WHAT IS THE LESSON FROM NOAH?

God explicitly told Noah that he is the most righteous man in his generation.  This could mean that God found Noah to be morally right. 

Many commentators state Noah is only “righteous among those who lived during the time that he lived.” If he would have lived in Abraham’s or Moses’ time, he would have been considered more average.  Noah, according to the commentators, was not worthy of praise at their level of…  Of what?  What are the most important human traits and behaviors?  How would God rate these characteristics?

The first book of the Torah (also known as the “Five Books of Moses” and as the “Old Testament”) is called “Bereisheit” or “Genesis.”  The first section of this book (a section I refer to as a “parashah”) is also called “Bereisheit.”

At the end of this parashah, God decides to destroy all the animals and people on Earth with a huge flood.  This is because of all the wickedness and thievery in the world.  The last line of this parashah, in English, reads: “But Noah found grace in the [powerful capacity inherent in the] eyes of the Lord.”  Because of this finding (“in God’s ‘eyes’”), the total destruction initially planned was to be altered.

Of course, God does not have eyes.  God is 100% spiritual.  This metaphorical way of describing God using human characteristics is commonly employed.  Supposedly, this tactic helps us to understand God.  But the use of the visual sense in this Torah sentence is relevant, as we shall see.

The Hebrew word for Noah is spelled Chet-Nun.  The Hebrew word for Grace is spelled Nun-Chet.  Thus, God’s decision to not destroy all animal life on the planet is justified by the message contained in a reversal of the letters of Noah’s Hebrew name.  Something within the nature of Noah inspired God to alter the plan.  The new plan was to start over with a new humanity that began with Noah.  The animals that were already present would give birth to more within their species

This is where the reference to God’s eyes becomes intriguing.  Human anatomy is pertinent.  Part of the optic nerve pathway that transmits the image from each eye crosses from one side of the brain to the other at the optic chiasm.  The optic chiasm is located near the pituitary gland.  About half of the nerves from each eye cross to the other side.  This allows us to look right or left and have a single conjoined image from the two eyes.  Without this feature, we would be seeing multiple images during lateral gazing.  It would be a great impairment to human perception of the world.

The pituitary gland is near the center of the brain.  It controls many hormonal systems in the body.  Chemical signals from the pituitary gland flow out to many organs.  These tissues then secrete hormones that regulate all bodily functions.  This is a powerful gland in the human body.  Utilizing this anatomical property to illustrate what God gleaned about Noah’s nature is very revealing.  Reversing the letters of Noah’s Hebrew name is analogous to the reversal that occurs in the optic chiasm.  The latter allows us to see clearly.  The former means that God is seeing clearly.  The analogy of being near the pituitary gland means that it is a great Divine power to be able to have this type of insight into a person’s spiritual capability.  

Therefore, reversing the letters of the man’s name and his attribute implies depth of understanding.

God “sees” (optic nerve pathway), on a deep level (pituitary gland – ruling center of the brain) the merit and greatness of Noah.  God had insight into the true character of Noah.  By using a physical description of a known process and anatomy, we learn about God’s spiritual understanding of Noah.

This is an illustration of the confluence of the spiritual and the physical in the Torah.  With no other person in the Torah does God look so intimately.  This probing satisfies God that animal life – and human life – on earth is worth preserving.  The figurative crossing in the optic nerve tract reveals the spiritual judging of the words that are used to describe Noah.

Interestingly, the Hebrew word for eye is “eye-in,” which starts with the letter “eye-in.”  This letter is shaped like a crooked “Y,” with the tail going off to the side.  That shape also roughly is the actual shape of the optic nerve pathway in the brain.  Of course, that is only true for modern Hebrew letters.  Ancient Hebrew script bears little resemblance to what we see today.  That is why this point is merely “interesting.” 

My lesson from all this is that Noah was the most spiritually righteous person in the Torah.  There is more to say on this subject.  God never again “looks” at (judges) anybody else in the bible with the figurative depth at which Noah is appraised and understood.

In Chapter 8, Verse 1, in the book of Bereisheit, God remembers Noah in the Ark.  Remembering is using the Hebrew word “Zachor.”  There are other Hebrew words in the Torah also loosely translated as remembering.  But Zachor is the most meaningful and carries great spiritual connotations.  God does not remember Abraham or Moses in this way.  Only Noah.

