Noach 5775 - Was There Really an Ark? Biblical Allegory - Pre-Mincha

8/10/2019 Noach 5775 - Was There Really an Ark? Biblical Allegory - Pre-Mincha

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Did Noah and His Ark Actually Exist?:

The Limits of Allegory & Metaphor in Sefer Bereishit

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Being literal-minded essentially means being ignorant of the

manifold conditions in which our sentences, however

figurative they sometimes are, are true (or anyhow not

absurd). Allegory operates on this metaphorical principle of

saving propositions from the charge of falsehood or nonsense;

the difference is that allegory is concerned with saving whole

texts, or indeed whole segments of interlocking sentences. One

might say that the task of allegory is the saving of whole

systems of belief, like the Mosaic law.

- Gerald L. Bruns,Midrash & Allegory: The Beginnings of Scriptural

Interpretation (in: The Literary Guide to the Bible, eds. Alter &

Kermode, Cambridge: 1987, p. 641)

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1. R. Saadia Gaon (882-942),Sefer ha-Emunot ve-Deot7:1-2

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And so I declare, first of all, that it is a well known fact that every statement found in the Bible

is to be understood in its literal sense except for those that cannot be so construed for one of

the following four reasons. It may, for example, be rejected by the observation of the senses,

such as the statement, And the man called his wifes name Eve; because she was the mother

of all living (Gen. 3:20), whereas we see that the ox and the lion are not the offspring of

womankind. Hence we must conclude that the implication of the statement embraces human

descendants only.

Or else the literal sense may be neglected by reason such as that of the statement, For the

Lord thy God is a devouring fire, a jealous God (Deut. 4:24). Now fire is something created and

defective, for it is subject to extinction. Hence it is logically inadmissible that God resemble it.

We must, therefore, impute to this statement the meaning that Gods punishment is like a

consuming fire, in accordance with the remark made elsewhere in Scripture, For all the earth

shall be devoured with the fire of My jealousy (Zeph. 3:8) Again, [the literal meaning of a Biblical

statement may be rendered impossible] by an explicit text of a contradictory nature, in which

case it would become necessary the first statement in a non-literal sense ... Finally, any Biblical

statement to the meaning of which Rabbinic tradition has attached a certain reservation

is to be interpreted by us in keeping with this authentic tradition ... There exist, then, only four

possible reasons for a non-literal interpretation of the verses of Sacred Writ

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2. R. Shlomo ibn Aderet (RaShbA, 1235-1310),Responsa 1:417 [3rd

letter of excommunication addressed to the Hakhamim of

Barcelona]

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...All of those who expound falsely the Aggadot, and those who pervert the words of the Torah,

twisting them into heresy in their misguided imaginations in order to uproot at the our great Rabbis

intended to teach with them. And we have forbidden all their books which contain even one of their

destructive ideas

...they mock the words of the Rabbis as if they were Gentiles, and they render the great books as

falsehoods, filled with emptiness, to say that from the story of Creation to the Giving of the Torah, it is

all an allegory; Abraham and Sarah are matter and form, the twelve tribes represent the Zodiac, the

four kings who fought the five are the four elements and the five senses

3. R. Yedayah ha-Penini (1270-1340),Ketav ha-Hitnatzlutch. 2

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Behold, it was reported to our Master, the allegorization of the patriarchsbut the facts are that this

is not so. And I hereby testify as to the truth of the matter, after investigation with the one who made

the comments himself, and the many others who were present at the time.

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:Our honored Master already knows that is it not of recent vintage that we have engaged in deep study

of the esoteric meanings of many Rabbinic and Torah passages beyond their simple meaningas

commanded by the Great Rabbi [Maimonides] to carefully uphold the honor of our great Rabbis and1

to delve greatly into their words with explanations and resolution of issues in a way that agrees with

truth and rationality, in a way that does not detract one iota from the principles of our faith.

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Therefore, if it is indeed true that the public teaching of one of these explanations of the Aggadot

through the use of metaphor is forbidden, then surely it is this for which the revealers are guilty, and

not that their interpretations contain heresy and blasphemy at all.

4. R. Yaakov Yosef of Polnoye (1710-1784), Toledot Yaakov Yosef

[Jerusalem: 2010 ed., pp. 91-92]

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5. Zohar ha-Kadosh, 4:152a [Matok mi-Dvash ed., Behaalotekha]

with commentary of R. Daniel Frisch

Woe to the one who says that the Torah merely comes to tell us stories and peoples mundane words,

for if this were to be true, even in our times we could craft a Torah of mundane stories better thananything in the Torahrather, all the words of the Torah are the loftiest esoteric secrets.

