The World's First Boat?

For 100 years Noach toiled and endured much ridicule from his neighbours as he built the ark. Sure enough, Noach had the last laugh when the flood finally came and wiped out everyone else on the planet. Having completely denigrated Noach and ignored his warnings, the people were completely unprepared. However, the ark was nothing more than a large boat. Didn’t anyone have a boat of their own to escape the destruction of the flood?

This fascinating question was asked of me by R’ Sander Goldberg of Baltimore and he followed it up with a fascinating answer from his sefer נחל חיים (Page 30.) There is some discussion regarding the general climate and environmental conditions before the flood and how they were changed forever by the flood. One of the principal catalysts for these theories is the first reference to seasons after the flood (8:22) which seems to imply that there were no seasons beforehand.

מלבי"ם writes that before the flood planet Earth was not on the 23.5 degree tilt on which it finds itself currently. The tilt was as direct consequence of the environmental havoc wreaked by the flood. When the earth is not tilted the climate conditions throughtout the world are at complete equilibrium. That is to say that weather conditions are completely uniform throughout the world and throughout the year. There is simply no reason for conditions to be any different in one place from another. Cloud cover as we know it did not exist either. After all, a partially cloudy sky means that there are clouds over one part of the land and not over the other. Rather, the skies slowly became saturated with moisture uniformly and once every forty years, writes מלבי"ם, the entire earth would be drenched with rain and the process would begin anew. (This explains why the people were not overly taken aback by the flood when it began.) מלבי"ם also attributes the longer lives lived before the flood to the consistency of the climate.

(Now THAT's climate change!)

Another condition that would result from a world climate in equilibrium is uniform atmospheric pressure. Without varying pressure, there can be no wind. Wind is a result of air moving from a high pressure area to a lower pressure area like the air flowing out of a balloon. Before the age of the motor, all large boats relied on wind to move. If there were no wind, there would have been no boats. This explains why Noach’s project appeared so strange and also explains why no one else had any means to survive the flood.

(He goes on to explain that due to this extreme difference in global climate fermentation was something that did not happen before the flood and that explains how Noach could go so terribly wrong afterwards getting drunk - alcohol hadn't existed either.)

Interesting Calendrical Facts About the Mabul

We are taught that the Mabul began at midday. (Bereishis 7:13) Rashi cites that the reason for this was to demonstrate that, with Hashem's protection, Noach was able to enter the Teivah in front of all the wicked people of his generation and none of them was able to harm him.

Rav Yehonasan Eibshitz zt"l offers an additional explanation that has to do with the way the calendar works. Rav Eibshitz mentions that the historic date which the dove found dry land in the year after the Mabul was the first of the first month and was a Shabbos. If so, then the year preceding this one, the year when the Mabul began, the first day of the first month was Tuesday. (Clearly Rav Eibshitz is using a regualry styled year in which half the months contain 30 days and the other half have 29. The months alternate with 30 then 29 and so forth throughout the year.) Since the first month was a Tuesday then the subsequent month, the month in which the Mabul started, started on a Thursday. Thus, the 17th of that month, the day which the Mabul started, was Shabbos. Since the Gemara teaches that rain on Friday night is a blessing, the rain, instead, began during the daytime as not to give the wicked people even one iota of blessing. (Taanis 23a) Rav Eibshitz continues that, additionally, the mazal of Shabbos daytime is Saturn which symbolizes mass destruction and that was befitting for the beginning of the Mabul. (See Rashi Berachos 59b and the Ibn Ezra's Reishis Chachma) (Tiferes Yehonasan Bereishis 7:13)

The Two Luminaries

Pasuk 16 refers to the sun and the moon as "shnei hame'oros hagedolim", the two large luminaries but concludes by referring to the sun as the "maor hagadol" and the moon as the "maor hakaton". On this pasuk there is the well-known Rashi, quoting the Midrash, that the moon and the sun were created equal but the moon complained that "two kings cannot share one crown". Therefore, it was reduced to a smaller luminary. However, this is certainly an allegorical understanding of the pasuk. What, then, is the simple understanding?

In In the Beginning: Biblical Creation and Science, a fascinating book reconciling the Biblical account of creation with modern science, Professor Nathan Aviezer offers an eye-opening interpretation. An astronomical body is measured both by its true size and by its apparent size or angular diameter. The apparent size specifies how large it appears to an observer on Earth. This figure is the ratio of the true size of the object to its distance from the Earth. This figure is expressed as the angle that the object subtends from the position of an observer on Earth. That means, if you were pointing to the bottom of the object, the apparent size is the number of degrees you must rotate your arm to be pointing at the top of the object. The sun is 400 times bigger than the moon. It is also exactly 400 times further away from Earth. As a result, the apparent size for the sun and moon are identical at 0.53 degrees! Now we can understand the pasuk as follows: The first part of the pasuk is referring to the point of view of an Earth observer. From our point of view, the sun and moon are the biggest heavenly bodies and in fact, appear identical in size. The second part of the pasuk refers to the true size of the sun and moon.

Please see Pi's comment below with some nice alternative understandings of this פסוק.

Emunah in Time and Space

The advances in modern science over the years have allowed us to learn much about the history of the world. Scientists have been able to establish a pretty clear picture of all that preceded us. However, the instant of creation is a point beyond which no discoveries may be made. Even the most prominent of scientists, such as Stephen Hawking of the University of Cambridge, have come to the realization that "the creation lies outside the scope of the presently known laws of physics." What existed before the creation of the world is beyond human understanding. The simple explanation for this is that before the world was created, whatever it was that existed lacked the basic components necessary for human conception.

