Intertextual Sources: Exploring the meaning of אות
Exploring the meaning of אות
Is there any difference between the meaning of אות in the following passage and the way it is used in Noah?
Read together Shemot 12:13 (God telling the Israelite to mark their door frames during the plagues)
Discuss the ways in which this is similar and different from the rainbow. (for example: What is the function of the אות (to show? tell? remind? something else?). Who is doing the actions? Is this to help the Israelites also remember that they will be safe from God’s actions – is this the same as the rainbow?)
Drama Activities: The meaning of אות
Divide into small groups – half the groups will work with the Exodus text (Shemot 12:13) and half the groups with the in the rainbow text – they should create a skit that shows what they think putting the sign up (on the door, in the sky) is about in light of their discussion.
Divide into small groups – create a skit that shows how you understand the rainbow text in light of some of the distinctions you explored in your community of inquiry / in these discussion plans
Can you think of circumstances in which the following might be asked as a genuine question? Can you think of circumstances where the question is asked rhetorically? f it is a rhetorical question, what might it be designed to get the person to think about?
Do you really want that third cookie?
Have you been listening to what I have been saying?
Aren’t you tired yet?
Did I say that you could go out tonight?
Aren’t you cold?
Are there questions that can only be asked rhetorically?
Using a Tanach, Look up the following references. Is there any difference between the meaning of אות in these passages? What do you think the function of the אות is in each case? (to show? tell? remind? something else?)
In pairs make up a skit where the dialogue consists solely of rhetorical questions directed at one another. See how long you can sustain the dialogue so it continues to make sense. You can use both forms of rhetorical questions – ones whose intent is either:
to lead us along a path of reasoning (in which case the person asking the question then proceeds to answer it (e.g.; “Why am I saying this? Because…),
to point our attention to something we are already expected to know (e.g.; “Do you really want that third cookie?”).
Leading Idea: Establishing (מֵקִים), remembering (לִזְכֹּר) and remembering in the future (זָכַרְתִּי)
In Verses 9:8-17 God turns his attention from Noah to himself. “As for me…” Within this passage he reflects on the act of establishing a covenant and remembering it – that is maintaining a covenant (keeping it over time), and the intention to keep it in the future (I will remember). God also reflects on the ‘sign’ (אות) , or rainbow, as representing the covenant (as a sign of the covenant), as a way of showing us of his intentions (it stands as a sign between me and you), and as a way of reminding himself of his covenant. These exercises and discussion plans explore these subtle yet very powerful distinctions.
Secondary Sources: Reasons for Returning: Hannah Senesh
Hannah Senesh (Szenes) 1921-1944
Hannah Senesh chose to run away from horror and then chose to go back there. Her story is completely different from that of Hagar, yet both leave and then choose to return from the reality they fled from. Hannah was not forced to go back, but did that of her own free will (was Hagar forced to return, or just strongly advised to?). Hagar received a promise for her child’s future from an angel of God, while Hannah found her death upon returning to Hungary – yet despite these differences, the comparison is worth exploring. Leaving
Hannah Senesh, was born in Budapest. She demonstrated a literary talent from an early age, and she kept a diary from age 13 until shortly before her death. Although her family was assimilated, anti-Semitic sentiment in Budapest led her to involvement in Zionist activities, and she left Hungary for Eretz Yisrael in 1939. Returning
Watching the war in Europe, in 1943 Senesh knew she had to do something. She decided that her knowledge of Europe could help save Jews. She joined the British Army and volunteered to be parachuted into Europe. After special training in Egypt she was one of thirty-three Israelis chosen to parachute behind enemy lines. The purpose of this operation was to help the Allied efforts in Europe and establish contact with resistance fighters in an attempt to aid Jewish communities. In March, 1944 Senesh was parachuted into Yugoslavia with the goal of making her way to her native Budapest. On June 7, 1944, Senesh crossed the border into Hungary. She was caught almost immediately by the Hungarian police. Throughout her ordeal she remained steadfast in her courage, and when she was executed by a firing squad on November 7, she refused the blindfold, staring squarely at her executors and her fate. In 1950, Senesh’s remains were brought to Israel and re-interred in the military cemetery on Mount Herzl.
Ya’akov’s bones were also brought back from Egypt with the Exodus, traveling with the Israelites and then finally buried in Canaan – what kind of journey is it to have your bones brought back for burial? Why might you want this?
2.And Sarai said to Avram, “Behold now, God has held me back from bearing; please come in to my maid; perhaps I will be built up [with sons] from her.” And Abram hearkened to Sarai’s voice.
3. Sarai, Avram’s wife, took Hagar the Egyptian, her maid, at the end of ten years of Avram’s living [dwelling] in the land of Canaan, and she gave her to her husband Avram for a wife.
4.And he came in to Hagar, and she became pregnant. But when she saw that she was pregnant, her mistress became less important [lowered in esteem] in her eyes.
5. And Sarai said to Avram, “The wrong [injustice] done to me is upon you! I gave my maid into your bosom, but now she sees that she is pregnant, I have become unimportant [lowered in worth] in her eyes. May God judge [do justice] between me and you!”
