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| 9. This is the legacy of Noah: Noah was a righteous man, he was pure in his generation; Noah walked with God. | | ט. אֵלֶּה תּוֹלְדֹת נֹחַ נֹחַ אִישׁ צַדִּיק תָּמִים הָיָה בְּדֹרֹתָיו אֶת הָאֱלֹהִים הִתְהַלֶּךְ נֹחַ: |
| 10. And Noah had three sons: Shem, Cham, and Japhet. | | י. וַיּוֹלֶד נֹחַ שְׁלשָׁה בָנִים אֶת שֵׁם אֶת חָם וְאֶת יָפֶת: |
| 11. Now the earth was corrupt before God, and the earth became full of violence. | | יא. וַתִּשָּׁחֵת הָאָרֶץ לִפְנֵי הָאֱלֹהִים וַתִּמָּלֵא הָאָרֶץ חָמָס: |
| 12. God saw the earth, and behold it had become corrupted, for all flesh had corrupted its way on the earth. | | יב. וַיַּרְא אֱלֹהִים אֶת הָאָרֶץ וְהִנֵּה נִשְׁחָתָה כִּי הִשְׁחִית כָּל בָּשָׂר אֶת דַּרְכּוֹ עַל הָאָרֶץ: |
| 13. And God said to Noah, "The end of all things that live on the land has come before Me, for the earth has become full of robbery because of them, and behold I am destroying them from the earth. | | יג. וַיֹּאמֶר אֱלֹהִים לְנֹחַ קֵץ כָּל בָּשָׂר בָּא לְפָנַי כִּי מָלְאָה הָאָרֶץ חָמָס מִפְּנֵיהֶם וְהִנְנִי מַשְׁחִיתָם אֶת הָאָרֶץ: |
| 14. Make for yourself an ark of gopher wood; you shall make the ark with compartments, and you shall seal it both inside and outside with pitch. | | יד. עֲשֵׂה לְךָ תֵּבַת עֲצֵי גֹפֶר קִנִּים תַּעֲשֶׂה אֶת הַתֵּבָה וְכָפַרְתָּ אֹתָהּ מִבַּיִת וּמִחוּץ בַּכֹּפֶר: |
| 15. And this [is the size] you shall make it: three hundred cubits the length of the ark, fifty cubits its breadth, and thirty cubits its height. | | טו. וְזֶה אֲשֶׁר תַּעֲשֶׂה אֹתָהּ שְׁלשׁ מֵאוֹת אַמָּה אֹרֶךְ הַתֵּבָה חֲמִשִּׁים אַמָּה רָחְבָּהּ וּשְׁלשִׁים אַמָּה קוֹמָתָהּ: |
| 16. You shall make a light for the ark, and to a cubit you shall finish it to the top, and the entrance of the ark you shall place in its side; you shall make it with bottom [compartments], second story [compartments], and third story [compartments]. | | טז. צֹהַר | תַּעֲשֶׂה לַתֵּבָה וְאֶל אַמָּה תְּכַלֶּנָּה מִלְמַעְלָה וּפֶתַח הַתֵּבָה בְּצִדָּהּ תָּשִׂים תַּחְתִּיִּם שְׁנִיִּם וּשְׁלִשִׁים תַּעֲשֶׂהָ: |
| 17. And I, I am bringing the flood, water upon the earth, to destroy all living things on the land in which there is the spirit of life, from beneath the heavens; all that is upon the earth will perish. | | יז. וַאֲנִי הִנְנִי מֵבִיא אֶת הַמַּבּוּל מַיִם עַל הָאָרֶץ לְשַׁחֵת כָּל בָּשָׂר אֲשֶׁר בּוֹ רוּחַ חַיִּים מִתַּחַת הַשָּׁמָיִם כֹּל אֲשֶׁר בָּאָרֶץ יִגְוָע: |
| 18. And I will set up My covenant with you, and you shall come into the ark, you and your sons, and your wife and your sons' wives with you. | | יח. וַהֲקִמֹתִי אֶת בְּרִיתִי אִתָּךְ וּבָאתָ אֶל הַתֵּבָה אַתָּה וּבָנֶיךָ וְאִשְׁתְּךָ וּנְשֵׁי בָנֶיךָ אִתָּךְ: |
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Guide Questions:
1. According to Rashi/the Stone Chumash/the Torah Revealed, what are the two ways that we can understand that Noah was pure "in his generation"?
2. According to Rashi on the words "Make yourself an ark," why did God give Noah the burden of building an ark, which took a long time?
3. According to Rashi, what kind of light (verse 16) was Noah to make in the ark, and what might it symbolize?
4. According to Nahum Sarna in Etz Hayim (41-42), how many times is the Hebrew root for "corrupt" appear in this story? Also, how many times does the root for "make" appear? What might this mean?
5. What are different meanings of the words tzadik and tamim? (Check different translations.) How might they describe Noah?
6. A cubit is about 18 inches, which would make the ark 450 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet high. Draw a model of what the ark would have looked like. What kind of ship was it?
