This sheet on Genesis 6 was written by Dov Berkovits for 929 and can also be found here
When compared to other languages, English for instance, Hebrew has a relatively limited treasury of base words. However, the rich tapestry of Hebrew syntax is unequaled in its operational pliability and that is an invitation for multi-levelled meanings in creative speech.
Verse 16 of Genesis chapter 6 provides a fine example. God commands Noah to build a skylight a cubit wide (a foot and a half) at the top of the ark's slanted roof. The term in Hebrew is "tsohar lataivah". The first Hebrew letter in the word "tsohar" (skylight) is a tsadi (צ) which is a sibilant sound like "ts".
The letters in the Hebrew alphabet that sound similar create an interlacing fabric of meaning that reveals the undercurrents in the text.
Listen carefully:
- "Tsohar", a word full of light, is connected in modern Hebrew to "tsohorayim" - noontime.
- Change the "ts" to a "z" sound and the word becomes "zohar" – brightness, glory, emanation of light.
- Change the "ts" to a "t" - "tohar" – purity, innocence.
- Change the "ts" to an "s" -"sohar" – prison, as in the Joseph story; the imprisoned could not see the light of day except through a small skylight.
What was Noach's ark? A prison in which human decadence shut out the light of day? A time of innocence and renewed purity? A receptacle for the vision of an Abraham who soon would revolutionize human consciousness?
But there is more.
The Baal Shem Tov, the founder of Hasidism, read the tapestry of the text as a reflection of the emanation of light in human speech. The Hebrew word for ark, "taivah," also means "a word".
On occasion our words are a closed prison waiting to be set free. On occasion they are our arks housing thoughts, emotions, and the visions of our souls carrying the fullness of our being on a stormy sea in search of shelter in the depths of personal meaning or in a gift to someone that human speech can express.
But always, as the Baal Shem Tov would have it, with a skylight that infuses human speech with compassion and a sense of renewal.
Such are words of the Tanakh.
Rabbi Dov Berkovits is the founder of Bet Av and has been a leader in innovative Torah education in Israel for forty years.
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