WATER, WATER, EVERYWHERE

Noach is a very wet parsha. The words geshem, rain; mayim, water; mabul, flood; maayanot, springs; tehom, depths; and anan, cloud, appear multiple times. Mayim, water, appears no less than twenty-one times! For an entire solar year, the world was covered by the waters of the flood. The rain began on the 17^th of Marcheshvan and the following year, on the 27^th of Marcheshvan, the surface of the earth was dry. Rashi (Bereishit 8:14) notes that these 11 extra days account for the difference between a lunar year which is 354 days (12 months of 29 and a ½ days each), and a solar year which is 365 days. During that time, the world was cleansed of all the immorality, theft and violence that had plagued it. The Sages (cited by Rashi on 6:13) explain that even the first three handbreadths of topsoil, the depth of a plough, were washed away so that agriculture could start afresh after the flood. In a sense, the world was immersed in a mikveh that purified it, so that when the flood was over, it emerged as a brand new entity. There is a similar concept in reference to one who converts and completes the process by immersing in a mikveh (Yevamot 22a), “one who converts is like a newly born baby.”

Over the festivals of Sukkot and Shemini Atzeret, I noticed just how much the subject of water is central to our prayers during this time period. This is most fitting. After all, the Talmud (Rosh Hashanah 16a) states, “And for what reason did the Torah say: Pour water onto the altar in the Temple on the festival of Sukkot? The Holy One, Blessed be He, said: Pour water before Me on the festival of Sukkot so that the rains of the year, which begin to fall after Sukkot, will be blessed for you.” The Hoshanot prayers during Sukkot and, in particular, those recited on the last day, Hoshana Rabba, are overflowing with reference to water. And then, on Shemini Atzeret there is the dramatic Tefillat Geshem, the Prayer for Rain, which is said in anticipation of the rainy season in Israel which begins in Marcheshvan, the same month in which the great deluge occurred.   It appears from these prayers that almost every major Biblical character was somehow connected to water.  We mention them and the particular events where water played an important role, as a way of petitioning God for a good rainy season.

Here are some examples:

Abraham welcomed the three visitors (angels disguised as Arabs) with the words (Bereishit 18:4), “Let a little bit of water be brought and wash your feet.”

Yitzchak, about whom the Torah says very little, spent a lot of time digging new wells and re-digging the wells of his father that the Philistines filled in. The Torah records the names he gave to three wells: eisek, sitna and rechovot. (Bereishit 26:15-22).

Yaakov (Bereishit 29:9) and Moshe (Shmot 2:15-16) both met their wives, Rachel and Zipporah respectively, at a well. Moreover, Eliezer, Avraham’s servant, encountered Rivkah, Yitzchak’s future wife, at the well in Charan where the young lady gave him and his camels ample water to drink (Bereishit chapter 24).

Moshe’s name is derived from the fact that he was drawn out of water, in that case, the river Nile (Shmot 2:10).

Aharon, his sons and their descendants, the Cohanim, would wash their hands and feet every day in the sanctuary from a copper basin filled with water (Shmot 30:17-21) and on Yom Kippur, the High Priest would immerse no less than five times in a mikveh when he changed from the golden vestments to the linen vestments and vice versa (Vayikrah 16). One who has become impure must immerse in a mikveh, a body of gathered water, or a mayaan, a spring of flowing water, in order to become pure again (Vayikrah 11:36). Water features prominently in the Exodus narrative: there are the plagues of blood, frogs and lice. Pharaoh decrees that all the boys must be thrown into the river Nile and the Children of Israel are free of the Egyptians when they cross through the sea on dry land. Moshe hits the rock on two separate occasions, once in the first year following the Exodus and once in the fortieth year. The rock accompanies the Israelites throughout their travels in the wilderness, supplying them with a reliable source of fresh water. It becomes known as the Well of Miriam and there is even a song dedicated to the well in the book of Bamidbar (21:16-20). It is probably not an exaggeration to say that water features in some form or another in almost every parsha of the Torah!

The Torah often frames blessing and curse in the guise of abundant rain in the former, and drought in the latter. Take, for example, the second paragraph of the Shemah (Devarim 11:13-17): “Should you thoroughly heed My commandments that I am commanding you today—to love Hashem, your God, and to serve Him with all your desires and with your entire beings, I will provide the rain of your land in its time, fall rain and spring rain, and you will harvest your grain and your wine and your olive oil. And I will provide grass in your field for your animals, and you will eat and be full. Look out for yourselves lest your heart be misled and you turn away and serve other gods and bow to them, and Hashem’s anger will be aroused against you, and He will restrain the skies and there will be no rain, and the soil will not yield its produce, and you will swiftly be removed from upon the good land that Hashem is giving you.” This is a serious warning because the Land of Israel is very dependent on rain, as a previous passage (ibid verses 10-11 ) states, “For the land where you are arriving to inherit is not like the land of Egypt from which you departed, where you planted your seed and watered [it] on foot like a vegetable garden. Rather, the land where you are crossing to inherit is a land of mountains and plains—by the rain of the skies will you drink water.”

Water always has a dual nature – it can be a source of great blessing, as in a good, soaking downpour, or it can be a force of incredible destruction. Rashi points this out in his commentary on our parsha (Bereishit 7:12), “There was rain on the earth forty days and forty nights.” But later on (verse 17) it says, “And the flood was upon the earth”! But the explanation is this: when He poured down the water at first He made it fall in mercy (gently), in order that if the people would repent, it might prove a rain of blessing; but when they did not repent it became a destructive flood (Bereishit Rabbah 31:12).” Our ancestors were keenly aware of this and they therefore composed elaborate prayers and set up systems of fast days (see Tractate Ta’anit), all of which are designed to entreaty God for adequate rain that brings blessing in its wake. In our modern era, where water comes out of a tap, we often forget just how precious a commodity it is and just how much we cannot live without it. This was a lesson I learned a few years ago when Cape Town was facing “day zero”, that dreaded date when the taps would run dry! Thank God, it did not happen, and we pray that it never does! 

Lee, Chani Merryl & Naomi join me in wishing you Shabbat Shalom!

Rabbi Liebenberg.

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