Yonasan Eibeshitz's theory correct.
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12. How to spell 'goyim' -- on parashat Toledot, but connected to a Minchas Shai on Noach. How I would justify the Masoretic reading. Plus the strange, counter-intuitive vowel pattern provided by the Masorah, and its significance.

2009

1. Is the Ran an apikores by his own definition, part ii -- In this post, part of a short series, I note how the Ran says anyone who argues on midrash is an apikores, yet on parshas Noach he has an elaborate reinterpretation of the situation at the time of the Dor Haflaga (Palaga), which goes against midrashim. In the first part, I showed that he argued on the midrash about the definition of the bechor who died in makkas bechoros. And in the third part, I show that Ran's concern is with a particular type of arguing on midrash, in which all of Scripture is allegorized.
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2. Noach sources -- links by aliyah and perek to an online Mikraos Gedolos, and more than 100 meforshim on the parsha and haftorah.
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3. "Only Noach", or "Only Noach And Those With Him"? Two parses, one from trup, and the other from Shadal. Shadal explains how he would slightly change the trup so that the parse would match the idiom which recurs in the next perek.
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4. What if Ararat is not the highest mountain? Assuming a global rather than local flood, how can we work out 15 cubits over Ararat and yet covering all mountains in the world, if it turns out that other mountains are higher?
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5. How are the days of man 120 years? Was 120 years man's new lifespan? This would go against the genealogical section which follows. Was it a ketz until the manifestation of God's wrath? This is what many meforshim prefer, but I prefer the lifespan theory as best local peshat, despite more global difficulties.
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6. Was there a preexisting covenant with Noach? Ibn Ezra thinks so, and shows how Biblical style is to suddenly introduce facts not yet in evidence. Both others don't think it necessary.
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7. The kaf / gimel switch, and how Ibn Ezra on Noach seems at odds with Ibn Ezra elsewhere. Is this evidence of reversal, or the work of an erring student?
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8. Moral lessons from parshas Noach from the Ralbag.
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9. Junior on parshas Noach, in terms of mizvos in the parsha and the demise of dinosaurs. (And unicorns.)
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10. The fourth son of Noach, and how not all sources are created equal. Even if a late midrash says something, we need not treat it as halacha leMoshe miSinai...
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11. Is there a ketz for life on earth? We might derive this from עֹד כָּל-יְמֵי הָאָרֶץ. Ibn Ezra vs. Ibn Caspi.
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12. The mabul as local flood -- and the dangers thereof.
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13. Did the mabul flood Eretz Yisrael? How the midrash understood kol in parashat Noach and what that might imply for those who would want to explain the mabul as a local flood. Also, how Ibn Ezra might call names to Chazal for declaring that Eretz Yisrael was not flooded. But, he might be merely referring to contemporaries who regarded the midrash as literal rather than allegorical.
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14. Why eat herring with your hands? Based on a derasha from parashat Noach.
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15. Teva and the Teiva -- Nowadays, people grapple with many issues resolving the narrative in parshat Noach and what we know about the natural world. And we have some good questions, including many that were simply not questions centuries ago.
    
    
    But as I was learning through Ibn Ezra on parshas Noach, it was interesting to see just how he grappled with similar issues, and how he managed to square the Biblical account with some measure of derech hateva. In this post are a few choice comments from Ibn Ezra which fit with this theme, together with some of my translations and elaborations.
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16. What was Avraham's relationship to Sarah? A few approaches to resolving all the relevant textual evidence.

2008

1. In Shadal: A Revii or Zakef on Noach, I discuss the expected trup of the word based on the rules of continuous dichotomy.
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2. In Shadal's Rejection of the Documentary Hypothesis, I first was negligent and too-quicly read Shadal's statement as an endorsement of a version of it. But in fact he is claiming that the switchoff to different Divine names in the way it appears in Noach is cause for rejection of the DH.

