Parashat Noach THIS WEEK’S TORAH PORTION GENESIS 6:9-11:32 תשרפ ֹנ ַח / Parashat Noach In this week’s guide… In Rabbi Jason’s COMMENTARY he focuses us in on a quality—or “lifestyle” is a better term—that several members of the “Hall of Faith” had in common (see Hebrews 11). The story of Noah is so well-known, it could be described as “universal.” One of the challenges that come with such famous tales is that we easily miss what God is trying to teach us as we read them. This article makes sure that doesn’t happen. You will be challenged to live differently, to renew your commitment, to examine yourself.................... ............1 Our NEW TESTAMENT TIE-IN transports us to two wildly different locations. Our Torah portion describes events that unfold on the mysterious plains of Shinar, sometime after the Great Flood. Our “tie-in” brings us to one of the Jerusalem locations we visit on our Rock, Road, Rabbi Tours of Israel. We hope you will have your sense of purpose and mission renewed. Especially on the heels of our Sukkot celebrations! ......................................... ............2 In BY THE NUMBERS Rabbi Jason adds a layer of meaning to our study: it’s not just numbers—it’s also names! The numerical value of Noah’s name speaks volumes to us, if we just make the effort to listen. It’s no coincidence that the first time that the word “grace” appears in our Bibles, it’s in relation to Noah. For those of us who are earnestly seeking Yeshua one every page of Scripture, this study of Noach is incredibly rewarding..... ....... ........4 ______________________________________________________________ OVERVIEW Our second Torah portion continues with the seemingly universal stories of the Flood and Noah's Ark, of Noah's subsequent drunkenness and cursing of Canaan, as well as the Tower of Babel. In Hebrew, the name Noah is spelled Noach. The word Noach is related to the Hebrew word for “rest.” Genesis 5:29 says that his parents named him Noah (Noach) because they hoped their son would give them rest (nacham) from their toil. FUSION GLOBAL WITH RABBI JASON תשרפ ֹנ ַח / Weekly Torah Portion – Parashat Noach Genesis 6:9-11:32 COMMENTARY by Rabbi Jason Sobel “Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the LORD was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and he was grieved in his heart. So the LORD said, ‘I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping thing and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them.’ But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD. This is the account of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God.” - Genesis 6:5-9 (NKJV) Why did Noah find favor in the sight of God? Why were only Noah and his family spared from the flood? What does it mean to walk with God? What is the foundation of an enduring walk with God? What spiritual pattern of blessing found in this story? Upon reading the opening verses of this week’s parasha (Torah portion), it is striking that the flood story begins with an account of Noah’s righteousness and not with the reason for the flood. This “editorial decision” seems to imply that the author’s primary intention was to emphasize why Noah found “grace in the sight of the Lord,” and why God singled him out in his generation to save him from the cataclysmic flood. What made Noah “righteous” was that he “walked with God” (Gen 6:9). This quality stands in contrast to the people of Noah’s generation, who walked in the way of hamas (violence). Noah did not conform to his generation’s wicked ways instead, he took the more challenging road of walking with God. What does it mean, exactly, to walk with God in such a way that one is considered righteous?? Enoch was the first person the Torah described as walking with God. The Bible says this about Enoch: “Enoch walked with God three hundred years, and had sons and daughters. So all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty-five years. And Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him.” - Genesis 5:22-24 (NASB) Commenting upon the reason for Enoch’s mysterious and sudden disappearance from this world, Sefer Hilchot wrote, “I want him [Enoch] to serve me on high just as he faithfully served me in a world surrounded by people who worshipped idols.” The Torah also pictures Abraham as a tzaddik, a righteous individual who walked with God (Gen 17:1). According to the New Covenant, Brit Chadasha in Hebrew, all three of these great individuals, Noah, Enoch, and Abraham, had one thing in common: -1- “By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death: ‘He could not be found, because God had taken him away.’ For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God. And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him. By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that is in keeping with faith. By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise.” - Hebrews 11:5-9 (NKJV) The foundation of Enoch’s, Noah’s, and Abraham’s righteousness was their unwavering faith in the Lord and His divine promises. The Torah makes this point clear regarding Abraham when it states, “And he believed in the LORD, and He accounted it to him for righteousness” (Gen 15:6/NKJV). Like these great men and women of faith, we must also learn to walk by faith if we want to be a light in our generation. But, faith in and of itself is not enough. True faith must be accompanied by faithful obedience to the Word and Will of God. Noah did not just believe that God would bring about the flood—he also faithfully carried out every intricate detail concerning the building of the ark. The same was true of Abraham, who was willing to obey God and offer Isaac as a sacrifice based on his strong personal faith in the Lord (see Heb 11:8, above). On the flip side, Israel’s lack of faith always led to their disobedience, resulting in their exile from the Promised Land. Numbers 13-14 lucidly details this tragedy, when Israel’s unbelief led to their refusal to obey God’s command to take possession of the Promised Land. As a result of their unbelief and disobedience, Israel involuntarily wandered in the desert for forty years until that entire generation died. The only exception was Joshua and Caleb, who were allowed to enter and enjoy the Promised Land because of their faith. If we cultivate a radical faith in God, in His divine promises, and Messiah Yeshua, it should result in radical obedience. And such radical obedience will create blessing both in this world and in the World to Come. NEW TESTAMENT TIE-IN The Tower of Babel. Along with Eve and the serpent or Cain and Abel, this is one of those primordial sorts of stories in Scripture that have been an integral part of Western Civilization’s “cultural consciousness.” How many of us learned, at a very young age, that this story reveals the origin of all the various languages of the earth? Like many of the stories in these first eleven chapters of Genesis, the account of what happened at Babel continues to have a seemingly outsized theological importance. That’s just a fancy way of saying that we learn some of our most critical “God ideas” in this neck of the biblical woods. There is an clear link between this tale of punishment and a New Testament story of promise. That connection is the other famous foreign language passage: The Day of Pentecost in Acts 2. We can learn so much about God’s desires and our fallen proclivities by comparing and contrasting these two accounts. -2- Let’s start with similarities that are worth noting. For starters, in Genesis 11 and Acts 2, both groups are marked out by their unity. • Babel: “Look, the people are one…” / Genesis 11:6 • Jerusalem: “they were all with one accord in one place” / Acts 2:1 (KJV) But this similarity sets up our first contrast— while the unity of the 120 in the Upper Room was an expression of their loving devotion to Yeshua, the unity at Babel was self-serving. The people said, “let us make a name for ourselves” (Gen 11:4/ESV). A second similarity is that both scenarios end with people speaking in a variety of foreign languages. At Babel, the “confusing” of the languages amongst people who previously only spoke one language led to division.