The Jewish roots of — and responses to — Noah
MARCH 31, 2014 BY PETER T. CHATTAWAY
If there’s one thing that has annoyed me about some of the debate around Darren Aronofsky’s Noah, it has been the persistent assumption — on both sides — that the film was made either for Christians or against Christians. Some people dismiss the film because they think the studio wanted to pander to the Christian market, while others think the film was made to subvert the beliefs of Christians. Rarely does anyone take a step back and say, “Hey, these filmmakers are Jewish, and the story of Noah comes from the Jewish scriptures. I wonder what Jewish audience members make of this film?”
(ט) אֵ֚לֶּה תּוֹלְדֹ֣ת נֹ֔חַ נֹ֗חַ אִ֥ישׁ צַדִּ֛יק תָּמִ֥ים הָיָ֖ה בְּדֹֽרֹתָ֑יו אֶת־הָֽאֱלֹקִ֖ים הִֽתְהַלֶּךְ־נֹֽחַ׃
(9) This is the line of Noah.—Noah was a righteous man; he was blameless in his age; Noah walked with God.—
When Jared had lived 162 years, he begot Enoch. After the birth of Enoch, Jared lived 800 years and begot sons and daughters. All the days of Jared came to 962 years; then he died. When Enoch had lived 65 years, he begot Methuselah. After the birth of Methuselah, Enoch walked with God 300 years; and he begot sons and daughters. All the days of Enoch came to 365 years. Enoch walked with God; then he was no more, for God took him. When Methuselah had lived 187 years, he begot Lamech. After the birth of Lamech, Methuselah lived 782 years and begot sons and daughters. All the days of Methuselah came to 969 years; then he died.
(ג) הן ביום הראשון ברא את השמים ממעל והארץ והמים וכל הרוחות העומדים לפניו:
(ד) ומלאכי הפנים ומלאכי הקדושה ומלאכי רוח האש ומלאכי רוח סערה ומלאכי רוחות ענני עלטה:
(ה) ומלאכי הברד והכפור ומלאכי העמקים הרעמים והברקים ומלאכי רוחות הקור והחום הסתיו האביב החורף והקיץ:
(ו) ומלאכי הרוחות לכל מעשיו בשמים ובארץ ובכל העמקים ומלאכי החושך והאור והשחר והערב אשר הכין בחכמת תבונתו:
(3) For on the first day He created the heavens which are above and the earth and the waters and all the spirits which serve before Him...(6) and of all the spirits of His creatures which are in the heavens and on the earth, (He created) the abysses and the darkness, eventide (and night), and the light, dawn and day, which He hath prepared in the knowledge of His heart.
(כו) וַיֹּ֣אמֶר אֱלֹקִ֔ים נַֽעֲשֶׂ֥ה אָדָ֛ם בְּצַלְמֵ֖נוּ כִּדְמוּתֵ֑נוּ וְיִרְדּוּ֩ בִדְגַ֨ת הַיָּ֜ם וּבְע֣וֹף הַשָּׁמַ֗יִם וּבַבְּהֵמָה֙ וּבְכׇל־הָאָ֔רֶץ וּבְכׇל־הָרֶ֖מֶשׂ הָֽרֹמֵ֥שׂ עַל־הָאָֽרֶץ׃
(26) And God said, “Let us make human in our image, after our likeness. They shall rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the cattle, the whole earth, and all the creeping things that creep on earth.”
(4) It was then, and later too, that the Nephilim appeared on earth—when the divine beings cohabited with the daughters of men, who bore them offspring. They were the heroes of old, the men of renown.
(יז) ובשבוע השני ליובל העשירי לקח מהללאל את דינה בת ברכאל בת אחות אביו לו לאשה ותלד לו בן בשבוע השלישי בשנה השישית ויקרא את שמו ירד:
(יח) כי בימיו ירדו מלאכי ה' הנקראים שומרים על הארץ ללמד את בני אדם משפט ומישרים לעשותם בארץ:
(17) And in the second week of the tenth jubilee Mahalalel took unto him to wife Dînâh, the daughter of Barâkî’êl the daughter of his father's brother, and she bare him a son in the third week in the sixth year, and he called his name Jared;
(18) for in his days the angels of the Lord descended on the earth, those who are named the Watchers, that they should instruct the children of men, and that they should do judgment and uprightness on the earth.
