A Logical Flood and a Flood of Logic

We are accustomed to the two categories of rationality and irrationality. In truth, there is a third category of Supra- rationality. This dimension informs our rationality and guides it in the right direction.

A LOGICAL FLOOD AND A FLOOD OF

LOGIC

Justification for the Flood

Each and every Torah portion deals with the struggle of good versus evil, right versus wrong. In this week’s Torah portion this struggle is dramatized beyond all other portions. G-d says He cannot tolerate the level of evil and He must therefore destroy the world.

To justify the destruction of the world, the Torah, in the end of last week’s parsha, states:

G-d saw that man’s wickedness on earth was increasing, and every thought which came from his heart throughout the day was purely evil.

G-d’s logical argument for destroying the world was that man was so thoroughly evil that he cannot be redeemed.

Rationale for No More Floods

In the aftermath of the flood, when Noach offered sacrifices and G-d then promised Noach that He would never bring another devastating flood to destroy the earth like this one, G-d gives the following explanation:

I will no longer curse the earth because of man, for the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth. I will never again kill all living things as I have done.

It is interesting to note that the reason for G- d’s desire to destroy mankind was his penchant for evil, and the reason He swore never to destroy mankind again was because of his obsession with evil from his very youth!

This change of attitude by G-d is remarkable. First G-d sees the pervasiveness of evil as a rationale to destroy mankind, and then He sees it as a reason to never again destroy mankind. How do we reconcile the 180 degree change in G-d’s reasoning?

If this was a human being who changed course then one might have said that his logic was clouded by a “bribe” he might have received. But G-d cannot be influenced by a human offer of a sacrifice. Why then, or how then, did G-d change His mind and use the logical argument the opposite way it was used previously?

Is Logic Logical?

In truth, this reversal is an indication of how logic is influenced and informed by something that is above logic.

There are two opposing views of the role of logic and reason in our lives. Some say that logic and reason are absolutes. There are no grey areas except where there is a lack of knowledge. But if our minds were allowed to think clearly, unimpeded by emotional attachments and other pressures, we would always know how to act.

Standing on the crossroads not knowing which way to turn is a product of a lack of knowledge. If the knowledge is there and our thought processes are sharp, we can never be led astray.

The diametrically opposite view is that logic is subjective, relative and transient. What I think is absolutely right may be right to me, but in your world of logic it may completely wrong. Alternatively, this approach could claim, that what is logical today is not necessarily going to be logical tomorrow.

The logic used by G-d to both condemn the world of humanity and then be used to defend humanity, would suggest that logic is fickle, or, at the very least, subject to change.

The Third Approach

In truth, there is a third approach; the approach of Torah, as it is illuminated by the teachings of Kabbalah and Chassidic thought.

If we had to create a hierarchical structure of human faculties, we would place intellect above emotion, and emotion above action. In effect, we have placed intellect above all other human faculties.

Judaism accepts this order with one significant caveat. While intellect is above emotion and emotion ranks above action, there is something that transcends logic as well. G-d is the Creator of logic and cannot be bound by it. And while G-d gave logic a certain sense of supremacy, G-d is and is beyond that logical conclusion and is capable of introducing us to that trans-rational dimension.

For example, Passover, generally thought of as the time when G-d “passed over” the Jewish homes as He targeted the Egyptian ones, is seen in a much deeper light in the mystical tradition. G-d transcended His own system of logic which might have dictated that some of the Israelites should have been subjected to the same fate as their Egyptian counterparts. G-d, however, “passed over” and overrode His own system and spared the Israelites the fate that could have awaited them if logic would have prevailed.

Similarly, here, after Noach offered the sacrifices to G-d, he “touched” and activated the transcendent G-dly dimension that can use the same logic for destruction and transform it into a compelling argument for never again inflicting such devastation.

It is interesting to note that the name of G-d used mostly throughout the Flood saga is Elokim, denoting G-d of the natural order. When Noach offers his sacrifices and when G-d responds favorably to them, the essential name of G-d is employed (known in Hebrew as Havaye), the one that connotes G-d’s transcendence over time and space.

Logic a G-d Given Tool

This is not a suggestion that Judaism does not value logic. On the contrary, the belief in a trans-rational G-d, is an affirmation that logic and reason are eminent creations of G-d to be the tools for us to make the world a better and more G-dly place. But in order for logic to be constructive rather than destructive, there must be an effort to “reach out” and “touch” the transcendent aspects of our souls, and not become overly intellectualized. When we do that, the intellect helps us rebuild our world. The logic compels us to build and not destroy.

The Modern Age of Paradoxes

We live, paradoxically, in the most intellectual and anti-intellectual age. Both attitudes leave us vulnerable to isms that can destroy our world. In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, we’ve seen how the age of reason gave us the most lethal and murderous ideologies, including communism and Nazism.

The anti-intellectual evil is now threatening the world with its own brand of totalitarianism and annihilation, G-d forbid.

We now need a “Noach,” whose name is related to the word Menachem, the name the Talmud (Sanhedrin 98b) assigns to Moshiach, meaning “the comforter,” to introduce us to the trans-rational (not rational and not antirational) dimension, which will, in turn, usher in an age of peace and goodness that will be highlighted by the advanced level of knowledge of G-d. It will be a state of existence that is compared by the prophet Isaiah as a deluge of knowledge.

By harnessing the Moshiach aspect of our soul, the trans-rational state of consciousness that we all possess and is revealed when we pray, study Torah or perform a Mitzvah, we become the Noach’s who transform the destructive flood compelled by logic into a flood of G-dly and goodly knowledge

From the book Light from the Future: Parshas Noach by Rabbi Heschel Greenberg, published by the Jewish Discovery Center.