On Noach and its Ecofeminist Potential.

The Torah portion for November 2, 2024 is Noach.  The portion includes the stories of Noah’s ark and the tower of Babel and ends with Abraham and Sarai settling in the land of Canaan.  In my feminist analysis of Noach, I will focus on the ecofeminist potential of divine acknowledgements and how the divine is portrayed.

As ecofeminists at the intersection with religion, one task we have is to interpret those sacred texts which have something to say about nature and animals.  Within Judaism, there are numerous such texts, and parshah Noah is one of them.  Afterall, most of Noach revolves around a great flood in which the deity destroys the earth and most of its inhabitants, animal and human.  

The divine destruction of the material realm is problematic.  The deity blames the divine decision to destroy creation on the rampant corruption of the flesh: human and animal alike (6:13).  In feminist thinking, linking material existence to corruption is unsettling since patriarchy often disavows material existence by linking it to evil.  In addition, in Noach, an aspect of the material world, water, is used in bringing about that destruction.  However, water is also ironically what all flesh depends on for life.    

The idea that the divine can control and manipulate nature would mean that in this parshah the divine is understood to be distinct from nature.  This separation between divinity and nature has also been known to be used in support of the destruction of our natural world, as in the spiritual realm is more important, nature is devoid of sacredness, and so on.  All of these arguments also destroy humanity’s connection to nature when humans believe in such arguments.  

However, not all is lost.  There is a connection between the divine and the natural world and that is shown in many ways within Noach.  First, that the divine can manipulate nature shows a direct connection between the divine and the natural world.  If the divine works through nature, one could also draw the conclusion that the divine is intimately connected to nature and thus a spiritual connection to the divine would include a spiritual connection to nature.  

Along those lines, the earth is included in the covenant (8:21-2).  Not only does the divine pledge never to destroy the earth again, the Torah highlights the intricacies of how the earth relates to all life: the cyclicality of seasons and days (8:22).  Verse 8:22 reads, “So long as the earth exists, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.”  The earth is described not just for its own value in terms of cycles of seasons and weather patterns, but the earth is specifically connected to humans and animal life.  Human and animals both live off of the earth’s ability to produce seed and human endeavors to grow and harvest crops and thus are embedded within nature and dependent on the earth’s seasonal cycles for life.  

Focusing on animals, while all flesh, including animals, is accused of corruption (6:12-13, 19), only Noah is saved on account of his righteousness (7:1).  Noah’s family is not.  They are saved because of their relationship to Noah.  In the parshah, animals are saved without a clear reason (7:19), but I find that throughout the parshah animals have inherent value and not just to humans.  First, the deity sends Noah to gather animals in pairs (6:19-21).  Here, they are not  divided into clean and unclean.  This happens only later (7:2).  Now, their value has something to do with their use by humans, but still unclean animals are saved (7:2, 9-15).  Why save the unclean animals at all?  They have no inherent use for humans.  That does not mean that they do not have inherent value.  In fact, the divine remembers the animals too, and not just Noah, in connection with lessening the flood waters (8:1).

Indeed, animals are the first to be given a divine commandment after the flood: “be fruitful and multiply,” (8:17).  Only afterwards does it apply to humans (9:1, 7).  In terms of ecofeminism, this commandment is interesting for two reasons.  First, it echos that of Genesis.  In Genesis, animals, specifically fish, are also given the commandment first (1:22) before humans receive it (1:28).  The idea that animals receive a commandment before humans illustrates a connection between divinity and animals that existed even before the creation of humanity.  Second, in opposition to that first commandment in Genesis, in Noach, ‘be fruitful and multiply’ never mentions humanity ruling over anything.  Instead, what seems to be more important is the repopulation of a decimated earth.  Unfortunately, this is nullified in a way when 9:2 suggests humanity should be fearful of animals.  No reason for that fear is given.  The idea that humanity fears animals may just be on account of their numbers.  Or, one wonders if this is to support one’s imagination when thinking about the ark and how it was possible for Noah to have all those animals live inside it safely; people only developed a fear of them after the flood.  Nonetheless, it seems that fear of animals and the danger some pose to humans is acknowledged here and I do not think this nullifies the importance of animals, their inherent value, nor the linkage between humans, animals, the earth, and the divine.

There is, as always, more that could be said about Noach.  Nevertheless, this parshah contains seeds of a more ecofeminist understanding of the relationship between humanity, divinity, and nature.  Today, we have covered how the first divine covenant was enacted between the divine, humans, animals, and the earth and the ways in which we are all interconnected.  In addition, all animals have inherent value as all types of animals are gathered into the ark regardless of their value to humans.