by Rabbi Avi Billet
You may have heard this one: What type of cake was served on Noah’s Ark? Mabul cake (Ice cream? Mabul ice cream… What kid’s game? Mabuls, etc….)
The Torah’s word for the flood is מבול (Mabul), hence the play on words for those who drop their “r”s when saying words like “marble” and “Canarsie” and “mother, father, sister, brother, daughter.”
Where does the word מבול come from – what is it’s “root” (שרש) that gives it its format? As it turns out, the answer is not so simple.
In his Haksav V’hakabbalah, Rabbi Yaakov Tzvi Mecklenberg lays out the following, which will be summarized afterwards with bullet points.
הכתב והקבלה בראשית פרק ו
(יז) את המבול מים. לרד"ק שרשו נבל מן ונבלי שמים וענינו מטר השמים, ולד"א הוא מענין בלילה וערוב כי מדרך המים שיעשו זה, ולרש"י הוא מלשון בליי' והשחת' גם מלשון הובלה והולכה, וזה אמת ברור כי עיקר יסודו בל ונתאחדו בו הוראות הענינים האלה כולם, וממנו נתהוה שרש יבל ושרש בלה גם נבל ובלל. ובעבור שמתיבת מבול אין הכרע אם שיהיה המטר של מים או של אש של ד"א וכבר אמרו רבותינו מבול של מים מבול של אש, לכן ביאר הכתוב ואמר מים כלומר מבול מים ויחסר הנסמך, וכן האהלה שרה אמו שענינו האהלה אהל שרה אמו (רוו"ה), והמתרגמו זרם שטף (זינדפלוטה) אינו לפי העברי (רל"ש).
• The root is נבל, as in the verse in the book of Iyov (38:37):מִֽי־יְסַפֵּ֣ר שְׁחָקִ֣ים בְּחָכְמָ֑ה וְנִבְלֵ֥י שָׁ֝מַ֗יִם מִ֣י יַשְׁכִּֽיב: (see below for translation) – Radak emphasizes that this refers to “rain,” but also refers to something which falls – which in rain’s case, falls from the heavens (as per Yeshayahu 1:30 - כִּ֣י תִֽהְי֔וּ כְּאֵלָ֖ה נֹבֶ֣לֶת עָלֶ֑הָ וּֽכְגַנָּ֔ה אֲשֶׁר־מַ֖יִם אֵ֥ין לָֽהּ: - see also below for translation)
• The word comes from בלילה, which means a muddle or mixture, which is what flooding water does
• The word comes from בלייה, which means destruction, related to הובלה והולכה
• Words which come from it are יבל, and בלה, and נבל, and בלל
He also notes that the Rabbis taught that there could be a Mabul of fire and a Mabul of water, which is why God tells Noach specifically that there will be a מבול מים – a Mabul of water.
The Iyov passage is translated in different ways by different translators. Using contemporary translations we find:
• Koren – “who tilts the pitchers of heaven?”
• Artscroll – “who pours from the flagons of heaven?”
• Da’at Sofrim (translated by Rabbi Yehoshua Starrett) – “who can lay down the wineskins of the heavens?”
• Chabad.org – “who brings down the bottles of heaven?”
The Yeshayahu passage is translated:
• Koren – “For you will be like an oak with withered leaves”
• Artscroll – “For you will be like an elm with withered leaves”
• Chabad.org – “For you shall be like an elm whose leaves are wilting”
These translations are not very helpful – in the case of the verse from Iyov, all point to something which holds liquid, and from which the liquid could be poured (a metaphor for the heavens which can pour rain). In the case of the word which means to “fall,” only the chabad.org translation (of those shared above) references the concept of falling through the word wilting (withered implies more of a drying up – which would not work at all for a flood!)
In his typical fashion, Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch also explores the root of this word, giving similar explanations, though without giving any Biblical support. Firstly, he explains the concept of “withering” from a different vantage point, noting how it works in the scheme of what we are exploring
“מבול stems from נבל which implies a “withering away” of vital energies in organic, animal, or moral life. Thus נבל (pronounced navol), the withering of leaves; the dwindling of strength, fatigue; נבל (pronounced navall) and נבלה (pronounced n’vallah), moral degradation; and finally נבלה (pronounced neveilah), a body deprived of it soul, a corpse. נבל is a weaker form of נפל; that is to say, a gradual withering and dying of vegetable or animal forces, of moral or mental forces. מבול, then, denotes deprivation of life.
The use of the term מבול to describe the catastrophe implies the mildest possible dimensions for the catastrophe. For, in any case, all life on earth is destined to become נבול. None of the creatures doomed to perish in the flood would have lived forever. What was decreed upon them was only that they would wither and die before their time.”
מבול denotes deprivation of life. An excellent working definition.
Hirsch goes on to describe how God emphasized that בשר (flesh), will be destroyed, but not the רוח, the spirit of every creature.
It is interesting that later in the Parsha, the Tower of Bavel (in chapter 11) seems to be named on account of two references to God’s mixing up their languages:
(ז) הָ֚בָה נֵֽרְדָ֔ה וְנָבְלָ֥ה שָׁ֥ם שְׂפָתָֽם אֲשֶׁר֙ לֹ֣א יִשְׁמְע֔וּ אִ֖ישׁ שְׂפַ֥ת רֵעֵֽהוּ:
(ט) עַל־כֵּ֞ן קָרָ֤א שְׁמָהּ֙ בָּבֶ֔ל כִּי־שָׁ֛ם בָּלַ֥ל יְקֹוָ֖ק שְׂפַ֣ת כָּל־הָאָ֑רֶץ וּמִשָּׁם֙ הֱפִיצָ֣ם יְקֹוָ֔ק עַל־פְּנֵ֖י כָּל־הָאָֽרֶץ:
Rav Hirsch rejects that the words here mean “confuse” and suggests God’s intent was to cause their language (which had been one – see 11:1) – in the נבלה use – to “wither away” or “to have become withered.” The word בלל, he feels, comes from the context of mixing in a foreign element, “so that in every particle of the old there will be some of the new.” This causes people to be unable to understand one another – a concept which Hirsch goes on to explain for several pages.
This explanation is consistent with the first, suggesting that God’s intent was never to confuse or to confound, but to introduce an ingredient that intentionally causes man’s progress or unity to wither and fall, so that a new order could arise from the proverbial ashes.
It is not the case that everything needs to be broken down in order to rebuild from the bottom. There are some politicians in the United States who, instead of fixing what is broken (or what they have broken) suggest to radically transform things. Others look to take the good elements of what exists, eradicate waste in spending and in unnecessary projects, balance budgets, unlock unnecessary regulation, and allow the spirit of human creativity to thrive.
But, as we learn from the flood, there are some things which are very very broken and are unable to be fixed. This includes the radicalized mindset, the terrorist mindset, the lack of human dignity of those with whom we have ideological differences who choose violence over reason. God will not bring a flood, or destroy those who choose not to participate with the rest of humanity in bringing goodness and affirmation of life. It is up to human beings to recognize what is truly evil, and what civilizations need to wither away, following the path of the dodo bird and the generation of the flood, so humanity has a chance of being worthy of this earth once again.
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