{"id":34671,"date":"2018-07-22T13:08:30","date_gmt":"2018-07-22T10:08:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=34671"},"modified":"2022-02-09T23:21:03","modified_gmt":"2022-02-09T21:21:03","slug":"relief-and-regret","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/relief-and-regret\/","title":{"rendered":"Relief and Regret"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Lemech named his son Noah saying, \u201cThis one will provide us relief -\u05d9\u05e0\u05d7\u05de\u05e0\u05d5 <\/span>yenachamenu<\/span><\/em>– from our work and from the toil of our hands, out of the very soil which the Lord placed under a curse.\u201d(5:29)<\/span><\/p>\n

Why does the world need \u201crelief\u201d from \u201cthe toil of our hands?\u201d Why does Lemech name his son in this way?<\/span><\/p>\n

Rashi says: \u201cFor until Noah came people had no ploughing implements and Noah invented them. The earth had brought forth thorns and thistles when they sowed wheat in consequence of the curse imposed upon Adam\u2026\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

But did Noah\u2019s father know that his son would alleviate Adam\u2019s curse? Was he a prophet? Rabbi Joseph Kara suggests:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen Noah was born, they felt that Adam\u2019s curse had ended. Calculate the years and see that Noah was born in the 930<\/span>th<\/span> year after creation, just after Adam died.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Adam had been cursed: \u201cThorns and thistles shall it sprout for you\u2026 By the sweat of your brow shall you eat bread, until you return to the ground that God has cursed\u201d (3:18-19) When I hear this name given to this baby, I gain an insight into the deep sigh of relief with which humanity would have greeted Adam\u2019s death, as if the curse of humanity would now be removed. If Noah did in fact invent the plough, it would have been a product of the acute attention paid to the revival of the fertility of the soil in the aftermath of Adam.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Noah narrative is replete with subtle word plays on the Hebrew letters – \u05e0\u05d7 – that make up Noah\u2019s name, reflecting the \u201crelief\u201d or \u201crespite\u201d that Noah was to bring into the world. As \u201cthe Ark came to rest (8:4) \u05d5\u05ea<\/span>\u05e0\u05d7<\/b> – <\/span>vatanach<\/span><\/em>,<\/span><\/i> the \u201cresting place \u2013 \u05de<\/span>\u05e0\u05d5\u05d7 <\/b>– <\/span>manoach<\/span><\/em>\u201d for the dove (8:9), and the \u201cpleasing smell\u201d (8:21) <\/span>\u05e0\u05d9\u05d7\u05d5\u05d7 <\/b>nichoach<\/span><\/em> of Noah\u2019s sacrifice that induces God to pronounce that he will no longer curse civilization.<\/span><\/p>\n

Noah provides relief, but only by saving his intimate family. Tragically God did not offer relief or rest \u00a0for humanity as a whole; only for Noah. Instead of relief, we have <\/span>regret <\/b>that he had created mankind (Gen. 6:6-7): “\u05d5\u05d9<\/span>\u05e0\u05d7<\/b>\u05dd \u05d4’ \u05db\u05d9 \u05e2\u05e9\u05d4 \u05d0\u05ea \u05d4\u05d0\u05d3\u05dd \u05d1\u05d0\u05e8\u05e5 …\u05db\u05d9 <\/span>\u05e0\u05d7<\/b>\u05de\u05ea\u05d9 \u05db\u05d9 \u05e2\u05e9\u05d9\u05ea\u05dd” – \u201c<\/span>vayenachem\u2026 ki nichamti<\/span><\/em>\u2026\u201d<\/span><\/i> – And the LORD regretted that He had made man on earth\u2026 \u201cI will blot out from the earth the men whom I created\u2026for I regret that I made them.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","image":false,"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"Relief and Regret","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"The Many Meanings of a Name","preview_embedded":"","preview_image":false,"preview_video":"","external_link":"","link_for_pay":false,"tile_gallery_items":false,"credits":""},"alternate_tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"","hide_media":false},"tile_group":{"preview_image_url":false,"main_caption":"","sub_caption":"","":null,"popup_package_extra_content":"","read_time":""},"home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo":{"seo_title":"","seo_description":"","seo_default_title":"","seo_default_description":""},"old_create_date":"","links":false,"send_noty":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34671"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34671"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34671\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":101849,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34671\/revisions\/101849"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}