Seven or two: the ark of Noah

I'm back...this time for another year in Israel, but to teach instead of learn. But in order to continue learning, I am hoping to write a weekly Torah portion blog, with little interesting life bits mixed in. We'll see how it goes!

The number two is important in Judaism. It's the number of people you need to make a couple and פרו ובו, it's the number of people God created, it's the number of candles we light on Shabbat. The number seven is also important. It's the number of days in our week, the number of days it took God to create the world (although technically the seventh day wasn't exactly a day of creation, and it's the number of branches on a menorah.

So, there's nothing to say that one of these numbers is more important than the other. So, why not include both of them in this weeks Torah portion, פרשת נח (parshat Noah, Genesis 6:9-11:32). There are basically two accountings of what Noah is commanded by God to gather into his תבעה, his ark and the numbers in which he is supposed to gather them. Looking at the numbers seems rather frivolous, but it's an interesting thought, when do we take with us when leave the world for forty years? Do we simply need a pair of each thing to ensure its survival (oddly enough, we don't exactly hear about the progeny of these single pairings as they depart from the ark), or do we need seven pairs (but why so many), to make sure the animals do not get lonely and that there ill be enough to maintain the familial or herd mentality? And why are each represented in the Torah?

The command to take seven of each creature is specifically speaking of the clean or Kosher animals. Of those, Noah is commanded to take seven male and seven female of each. However, of the unclean animals, he is to take only two, male and his mate. The next verse, gen 7:4, reads כי עוד ימים שבעה..., for seven days remain until..., demonstrating another interesting use of the number seven. Ther is another week, another time of creation left for Noah to gather all these animals onto an ark of gopher wood which he has fashioned in his old age. But of course, when you're 600 years old, why would building an ark be tiring?

A very easy explanation for what happened and why we have these two sets of numbers is that the verse in 7:9 is simply saying that the animals entered two by two. But that doesn't take into account the verse in the previous chapter, 6:19 that requires Noah to have two of each animal on the ark. However, Talmud Sanhedrin 108b offers us some more recent writing on what actually happened on the ark (and by recent I mean still hundreds of years old!). It suggests that Noah couldn't distinguish between the clean and unclean animals, so the ark did it for him. Therefore, the numbers mattered only as much as the ark knowing which animals were allowed more and which less.

Although I don't believe in magic in the slightest, or witchcraft, the idea that the ark might have known who to allow entrance to the ark in large numbers and who to restrict is an interesting one. But it reminds us that all of God's creatures have value and are to be treated with respect. We, as both Jews and more importantly human beings, must take upon ourseles the responsibility to see the importance of all members of humanity. Especially with this most recent government shut down, where a gun fired outside congress had the entire building shut down and where people are simply left on furlough or without their precious food stamps, we must look to gather everyone on our own ark. But, just as Noah was not decisive of which animals he allowed to enter his ark, we must not be particular. We must allow all creatures to enter our sacred spaces and join us in conversation. We must be aware of our prejudices against others and not allow them to take over.

So, whether we actually have a real ark we are building in our back yard (it better be a rather spacious yard in order to hold the specified dimensions!) or we simply know that trouble has been brewing in our world, we know that a flood is not likely to come and destroy the whole world. Rather, it is upon us to change those around us and open their eyes to the good we can do. The more that we can do to repair the world in our general environment, the better everything will be. And of course, the numbers seven and two will remain simply numbers instead of requirements of how many animals we must allow to enter our ark.