Who Eats First?

We have a win-win situation when we our G- dly soul’s altruism and selfless attitude partners with our Animal soul’s selfish motives in doing good.

An Apparent Contradiction

When G-d tells Noach to bring food into the Ark for the duration of the flood, He phrases it in the following manner:’

And take for yourself from every edible food and bring it in with you. It will be for you and for them to eat.

Commentators observe that the Torah mentions the people first and then the animals in this context. This seems to be at odds with a subsequent Biblical statement that says: “Provide grass in your field for your livestock, you will eat and be satisfied.”

In this verse the Torah prefaces the feeding of the animals before the feeding of the people. The Talmud infers from this that one must first feed their animals before feeding themselves. Why then was Noach told to bring food for the people first and then for the animals, implying that the people took precedence with respect to their feeding? (See essay eight for a slightly different approach.)

Noach’s Unique Role

A simple answer to the question lies in the unique role Noach played. Noach was charged with the responsibility to save the world’s human and animal population from extinction. His entire raison d’être was feeding the animals. Indeed, Rashi, citing the Midrash, mentions that he was hurt by a lion for delaying his feed one time. Noach, according to the Midrash, was spitting blood and groaning from the tedious work.

Noach was as conscientious a provider for the animals as one can imagine. There was certainly no need to tell him to feed the animals first. The reason why the Torah exhorts us to feed the animals first is to avoid the possibility that we might be lax in their feeding and thereby cause them pain and suffering. Noach did not have to be told to be aware of that possibility considering that his whole life’s work was to ensure the wellbeing of the animals.

Fasten Your Own Oxygen Mask First!

One can add to this explanation. Considering the fact that there were only eight adults aboard and who knows how many thousands of animals, it was crucial for the adults to be healthy and strong enough to take care of so many animals. It is like the airline safety message that we should first fasten our own oxygen mask and then our children’s.

The message is that sometimes being selfish is the most selfless thing we can do. There are times when we are so preoccupied with helping others that we neglect our own health, physically, emotionally and spiritually.

The lesson we learn from Noach is that when we are embarking on an emergency mission to save the world from a calamity we must make sure that we are strong and up to the mission.

Furthermore when we know that our entire purpose in life is to succeed in that mission we do not have to be not to neglect those whom we are dedicated to helping.

Two Personalities

To better understand the foregoing difference between the two verses we ought to analyze the human psyche from a mystical/psychological perspective.

We possess two personalities. We are animated by what is termed either a natural, vital or animal soul, which, in many respects is no different from the external animal. This animal soul has many wants and needs and will go to almost any length and extreme to procure them. Its wants and needs are physical and materialistic. The animal soul is selfish and narcissistic.

The G-dly soul also has needs and desires. However, its needs and desires are rooted in a sense of selflessness; a desire to reach higher and transcend one’s temporal existence. The G-dly soul seeks to give more than it wishes to take. While the animal soul will also give, it gives so it can eventually receive, whereas the G-dly soul takes so it can give.

When we are charged by the Torah with the responsibility to feed others first and then ourselves—it refers to the person whose animal soul and selfish nature predominate. The animal soul—in order for it to do good—must first be on the receiving end. The animal soul says: “why should I help? What’s in it for me?” We must nurture that selfishness as a means to get the animal to get used to giving so that giving becomes a more permanent part of its personality. One can eventually get the animal to become selfless. One’s nature can be refined to be more caring and compassionate.

Harbinger of Messianic Age

However, when Noach was charged with the responsibility to gather all of life into the relatively small ark, our Sages tell us it was a harbinger of the Messianic Age when all of the world will be in a state of harmony and peace. People will get along with other people. Nations will be at peace with other nations and even animals will peacefully coexist with both other animals and people. A model and foretaste of that utopian life existed in the ark.

When we ask the question what is it that will allow for such peace and harmony in the future?

The answer is that the G-dly soul will be the dominant part of our personalities. Kindness and selflessness will come natural. Our struggle will be to balance the different virtues when they intersect. Moreover, we will always be challenged to rise above our good personality to be even better. Constant self-transcendence and balance will be our challenge.

In a world like that—where the G-dly soul predominates—one can afford to act “selfishly”—by feeding oneself first and then the animal. One does not have to be concerned that their focus on themselves will be at the expense of others. When a person is driven by their G-dly nature even when their actions appear self-centered they are really acting exclusively for the interest of others.

Thus Noach was able to reverse the order that was designed for pre-Messianic imperfect animal souls that requires one to feed the animals first and then the people.

For Noach—in the Messianic mode Ark— there was no such thing as selfishness.

The Paradox of Our Age

In the modern day and age, we are witness to a paradoxical phenomenon. There is more selfishness than ever before and there is more selflessness than ever before.

As we are making the transition from the period of exile into the Messianic Era, we can experience both phenomena.

The rationale for this paradoxical situation is threefold:

First, in order to maintain a sense of balance in the world, whenever there is a surge of positive energy, there will also be an upswing in the parallel negative direction.

Because we are closer to the time of utter selflessness, selfishness is now also asserting itself.

Second, because we are about to enter the age when selfishness will become obsolete, the forces of evil are mounting their last stand; attempting to salvage at least selfishness, hoping that it would lead us down the slipper slope to doing evil.

Third, G-d has given us the opportunity to transform the animal within by getting the animal soul to partner with our G-dly soul, albeit for different reasons.

It is therefore our task and mission to do both: discipline the animal soul to give, and allow the G-dly soul that is waiting to emerge and take over to express itself fully.

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