Community Magazine October 2009

16 Community Magazine Noah the Inventor The likely answer is alluded to in Parashat Beresheet, where we find Noah filling a surprising role. The Torah (Beresheet 5:29) relates that upon Noah’s birth, his father, Lemech, declared, “This one shall comfort us from our work and the sorrow of our hands resulting from the ground which Gd has cursed.” Lemech offered a prayer that the birth of his son should herald a new era of “comfort” and ease. Gd cursed the ground after the sin of Adam and Hava, decreeing that mankind would have to struggle with the earth to extract food. Food production was an arduous, grueling, painstaking process, and Lemech hoped that his son, whom he named “Noah,” which means “rest” or “comfort” (as in the Hebrew word “ menuha – rest”), would usher in a new period of ease for mankind. Lemech’s prayer proved to be nothing less than prophetic. As the Midrash relates, Noah grew to become an accomplished inventor, introducing to the world tools that quickly became the cornerstones of the agricultural system, making it infinitely more efficient. First, he invented the plow, a device harnessed to oxen which they drag across the field to soften the earth before sowing. Prior to this invention, farmers would dig entire fields with their bare hands to prepare it for planting – an unfathomably time-consuming and backbreaking chore. With the invention of the plow, the farmer needed simply to steer the oxen and could plow enormous areas in a matter of minutes. Noah’s second important invention, the Midrash teaches, was the sickle. Originally, farmers and their farmhands would harvest the stalks by plucking them from the earth one a time, by hand. The sickle enabled them to cut large bundles of grain with a single, effortless motion. Lemech’s hopeful prediction proved correct – and resoundingly so. His son’s inventions eliminated countless hours of arduous physical labor from the agricultural cycle. For the first time since Adam and Hava’s banishment from Eden, man’s workload was tolerable, and people finally enjoyed the luxury of free time. However, unbeknownst to Noah – or to anyone else – these inventions, and the ease and comfort they brought to the world, became the root cause of mankind’s deterioration to the lowest moral depths. The Time Vacuum Syndrome To understand how and why this process unfolded, we must briefly study a halacha established by the Mishna in Masechet Ketubot (59). The Mishna discusses a husband and wife’s responsibilities toward one another, and states that if a man chooses to hire domestic help, the wife is absolved of the household duties performed by Dedicated in memory of Mr. Irving Semah     Rabbi Eli Mansour The Most Precious Resource B efore the floodwaters overran the earth during Noah’s time, the earth was overrun by greed, violence, corruption and immorality. The Torah describes the generation of the flood as a depraved society mired in selfishness and indulgence, to the extent that even the animals followed the human beings’ lead and engaged in immoral behavior. How did mankind degenerate so drastically, to the point of complete moral ruin? What developments led to such a rapid process of deterioration, compelling Gd to annihilate the earth and start again with Noah?