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Parashas Bereishis: Noah: A Source of Shabbat
Rabbi David Katz
In this week’s Parsha, the first Parsha of what will become
the opening of the saga that will be contained within the breadth of the whole
entire Torah we begin and go through stages of Creation, rise and fall of Man,
and ultimately stumble upon a possible savior in the birth of Noah. The Torah may
not delve much into the life of Noah at this point (although various Midrashim
delve into a plethora of opinions as to the character and achievements of Noah),
but one vital quality of Noah is given over to the reader, one of supreme
prophetic clarity: the meaning of the Name Noah, which means loosely “to ease”
[the toil of labor]. The prophecy is in light of the repair of Adam who
concordantly was to blame for the Earth’s curses upon its Land.
In the days of Lamech a son was born that would be prophetically
deemed to be “the one who would [re]build the World. Interestingly by stating
merely that “a son was born” the obvious question is why did the Torah deviate
from the norm of simply stating the father-son connection by name affiliation?
The answer comes in the very next verse of the Torah where it elucidates on the
prophecy of a “savior” birth, as it says “This one will ease us from our toil.”
To this extent the Bible commentator Rashi makes a clear analysis that the name
of Noah grammatically must mean “to ease” as opposed “to comfort” in which case
his name would have had to have been “Menachem.”
Between the Zohar, various Midrashim, and citations/commentary
within Tanach, Noah is directly attributed with the Sabbath. To leap forward
towards the end of the Torah in the later parshiot (Parsha in plural), when the
Torah speaks about the type of requisite rest on Shabbat, it deploys a
derivative of the word “Noah” that literally means “to be in a state of rest”;
to stop effectively. For this the Zohar says in many places that [the name]
Noah inherently means Shabbat.
In Yevamot 48b the Talmud makes a startling conclusion
concerning the Ger Toshav (literally meaning Alien Dweller; connotation of
being in the land; another term for modern day Noahaide) in that he is actually
elevated and identified as a Ger Tzedek, (a righteous Ger) making the Ger
Toshav worthy of praise for a gentile who obviously keeps the Seven Laws of
Noah alongside his unique preservation of Shabbat. This makes proper usage of
the term with a meaning of “Noah” into a name of a Shabbat staple type of
service to God, as now there are those that simply rest. For the Noahide and
his usage of “Noah” (to ease) instead of “stopping” from his daily life, he
will take ease from the World and will begin to exude a non-rambunctious
demeanor to his day of rest, a day with God and His Torah as a meditative
study.
The manifestation of “Noah” within connotation and its
meaning in conjunction with Shabbat is that under no circumstance should the
World stop, for the World continues in the merit of his perpetual life while
the Jewish faction of Mankind utterly stops. If the Noahide were to stop as
well, the World would return to chaos and void. Yet the Noahide (who has taken
on a stricter service of God) embarks on a 24-hour mission to let the World
relax from its constant bling and chatter.
A basic proof of this idea that a Noahide can rest on the
Sabbath Day without posing an existential threat to daily life, is that the
Study of Torah guarantees that the World never stops its existence. The Noahide
is commanded to not celebrate a Shabbat that would ceremonially pull the Earth
to a screeching halt, yet as we see he has Divine –Torah-dictation from the
Mouth of God dedicating Shabbat for him (the Ger Tzedek/Toshav in particular;
halachic/law issues of the particulars are not the scope of this article). One
can resolve the contradiction between the threat of stopping the World in
contrast to perpetuating it eternally, in that the World is guaranteed to continue
despite the rest of the Noahide, for his rest is contingent by his connection
to God and the study of Torah in particular. The Noahide who then studies Torah
evokes the Ancient Torah dictum: that when Torah is studied the World is
guaranteed to exist. It would be expected that his rest coupled with Torah
would produce an ease, a rest, as opposed to a full -fledged stoppage.
A Noahide who studies Torah is compared to the High Priest,
and thus as long as the focus is his performance of Seven Laws, if he can
maneuver the entire Torah amidst these Seven (which any true scholar of Torah
can illuminate its fractal qualities), then the whole Torah is at his
fingertips, along with an additional 30 Commandments to aide his Torah study
and service of God. The Priesthood, Torah, and Noahides fittingly work their
way back to Noah, as Shem the son of Noah was both a Priest and an original
Noahide, both in the name of Torah; Shem received everything through Noah his
father. [Avos D’ Rebbe Natan] Many people are not aware of the vast
foundational principles that originate with Noah, such as the Torah Tradition,
service of God, etc. It should be no longer hidden from the eyes that not only
did Noah enter the World into a Shabbat reality within the Ark, build the World
around the concept of easing one’s labor, but he gave the World an eternal gift
of this ease and Torah with a Priestly feel for those of a Righteous
inclination: Shabbat. Indeed, Noah truly is the father of the Sabbath, and it
is a credit to Noah that he absolutely built a World that is destined to last
forever, one centered around the philosophy of Shabbat, exactly as his
prophetic name would imply, “This one will build the World and ease us from our
labor.” It just so happens, that even despite Rashi, we all can take great comfort
in the Righteous Noah and take a special opportunity to learn his Torah, even on
the Holy Sabbath Day – in merit of Noah, Jew and Noahide…and the World will
continue, just as promised to Noah.
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