Scrollers Preview
Parashat Noach
October 29, 2011
Rabbi Rachel Goldenberg
At a Scrollers session prior to the High Holy Days, we agreed that we would turn to the Women’s Torah Commentary this year for an additional layer to our study. For this Torah portion, the Women’s Commentary includes helpful references to Babylonian epics that parallel Noah, our flood myth. We’ll look at the role the goddess Tiamat plays in those parallel stories, and see how our Torah echoes those traditions, using the word “t’hom,” a word similar to “Tiamat,” to designate the deep primordial waters that wash over the earth.
We’ll also read an essay in the Women’s Commentary by Dr. Carol Ochs, who posits that the sin God is punishing humanity for with the flood has to do with our misuse of language. Ochs notes that Noah himself is silent for the entire story until he curses his youngest son Ham. This curse comes after they leave the ark and Ham discovers Noah drunk and exposed. After God has created the world and blessed that creation with language, perhaps the flaw in human beings is our tendency to use speech in destructive ways. This theme of the power of language continues with the story of the Tower of Babel.
As I write this on a rainy Thursday, I am looking forward to retelling the story of the rain coming down for forty day-sies day-sies (but hoping that the rain stops here sooner than that!)
Shabbat Shalom!
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