THE FALL OF THE ANGELS - The depravity of mankind, which began to show itself in the time of Enosh, had increased monstrously in the time of his grandson Jared, by reason of the fallen angels. When the angels saw the beautiful, attractive daughters of men, they lusted after them, and spoke: "We will choose wives for ourselves only from among the daughters of men, and beget children with them." Their chief Shemhazai said, "I fear me, ye will not put this plan of yours into execution, and I alone shall have to suffer the consequences of a great sin." Then they answered him, and said: "We will all swear an oath, and we will bind ourselves, separately and together, not to abandon the plan, but to carry it through to the end." Two hundred angels descended to the summit of Mount Hermon, which owes its name to this very occurrence, because they bound themselves there to fulfil their purpose, on the penalty of Herem, anathema. Under the leadership of twenty captains they defiled themselves with the daughters of men, unto whom they taught charms, conjuring formulas, how to cut roots, and the efficacy of plants. The issue from these mixed marriages was a race of giants, three thousand ells tall, who consumed the possessions of men....Azazel taught men how to make slaughtering knives, arms, shields, and coats of mail. He showed them metals and how to work them, and armlets and all sorts of trinkets, and the use of rouge for the eyes, and how to beautify the eyelids, and how to ornament themselves with the rarest and most precious jewels and all sorts of paints. The chief of the fallen angels, Shemhazai, instructed them in exorcisms and how to cut roots; Armaros taught them how to raise spells; Barakel, divination from the stars; Kawkabel, astrology; Ezekeel, augury from the clouds; Arakiel, the signs of the earth; Samsaweel, the signs of the sun; and Seriel, the signs of the moon. While all these abominations defiled the earth, the pious Enoch lived in a secret place. None among men knew his abode, or what had become of him, for he was sojourning with the angel watchers and holy ones. [Enoch here does the same as written in Jubilees]
(כז) ויהי בקרב מלאכי אלוקים שש שנים ויראוהו את כל אשר על הארץ ובשמים ממשלת השמש ויכתוב הכל בספר:
(כח) וישם עדות לענות בשומרים אשר חטאו בבנות האדם:
(כט) כי המה החלו להתערב ולהטמא בבנות האדם ויקם חנוך לעד בכולם:
(ל) וילקח מתוך בני האדם ונביא אותו אל גן העדן לכבוד ולתפארת:
(לא) והנהו כותב פה בספר את פתשגן הדין ואת העונש לצמיתות וכל רעת יוצאי חלצי בני האדם:
(לב) ובעבורו הביא ה' את המבול על הארץ כי הושם לאות לעד ועונה בכל זרע בני איש להזכיר את כל מעללי הדורות עד יום המשפט:
(28) And [Enoch] testified to the Watchers, who had sinned with the daughters of men;
(29) for these had begun to unite themselves, so as to be defiled, with the daughters of men, and Enoch testified against (them) all. (30) And he was taken from amongst the children of men, and we conducted him into the Garden of Eden in majesty and honour, (31) and behold there he writeth down the condemnation and judgment of the world, and all the wickedness of the children of men. (32) And on account of it (God) brought the waters of the flood upon all the land of Eden; for there he was set as a sign and that he should testify against all the children of men, that he should recount all the deeds of the generations until the day of condemnation.
The fall of Azazel and Shemhazai came about in this way. When the generation of the deluge began to practice idolatry, God was deeply grieved. The two angels Shemhazai and Azazel arose, and said: "O Lord of the world! It has happened, that which we foretold at the creation of the world and of man, saying, 'What is man, that Thou art mindful of him?' " And God said, "And what will become of the world now without man?" Whereupon the angels: "We will occupy ourselves with it." Then said God: "I am well aware of it, and I know that if you inhabit the earth, the evil inclination will overpower you, and you will be more iniquitous than ever men." The angels pleaded, "Grant us but permission to dwell among men, and Thou shalt see how we will sanctify Thy Name." God yielded to their wish, saying, "Descend and sojourn among men!"
(22) As for Zillah, she bore Tubal-cain, who forged all implements of copper and iron. And the sister of Tubal-cain was Naamah.
