And Noah Rebuilt the Rainbow

Abstract

The first major work, the first enterprise narrated by Genesis is not the Tower of Babel, but a great ark of salvation and covenant built by a “righteous man”. The roots of the dignity and value of every civil and ethical technique, every economy and every human endeavour are deeply rooted in the righteousness of Noah. The story of Noah is one of the most beautiful, popular and longest stories of the book of Genesis, extending through six chapters, from 5 to 10. His figure appears when humanity, already out of Eden, had departed from the original vocation of Adam, and the sons of Cain and Lamech had prevailed over those of Seth. God sends “floodwaters”. Along with the human beings, animals and plants are also mysteriously destroyed – they share in the sad fate of mankind. As if the Creator, having seen human corruption, could no longer “see” his creation beautiful and good, as if the land could not be “beautiful and good” any more if that “very beautiful and very good” thing (the Adam) gets corrupted, lost and loses his vocation. This way the entire creation dies, too, to be reborn in the hope and expectation of a new Adam that would be still worthy to cultivate it and look after it in terms of a law of reciprocity.

There were two completely strange creatures among those that found refuge in the ark. Among those who sought asylum with Noah, there was Falsehood, which was rejected because it did not have a companion: in fact, the animals were only allowed to come into the ark in pairs. So he went in search of a mate and met Loss, who joined him on a condition of getting all the other would earn from then on. So the two were allowed in the ark. When they left the ark, Falsehood saw that everything he could scrape together disappeared at once, and went to ask for an explanation to his mate. But in response Loss said to him: “Didn’t we agree that all your earnings would be mine?” So Falsehood remained empty-handed.

(Louis Ginzberg, The Legends of the Jews).