Parshas
Noach
Choose The One to Hear Your Voicemail:
Listen
to Your Messages
By:
Daniel Listhaus
וַיְהִי
כָל הָאָרֶץ שָׂפָה אֶחָת וּדְבָרִים
אֲחָדִים
“Now
the entire earth was of one language and uniform word”
-Noach
11:1
As
we head towards the peak of a tense election time with such a strong
split regarding policies which have been or should be implemented, it
is hard to imagine a world which works together.1
Try to picture a peaceful world where seldom is heard a discouraging
word; a world with a United Nations which sits down for months
thinking together to make the world a better a place with no ulterior
motives to benefit certain individuals, parties, or nations. As
impossible as this situation is to fathom, it indeed occurred in the
history of this world.
The
people who were living during the generation known as the dor
haflaga (Generation
of the Disunion)2,
were all direct descendents of Noach. Noach lived through a time when
every single human and animal outside the teivah
(ark)
was destroyed by the mabbbul
(flood).
The earth had become too corrupt.3
Mankind had gotten into the habit of abusing each other in the worst
ways, and this corruptness trickled down to the creations of the
world.4
Hashem decided that, besides for Noach and his family, no one could
be permitted to live in the world. After patiently awaiting a teshuva
(repentance)
movement which never occurred,5
Hashem
sent a mabbul
to
kill everything on the earth middah-k'negged-middah
(measure
for measure)6.
Now, several
generations after the most violent and back-stabbing of times, the
people of the world were all united, spoke the same language, and
wanted to work together on the same agenda – they wanted to build a
tower.
The
Torah7
describes that the people joined together to build the tower because
they thought that doing so could prevent future floods like the one
the world had recently experienced during that time. However,
although their purpose was clear, Rashi8
offers
three possibilities as to what exactly their trigger reason was to
start this project. Rashi's
first
suggestion is that the people came with a uniform plan to wage war
with G-d. They decided that it was not fair that Hashem be the one
and only King, so they figured that they could build a tower tall
enough to be able to approach Hashem in the heavens. The second
possible reason Rashi
relates
is that the people simply joined together to speak out against
Hashem. Rashi's
third
possibility is that the people calculated that the mabbul
occurred
in the year 1656.9
They therefore assumed that this would be an event which would be
cycled every 1656 years. In order to prepare for the next scheduled
mabbul
according
to this calculation, the dor
haflaga
wanted to get a head start on building structures in the world to
support the skies so that the firmament would not be able to collapse
again as it did during the time of the mabbul.10
Regardless of their reason, we know that Hashem saw what they were
doing and exclaimed, “Behold, one people and one language for all
of them and this is what they begin to do! And now, should it not be
withheld from them all that they proposed to do? Come, let us11
descend there and confuse their language, so that they should not
understand one another's language.”12
There
is no doubt that the dor
haflaga
must have been wrong for doing what they did, after all Hashem was
quite upset with them. Knowing this, the aforementioned Rashi
becomes
difficult to understand. Granted within the first two reasons Rashi
writes
was the engine behind what they were doing, we could comprehend why
Hashem was angry. However, what was so bad if we learn according to
the third explanation Rashi
suggested?
If the people of the dor
haflaga
really thought that the mabbul
was
on some schedule to occur every 1656 years, so be it! Let them be
involved in their stupidity and waste their time building useless
towers, as long as they are not bothering anyone. What did they do
wrong that should upset Hashem so much that it was worth it to
disturb the peace that existed at that particular point?
Many
of us have probably at some point attempted to solve pattern riddles.
For example. Look at the following sequence and think of what should
follow: 0, 1, 3, 6, 10, 15, 21, 28, ??.
Many of us may look at this sequence and try to figure out what it is
trying to communicate and what should therefore follow.13
However, we all have that one friend who insists that the answer (in
this case) is 0. After all, this sequence of eight numbers is
completely random. The blank at the end just restarts the same
pattern over again. This is what I call the Pattern Fallacy – the
idea that anyone could make anything into something insignificant by
saying that it is not inherently meaningful.
Interestingly,
many of us think that we are not subject to this. We look at the
sequence and say that anyone who answers 0 is out of his mind. We
would never think to suggest such a ridiculous thing. This though is
not true. We do fall into this trap and are indeed very inconsistent
in when we decide to view something as independently significant and
when we disregard it as a baseless coincidence.
