Rabbi Dr Zvi Aviner
Feb 2022
Ó
Copy Right 2022
Rabbi Dr Zvi Aviner
BLOODSHED-3/The Rainbow Covenant and Noahides
Let’s set the goal of our current classes of BLOODSHED.
We’ve started with the first murder – Cain killing Abel –
And we want to reach the Rainbow Covenant,
where G-d lays out the BLOODSHED Laws in details.
Since we all still live on contingency under that Covenant
Which applies to all Mankind, including Israel
It behooves every “Child of Noah” – every person on Earth
to be familiar with the Rainbow Covenant and understand its terms
So, what is the Rainbow Covenant?
There is a story behind it.
When the Flood was over, G-d ordered Noah and his family
to exit the Ark – he and his wife, his sons and their wives – o
meaning they should procreate and start civilization again
But Noah refused. He would not start procreating since
he feared, that his children, the “Children of Noah”, Noahides,
would repeat all the errors and sins of the past.
And if that happens, he thought, the Flood would return!
So why should he start civilization again?
G-d, however, insisted that they should exit, so Noah complied
But he exited “he and his sons, and his wife with the sons’ wives,”
implying that they were adamant: We will not start civilization again
With heart full of frustrations, Noah decided to go to Mt Moriah
and prayed there to G-d. For weeks the family travelled on foot
from Mt. Ararat to Mt Moriah, passing through empty
towns and villages, seeing the devastation.
On Mt. Moriah Noah built an altar on the site where Adam and Eve
had shown up the first time on Earth. He bult there an altar
that would become the prototypes of all altars after him,
made as a square of stones filled by dirt, with a ram
on the southern flank.
And he offered on it the first, burnt-offering which
Would become the prototype for all burnt-offering
brought by Noahides to the Temple.
Why burnt-offering? Because it is brought in silence,
without any human listening, not even a priest,
where your thoughts and petition to G-d go straight up
along with smoke.
In Hebrew, a burnt-offering is called ola, which has two
Meanings: Ola on your heart, the thoughts of your heart,
And ola- to ascent up to Heavens.
Silently he offered his ola to G-d, downloading his tribulations.
Please G-d, he thought in his heart, accept my petition…
I shall not procreate unless You’ve promised me
a change in Your Heart, and a change in the human heart.
Unless You’ve promised me to be more patient with my Children,
Showing then less judgment and more mercy,
And unless You’ve promise me d that there will be a change
in my Children’s heart, that they will not repeat the evil of the past
.
This was a different Noah. Before the Flood he “walked with ELKM”
With full obedience, but not he “matured”, he stood up in front
Of the Heavenly Court, adamant not to comply lest his
Petition is accepted.
The Torah says that G-d, amazingly, did answer
Noah’s petition and appeared to him in a new revelation,
The Rainbow Revelation, where He addresses
Noah’s tribulations one by one.
Since we all live under this Covenant,
it behooves us to be familiar with it
Let’s note that Moses’ revelation on Mt Sinai applies to Israel
Whereas the Rainbow Covenant applies to all Mankind, including Israel.
In that sense, the Rainbow Covenant is larger than the Sinai Covenant
And more meaningful to Mankind.
Moses, as a true and modest prophet, has not come to REPALCE Noah.
On the contrary, he came to SUPPORT Noah.
The Talmud says: Any Commandment that Noah said, and Moses repeated
to Israel, applies to both Noahides and Israel.
Hence the Rainbow Covenant carries TWO STAMPS: of Noah and of Moses.
So what is the Rainbow Covenant?
