Noah: The Hidden Treasure

Tamar Pelleg

Since then, a lot of water has flowed in the river of my life. Today, apart from my everyday writing in my “Morning Diary”, I write regularly on topics related to the Hebrew Bible’s portion of the week, from a psycho-spiritual perspective and on topics related to relationships that I post on Facebook, blog, digital story collections and recently I am engaged in writing a book and my dream begins to come true.

Parshat Ki Tetze

Parshat Shoftim

Parshat Re’eh

Parshat Ekev

Noah: The Hidden Treasure

Noah (נח) in reverse letters in Hebrew, reads: Chen חנ)), which is an acronym for “hidden wisdom.”(חכמה נסתרת)

So, what is hidden here and what can be revealed?

When God gives Noah the instructions for building the ark — the Torah uses the words “and you atoned for it … in ransom.” וכפרת אותה בכפר”” (and you shalt cover it with pitch within and without” (Genesis 6:14).

In the description of the construction of the Mishkan (Parshat “T’ruma”. Genesis 25:21) there is a use of the same root letters of the Hebrew when the Ark is described: “ And thou shalt put the seat of mercy above upon the Ark” הכפורת (כ.פ.ר.) (Exodus 25:21)

Both the תיבה (Noah’s Ark) and the Ark for the Torah are basically “boxes”.

And I ask myself — what can this comparison of the two Arks teach me?

In Noah’s story, Noah is commanded to bring his family to the Ark and a pair of each of the animals, for the continuation of life after the flood.

In Parshat T’ruma, inside the Ark that is placed inside the Holy of Holies, are the tablets of the covenant.

And the children of Israel are commanded – through Moses – to build a tabernacle with an Ark containing the Holy Torah.

That is, what is inside the Ark is the “genetic code” for the continuation of life. This is “treasure.”

The Torah is the essence of livelihood for future generations.

This comparison teaches me that the construction of Noah’s Ark might have another meaning, a hidden layer and that is:

Building a place to present (embody) the holiness, to keep the divine spark that descended into the world with the creation of Man, in order not to extinguish it when God decides to “erase” His “creation” and destroy human beings (except Noah and his family).

And to continue this line of thought, Noah was not saved just to remain the only man on earth, nor the ultimate model for the future generations, but rather, the person from whom future generations will develop.

He carries the DNA of human beings for the future. This is the “treasure.”

Perhaps the obvious analogy with regard to the Torah is that the Torah was not given solely in order to remain in its original, concise, basic, primordial form — but as a DNA Torah, the blueprint of the Torah, that is supposed to be developed with every new evolved generation, to an evolved, developed and improved Torah.

And here is where we come into the picture.

Our role, to my understanding, is not to see the Torah as a museum exhibit and leave it in a glass closet like Sleeping Beauty, but to wake her up with a kiss:

Read it through an innovative lens, that brings an up-to-date understandings to the old text, and revives it, for us and for future generations.

I bless us, that we may learn to keep the divine spark that exists within us, although often it is threatened with extinction by all kinds of storms outside and inside us, and that we will be able to sail our ship in the stormy seas of life and bring it to a safe shore.