From the time of Noah to the contemporary world

I preface these comments with a cautionary note. One cannot equate what we see as a meaning or a translation of a word in the Chumash/Tanach with modern use of the same term. A classic example is reference to “chashmal” in the vision of the prophet Yechezkel that is read as the haftarah of the first day of Shavuot. Modern Hebrew – whose instigators sought to adapt ancient terminology to modern day linguistic needs – related that term to “electricity” which clearly was not its meaning in the time of the prophet. But it was so adopted in a belief that there was similarity between the glow seen by the prophet and that sometimes associated with electricity as we know it today.

However as per Chassidic lore, “living with the times” means living with the weekly Torah reading. And as we make the 10 generation move from the Creation narrative of parashat Bereshit to the story of Noach, one word jumps out at us. At the very beginning of the parashah, we read in Bereshit 6:11: “and the earth had become corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with ‘chamas’.” 

“Chamas” is variously translated as “gezel” (a word for robbery) or as transgression of sexual mores. Both interpretations refer to lack of respect for behavioural and social boundaries – treated by God at the time as the ultimate reason that the society of the era could not continue to exist. Frankly – and again I emphasise that we need to beware of use of words outside their original context – Hamas of today as the ultimate horrific entity of our generation as evidenced throughout the last three years, (and even earlier) is exactly guilty of that crime. As an interesting aside one might note that the Targum Onkelos – the basic Aramaic translation of Torah that appears in almost every Chumash beside the basic text and (that once widely was, and in certain communities still is, read aloud in conjunction with the Torah reading) translates “chamas” as “chatufin” – presumably meaning snatching in the sense of robbery, but in fact is the word so often used in our time regarding those kidnapped by Hamas. 

The answer to the crime of “chamas” as per the Chumash was total obliteration. How that can be applied to our issues today is a moot question whose costs/benefits need careful consideration, and at least for the moment would appear to be in abeyance.

So much for the well-known story at the beginning of the parasha.