Noah’s Rainbow Covenant
“And YHVH smelled the sweet aroma, and YHVH said to His heart,
I shall not again curse the ground any more for Adam,
For the drive of Adam’s heart
Is evil from his youth,
Neither shall I smite
Again living
Creature”
“And EloKiM blessed
Noah and his sons and said to them,
Be fruitful and multiply, and filled the earth,
But flesh, with its soul in its blood, you shall not eat
And surely the blood of your life shall I require from the hands
Of every beast, and from the hands of man, from the hands of man
I shall Require the blood of man, whoever shed blood of man, by man
will his blood be shed For in the image of ELoKiM He made the Adam… ”
As you see here, the new revelations to Noah (on Mt Moriah) came as
two symmetrical wings, each presenting one of G-d’s Attributes:
The Wing of YHVH (in blue) shows YHVH’s Name 2 times
The Wing of ELKM (in red) shows ELKM’s Name 2 times
Each Attributes speaks out its aspect of the Rainbow Covenant.
YHVH promises Noah a change in Man’s heart,
that he would be less evil, as he grows in history.
Man’s heart is evil in his youth.
But Man would grow and learn to be less cruel and more merciful
ELKM lays out, first, a new Commandment for Noah,
The Seventh – one above Adam’s Six ones:
Which prohibits the eating of a limb torn from a living animal
and the drinking of blood.
Then ELKMM lays out in details all the BLOODSHED Laws
Addressing all the possible forms of killing and murdering
and the punishment that they should incur
by G-d or by human court
You see here how the new, Seventh Commandment of Noah
is intertwined with the BLOODSHED Laws
telling us that it came to overcome Mans’ evil heart
and cruelty.
Commandment number 7
came as a support Commandment number 3
Without noticing that connection,
The new Seventh Commandment has no meaning.
Hence the Rainbow Covenant came to enhance Noah’s morality
and help him to correct the errors and the sins of the past
especially BLOODSHED
Now, what are the sins of the past, that Noah worried so much about?
What are the errors that we, as Noahides, should correct to prevent another Flood?
For that let’s go to the Torah’s text where the
Heavenly Court is presented before the Flood
Here is the same Heavenly Court in session before the Flood:
And YHVH saw that the evilness of Adam was great on Earth, and
That all the impulses of his heart are evil all day long, and YHVH
Regretted that He had made Adam on Earth, and was
Saddened to His Heart, and YHVH said,
I will wipe out Adam whom I had
Made from the face of the
Earth, both Man and
Cattle to creeping
Things and the
Bird of the air,
For I regret
Making them.”
“And NOAH found face in the eyes of YHVH
“These are the generations of NOAH
NOAH was a complete, righteous man in his
Generations, with ELoHiM NOAH walked, NOAH
begot three sons, Shem ham and Yafet
“And the Earth corrupted
before ELoKiM, and the Earth fille
with hamas, ELoKiM saw the Earth and
behold it was corrupt, for all flesh corrupted its
way on Earth, and ELoKiM said to NOAH the end
of All flesh has come before me, for the Earth is filled
with their hamas, and I shall destroy them with Earth, and
“I, MYSELF, shall bring the Flood on Earth to destroy
all flesh in which is breath of life from under the Heavens
and everything that is on Earth shall die” (Genesis 6: 5-13)
Here again we see the HC in session,
as two symmetrical wings of the Attributes
YHVH’s Wing (in blue) mentioning Her Name 4 times
ELKM’s Wing (in red) mentioning His Name 4 times
YHVH first expresses Her judgment on Mankind then on Noah
ELKM first judges Noah then on Mankind
It is as if ELKM continues where YHVH stopped.
Let’s pay attention to the Protocol:
YHVH speaks first then ELKM,
This protocol would be preserved in all future revelations to Mankind
The two Attributes form a butterfly-like structure,
Like two symmetrical wings, Carrying Noah at the center
Each Attribute carries Noah and supports him from its side.
As if carrying Noah and his family over mighty water
What was their judgment of Noah?
YHVH liked Noah – “Noah found favor in YHVH eyes,” – emotionally
He did the things She likes. She liked his character
He was compassionate, merciful and forgiving
Otherwise, he would not be elected to take care of the animals
ELKM judges Noah to be righteous,
for Noah walked in ELKM’s Laws
On ELKM’s scale, Noah’s merits overrode his faults
We can note that Noah’s name appears once in YHVH’s Wing
while in ELKM’s Wing he appears 4 times
indicating that his merit as a righteous person was overwhelming
How do the Attributes judge Mankind?