THE DESCENDANTS OF CAIN - Cain knew only too well that his blood-guiltiness would be visited upon him in the seventh generation. Thus had God decreed against him. He endeavored, therefore, to immortalize his name by means of monuments, and he became a builder of cities...He sinned in order to secure his own pleasure, though his neighbors suffered injury thereby. He augmented his household substance by rapine and violence; he excited his acquaintances to procure pleasures and spoils by robbery, and he became a great leader of men into wicked courses. He also introduced a change in the ways of simplicity wherein men had lived before, and he was the author of measures and weights. And whereas men lived innocently and generously while they knew nothing of such arts, he changed the world into cunning craftiness. Like unto Cain were all his descendants, impious and godless, wherefore God resolved to destroy them.
The two wives of Lamech, Adah and Zillah, bore him each two children, Adah two sons, Jabal and Jubal, and Zillah a son, Tubal-cain, and a daughter, Naamah. Jabal was the first among men to erect temples to idols, and Jubal invented the music sung and played therein. Tubal-cain was rightly named, for he completed the work of his ancestor Cain. Cain committed murder, and Tubal-cain, the first who knew how to sharpen iron and copper, furnished the instruments used in wars and combats. Naamah, "the lovely," earned her name from the sweet sounds which she drew from her cymbals when she called the worshippers to pay homage to idols.
It was by the grace of God, not on account of his merits, that Noah found shelter in the ark before the overwhelming force of the waters. Although he was better than his contemporaries, he was yet not worthy of having wonders done for his sake. He had so little faith that he did not enter the ark until the waters had risen to his knees. With him his pious wife Naamah, the daughter of Enosh, escaped the peril, and his three sons, and the wives of his three sons.
A Prayer for the Earth: The Story of Naamah, Noah's Wife
From award-winning author Sandy Eisenberg Sasso, a new story which lights our spiritual imaginations. When God tells Noah to bring the animals of the world onto the ark, God also calls on Naamah, Noah's wife, to save each plant on Earth.... In this new story, based on an ancient text, Naamah's wisdom & love for the natural harmony of the earth inspires us to use our own courage, creativity, & faith to carry out Naamah's work today.
Unfortunately, at the time of Methuselah, following the death of Adam, the family of Seth became corrupted after the manner of the Cainites. The two strains united with each other to execute all kinds of iniquitous deeds. The result of the marriages between them were the Nephilim, whose sins brought the deluge upon the world. In their arrogance they claimed the same pedigree as the posterity of Seth, and they compared themselves with princes and men of noble descent.
Great wisdom was needed for building the ark, which was to have space for all beings on earth, even the spirits. Only the fishes did not have to be provided for. Noah acquired the necessary wisdom from the book given to Adam by the angel Raziel, in which all celestial and all earthly knowledge is recorded.
Noah's next task was gathering in the animals. No less than thirty-two species of birds and three hundred and sixty-five of reptiles he had to take along with him. But God ordered the animals to repair to the ark, and they trooped thither, and Noah did not have to do so much as stretch out a finger.
The crowd of sinners tried to take the entrance to the ark by storm, but the wild beasts keeping watch around the ark set upon them, and many were slain, while the rest escaped, only to meet death in the waters of the flood. The water alone could not have made an end of them, for they were giants in stature and strength.
One animal, the reem, Noah could not take into the ark. On account of its huge size it could not find room therein. Noah therefore tied it to the ark, and it ran on behind. Also, he could not make space for the giant Og, the king of Bashan. He sat on top of the ark securely, and in this way escaped the flood of waters. Noah doled out his food to him daily, through a hole, because Og had promised that he and his descendants would serve him as slaves in perpetuity.
(16) Make an opening for daylight in the ark, and terminate it within a cubit of the top.-c Put the entrance to the ark in its side; make it with bottom, second, and third decks.