2007

1. Parallels between Noach and Lot.
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2. In The Perverted Law Code of Nimrod, a tenuous connection between Nimrod and Hammurabi. Nimrod as Amraphel as Hammurabi, as well as midrashic description of Nimrod as a giver of law in competition with the good laws taught by Shem and Ever.
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3. How Noach left the teiva, an amazing "midrash."
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4. Where is Shem's Blessing? Yefet gets one, and Cham gets a curse, but how is this a blessing to Shem? To have an intrusive brother? I would suggest an al tikra of elokei as ohalei. Or an anonymous commenter would read it as a textual emendation.
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5. Related to the above, How Shem lost the kehuna -- and preceding Avraham's blessing to that of Hashem. I think that underlying this midrash might be, in part, the total lack of a blessing to Shem, and only a blessing to Hashem. Yet Shem failed to learn the lesson.
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6. What Did The Builders of The Tower of Bavel Do Wrong? On a surface level, it is hard to see what. First, the idea from Derashot HaRan. But then my own suggestion, that they did nothing wrong, but this is part of a theme in sefer Bereishit of Hashem limiting human power.
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7. Is Canaan the Brother of Shem and Yefet? A possibility of conflicting traditions, which would cause Moshe to continuously note that Canaan was the son of Cham.
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8. The Tower of Bavel and the Development of Language -- as per Ibn Ezra's theory that this was not a sudden miraculous changing of the language, but rather that Hashem scattered them, which had the eventual effect of diverging languages.
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9. Noach had a teva. But what is a teva? A ship, a box, a dwelling, a coffin? Connections to Moshe Rabbeinu and to the Epic of Gilgamesh.
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10. Who was Yiskah? And why did Chazal identify her with Sarah?
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11. Chazak, Chazak veNitchazek -- where the pasuk of "Ish Et Re'ehu" might well refer to building an idol, or building the Tower of Bavel. But see Josh M's comment, there, that this is darshened in Bereishit Rabba 44:8 as referring to Avraham and Malkitzedek: זה עוזר לזה בברכות, וזה עוזר לזה במתנות.
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12. Gilgamesh, Utanpishtim, and Gan Eden -- and the connection to Noach, among other things.

2006

1. Nimrod -- Saint or Sinner? A video. Lifnei Hashem -- does this mean that he was a good guy or a bad guy? Plus more.
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2. And Cham Was the Father of Canaan -- A video. Why Canaan is punished for Cham's sin, and why every time Cham is mentioned we mention that he is the father of Canaan.
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3. Bill Cosby on Noah. Here. Quite funny.
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4. Noach-related Amstel Commercial. Here.
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5. Tower of Bavel Translator -- which translates subvocalizations.
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6. Thus Did Noach -- Different Girsa, or Harmonization? What is being reflected in Tg Onkelos on this pasuk of "thus did Noach?"
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7. Cute Noach-related Commercial -- Yet another one. Here.
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8. Parsing Tzaddik Tamim -- A video. Two or three ways of parsing Noach Ish Tzaddik Tamim Haya BeDorotav. The midrashic parse, Targumic parse, that of Rashi, Ramban, Ibn Ezra.
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9. Toledot -- Generations or Events? A video. The first pasuk of Noach, and the meaning of Toledot according to Rashi, Ibn Ezra, and Shadal. Some motivations for choosing each. Plus more.
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10. The Correct Identification of Noach's Rainbow -- There is a special "fire rainbow" which appears specifically "in the clouds." This may answer Ramban's difficulty.
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11. The Antedeluvian Years: A Possible Explanation -- Recalculating the years before the flood and after the flood until Avraham. I suggest shana might mean "period of two months" (as opposed to chodesh), and in keeping with a popular numbering system based on 60. And that after the flood, it means "season." I made an error in calculation at this point in that post (in that we would have to divide by 4 rather than 3), and I still need to figure that out.
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12. Explaining the Sumerian King List -- With the realization from the aforemention post, I realized that the same seemed to be true for the Sumerian King List, which had normal years later on but early on insanely large figures. However, assuming that the numbers are years groups into sets of 360 days, and thus dividing by 360, we end up will very perfect numbers such as 100 years! Needs fixing. This seems incorrect.

2005

1. A Dual Etiology for Bavel
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2. Noach As Non-Metaphor -- Why I don't think Noach works out well as metaphor. Now, I realize that was intended was a metaphor for actual physical processes, which I do not address in this post.
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3. Spelling Noach With Seven Mistakes -- How to do it. And I add an eighth mistake!
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4. Realia, Daf Yomi, and Fresh Olives -- In which I taste a fresh olive and realize it is bitter. How that hooks into daf yomi of the time of the post, and a Rashi about how the dove wanted even bitter natural food as opposed to sweet processed food.

2003

1. Noach's Family -- We know his kids. The identity of his wife and pet.
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2. Parsing Noach's Compliance -- In which we examine two parsings of Bereishit 6:22. A case of trup + Rashi vs. Onkelos + Tg Yonatan.

to be continued...