The First Covenant: A Model for Us All

This Dvar Torah on Parashat Noah was edited from one written by Dr. Rabbi Avital Hochstein, President of the Hadar Institute in Israel.

Photo by Yingchih on Unsplash

Of the many profound lessons that Parashat Noah teaches us about relationships, I’d like to focus on the one we learn from the covenant, the berit, that God makes with Noah in the wake of the flood.

A covenant is, fundamentally, a record of the terms of a relationship. Reading the terms of a covenant can teach us about the components and terms of that relationship.

This is the first covenant that appears in Tanakh (Jewish Bible) and its function is self-restraint in the name of sustaining and preserving relationship.

This covenant presents a model: Any successful set of relationships is predicated on knowing one’s weaknesses and putting systems in place to deal with one’s own limitations.

As the Great Flood’s waters recede, and Noah, his household, and all of the animals emerge from the ark, God makes a covenant with humanity...

The role of the rainbow, the need for a sign, emerges from here. A close reading of the verses shows that the rainbow is, in fact, a sign that God makes for Himself.

The rainbow reminds God of the covenant that He made with humanity: “I will remember My covenant… When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures, all flesh that is on earth” (9:14-16).

The rainbow is a sign that God shows to Himself.

It’s necessary, ostensibly, because the God of the covenant of Parashat Noah recognizes His own character traits in the rainbow and is reminded of them when the rainbow is present.

These characteristics, as they are presented to us, the biblical readers, include disappointment and sadness that could theoretically result in an extreme act of destruction, in a flood.

Therefore, the content of the covenant is based on a deep understanding of these character traits and it functions as a recognition of them and as a resolution taken to allow the relationship to continue, to enable the continuation of a life together.

God, as it were, limits Himself and says, “that the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh” (9:15), for the sake of maintaining His connection to, and with, humanity…

Perhaps every connection we make with someone else demands that we connect with ourselves first.

God is demonstrating the way in which an internal conversation and reflection can become the foundation of communication between partners, and the basis for creating a lasting bond.

God’s relationship with the world is not simple or easy and God has reason to feel resentment and mistrust.

The Torah says explicitly, “God regretted that He had made man on earth, and His heart was saddened” (6:6).

Parashat Noah teaches us very pointedly about a bond that is full of feelings of sadness, disappointment, and even regret.

This type of bond has a risk attached— these feelings are likely to bring about a devastating storm.

This parashah emphasizes the way in which this kind of fraught relationship can be given new life when there are some boundaries on behavior set in place.

The restriction isn’t on the cause of the disappointment or sadness, but on the person who is frustrated and furious.

When this angry and hurt person chooses to manage their behavior at the times that those feelings come to the surface, they are consciously choosing not to break out in a destructive rage, knowing that if they do the relationship dissolves and the covenant is severed.

Perhaps every relationship needs this kind of covenant, one where an individual is aware of one’s own weaknesses and recognizes them.

The content of the covenant is a statement regarding control over the potential destructive storm, a covenant that is a guarantee that the individual will set up boundaries to stop these potential storms.

An individual needs to commit themselves, to bind themselves, to make strict, inviolable rules regarding their own behavior, no matter how frustrated or even justified their position, for the sake of lasting relationships.

In Parashat Noah, God shows us that being in relationship with other people requires deep knowledge of ourselves and our own weaknesses, and a strong commitment to controlling our own impulses and our own behavior.

God does not try to change the nature of humanity, to change the “inclination of man to good.”

Instead, God talks to Himself, talks to humanity, puts restrictions on Himself, and becomes able, thereby, to be bound to us.

Shabbat Shalom