Parshat Noach
If Shabbat Bereishit is always Shabbat Mevorchim Marcheshvan (which it is), then it follows that Parshat Noach is always read as the first sedra in the month of Marcheshvan.
That highlights an interesting connection between Parshat Noach and Marcheshvan. The sedra deals with the Mabul, the Great Flood. In Israel, we start asking for rain – the beneficial kind, not the destructive kind as in the Flood – on the 7th of Marcheshvan, which is one of the days that follow the reading of Parshat Noach.
Furthermore, the Mabul started and ended in the month of Marcheshvan. This is based on the reference to the “second month,” which would usually mean Iyar, but only after the mitzvah of “HaChodesh hazeh lachem Rosh Chodoshim,” given much later, which established Nissan as the first month. However, there is a consensus among commentaries that the Flood was from 17 Marcheshvan to 27 Marcheshvan.
Moreover, the Mishna in Taanit says that if rain hasn’t started by the 17th of Marcheshvan, then pious individuals would accept upon themselves to fast and pray for rain.
So, Marcheshvan is about no rain, bad rain, and hopefully, gishmei bracha – blessed rain. Noach and Marcheshvan: a good and meaningful match.
With 153 pesukim, Parshat Noach ranks 4th in the Torah (behind Naso, Pinchas, and Bamidbar – all in the book of Bamidbar). So, it is the largest sedra, pasuk-wise, in the book of Bereishit. (Tied with Vayishlach.) However, Noach has very short pesukim – it ranks 49th and 51st (of 54) in words and letters per pasuk, respectively, dropping it to 6th place in Sefer Bereishit and 11th and 13th in the Torah. And filling 230 lines in a Sefer Torah puts it in 15th place for that measure.
Bottom line: big sedra, short pesukim.
Towards the end of Parshat Bereishit, the Torah records the births of Noach’s three sons – Sheim, Cham, and Yefet – when he was 500 years old. That is much older than the parental ages recorded for the births in the first nine generations. I don’t have a significant insight into that fact, but it is an interesting number to mention.
There are lots of numbers in Parshat Noach. Dimensions of the teivah (Ark): 300 amot (cubits) long, 50 amot wide, 30 amot tall. In feet, that’s approximately 450′ x 75′ x 45′. And for readers anywhere besides the United States, Liberia, and Myanmar (the only three countries in the world that have not metricated), that equals 135m x 22.5m x 13.5m. Of course, there are different lengths of the ama, depending upon who you ask, but we won’t get into that now.
More important, however, is the question of why the Torah gives us the dimensions of the teivah.
Ramban discusses the significance of the Torah’s giving details for the teivah. He says that it shows that the job is totally impossible to do in a natural way. No way the teivah as constructed could house all the pairs of animals and seven pairs of kosher animals! No way that a year’s supply of food for all aboard could fit in the teivah, as built!
And here’s the point: G-d intended to destroy the world except for Noach and company. He could have snapped His figurative finger and poof – Noach and family and the animals would be ready to start all over again. But He didn’t do it that way. Not G-d’s style, so to speak.
Alternatively, He could have tasked Noach to do it all. But that would not be practical, to say the least.
Instead, there is partnership. We become G-d’s junior partners – He contributes the miraculous, supernatural part; we do the hishtadlus – the effort that G-d wants us to expend so that His miracles can work and we can value them.
Two of every animal and 14 of the kosher ones entered the teivah. So, here’s a question: 14 cows, 14 sheep, 14 goats (I get that, since Noach was to offer sacrifices to G-d after he and his family emerged from the teivah having survived the Flood) – but what about ibex, kudu, giraffe…? If the extra kosher animals were primarily for food, then 14 of each of them makes sense. If the purpose was for korbanot (sacrifices), then maybe only two of each, since those kosher animals are not fit for the Altar.
The answer is that Noach and his descendants – the Bnei Noach – can offer sacrifices to Hashem, the G-d of Israel, the One G-d, from any kosher animal. They are not restricted to cow, goat, and sheep, as Bnei Yisrael would be in the future.
So, whether for korbanot or for food, the bottom line is that Noach was told to take seven pairs of all animals that were tahor (what we call kosher).
Back to the Flood. Let’s look at some numbers and dates. Noach got a seven-day warning before the rains started. He was 600 years old when the Flood came. The rain came down for 40 days and 40 nights. The water level reached 15 amot above the highest mountains. The water stayed for another 110 days, for a total of 150 days.
Spoiler alert: Without knowing the lengths of each month, we cannot produce a precise timeline of the Flood.
On the 17th of Nissan, the Ark rested on Mt. Ararat. About 75 days later, on the first day of the 10th month (Tammuz), the tops of the mountains became visible.
Forty days later (about the 12th of Av), Noach opened the window of the Ark.
Let’s say he then sent the raven out, and a week later, he sent the dove out. A week later, he sent the dove out again (this time it returned with an olive branch), and then a week later he sent it out a third time and it did not return.
A number of weeks later, the water had receded and Noach removed the covering from the Ark. It was on the first of the first month, which, as we’ve said, was Tishrei.
And finally, on the 27th of Marcheshvan, the land had dried up and Noach was ready to leave the Ark and start the world all over again, so to speak.
The breakdown of his time in the teivah is not necessarily clear, as already mentioned. What is significant, though, is that the whole Flood from beginning to end was the length of a solar year – 365 days or so.
Of further significance is that the year of the Flood is not really counted – probably because during that year, the laws of nature were suspended, as was time itself (whatever that means).
An indication of this is the Torah’s telling us that Noach was 600 years old when the Flood began, and that he lived for 350 more years after the Flood, and that he lived for 950 years altogether. The year of the Flood is missing from the calculation.
For those who like gematria, here is a GM (Gematria Match) I found a number of years ago. The pasuk referred to above – that ended not just the episode of the Flood but marks the end of the whole first era of the world, from Creation to the end of the Flood – is Bereishit 8:14: “And in the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dry.” The numeric value of that whole pasuk is 2,701. And that is also the gematria of the first pasuk in the Torah: “In the beginning of G-d’s creation of the heavens and the earth.” Beautifully matched bookends to the first 1,656 years of the world.
Another very significant number for Parshat Noach is seven. Specifically, it appears in the context of the Seven Noachide Laws. They are not all spelled out in the sedra, but they are obviously connected because of Noach himself. The seven include “the Big Three” – idolatry, murder, and sexual immorality – plus four more mitzvah categories. These can be remembered as alef, bet, gimel, and dalet. Alef is for Eiver min HaChai (the prohibition of removing and eating a limb from a living animal) – the only kashrut law we consider universal. Bet is for Blessing G-d (that’s a euphemism for the opposite). Gimel is for Gezel, stealing, which can be committed in several different ways. These first six Noahide mitzvot are all prohibitions. The seventh one – dalet – is for Dinim, laws and courts. This is a broad command to establish a system of laws and the mechanism to enforce them for the proper functioning of society.
Even though we call them seven mitzvot, they are actually chapter headings for many more mitzvot. For example, gezel includes stealing, robbing, cheating in business, and many other prohibitions.
Let’s finish with one more set of numbers. Just as Noach’s birth is recorded at the end of Parshat Bereishit, so too is Avraham’s birth recorded at the end of Parshat Noach. Avraham Avinu was born in the year 1948 from Creation. Noach was 892 years old when Avraham was born. Noach was born in the year 1056 from Creation. He lived 950 years, meaning he died in 2006, when Avraham was 58 years old. Hey, here’s one more gematria: The numeric value of Noach is 58, Avraham’s age when Noach died.
Shabbat Shalom.