Thus, the stories of the Torah are thereby the outer garb of the Torah, and one who actually thinks

that this is so - that this outer garb is actually the Torah - and that there is nothing underneath it other

than the outer garb, their spirit should perish, and they have no portion in the world to come

The following parable may be instructive: there are garments that are seen by all, and these fools who

see an individual wearing something nice, that seems to them to be the glory of those garments, dont

look any further to see who the person underneath the garments is, but rather evaluate that person

on account of the garments. In actuality, however, it is the value of the person underneath the clothes,

and the value of that person is in turn their soul underneath it all.

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Similarly, the Torah has a body, and that is the Mitzvot and laws of the Torah, which are called Gufei

Torah, and it is this body that is wrapped up in garments - which are the stories of this world in the

Torah, as if it was these stories that served as the cause for the MitzvotThe fools of the world only

look at the outer garb of the stories, and know nothing more, not looking beyond the outer garments,

and if they do know more, they know only the body underneath that outer garb, but the truly wise,

those servants of God on high

only look through to the soul of the Torah, which is the true essenceof the Torah, as they know that both the stories and the laws of the Torah contain within them

deeper/inner meaning, the hidden secrets of the Torah

6. R. Samuel David Luzzatto (1800-1865), Commentary on the

Pentateuch[Horeb 1993 ed.]; Gen. 1:1

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The wise will understand that the point of the Torah is not to simply dispense scientific knowledge,

rather the Torah was given in order to direct humanity to the path of justice and charity, and to instill

in their hearts the faith in Unity and Omniscience [of God], for the Torah was not given only to

scholars, but rather to the entire nation; just as Gods omniscience and reward/punishment were not

fit to explicate in the Torah in philosophical form, as the Torah speaks in the language of Man...

So too, Creation was not explicated in a philosophical manner, as our Rabbis said: to speak of Gods

true strength to people is impossible. Therefore, it is wrong for a Torah-studier (?) to take the verses

out of their plain meaning so that they might agree with natural sciences, and [just as?] it is not right

for a scholar to deny that the Torah is from Heaven, just because he finds things in it that do not agree

with science. But what is fitting is to both delve deeply into the inner workings of peoples hearts and

the ways of wisdom that naturally work within them as they engage in discourse with others

that

they speak to everyone with different garments and manner; so too the Giver of the Torah, blessed

be He, when speaking to humanity needed to speak in a way consonant with their level and not His...

7. R. Avraham Isaac ha-Kohen Kook (18651935), le-Nevukhei ha-Dor

[Yediot: 2014]; ch. 5, pp. 38-44

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The story of creating is not at all to be understood simply, but rather as the deepest depths of allegory.

Maimonides already said this

...and if someone asks, why this lengthiness for creation, and why not do it in one instant? To this we

respond in a wise manner, that the ways of cosmology and the workings of the levels of existence

never once moved us away from God, but rather brought us closer to Him in love and an elevated soul.

Behold, it is simple to all those who know the Torah, that the ways and details of Creation were not

explained in the Torah, only very little at all was revealed

the Torah only is concerned with andspeaks of matters appertaining to our world, and at that only in an ethical and moral idiom that deals

with directing Mankind on the proper path...

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And even if we explain further through use of metaphor, the order of Mans creation, his placement in

the Garden of Eden, the bestowal of names, the construction from his rib, there is nothing that would

oppose the foundations of the Torah...

[in the marginalia of the manuscript]: and there is no problem with imagining that the snake is entirely

metaphorical, so too the Tree of Knowledge - speaks of the revelation of the inclination to emerge froma state of tranquility and delicate innocence.

And if from paucity of knowledge, the perplexed of our generation think that the ideas of Kantian

development to LaPlace and Darwin and other scholars of our time should somehow destroy the

Torah, God forbid this. Our Torah is completely holy, with all its historical tradition and faithfultransmission - it should not shake even the slightest from any criticism. And if logical and rational

thinking proves such assumptions, even moreso from direct compelling evidence, they would only help

to explain the ways of the story of creation in the Torah in a way that agrees with rational thinking.

8. Tradition34:1 (Spring 2000), Communications pp. 111-117

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Noach 5775 - Was There Really an Ark? Biblical Allegory - Pre-Mincha