…is to see the map and the territory. Otherwise just knowing the destination will not be good enough. Number three. You have to experiment. You have to take risks. You have to grow. Chazal were divided, as you probably know, over their interpretation of the phrase when it comes to Noach – Noach was an ish tzaddik tamim haya b’dorotav…
…Answer: Noach and Er. In Bereishit 6:8, the Torah says that Noach found chein, favour, in Hashem’s eyes. Chein is Noach spelled backwards. In Bereishit 38:7, Yehuda’s firstborn, Er, is said to be ra – evil – in Hashem’s eyes. This question has been adapted from Torah IQ by David Woolf, a collection of 1,500 Torah riddles, available on Amazon….
The call to Avraham, with which Lech Lecha begins, seems to come from nowhere: “Leave your land, your birthplace, and your father’s house, and go to a land which I will show you.” Nothing has prepared us for this radical departure. We have not had a description of Avraham as we had in the case of Noach: “Noach was a…
Between the Flood and the call to Abraham, between the universal covenant with Noah and the particular covenant with one people, comes the strange, suggestive story of Babel: The whole world spoke the same language, the same words. And as the people migrated from the east they found a valley in the land of Shinar and settled there. They said…
…to morality from two surprising directions: neo-Darwinism and the branch of mathematics known as Games Theory. As we will see, the discovery is intimately related to the story of Noach and the covenant made between God and humanity after the Flood. Games theory was invented by one of the most brilliant minds of the 20th century, John von Neumann (1903-1957)….
…Patrick McGuiness (New York: Routledge, 2003), 69. [6] Ibid., 70. [7] See Bereishit Rabbah 8:5. [8] Steven Pinker, The Better Angels of our Nature, New York:Viking, 2011. [9] Thucydides, The Peloponnesian War 5.89. [10] Daniel Goleman, Emotional Intelligence (London: Bloomsbury, 1996), 13ff. [11] Mishneh Torah, Hilchot Temurah 4:13. DISCUSSION QUESTIONS FOR NOACH Why do we need moral laws? Do you…
…difficult, and constituted one of our greatest achievements. It was a wise and subtle observation. Without knowing it, he had in effect paraphrased Hillel’s aphorism: “If I am not for myself, who will be (individual responsibility)? But if I am only for myself, what am I (collective responsibility)?” This insight allows us to see the argument of Parshat Noach in…
…expression – and all of them are non-Jews, people outside the Abrahamic covenant. The first is Noach: “Praise be to the Lord, the God of Shem” (Gen. 9:26). The second is Avraham’s servant, presumed to be Eliezer, whom he sends to find a wife for Yitzchak: “Praise be to the Lord, the God of my master Avraham, who has not abandoned His kindness and…
…18:10). Three people in the Torah use this expression – and all of them are non-Jews, people outside the Abrahamic covenant. The first is Noach, who says: “Praise be to the Lord, the God of Shem” (Bereishit 9:26). The second is Avraham’s servant who is sent to find a wife for Yitzchak: “Praise be to the Lord, the God of…
…we are a part. It is not enough to be good. We must encourage others to be good. There are times when each of us must lead. [1] See Rambam, Mishneh Torah, Hilchot Melachim 9:14. Also see Ramban, Commentary to Bereishit 34:13, s.v. Ve-rabbim. DISCUSSION QUESTIONS FOR NOACH Do you see Noah as “perfect” because he managed to maintain this…