The opening verse of parshat Noach describes him as a “tzaddik in his generation.” The Sages discuss his level of righteousness – whether he was only a tzaddik in relationship to his evil generation or that he was such a tzaddik, how much more so would he have been in a more righteous generation. When God tells Noah of the impending worldwide flood that will destroy humanity, he dutifully fulfills all of God’s directions to build an ark and escape the Flood, yet he does not plead with God to save the people of his generation or undertake any action to inspire them to repent and save themselves. Thus the ark will save him, his family, and a small remnant of animals yet leave all of humanity to perish. Obviously Noah was righteous enough to be saved but many of the the Sages felt he did not do enough to save his contemporaries.
After Noah exits the ark when the waters of the Flood subsided, the Torah relates how he planted a vineyard, drank the wine and became drunk, as discussed in the Torah portion of Bereishit, whereupon he was, according to various opinions, either castrated or sodomized by his grandson, Canaan. The Talmud points out that thirteen times a verb in this passage describing his debasement is introduced with the letters vav and yud, which spell the expression vy – וי, which in Talmudic parlance was like saying “oy” today, the Yiddish expression of wailing, disappointment and pain. This linguistic phenomenon, the Talmud explains, describes the disgrace that wine can cause to those who drink incessantly (Sanhedrin 70a; Bereishit 9:20-24).
Therefore, we see that Noah, like most people, had both a righteous and rectified part of his personality, as well as some major faults. According to tradition he was called Noach, as the root of his name is the same as the root for “rest.” He is called this in the Torah as he invented the plow which gave humanity the tool that would give rest to mankind after the earth was cursed because of Adam’s sin. Only backbreaking work and with the “sweat of the brow” would man be able to eat bread (Bereishit 3:19).
Thus, it is fascinating to note that when multiplying the first letter, vav (of the phrase vy), which equals 6, times the 13 verbs that begin with this letter in the passage about Noah’s failure with wine, it equals 78, the numerical value of the word bread, lechem. This phenomenon points out the complex personality of Noah who on one hand failed his generation and also failed to rectify the sin of Adam by getting drunk with wine, yet on the other hand brought the world rest from the curse of the earth and the difficulty of raising grain for bread, due to the sin of Adam.
In Bereishit we saw how drinking wine in our day, especially to sanctify Shabbat, holidays, and lifecycle events is a constant reminder and opportunity to rectify the sin of eating from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Along with drinking wine at all of these occasions, Jewish law prescribes eating a seudat mitzvah, a joyous feast. The definition of such a mitzvah feast always entails eating bread, which from time immemorial has been referred to as the “staff of life.” It is thus fascinating that along with the opinion that the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil was the fruit of the vine, there is also an opinion that it was wheat.
One of the results of eating from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil was that good and evil which were clearly defined and separated would now be forever blended together in various degrees. Evil, which before the sin of eating from the Tree, was only an “outside” possibility that could be perceived in an objective manner was now brought within the psyche and consciousness of human beings, setting up an ego based subjective reality. This can be seen clearly in the complex, manifold personality of Noah, who both succeeded and failed, and had commendable personality traits and major faults. This, in a certain sense, is true of all human beings.
The symbolism of breaking bread and drinking wine, especially in the context of Jewish ritual touches on the very primordial challenges of the first human beings and gives us the ongoing opportunity to rectify reality and experience holiness and purity of thought.
