by Rabbi Avi Billet
One of the instructions given to Noach is to make a "Tzohar" for the Teivah (Ark). Rashi's explanation is based in the Midrash – that the Tzohar was either a shiny precious stone that gave light, or that it was, perhaps most obviously, a window.
Ibn Ezra strongly objects to the idea that some suggest that the Tzohar is another name for the opening of the Ark. He prefers the “window” approach (plus another which we’ll see shortly)
The argument supporting the two opinions recorded by Rashi are supported numerically by the Rosh and Baal Haturim who use either Talmudic numbers or their own ingenuity to suggest that depending how you write Tzohar – without or with a Vov – would numerically equal לאור האבן (to the light of a stone) or אור חלון (to the light of a window) respectively.
[[ROSH -- Tzohar (Without a Vov) = L'Or HaEven (295) (Sanhedrin 108b)
BAAL HATURIM -- Or Chalon = Tzohar (with Vov) (301/302)]]
When the Midrash Aggadah describes in greater detail what Rashi summarized, it explains that God commanded him to bring precious/shiny stones that would light the Ark as if it is their (based on how צהר is related to צהרים/afternoon), because the Ark was otherwise dark.
מדרש אגדה (בובר) בראשית פרשת נח פרק ו סימן טז
[טז] צהר תעשה לתיבה. צוהו הקדוש ברוך הוא שיכניס עמו מרגליות שתהא מאירה להם כצהרים, מפני שהיתה התיבה חשיכה: ד"א צהר תעשה. זה חלון שהיה פתוחה, ונח מביט ממנה מה שיעשה, ובימי גשמים שהם מ' יום היה צריך למרגלית, והחלון צריך לפתוח אחר מ' יום של גשמים:
Utilizing both interpretations the Midrash concludes about how the respective Tzohars were used. During the 40 days of rain, they used the stones for light, and after the rain stopped, they could open the window.
The Pesikta further adds that the shining luster of the stones was more prominent in the nighttime – Rabbi Levi explains that when the stones were weaker (in their light giving capacity), Noach knew it was daytime. And when they were stronger, he knew it was night.
Where does one even find such a special stone? According to Targum Yonatan, Noach went to the Pishon River to find the right stone for his purposes. In other words, he followed a river that flows directly from Gan Eden. Not surprising that he should want such a connection, considering that his journey's goal was to revert back there somewhat, as he and his family were going to be starting the world anew post the flood.
A number of commentaries, including Ibn Ezra, Radak and Chizkuni, go in a different direction when it comes to defining the Tzohar. While everyone understands it to mean a "light" these three commentaries note the similarity between Tzohar (which comes from the term Tzoharayim meaning daylight) and Yitzhar – oil, used for providing light.
Radak puts it plainly and bluntly when he says,
ובאמת הכין נח שמן לנר בהכינו כל צרכיו: "The truth is that Noach prepared oil for all his lighting needs" (the weather was not going to be light giving for a long time).
Perhaps a message to be taken from these discussion surrounding the Tzohar is that there are different ways that illumination can come about.
A recent discussion in our synagogue addressed the rules surrounding candles on Yom Tov (holidays), and the reality that we simply don’t use candles for light anymore, due to our reliance on electricity, wasn’t lost on us. When we talk about light, we may be talking about natural light, such as from the sun, or physical light, such as whatever light we experience, whether in daylight or a lit up space, or artificial light, which could also be from bulbs – depending how dark a space is.
And we could be referring to an intangible kind of light, a symbolic kind of light, which counters the bad we sometimes refer to as “darkness.” Darkness can refer to the absence of light, or it can refer to a “headspace” a person is in whether depression, despair, or when simply confronting evil. Those that peddle in destruction are often referred to as those who peddle in darkness.
Noach was facing a darkness. The world he knew was going to be destroyed, because people in his time peddled in darkness. They were uncaring, they were self-centered, they did not bring light to the world. Aside from the word used to describe their crimes – חמס – which is often translated as robbery, one need look no farther than the instruction given to them when they left the Ark, as recorded at the beginning of chapter 9.
"You may eat of the animals and birds and fish of the world. However, the animal must be dead when you eat it. And you are not allowed to murder humans. Those who murder humans will be put to death by other humans (under the order of a court of law)."
To me, this implies that part of what defined the crime of חמס included those who were eating animals that were forbidden to humans to eat, and that for whatever reason murder was taking place with regularity, with no repercussion to murderers.
And so, as we once again contemplate Parshat Noach, we can challenge and ask ourselves what vision of humanity we champion?
Do we champion the vision of Eden, of veganism, of idealism? Do we champion the vision of exile from Eden, in which man falls again and again, committing robbery, murder and eating forbidden foods, to the point that the world needs to be destroyed? Do we champion a world not focused on surviving, but focused on thriving through channeling the human-instinct-to-take-life in the direction of animals for the purposes of offerings and food? And of course through humanity having a certain code of ethics that punishes the murderers for taking away from others’ pursuit of happiness and ability to live a full life on this earth, a life guided by a simple societal handbook that puts in order a basic respect for humans to be able to live and serve God in His world that He gifted to us. (An ordered society taking the lives of actual murderers, people with blood on their hands, by consensus is not "murder" or "unlawful killing")
Not much more needs to be said. We are in the final days before very important and difficult tasks will be undertaken – not in the court of law, but in the courtroom of humanity. Many lives are likely to be lost in a war that has at its core the question of Israel’s survival.
War by definition is brutal – there are no winners, especially when a media is on the front, calling every move into question. But those who murder and delight in it are not to be given a second chance. And all those who die as a result are all on the hands of those who began the fight to begin with, who ignored the Torah’s final warning against murder.
May Hashem grant a swift victory to the IDF, may we see a return of captives. And may all of humanity be granted to see the Tzohar – the light – that emerge from the darkness, as a very hostile region comes to accept that the only true path forward is one in which weapons are put down, and everyone lives and lets live, in peace.
Halevai the light will be so clear one day!
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