YHVH speaks about Man’s evil heart
Never mentioning sin or transgressing laws
ELKM, in contrast, talks only on Man’s sins
never about the evil in their heart
Hence here we see clear evidence of what
each Attribute is all about!!!
Then the text shows the final verdict:
“And I Myself shall bring the Flood…”
The “I” – the Self, is the arbiter above and between the Attributes.
It expresses the final world, no recourse
Like in the Ten Commandments:
I Am
YHVH your ELKM
Who took you out of Egypt Land
Here the I Am is the arbiter between the Attributes
What were the sins of Mankind that Noah
was so warried that they would return?
YHVH’s Wing mentions Man’s evil heart
And that his thinking was about evil all day long
In ELKM’s wing, in contrast, we read about
Multiple sins of Noah’s generatio
“And the Earth corrupted before ELoKiM,
and the Earth filled with hamas
and ELoKiM saw the Earth and
behold it was corrupt
Earth was corrupted: With ADULTERY (II) says Rashi
Earth was filled with hamas: With BLOODSHED (III) and THEFT (IV) (Rashi)
And behold, it was corrupt with hamas: Their fate was sealed by their THEFT (Rashi)
A Noahide should know:
What is ADULTERY?
A Noahide should know already what ADULTERY was given
To Adam and Eve in Eden in details:
That a man should leave (sexually) his father and mother
Cleave to his wife (and no one else’s wife) so that they
Become One, introducing G-d into their marriage.
What is BLOODSHED?
A Noahide should already know that BLOODSHED Law
was also first given in Eden, but only in general terms
And that gap would be closed by the Rainbow Covenant
since it was not relevant to their life there.
When they came to live on Earth, BLOODSHED became
Very relevant to their life, and Cain killed Abel.
Still, the BLOODSHED Law was not yet spelled out in details,
As ADULTERY was spelled in details in Eden
G-d enhanced the BLOODSHED Law after the Flood
In the Rainbow Covenant, laying it out in much details
And enforcing it by adding a new Commandment- number seven.
So here we see the correct ORDER of the Commandments:
ADULTERY, BLOODSHED and THEFT,
The last two may be combined into hamas,
a deadly and vicious evil doing
What about IDOLATRY(I)? it is not mentioned specifically
in ELKM’s words!
But it is addressed by the very structure of the Wings.
In Noah’s time, Mankind split into two camps
One camp worshipping YHVH alone
One camp worshipping ELKM alone
Only Noah and his wife Naama believed
In YHVH ELKM Oneness, and therefore were saved
As a Noahide who has learned Genesis Chapter One
You already know that among the different forms of IDOLATRY
The splitting of the Attributes is the most attractive one
And that Mankind would be forever tempted to worship
Either MERCY alone with passion
Or JUDGMENT alone with excessive piety
Noah kept the Wings together in Oneness!
While half of humanity worshiped Mercy
The other half worshipped Judgment
only a small group, one family
worshipped YHVH ELM in Oneness
Today too, while half of humanity worship MERCY
The other half worships JUDGMENT
Only a tiny group – of Israel and Noahides
keeps Oneness
So here is the message of Noahides to the world
Keep YHVH ELKM’s Oneness,
Observe all the Seven Laws of Noah given under the Rainbow Covenant
And fight against BLOODSHED and CRUELTY
Not by the sward but by G-d’s Spirit
And prevent another Flood from coming
Every Noahide is expected to know:
who was Noah? Who was Naama his wife?
What were their trials and tribulations?
Why did they refrain from bearing children
till Noah was 400y and then only 3 sons?
How did humanity come to split the Attribute, their IDOLATRY?
What was their unique “corruption” – ADULTERY?
What was their unique BLOODSHED? What was their chamas?
Who committed the deadly mixture of BLOODSHED and THEFT?
The Torah devotes several chapters for describing
how the generations after Cain and Abel degenerated
Into those sins,
So that we would learn from their experience
And avoid another Flood form Coming
For that we’ll devote our next classes