I have often … quarreled with those who feel that Western Civilization was born from the Greeks, and that the role of what I consider as the foundational text – the Torah – is really incidental.
I suspect this is primarily for two reasons:
1: Most people read the text as a storybook or even a kind of contrived history, instead of as a guide for holy relationships. As a result, fundamental lessons are missed.
2: We take of lot of the Torah for granted without thinking of it. And so we do not carefully examine the text both in itself and in the context of human societies. A great many ideas found within the Torah are directly contrary to both ancient and modern “wisdom” about the meaning and purpose of our lives, and our ability to direct it.
So I’d like to address both of these, by seeing what the text has to say, primarily at the very top and most obvious level. The advantage of Genesis is that the lessons offered are meant to be applicable for all of humanity, and not specifically the Jewish people. They are all simple ideas, accessible to any functioning person.
Let’s dive into what actually seem to be universal rules, applicable to all humankind
- G-d created the world: serving nature or anything in it is missing the larger picture.
- Adam and Eve and the forbidden fruit: We have free will, but our decisions have consequences.
- G-d does not accept excuses for trying to shirk responsibility for our actions, and he punishes those who attempt to do so.
- Cain and Hevel: We can master our urges – we are not animals, mindlessly tethered to our natural desires, and especially not to animalistic anger.
- Cain’s murder of Hevel was wrong: We must value human life. As with the Garden: There are, and must be, enduring consequences for irreversible actions.
- People were forbidden to kill Cain: people must have systems of justice.
- Taking women against their will (Gen 6:2) is wrong. It is both theft and sexual immorality.
- G-d punishes those who believe that Might Makes Right. Violence is not its own justification, and we must not be led astray by Power.
- Mankind matters: The world was made for us. When mankind becomes wicked, G-d considers destroying everything – not because G-d hates animals, but because without mankind serving a constructive purpose, there is no reason for animals to exist. It is analogous to a light on a tower. If the light is no longer serving a useful purpose, then the entire tower might as well be disassembled. When we do not do good, then everything becomes useless and disposable.
- Man has a purpose. When “every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Gen 6:5), man became as useful to G-d as an unneeded light, and thus could be destroyed.
When we move onto Noah, the lessons continue. And while these summaries may seem trite or obvious, consider that most people don’t actually live their lives as though these are true.
- It is not enough to be righteous. If G-d wanted to merely save Noach, he could have “zapped” the rest of the world – but he did not. And so we learn that G-d will not save us just for being good people – Noach has to follow G-d’s commandment, and build (create) an ark, and all the work it entails. Goodness is as goodness does. And when mankind builds something, is engaged in a creative act that partners him with G-d, then he can rise above the destructions slated for the rest of the world.
- We need a buffer zone between ourselves and divine justice. The “kaparah” of tar that insulated the ark from the water is analogous to the kaparah we ask for on Yom Kippur. We may not be able to undo or counter G-d’s will, but we can survive if we gain a protective layer. And both the ark and the kaparah of Yom Kippur require positive action on our part – we can create it in words and deeds.
- We are the custodians of the animals. G-d handles the planet and the flora, and even the fish. But higher order life is closer to mankind, and so it is Noach, not G-d, who saves the animals. That is a bilateral responsibility: we can eat meat because animals would not exist without Noah’s actions.
- We should make sense of the world. Adam gave animals names, to reflect their natures. Noach had to classify all animals by whether they were elevatable or not. By giving Noach this instruction, G-d was spurring mankind toward curiosity about the natural world, toward scientific inquiry.
- G-d does not tell us everything we want to know. When Noach wanted to see how high the water was, he had to figure out how to do that himself (using the birds). As we go through life, G-d will sometimes guide us; and sometimes we just have to wing it.
- G-d likes to be appreciated. The sacrifices are welcome, because through appreciation for what we have been given, we can build and grow our relationship with our creator.
- The relationship between Man and G-d is dynamic – both sides react to the choices of the other, and there are opportunities to learn and grow with every interaction.
- G-d wants us to seek meaning for our lives, and Noah’s connection of heaven and earth seems to be a reversal of the separation that G-d made between the waters and the lights (a separation that is not called “good” in the text). In other words, sometimes we are to complete things that G-d started. Sometimes we partner with G-d. And sometimes, such as when we seek to connect heaven and earth, we are, in a way, undoing acts of G-d Himself. If so, it is reasonable to inquire why!
The themes of individual free will and choices and consequences and a greater – holier – mission for mankind not only set the Torah apart from other ancient ways of thinking, but they also remain much-needed wisdom even in the modern world around us.