Many
years ago, the public started noticing a number of similarities
between President Lincoln and President Kennedy. Lincoln was elected
to congress in 1846, Kennedy in 1946. Lincoln was elected President
in 1860, Kennedy in 1960. Both presidents had a son die during their
presidency. Both presidents were shot in their heads from behind,
while with their wives, on a Friday, while being accompanied by
another couple. Lincoln was shot by John Wilkes Booth in Ford's
Theater, Kennedy was shot by Lee Harvey Oswald in a Lincoln (made by
Ford). John Wilkes Booth ran from a theater to a warehouse, Oswald
ran from a warehouse to a theater. Booth was born in 1839, Oswald in
1939. And both were killed within the same calendar month before
their trial.
At
the time these similarities were noticed, some read them and started
getting excited for no apparent reason, while others looked at them
and said that the similarities were completely by chance and the
article would have been just as special if it pointed out that both
presidents were men, citizens of the United States, enjoyed good
food, had two arms, and wore shoes.
People
care about things that are meaningful to them. Meaningful things have
intrinsic value and are not viewed as random or ordinary. Rather,
valued things are viewed as unique and customized. On the other side,
things which people care less about and do not feel are worth the
time to figure out, get labeled as meaningless patterns.
The
Rambam14
writes
that one of the most fundamental beliefs is that Hashem is not only
the borei
(creator)
of the world but also the manhig
(director).
This idea of Hashem being the manhig,
really applies on two levels, which are really one. First, it means
that Hashem arranges the endless probabilities, combinations, and
permutations of the world in order that everyone is delivered a
customized experience in this world – perfect for one's needs.15
Second, it means that Hashem interacts with us and communicates to us
in ways that we are able to notice if we just open our eyes. Whether
it be evil decrees made by a dictator, a freak accident, or nature
acting slightly unnaturally, there are two routes one could take. One
perspective is to say, “There is nothing inherently special about
anything. Everything happens at some point randomly anyway.” The
other perspective is to recognize the weird parts of life as Hashem
trying to catch our attention and challenging us to think.
Perhaps
this is the suggestion that Rashi
is
offering in his third answer. The people of the dor
haflaga failed
to recognize the mabbul
as a lesson for generations to understand the type of lifestyle we
must run from. They determined it as a random piece of a meaningless
cycle, instead of realizing it as a an inherently meaningful message
directly from the manhig
of
the world. Hashem conveyed a clear message to the world – a
tremendous flood which only one family was miraculously saved from
via the teivah,
and these people just completely missed the boat.16
In
our lives we are sent messages from Hashem. Some are for us as part
of the tzibbur
(public),
and some are for us for our personal lives. However, only if
receiving messages from Hashem is meaningful to us will we recognize
when we are being contacted. Otherwise, we fall into the Pattern
Fallacy and attribute events not to the manhig
of
the world, but instead to randomness.
We
will continue to receive messages whether we like it or not. However,
we could only begin to unlock these messages once we consciously
choose to want to hear what Hashem is trying to tell us. This is what
it takes for us to access our voicemail.
1This
was written right before President Obama's second term when Governor
Mitt Romney was running for president.
2They
received this name after Hashem divided them by making them not
speak the same language.
3Beraishis
6:11 and Rashi there
4
See Rashi to Beraishis
6:12 and 6:20.
5See
Rashi to Beraishis
6:14 who writes that Hashem
had Noach build the ark for so many years instead of just
miraculously creating one for Noach in order that the people would
see him building the ark and ask what it was for. Hashem hoped that
upon hearing what Hashem was planning to do to the world, that the
people would do teshuva.
7Beraishis
11:3-4
8Beraishis
11:1
9The
year according to the Jewish calendar from Creation when Adam was
born.
10See
the Medrash Rabbah (38:6)
which says that they wanted to build four such towers – for the
North, South, East, and West.
11Rashi
(11:7) explains that Hashem
said 'us' because he consulted the heavenly court of angels out of
extreme humility. We see the same idea in Beraishis (1:26)
when Hashem said “Let us create nan...”
12Beraishis
11:5-7
13The
answer is 36. 0+1=1 +2=3 +3=6 +4=10
+5=15 +6=21 +7=28 +8=36
14See
the thirteenth Ani Ma'amin (Principles
of Faith)
15For
more on this subject see my d'var Torah on Parshas Vayeishev
2011“Chaos Theory or Control Reality”
16Pun
intended. Sorry.
No comments:
Post a Comment