7. In verse 18, what Hebrew word is used for the first time in the Torah? Why is this important?
8. According to Rabbi Nachman of Breslov (131-132), "Make yourself an ark," what does the Hebrew word for "ark" also mean? How does he understand this story as a metaphor? Also, who else does Rabbi Nachman point out is rescued in an "ark"? What is the significance of this?
9. According to Rabbi Aaron Bisno in Text Messages, what is the message for us today that Noah was a tzadik?
10. According to The Women's Commentary, what might have been the name of Noah's wife? (bottom 53-54). What does the name mean? Why isn't she given a name in the text of the actual Torah?
We were interested in question 7, "In verse 18, what Hebrew word is used for the first time in the Torah? Why is this important?" We think the word is covenant, and that it is important because there are many covenants throughout the Torah. Actually, when we were reading the text, we were thinking that there has to be more than one covenant in the Torah, as we know of many others. We then looked at Rashi's commentary on the verse. Rashi said that"a covenant was necessary for the fruits, so that they should not rot and become putrid, and so that the wicked of the generation should not kill him"
ReplyDeleteWe took that as kind of a metaphor. We think that it means that Noah was the fruit, and he needed to make the covenant so the wicked people wouldn't get inside his head.
Alex and Liora
I don{t agree with the last part. After the flood, there was a whole new group of people on earth, so the covenent was so they wouldn{t rot {become like the preflood people}
DeleteThat's pretty much what I meant. :)
DeleteI have for a while wondered about gopher wood, because gophers are from the Americas so it seems unlikely that they should be mentioned in the Torah. However, in Rashi's commentary, it is mentioned that the name does not refer to the rodent, but that it is from the same route as "sulphur". It says that the decree for 'them' to be blotted out was with sulphur. I don't really understand that part, though...
ReplyDeleteI think that "them" means the wicked people.
Deleteyeah but what does sulphur have to do with this?
DeleteOk, I'm stumped about that
DeleteOk, I'm stumped about that
DeleteOk, I'm stumped about that
Deletewhy are there no grandchildren talked about? Noah was old. rashe dident say aney thing about it.
ReplyDeleteI agree, I think the grandchildren should have helped Noah build the ark
Deleteyeah well look in the lineage thing in parashat bereishit. Some of those guys between Adam ant Noah had kids when they were over 100!
DeleteI agree with Alex. He probably didn't have any.
DeleteYes he did. see my comment it will tell you all about that.
Deleteyeah but they weren{t alive yet.
DeleteI think they might have been too young to help out if they were alive.
DeleteI no way they had to be old enough. That ark took years, eventually they would be old enough to help.
Deleteare the grand children important to the story.
Deletetzadik means righteous and Tamim mean perfect in his generation
ReplyDelete(From Giselle and Kol)
ReplyDeletea. We chose Rashi
b. 2. According to Rashi on the words "Make yourself an ark," why did God give Noah the burden of building an ark, which took a long time?
c. Rashi said that G-d chose Noah because he wanted to help people repent, and he really believed in G-d's powers, and that G-d was really going to flood the world.
d. Our opinion in that Noah was a good choice because of how he believed in G-d, but we think that he wasn't inn the right health because of his age, and that G-d should have chosen Noah's son, or grandchild because they were younger and stronger.
Rashi's opinions about Noah wanting to help people repent and Noah believing in G-d's powers is interesting. Because the text does not describe Noah in more that 2 words, tzadik and tamim, I think that it was more that God believed in Noah's powers to take on the task God was giving him. But Rashi has a good point: God only chose one man out of every man in the whole world, so Noah must have had a very special quality in him.
DeleteI agree. He must be better than everyone else.
Deletetzadik is to be righteous and tamin means perfect for his generation
ReplyDeleteThat could be that he is regular compared to you and me, but he looked perfect, by the way people acted in that generation.
DeleteIn verse 9 the Torah seas These are the generations of Noah—Noah was a righteous man Rashi says that why the the Torah says that he was a righteous man is because that his first generation was his good deeds.
ReplyDeleteAdin Ari and Matt
a skylight: Heb. צֹהַר, lit. light. Some say [that it was] a window, and some say [that it was] a precious stone, which gave them light
ReplyDeleteThat is the answer to question 3.
Shai Toni
It{s tAni
Deletemaybe it was stained glass!
DeleteFor question 3 it was a skylight. I used Rashi as my commentator. Rashi says the sky like was like a window for Noah or a stone that gave them light. But I think that I was a way for Noah to not lose faith in G-d. This is because a skylight usually is a window on the roof. But also, if Noah looked up he would probably think of G-d
ReplyDeleteOur commentator is is the Stone Edition Chumash and we are answering the two ways Noah was "pure in his generation"? His answer is that Noah was both righteous and he was both the last of one generation yet the begining of the other. The lesson we get is that despite bad things may happen to good people, there is always a new beginning in the end.
