The World, Done and Undone
There are not many figures in the Torah whose names are also the name of the Torah portion they are in. Among them are Noah and Jethro, neither Israelite and both headlining particularly significant portions. There is no mystery that the portion of Noach should bear the name of the one and only righteous person in the world about to be destroyed and reinitiated. Yitro, however, is the name of the portion with perhaps the most significant moment in the Israelite experience, the Revelation of the Torah at Mount Sinai. Noach and the Flood may teach us why.
Noah’s name is in itself a story. The name most directly translates to "rest" and in many ways he is the quintessence of being at rest. Seemingly uninterested in what could be changed in the face of the looming disaster and willing to build a massive structure that simply sits, holding it’s pared down version of creation, waiting for the water to set it afloat. According to the account of his own naming though, his name was meant to signify a hope that his birth will bring release (N-ch-m/comfort) from the curse of hard labor for bread placed on humankind as a punishment for disobedience in the Garden. Instead Noah and his family become the last remnant of the Adam and the beginning of a new world.
The root N-ch-m can also mean regret and it is the word the Torah uses to express that G*d regrets having put human beings into G*d’s perfect world for they do nothing but design wickedness and cruelty. What began as ki tov, “it was good” has become ra kol ha yom, nothing but evil. So Creation must be undone and the world formed through making order must be returned to Chaos.
Noah’s world was to be ruled by the most basic law: we are created in G*d’s image do not damage that image chiefly through murder, violence and sexual abuse. They failed from the very beginning. What was missing was a relationship with G*d that elevated human experience and drove home the significance of our birthright. Special individuals connected or communed with their Creator but there was no message or charge to be righteous.
One of Noah’s descendants, Abram receives a new covenant and begins a relationship with G*d whose purpose is to be a blessing, a carrier of G*d’s words and way to others. As Abram and Sarai become Abraham and Sarah a new family is created which becomes a new nation. The relationship is no longer singular but with a people, the Children of Israel. Not until Sinai however does that covenant become a relationship with the entire world.
Which brings us to Jethro, Moses’s father-in-law and the Torah portion that bears his name. As the Israelites camp at Sinai, Jethro brings from Midyan Moses’ family and his presence is a reminder that the G*d who is served by the Israelites is not just G*d to them. Jethro is a respected leader of his own people and a man of conviction and wisdom that impresses upon Moses the need to create courts and a structure of justice that does not just rest on one person despite the people’s persistence in dropping the responsibilities and consequences of leadership at his feet.
When the Torah is given it is Moses alone who receives it and the Israelites alone for whom the commandments are intended, but the impact of the revelation is meant to transform the entire world’s relationship with G*d. Sinai reverses the flood and reinforces Creation itself The most direct connection is found in a famous midrash, a story taught by the Sages that runs along side the Biblical Text. According to this midrash the Sixth day of creation is the only day to be referred to as “the” as opposed to just “first day, second day” and this difference hints at a hidden condition. The Sixth day of Creation is linked to the Sixth Day of Sivan, the day the Torah was given on Sinai. G*d warns Creation itself that if the Torah is taken on by the Israelites all will be good but if not “I will return you tohu vavohu, the Topsy Turviness of Chaos. In other words the flood of Noah was an early taste of what happens when the world descends into moral chaos and despite the Rainbow promise that such a flood would not happen again, G*d knows that until the Torah and it’s wide ranging sets of ethical guidelines and elevation of the world to holiness take hold, the world is still missing the anchor of a meaningful purpose.
Much changes between the time of Noah and the time of Jethro but fundamental truths prevail. Human beings are created in G*d’s image, each irreplaceable. Yet, while we have the capacity to do good, destructive wickedness has a greater hold. Laws are not enough to guide us if there is no relationship to G*d to carry them. The Torah is the culmination of G*d’s refined plan to bring both the ethical message and the relationship into play through a covenant with one people, the Israelites and by extension Jews throughout the generation. Yet this covenant established at Sinai teaches the same lesson as the time of Creation: each person is made in G*d’s image and all else is how we best partner in creating a world that enshrines that principle. A world that is just because injustice undoes the world.