In 9:12, God makes a covenant with Noah.  The covenant is to promise never to destroy mankind again with a flood.  The sign of this covenant is the rainbow.  Exactly what changes and what it means is not going to be discussed here.  It may mean the creation of rainbows or a new property of light (which could denote insight), or a new meaning to rainbows.  Or other meanings. 

But this covenant was and is majorly important.  And the covenant was between God and Noah and future generations of people.  That’s pretty big.  God’s covenant with Abraham was between God and the descendants of Abraham.  Not so big.  God never made a new covenant with Moses.   

In Chapter 9, Verse 10, Noah himself talks for the first and last time.  He never speaks in the Torah when Got gave him the Ark assignment.  God told him what to do and he did it.  He has been criticized for not trying to get everyone else to change and be better people.  He could have tried to convince others to change their ways and escape the destruction.  But he kept quiet.  Instead, he took many years to build the ark.  During this long period, others knew why he was performing this task.  But no one came to him to ask how they could also be on the Ark.  Noah knew it was hopeless.

Noah first speaks in the Bible when he is embarrassed by being seen drunk and naked by his youngest son, Ham.  (This episode occurs after disembarking from the Ark.)  Then he curses the progeny of that son.  Only when he felt personally assaulted did he speak up.  His modesty was compromised.  Justified, but interesting.

When God first spoke to Abraham (his name was Abram at the time), he also told him what to do. God told him to leave his home.  He also followed directions without trying to convince others that they were off the mark and should change.  But he, too, kept quiet.

In Chapter 12, Verse 7, God foretold to Abram that he would possess the land of the Canaanites.  Abram did not go to them and try to teach them to become God-fearing.  He said nothing.

The first time that Abram talked in the Torah was when he felt his life was threatened.  This is when he went to Egypt during a famine and told his wife Sarai (later to be renamed Sarah) to pretend she was his sister.  Men have been killed by other men who wanted to take a wife away.  He was scared and felt endangered.  Interesting parallel to Noah.

When God spoke to Noah and to Abraham, both immediately acted upon God’s call by performing the “requested” tasks.  They said nothing and did it.  When God first talked to Moses (from the burning bush), Moses immediately tried to back away and get out of it.  Moses tried to reason his way out of accepting this responsibility.  He did not immediately and accept his assignment from God.  He was talkative from the beginning of that relationship.  The next time Moses talks in the Bible is when he kills an Egyptian who was beating an Israelite man.  Moses’ next comment was to express fear for his life because he had been found out.  Moses spoke and acted out of fear for his life.  Another interesting parallel to Noah.

Neither Abraham nor Moses seemed to live up to the greatness of Noah.    God saw it.  Why do many question Noah’s righteousness?  I do not know.  The commentators do present a lot of arguments in support of their thesis. 

The key point about Noah is that God looked deeply into Noah’s character and soul to see the greatness.  This action on the part of the Divinity is unique and definitive.  I believe that the difference of Noah’s experience adds weight to Noah’s exceptionalism.

Noah, Abraham, and Moses all reacted to situations where they felt their lives (in Noah’s case, it was more his honor and reputation) were threatened.  None of their actions at these important junctures in their histories were particularly honorable.  But there is an important difference, as follows. 

Noah accepted and completed his task before complaining and defending himself.  Abram (Abraham) began his task but lied and plotted to save his own life when he was only partially along the road to fulfillment of his duties.  Moses complained and tried to dodge out from the very beginning.

At Mt. Sinai, God taught the Ten Commandments to the Children of Israel.  Before this discourse, the People were instructed to accept the Torah which was about to be offered.  The response was: “We will do, and we will learn.”  In that order.  Very Noah-like.  Not really Abraham- or Moses-like.

Our task in life is to conjoin our spiritual selves with our physical selves.  We learn from Noah that this task will be difficult and take a long time.  Maybe our entire lifespan.  We should embrace this joining of the heavenly with the earthly.  We should guard against becoming discouraged.  Making every part of our lives focused and meditative will help prevent dispiriting thoughts.  This is the process whereby a person can activate and promote the soul to make life whole.   

The reward is a better life in both of these worlds that come together within us.