ReplyDeleteMicah, Mia, Yechiel
Why did they make the ark out of gopher wood?
ReplyDeleteBecause you want to use good durable wood that can last you a week of floods. This gopher wood was probably good wood
DeleteRashi says that the reason why God had Noah build the ark is to give the peoplle another chance to repent.
ReplyDeleteHow does that make sense. He is not giving those sinned people another chance. He is straight out killing them
DeleteI agree. How is it fair that Noah is the one one who gets a second chance?
DeleteI think that it makes more sense for Noah to be a tzadik than, say, Abraham or Moses, because while Abraham and Moses are really great people, Noah had the responsibility for the safety of the entire world! Just think about that for a second or two.
ReplyDeleteI agree partly. I think all of them should be tzadik. Although Noah has a responsibility of a bigger amount of people they all still are responsible for something. For example, Moshe was responsible for leading the people into Israel. That's also a really big deal.
DeleteItai and Jared:
ReplyDeleteOur commentators name is Rashi.
He was answering the question about what light was God telling Noah to put in the ark.
Rashi said that there are different answers. Some people say that the light is a window that gives light from the sun and others say that it is a special rock that gives light. The light might symbolize the good that Noah and his family have done unlike the bad that the other citizens have done.
Jared: This commentating helped my learning of the text because it taught me how to take my time with the text and to analyze it.
Itai: The commentating helped me understand the meaning of the text a little more and helped me think of more detail than the big picture.
I think it's a way to be closer to G-d.
DeleteDanielle and Josh Bermel
ReplyDeleteA. The Stone Edition/Rashi
B. What does it mean to be perfect in his generation?
C. It could mean that he was an all perfect person, or it could mean that if he was put in a place with all righteous people he wouldn't stand out.
D. It helps us see both perspectives of how we could look at Noah's personality
According to Rashi, what kind of light (verse 16) was Noah to make in the ark, and what might it symbolize?
ReplyDeleteNoah was suppost to make sunlight in the boat and mabe that symbolizes good luck or happiness
We were interested in question 6.
ReplyDelete"A cubit is about 18 inches, which would make the ark 450 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet high. Draw a model of what the ark would have looked like. What kind of ship was it?"
We drew a scale model together of the ark based on the measurements given. The question that we answered by drawing it was the question: what kind of modern ship would we call the ark now-a-days. Because of the shape, and style we figured out that the ship would be a freight, or long-distance cargo ship.
-Chevruta Gavy and Rebecca
That's cool! I never thought of it in that shape before! I always thought of as a big bowl with a roof. Or like the ark in Kol's backyard
DeleteI also never thought about it that way. I always thought it looked like a really big pirate ship
DeleteMy group choose question number 5. We looked up the words Tzadik and tamim in two other translations; The Stone Edition and The Modern Commentary. In the Stone Edition, it says that Tzadik is righteous and Tamim is perfect in his generation. In The Modern Commentary, Tzadik is righteous and tamimis blameless in his age. These two translations are in addition to the one in the text above which is tzadik is righteous and Tamim is he was pure in his generation.
ReplyDeleteThat's what G-d calls Noah. More or less.
DeleteOur commentator is The Stone Edition. Our question is number 1, According to Rashi/the Stone Chumash/the Torah Revealed, what are the two ways that we can understand that Noah was pure "in his generation"? The Stone Edition says that the people who came before Noah where bad compared to him. So he sounds good because the people before him were worse. Know I understand why God picked Noah and why everybody thinks Noah's amazing
ReplyDeleteIn Text Messages it says that Noah is a tzaddik. Tzaddik means a religious person. In no case is Noah religious. You would think that Moshe would win this title, but he didn't. Why? He was religious but the world didn't rest on his shoulders. The world rested on Noah's shoulders and that's why he earned the title.
ReplyDeleteI think that the reason that Noah didn't save more people because they were bad people and they laughed at Noah when he was making the ark. Also G-d would have said if he wanted to save them. and more so the reason that G-d is destroying the world is because of the bad people so there is really no reason to save them
DeleteOr maybe he didn't have room. he did have two of every animal on earth.
Deletenoah was a righteous man. He and his family were hand picked by God to be the only people who survived the flood. The flood was sent to went wipe out all of humanity because they were bad. Noah was the only good person.
ReplyDeleteOur commentator is Rashi. We wanted to know how Noah was "perfect in his generations"(6:9). Different sages have different opinions about that quote. Some think that he was righteous and perfect compared to his generations while others think he would be more righteous if he was born in the torah times. I agree with the first interpretation.
ReplyDeleteBen, Nadav, and Joshy
According to Rashi on the words "Make yourself an ark," why did God give Noah the burden of building an ark, which took a long time?
ReplyDeleteI think that God gave Noah the burden of making a ark because like God picked Moshe to be the leader of the Jewish people God wanted another mighty person to be the leader to save a bunch of animals and people to take to land.
I think that God picked Moshe like Naoh not that God picked Noah like Moshe because Noah was first.
ReplyDelete