6.And Avram said to Sarai, “Here – your maid is in your hand; do with her however it seems good in your eyes.” And Sarai afflicted her, and she fled from before her.
11.And God’s angel; [messenger] said to her, “Behold, you are pregnant and and will bear a son, and name him Ishmael [God hears], for God has heard your affliction.
12.And he will be a wild donkey of a man; his hand will be upon all, and everyone’s hand upon him, and yet in the presence of all his brothers he will dwell.”
13. And she called the name of God, the one who had spoken to her, “You are the God of seeing,” because she said: “Have I continued [gone on] seeing here after I have been seen?”
19 When you besiege a city for many days to wage war against it to capture it, you shall not destroy its trees by wielding an ax against them, for you may eat from them, but you shall not cut them down. Is the tree of the field a man, to go into the siege before you?
20 However, a tree you know is not a food tree, you may destroy and cut down, and you shall build bulwarks against the city that makes war with you, until its submission.
… These verses toward the end of the parashah, Deuteronomy 20:19-20, form the basis for the mitzvahbal tashchit, “do not destroy.” While the verses themselves deal specifically with cutting down trees during war, the Sages extended their meaning to cover all forms of wasteful destruction. They taught that anyone who deliberately wastes our resources, either natural or man-made, violates the law.
For over 3,000 years Jews have been concerned about the environment. Although these instructions are specifically directed to the care of fruit trees during war, the lesson gleaned from them has far-reaching implications for life on this planet. Our ancestors understood that life depends upon preserving the land. Although they didn’t use words like “ecology,” “global warming,” or “environmental crisis,” they clearly understood and respected these concepts.
The tree in the Torah text is read by the Sages as a metaphor. They understood that the prohibition to destroy fruit trees implies that it is forbidden to destroy anything that was beneficial to humankind. Maimonides’ Mishneh Torah tells us that a tree may be cut down if it damages other trees or causes harm to neighboring fields. According to Maimonides, the Torah only forbids willful destruction. We are not precluded from making use of God’s creations but are warned against unnecessarily destroying gifts of nature. Needless cutting down of a fruit-bearing tree is forbidden not only in wartime, but at all times. Similarly, we may not destroy or waste anything useful, whether it be food or money or clothing.
In the creation story in Genesis 1:28, humankind is granted dominion over the earth. The same biblical passage that gives us this dominion also requires that we care for the earth; we are reminded that even as we till the earth, we must also preserve it. God’s command to “rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, and all the living things that creep on earth” gives us the responsibility to guard the world. Because God created the natural world, it is sacred. It is ours on loan, to be used and cared for. We are granted both dominion and stewardship of our world; therefore we are not to pollute its water or air or waste its precious resources.
As a child in religious school, one of the first stories I heard was that of Honi and his planting of the carob tree. When asked why he was planting a tree that would not bear fruit until long after his death, he replied that when he came into the world he found carob trees that had been planted by those who came before him, so he was doing the same for his descendants. It’s a simple story that we tell every Tu BiSh’vat, but one that teaches an age-old truth.
Today’s environmentalists raise the same concern as Honi. Since the mid-twentieth century, we have become aware that restoring our planet’s diminishing resources is a crucial issue. The destruction of tropical forests, lumbering without reforestation, burning of land, and the general wasting of other natural resources will leave future generations with diminished resources. Just over forty years ago, author Rachel Carson warned of the dangerous effects of our lifestyle on the environment. Silent Spring spoke of our reckless attempt to control our environment by the use of pesticides and warned that destroying the balance of nature would ultimately do more harm than good.
Since Carson’s best-selling publication, others have written on the same subject. Just ten years ago, Al Gore, in his book Earth In the Balance, wrote of his conviction that only radical rethinking of our relationship with nature could save our ecology. Whether or not we believe that we must save our resources because God has commanded us to do so, we cannot ignore what we have done to our world or sit idle without trying to correct the mistakes we’ve made.
Judaism does not separate people from nature. We’re taught that the earth is one unit, just as God is one. Whatever affects plant and animal life affects humans as well. If we destroy other kinds of living things on this earth, we are also destroying ourselves. The most important lessons we can teach our children are that not only do all living things depend upon each other, but also what we do today affects what the world will be like tomorrow. Each generation is linked to the next by its actions. Like Honi, we depend on what those who came before us did, as our children will depend upon us. Whether it is wartime or peacetime, we must care for the natural resources entrusted to us.
Your Guide
Throughout the Bible, we are urged to respect creation and not waste or destroy. Living things range from the human being to the simplest of species, and the rich variety of nature is to be cherished. In addition, Jewish tradition is distinctly linked to trees and to water; in fact, our Torah is referred to as the “Tree of Life.” Jewish tracts entreat us time and again to respect and enhance trees and water.
Torah has a multitude of verses regarding the care of our resources. How do we decide which ones to follow? Do we pick and choose only those that affect us personally, or do we move beyond our own neighborhoods, cities, and even countries for the betterment of all humankind?
How, in this age of technology, can we ensure that we don’t do more damage to our natural resources-our drinking water, our rivers, the soil, or the air?
When our military goes into another country to liberate it, as we have recently done in Iraq, do we have any obligations to the people of that country regarding the protection of their natural resources?
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