Lectures on the weekly Torah reading by the faculty of Bar-Ilan University in Ramat
Gan, Israel. A project of the Faculty of Jewish Studies, Paul and Helene Shulman Basic
Jewish Studies Center, and the Office of the Campus Rabbi. Published on the Internet under the sponsorship of Bar-Ilan University's International Center for Jewish Identity.
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"Our Rabbis taught: Three copulated in the ark, and they were all punished – the dog, the raven, and Ham. The dog was doomed to be tied, the raven expectorates [his seed into his mate's mouth] and Ham was smitten in his skin" (Sanhedrin 108b). The Midrash legends and commentaries on these three indicate that although the flood may have led to the physical annihilation of an entire natural system and wiped out all living things on the face of the earth, it did not eradicate the pagan world outlook, characterized by idolatry and illicit sexual relations. They represent the old world that was blotted out, a world that was preoccupied with itself and its personal pleasures and was cut off from the Holy One, blessed be He, a world full of corruption and licentiousness.
The focus on "me, myself and I" which characterized the generation of the flood lives on.
"The three who copulated in the ark" is not an historical story out of the past but a comment on the behavior, characteristics, and urges of human beings which we shall now try to explain.
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The Raven
"And he sent forth a raven." Resh Lakish said: The raven gave Noah a triumphant retort. It said to him, 'Your Master hates me, and you hate me. Your Master hates me – [since He commanded] seven [pairs to be taken] of the clean [creatures], but only two of the unclean. You hate me – seeing that you leave the species of which there are seven, and send one of which there are only two. Should the angel of heat or of cold smite me, would not the world be short of one kind? Or perhaps you desire my mate!' (Sanhedrin 108b)
Maharsha commented on this by citing the epithet from Bava Kama 92b: "'Not for nothing did the starling go to the raven'(meaning: a person is attracted to one who is comparable to him) for the raven is infamous as an unclean lecherous bird, one of those who copulated in the ark."
The raven does not acknowledge the Lord of the Universe. He knows that there is a
"Master" who runs the world, but in his words to Noah he calls him "your Master." The raven has a different "master" – the angel of heat and of cold. The raven lives in a world that ostensibly was made extinct, where only the laws of nature determine what happens in the world. Such a pattern of thought allows licentiousness– "Or perhaps you desire my mate!" – and condones disregard for others. "The raven symbolizes sinful souls, contaminated by the most evil deeds" (Alsheikh, Noah ch. 8).
The homilies on the verse from Psalms (147:9), "to the raven's brood what they cry for" ascribe to the raven the attributes of cruelty and of focusing on personal pleasures (Yalkut
Shimoni, Gen. 8, par. 58):
And [Noah] sent out the raven – it went and found a human corpse cast on one of the mountaintops and sat down to eat, neglecting its mission of bringing back an answer; so he sent out the dove, and it brought back an answer. Hence it is said:
One who delegates an unclean person is like one who delegates a fool; and one who delegates a pure person delegates a servant who is faithful to those who send him.
Idolatry also leads to releasing human urges, to wild behavior such as throwing stones at the idol Markulis, or the scatological ecstasy practiced before the idol Peor.
Ham
"Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father's nakedness – some of the Sages say he castrated him, and others say he sexually abused him" (Rashi, Gen. 9:22). The descendants of Ham include Egypt and Canaan (see Gen. 10:6), of whom it is said, "You shall not copy the practices of the land of Egypt where you dwelt, or of the land of Canaan to which I am taking you" (Lev. 18:3). Nahmanides interprets this to mean:
The practices … of the land of Canaan – this refers to illicit sexual relations, a matter regarding which the Canaanites were evil and sinful… According to our Sages
(following Torat Kohanim 9.3), also the Egyptians were licentious in all manner of illicit unions, male prostitution, and sexual relations with animals.
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Ham also represents the generation of the flood, who "seeing that good had been lavished upon them, became haughty and, following their eyes, became adulterous" (Rashi on
Sanhedrin 108a).