צֹהַר תַּעֲשֶׂה לַתֵּבָה (בראשית ו, טז), רַבִּי חוּנְיָה וְרַבִּי פִּינְחָס רַבִּי חָנִין וְרַבִּי הוֹשַׁעְיָא לָא מְפָרְשִׁין, רַבִּי אַבָּא בַּר כַּהֲנָא וְרַבִּי לֵוִי מְפָרְשִׁין. רַבִּי אַבָּא בַּר כַּהֲנָא אָמַר, חַלּוֹן. רַבִּי לֵוִי אָמַר, מַרְגָּלִיּוֹת. רַבִּי פִּינְחָס מִשּׁוּם רַבִּי לֵוִי אָמַר כָּל שְׁנֵים עָשָׂר חֹדֶשׁ שֶׁהָיָה נֹחַ בַּתֵּבָה, לֹא צָרִיךְ לֹא לְאוֹר הַחַמָּה בַּיּוֹם וְלֹא לְאוֹר הַלְּבָנָה בַּלַּיְלָה, אֶלָּא מַרְגָּלִית הָיְתָה לוֹ וְהָיָה תּוֹלֶה אוֹתָהּ, וּבְשָׁעָה שֶׁהִיא כֵּהָה הָיָה יוֹדֵעַ שֶׁהוּא יוֹם, וּבְשָׁעָה שֶׁהָיְתָה מַבְהֶקֶת הָיָה יוֹדֵעַ שֶׁהוּא לַיְלָה.
Tzohar make for the ark. Rabbi Abba bar Kahana said: a window. Rabbi Levi said: a gem-stone. Rabbi Pinchas in the name of Rabbi Levi said: All twelve months that Noah was in the ark, he did not need the light of the sun during the day, nor the light of the moon by night, but only the gem-stone he had, and he hung it up, and when it would darken he would know it was daytime, and when it would become brighter he would know it was night.
Rabbi Judah bar Simon said: it does not say, ‘It was evening,’ but ‘And it was evening.’ Hence we derive that there was a time-system prior to this. Rabbi Abbahu said: This teaches us that God created worlds and destroyed them, saying, ‘This one pleases me; those did not please me.’ Rabbi Pinhas said, Rabbi Abbahu derives this from the verse, ‘And God saw all that He had made, and behold it was very good,’ as if to say, ‘This one pleases me, those others did not please me.’
(כא) וַיַּ֩עַשׂ֩ ה' אֱלֹקִ֜ים לְאָדָ֧ם וּלְאִשְׁתּ֛וֹ כׇּתְנ֥וֹת ע֖וֹר וַיַּלְבִּשֵֽׁם׃ {פ}
(21) And the Eternal God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and clothed them.
ובספרו של ר' מאיר כתנות אור (ב"ר פ' כ'). וכבר כתבנו שם בשער ט' מה שיאות לפי הכוונה שם אמנם עתה נרצה בזה שעקר ההדר והיופי המגיע לאדם הוא מאלה הבגדים אשר יתקנם לעצמם על פי מדותיהן של בגדי אהרן ובניו כי הם באמת בגדי ישע ומעיל צדקה לבא בהם אל הקדש פנימה.
When Rabbi Meir's Torah scroll is reputed as having spelled the words kotnot or the garments which God had provided for Adam and Eve, with the letter aleph in the word or instead of the traditional ayin if the word was to mean leather, skin, he wanted to indicate the ultimate purpose of these garments. These garments, according to Rabbi Meir, serve a dual purpose. They are a physical covering. They are also to serve however, as an ongoing reminder to regain the or / the light that we lost when we sinned in the garden of Eden. The garments then are are a spiritual endowment provided by God to help us along that road.
(5) YHVH saw how great was humanity's wickedness on earth, and how every plan devised by their mind was nothing but evil all the time. (6) And YHVH regretted that God had made the humans on earth, and God's lev/heart-mind was saddened. (7) YHVH said, “I will blot out from the earth the humans whom I created— humans together with beasts, creeping things, and birds of the sky; for I regret that I made them.” (8) But Noah found favor with YHVH.
(11) The earth became corrupt before Elohim/God; the earth was filled with lawlessness. (12) When Elohim/God saw how corrupt the earth was, for all flesh had corrupted its ways on earth, (13) Elohim said to Noah, “I have decided to put an end to all flesh, for the earth is filled with lawlessness because of them: I am about to destroy them with the earth.
(18) But I will establish My covenant with you, and you shall enter the ark, with your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives.
