Weekly Torah portion from Genesis 6:9 - 11:32
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1answer
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Why did Noah have to wait so long to exit the ark?
This is actually several similar questions compounded together. I hope this doesn't come off the wrong way, but it seems like Noah had the opportunity (and I'm sure he had the motive) to leave the ark ...
2
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2answers
74 views
Shouldn't the flood have ended on the 18th of Cheshvan?
Inspired by this question: New date at sunset: question on Sifse Chachamim
The Torah tells us that the Flood started the 17th of Cheshvan (Bereshit 7:11) and concluded the 27th of Cheshvan (Bereshit ...
2
votes
2answers
118 views
Inconsistency in listing creeping things in Noach's Ark's population
The animal population of Noach's Ark is commanded/listed six times in Parashat Noach:
Genesis 6:19-20 (Initial command)
Genesis 7:2-3 (Reiteration of command)
Genesis 7:8-9 (Entry to the Ark)
...
3
votes
1answer
96 views
Why use an active verb with no subject?
In parshat Noach, perek 7, pasuk 23, The opening word "וַיִּמַח" is presented as an active verb, attested to by the presence of the word אֶת (I am summarizing the discussion of rashi and the ...
2
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4answers
96 views
What was the sin of the builders of the tower of Bavel?
God seems very angry with, and punishes the builders of the tower of Bavel, but it is not clear exactly what their sin was. Did they violate one of the 7 mitzvos b'nei Noach? What exactly was their ...
4
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1answer
71 views
How high was migdal Bavel?
How high was migdal Bavel?
From the Chumash we know that the tower was built in a valley which suggests that its purpose was more symbolic than pragmatic. To that effect I am wondering if anything ...
7
votes
4answers
170 views
Why build migdal bavel in a valley?
If the point of migdal bavel was to reach the heavens, why not build it on a mountain instead of a valley?
וַיְהִי כָל הָאָרֶץ שָׂפָה אֶחָת וּדְבָרִים אֲחָדִים:(ב) וַיְהִי בְּנָסְעָם מִקֶּדֶם ...
0
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2answers
71 views
Why was Cham considered one of the righteous people of the world at the time of the flood
Why was Cham allowed in the Teivah? Was he not a Rasha? Rashi brings that he had relations in the Teivah which was forbidden, and we see afterwards what he did to Noah.
See this question which brings ...
3
votes
0answers
84 views
Why is the total count of Noah's life 950 years when the year of the flood took a full year cycle?
The Posuk says that Noah was 600 years when he went into the Teivah (Bereshit 7:6,11). Rashi (Bereshit 8:14) and the rest of the Mefarshim say that the flood took an entire year to complete. The Posuk ...
6
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1answer
84 views
What does מִלְמַעְלָה in Gen 7:20 mean?
Genesis 7:20, describing the flood, says:
חֲמֵשׁ עֶשְׂרֵה אַמָּה מִלְמַעְלָה, גָּבְרוּ הַמָּיִם; וַיְכֻסּוּ, הֶהָרִים.
Almost everybody translates the first clause as some approximation of ...
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vote
4answers
179 views
Why G-d had to confuse people's languages in the land of Shinar?
Why G-d had to confuse people's languages in the land of Shinar and scatter them across the Earth with diverse languages? What moral does Genesis 11:5–8 coveny to mankind execept the fact that "in ...
3
votes
1answer
146 views
Does G-d approve or merely permit human consumption of meat?
Many vegetarians and vegans argue that G-d gave humans permission to eat meat only because of a human failing in abstaining anyway. My takeaway from that argument is that, in light of a more ...
4
votes
2answers
100 views
Why did Noach plant a vineyard?
The first mention the torah makes of wine and vineyards is in Gen 9:20-21, when Noach plants a vineyard and then gets drunk on wine after the flood. What prompted him to plant a vineyard as, ...
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0answers
140 views
What is the meaning of the story of Noah's nakedness? [closed]
What is the meaning of the Biblical story of Noah becoming intoxicated with wine and then being discovered naked by his son Ham (Genesis 9 from verse 18 on)? Since the stories in the Torah are as ...
5
votes
1answer
185 views
Did Noah's ark have a deck?
Noach's boat is called a teva, which as far as I know means "box". (The same word is used in later Hebrew for coffins and closets (as in "hayored lifne hateva").)
It's described, at least according ...
4
votes
3answers
203 views
Did God create color in Genesis?
Can I assume that every creation in this world was first manifested in the world during the first six days of the Genesis, which therefore includes color? So was color (the spectrum of hues and ...