Dogs
Dogs were used specifically for prostitution, as it says in the gemara (Bava Metzia 5a): "A widow shall not raise a dog," on which Rashi commented: "lest she engage in perversion with him." In other words, she might be suspected of raising a dog in order to have sexual relations with it: "It was the practice of the ancient pagans, for atonement of the sin, afterwards to bring the price [of a dog] as a sacrifice to their pagan gods" (Meshekh
Hokhmah, Ki-Tetze 23:19). The dog also represents the world that was destroyed, a world in which "they mated beasts and animals, animals and beasts, and all of these copulated with man, and man with them all" (Sanhedrin 108a).
Other characteristics, as well, are associated with dogs:
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Greed: "the dogs are greedy; they never know satiety" (Isa. 56:11).
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They do not learn from their mistakes: "As a dog returns to his vomit, so a dullard repeats his folly" (Prov. 26:11).
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They are contemptible: "Am I a dog's head…?" (II Sam. 3:8).
How should a person who follows the "old ways" of idolatry, illicit sexual relations and stealing be handled? According to the homiletic literature, Noah teaches us three approaches: the passive approach – grieving over the actions of evil persons; the punitive approach – banishing the wicked person or restricting the person's ability to do evil things; and the didactic approach – steering the wicked person to behave properly by way of positive example.
The passive approach
Rabbi Hiyya said: Why did he send out the raven? Noah grieved greatly over the world having perished, and said, "Lord of the Universe, I know You are merciful, yet
You did not have mercy on Your world, and your mercy turned to cruelty; so, may this creature go off, for it has no mercy on its offspring and becomes cruel to them."
Therefore he sent off the raven… Rabbi Jose asked: But does it not say [Noah was]
"a righteous man, blameless" (Gen. 6:9); that being so, how could he have said such accusatory things toward Heaven? Rabbi Hiyya answered: Out of his great sense of grief he spoke thus, for we are taught: Whence do we know that a person is not to be judged by his grief? (Midrash ha-Ne`elam on Parashat Noah, par. 104-105).
This is the first approach: to be grieved by someone who follows sinful ways.
The punitive approach
1.
Banishing the wicked:
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Noah … sent out the raven – because the raven had copulated in the ark, and Noah knew it. Therefore, when he opened the window of the ark he immediately banished the raven from the ark… and it does not mention [that he sent it off] in order to see whether the waters had subsided… and the raven went to and fro, meaning that Noah had banished it, nevertheless it kept on returning (Or ha-Hayyim
8:7).
But Ham and the dog he did not banish, lest they perish in the water that was on the face of the earth, for he had no permission to cause them to die (Hatam Sofer,
Noah).
Such was the method: to banish the wicked and ignore them, when one could not prevail over them.
2.
Restricting the wicked:
"Cursed be Canaan; the lowest of slaves shall he be to his brothers" (Gen. 9:25).
After the flood Ham persisted in his illicit sexual ways, and therefore he had to be cursed and made a slave. If he is slave to his desires, he must be made a slave to others and thus kept in check. The dog, too, was doomed to be in chains. This is another method of curbing immoral behavior.
The didactic approach
As against those who adhere to the old ways, a model representative of the "new world" is set up in the hope that people may learn from example and mend their ways. As against the raven, a model was made of the dove, a bird that believed in the Creator and in faithfulness to its partner:
And there was in its bill a plucked-off olive leaf (Gen. 8:11) – Rabbi Eleazar said: The dove said to the Holy One, blessed be He, "Lord of the Universe, let my sustenance be as bitter as the olive, but in Your charge, rather than as sweet as honey and in the charge of flesh and blood" (Sanhedrin 108b).
The dove, unlike the raven, acknowledged the Creator and addressed Him directly. The dove was also faithful to its partner: "Not for nothing did the starling follow the raven…, and the opposite with the dove… since it only mates with its partner" (Sanhedrin 100a; Rashi,
Eruvin 100b).
It is no wonder that Noah was warmly affectionate towards the dove, as reflected in the words, "putting out his hand, he took it into the ark with him." All this, because the pure dove exemplifies the "new world" after the flood, the new way that human beings ought to behave: believing in the Creator, safeguarding family purity, being faithful, and aspiring to peace.
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