And it was after many days and years, up to the four hundred and eightieth year of the life of Noah, that all the sons of man who walked faithfully in the ways of God had died out from the midst of the sons of man, and only two of them remained, and those two were Noah and Methuselah. And the Lord spake unto Noah and unto Methuselah saying: Say it and cry it out aloud among the sons of man saying: Thus saith the Lord, turn ye from your evil ways and abandon your wicked actions, and the Lord will repent of the evil which he hath resolved to do unto you in the earth, and it shall not come to pass. And thus saith the Lord: Behold, I give you one hundred and twenty years' time. If ye completely return unto me and abandon your evil ways, then I too will return and repent of the evil which I have concluded to bring over you, and it shall not come to pass, saith the Lord. And Noah and Methuselah proclaimed all the words of the Lord unto the sons of man; day after day did they go about and repeat them through all that time. But the sons of man would not hearken unto them, and would not incline their ears to their words, and would only become more stiff-necked....
And Noah, the son of Lamech, refused taking unto himself a wife in order not to beget children, for he said: Surely the Lord is about to destroy the sons of man from the face of the earth, and wherefore should I beget children? And Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and the Lord chose him to preserve from his children seed upon the face of the whole earth. And the Lord spake unto Noah : Get thee a wife and beget children, for thee alone I have found before me just in this generation, and thou and thy sons with thee shall be kept alive in the midst of the earth. And Noah went and took unto him to wife, Naamah, daughter of Enoch, and she was at that time five hundred and eighty years old.
(20) Noah, the tiller of the soil, was the first to plant a vineyard. (21) He drank of the wine and became drunk, and he uncovered himself within his tent. (22) Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father’s nakedness and told his two brothers outside. (23) But Shem and Japheth took a cloth, placed it against both their backs and, walking backward, they covered their father’s nakedness; their faces were turned the other way, so that they did not see their father’s nakedness. (24) When Noah woke up from his wine and learned what his youngest son had done to him, (25) he said,
“Cursed be Canaan;
The lowest of slaves
Shall he be to his brothers.”
(26) And he said,
“Blessed be the LORD, The God of Shem;
Let Canaan be a slave to them.
(27) May God enlarge Japheth,
And let him dwell in the tents of Shem;
And let Canaan be a slave to them.”
(ה) מֵ֠אֵ֠לֶּה נִפְרְד֞וּ אִיֵּ֤י הַגּוֹיִם֙ בְּאַרְצֹתָ֔ם אִ֖ישׁ לִלְשֹׁנ֑וֹ לְמִשְׁפְּחֹתָ֖ם בְּגוֹיֵהֶֽם׃
(5) From these the maritime nations branched out. [These are the descendants of Japheth] by their lands—each with its language—their clans and their nations.
And then there is Ila, the rescued victim who becomes Shem’s wife. The only source I can imagine for that figure is a mistranslation of Genesis 10:5 (see above). The first word in the original Hebrew is Eleh, meaning “these.” If one misreads that instead as a name Ila, then one has another Eve-like mother of all.
Why Evangelical Christians Are Right To Be Angry About 'Noah'
Jay Michaelson
And yet, all of that, all of Aronofsky’s mythmaking and magic is nothing compared to the radical psychological reading he provides of Noah. Here, he is absolutely in accord with Jewish traditions, and absolutely opposed to Christian ones.
Aronofsky’s Noah is a zealot. He obeys God too much, even to the point of threatening to kill his own family in order to extinguish the human race. He is troubled by the deaths of innocent people, but does not intervene to save them. For the rabbis, this renders him “righteous for his age” but not more than that: unlike Abraham, who argued to save the lives of the wicked, Noah just follows orders.
For Aronofsky, “Noah” is yet another obsessive in line with the heroes of “Pi,” “The Wrestler,” “Black Swan,” “Requiem for a Dream,” and “The Fountain.” I was worried, going into “Noah,” that this would be the genius selling out. But I was wrong: this is the genius projecting his obsession with obsession onto his largest screen ever.
In Christian tradition, however, Noah is a saint. He remains righteous amid a wicked society – just as early Christians did in Rome. He has absolute faith in God – just like Christians are called to possess. He is, in short, a paragon of virtue, quite unlike Russell Crowe’s complicated antihero.
“Noah,” then, is a film that fundamentalist Christians are right to abhor. It is midrashic, magical, and radical. Its characters are deeply flawed and deeply complicated. It questions the meaning of faith. It is, in the best senses of the word, quintessentially Jewish.