5
votes
2answers
184 views
Why did Noach curse Canaan and not Cham?
After the incident with Cham after the flood, Noach curses Canaan (Genesis 9:25). Why does he not curse Cham, the one who actually wronged him?
The explanations I've seen of this incident have Cham ...
6
votes
2answers
85 views
First it says everyone had their own language; but then it says all spoke one before being split
First, in Noach, pasuk Chof perek Yud, it says אֵלֶּה בְנֵי חָם לְמִשְׁפְּחֹתָם לִלְשֹׁנֹתָם; then again a few pasukim later, pasuk Lamed Aleph, אֵלֶּה בְנֵי שֵׁם לְמִשְׁפְּחֹתָם לִלְשֹׁנֹתָם. So ...
6
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1answer
144 views
New date at sunset: question on Sifse Chachamim
Avoda Zara 25 cites a difference of opinion as to how long the sun stood still for Y'hoshua: twelve hours, twenty-four, or thirty-six. According to those who say twelve or thirty-six, the sun finally ...
9
votes
3answers
152 views
How did Avrohom learn that nine doesn't work?
The Midrash says (Bereshis Rabbah 49:13 quoted in Rashi Genesis 18:32) that Abraham stopped asking HaShem to save Sodom in the merit of less than 10 people because Noah and his family who were 8 ...
5
votes
3answers
56 views
Noach: why the people's food mentioned first
בראשית ו כא:
ואתה קח לך מכל מאכל וכו' והיה לך ולהם לאכלה
Why is Noach and his family's food mentioned before the animals' food? The halacha is animals eat before humans.
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5answers
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Why are parshat Noach and parshat Toldot named that way?
I was taught that the parshiyot are named for the first significant word (or, rarely, phrase) in the parsha, and obviously names have to be unique. This week's parsha begins "eileh toldot Noach" and ...
6
votes
1answer
68 views
Noach and the Birds
Why is it that Noach sent out the Birds to see if the Flood had subsided and when he did find out he just waited for Hashem to tell him to leave.Why send the Birds if you are going to wait for Hashem ...
6
votes
3answers
109 views
Ben Noach Stealing less then a Perutah
The Medrash Rabbah בראשית ל''א ס''ק ה says that what the people of the Dor Hamabul did in order not to have to be punished by their courts is to steal less that a Prutah (minimal Monetary Value) which ...
6
votes
2answers
88 views
Promising not to Destroy the World, and “I will Return the World to Water”
After the Mabul Hashem promised that he would not destroy the world. Yet we know from Tisha Bav and Yom Kippur's "Asarah Harugay Malchus" (“The Ten Martyrs”) poem that when they were going to kill Reb ...
10
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1answer
106 views
How did the fish live through the flood?
If the waters were boiling as the flood continued, how did the fish survive throughout the Mabul?
3
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1answer
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Why was Noach allowed to eat fish?
The Ramban (Bereshit 1:29) says the reason Noach was allowed to eat animals is because he maintained them in the Ark. If he would not have brought them into the Ark they would all have perished, so ...
7
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2answers
93 views
Why didn't Noach Pray for his generation like Avraham did for Sodom
Why didn't Noach Daven to save his generation like Avraham Davened for Sodom?
11
votes
1answer
129 views
How did plants survive the Mabul?
Inspired by this answer:
As far as I can tell, there is no mention of Noach bringing plants into the ark. Moreover, it appears Noach had nothing to do with the survival of the plants, given that the ...
7
votes
3answers
200 views
Did all animals come into the Teiva?
Were there any type of animals that were destroyed completely by the Mabul? (For example - Is there any source that there were dinosaurs or any other type of wildlife and they were destroyed by the ...
3
votes
1answer
194 views
Is the Tower of Babel discussed in other Jewish texts?
Genesis Chapter 11 includes a few short verses about the Tower of Babel:
1 And the whole earth was of one language and of one speech. 2 And it came to pass, as they journeyed east, that they ...
4
votes
4answers
527 views
Are Europeans Edomites?
I had always thought that Europeans descended from Yafet, not Shem, and certainly not Shem, Avraham and Yitzhak. I am aware that it was common in the past to equate Rome with Edom, but I always ...
6
votes
2answers
166 views
Understanding the timeline of the drying up of the Flood waters
After the 40 days of rainfall and 150 of the waters surging, the rest of the Flood period was the time it took the waters to dry up. Rashi (to Gen. 8:3-4,13-14) gives the timeline as follows:
The ...
2
votes
3answers
286 views
How many Kosher animals were in Noach's Ark?
How many animals total of each Kosher species were in the teivah during the flood?