All the matter in the universe exists in three dimensions - length, width and height. We do not live in the two-dimensional world of comics and cartoons, nor can our minds conceive of something physically consisting of more than three dimensions. When a cube of a given volume is removed, it leaves behind a space, filled with air, of identical volume. However, before the creation of the world, there was nothing. The second pasuk of the Torah asserts that before creation, the world was "tohu vavohu." Rashi explains "vohu" as emptiness and void. He writes that "tohu" denotes astonishment and wonderment, as one would have been astounded by the emptiness that existed. Indeed, we are astonished to the point of incomprehension at the very idea of nothingness. It is beyond the grasp of human thought and will never be understood. An integral component of creation was the establishment of the infrastructure necessary for the existence of the world as we know it. On the second day, the waters are divided into the upper and lower waters. This is the first evidence of a dimension in creation. However, there was only one. Left, right, forward and backward did not yet exist - only up and down. The next day the waters were collected to form the oceans and reveal land. The three dimensions were now in place.

Although a physical object may be comprised of no more than three dimensions, there is another dimension commonly included as the fourth - time. Before the creation of the world, time did not exist either. In fact, the word "before" is probably a misnomer. Before implies that which preceded in time. If there is no time, there can be no precedence. This, too, is beyond the comprehension of the human mind. With the first day of creation, the concept of time was implicitly infused into the universe.

Perhaps, these ideas are directly pertinent to one of the central laws of Keriyas Shema. The essence of Shema is the acceptance of HaShem’s kingship upon us. One is required to include this concentration with the recitation of Shema or he does not properly fulfill the mitzvah (Shulchan Aruch OC 60:5). Ideally, this is accomplished with specific focus on the "ches" and "dalet" of "echad," as explained in 61:6. The ches corresponds to HaShem’s rule over the earth and the seven levels of Heaven. This is a one-dimensional focus in concurrence with the events of the second day of creation. The dalet corresponds to the four directions, essentially, the other two dimensions, over which HaShem rules. This coincides with the events of the third day. Hence, HaShem’s dominion over the three physical dimensions. The Mishnah Berurah (63:11), in the name of Levush and Magein Avraham, writes that "Baruch Sheim Kevod, etc." is subject to the same concentration requirements as the first pasuk. In this pasuk, as the words clearly indicate, we assert the eternity of HaShem’s kingship. In essence, we are declaring HaShem’s rule over the fourth dimension, time.

It also occurred to me that perhaps the requirements set forth in 61:6 regarding the specific כוונות should be augmented for modern times. The שולחן ערוך declares that we are to (mentally) proclaim השם's kingship on the heavens and earth and the four directions of the world. But in those times, that was the extent of what your average Yosef could fathom. The average layman knew little about the celestial bodies and what lies beyond our earth. However, nowadays, when all young school children are taught about the extent of our universe and are aware of the planets that make up our solar system, perhaps it is incumbent on us to have this in mind and proclaim השם's kingship on all of the universe as we know it.

Jews are from Jewpiter

The Gemara (Shabbos 156) tells us that Avraham Avinu was incapable of having children because of his associated astrological influences. We are told that Avraham Avinu was considered to be under the astrological influence of Jupiter (צדק) and that its position in the west was inhibiting Avraham Avinu from having children. The Gemara then cites from Sefer Yeshayau (41:2),

"'מי העיר ממזרח צדק וגו"

“Who awakened righteousness from the east, etc.”

The word righeousness, צדק, can also mean Jupiter. The Gemara understands that Hashem placed Jupiter in the east in order for its influence to be a positive one for Avraham Avinu. Seder Olam (1) teaches us that Avraham Avinu was seventy years old at the time that Hashem joined with him in the everlasting covenant that is discussed in this weeks parsha, Lech Lecha (15).

Interestingly enough, the Gemara cited earlier tells us that the verse from Sefer Yeshayahu was Hashem’s response to Avraham Avinu when he asked Hashem about having children. This question of Avraham Avinu is found in this same chapter of Bereishis. Perhaps, this is why the chapter of Sefer Yeshayahu that contains its verse is read as the Haftarah for this portion of the Torah.

If one looks at Jupiter’s postion during that year 1744 B.C.E. (based on the chronology of Seder Olam) he will see that it was visible in the western portion of the sky, relative to the Sun (meaning it would be in the sky already at sunset, obviously it will rise and set throughout the night. Most celestial objects move from east to west on any given night) early in the year and then was too close to the Sun, so it was not visible for a duration of time. It became visible again, this time to the east of the Sun, just before sunrise, on October 6 (Julian).

What is fascinating about this event is that on this day, it was so close to Venus, that, to the naked eye, they appeared to be touching. To have these two objects touch is extremely rare (to come so close to touch can be hundreds of years in between instances for any given location), and such an event would be witnessed as a spectacular event. Venus is the brightest star in the sky (sometimes even confused with aircraft) and Jupiter is the second brightest. The two together would have been seen to be shining brilliantly in the east. Venus is also associated with fertility (see Ibn Ezra's Reishis Chachma) and this was the issue that Avraham Avinu was discussing with Hashem.

Another fascinating point is that this evening would have marked the night of Yom Kippur (based on actual lunar visibility, not calculation). As is noted by Rashi in Bereishis (15) some of the animal offerings of the covenant were symbolic of the Yom Kippur offerings, and many of those that were not, were still symbolic of offerings of repentance. We may not have a reference to this convenant being enacted on Yom Kippur, but the symbolism between the two is remarkable. Couple that with this extremely rare event occurring on that day, and one cannot help but wonder if this is what the Gemara meant when discussing Jupiter shining from the east.