[Avodah] Kos Shel Bracha

[Micha Berger]

On Fri, 6 Jul 2007 00:55:32 EDT, RnTK <T613K at aol.com> wrote:
:> I would think that the story with Noach proves that the notion  of
:> praising Hashem over a cup of wine (or perhaps celebrating in
:> general) is something innate in the human condition.

: "Celebrating"?  Was Noach celebrating the "human condition" of  having
: almost everyone you know dead in a world-wide catastrophe, and
: desperately wanting to escape the pain and grief of it all?

Interesting question: Was Noach drinking to forget, or to thank G-d
for being saved? I really just assumed the latter. But looking at the
context, I can see why.

Here is the sequence. Noach:
- gets off the teiva
- brings olos thanking H' for being saved
- enters into a beris with HQBH

This beris ends with "peru urevu ... umora'akhem vechitekhem" -- in
short, the attention is now on rebuilding a future.

As it is the introduction to our section, where Hashem again lists the
yotz'ei teiva and introduces Kenaan.

So that explains why my mind went in that direction.

BTW, does anyone know how much time went by? Noach must have had
"survivor mentality" the rest of his life, but this whole line of
questioning started me wondering.

Looking at Rashi, I noticed the following:

Rashi makes a point of telling you that Kenaan is introduced because
this story explains the root of Kenaan's qelalah. Notice that it all
starts with wine.

Then, on the word "ohaloh", which is oddly spelled with a final hei
rather than a cholam maleim Rashi tells us this is a reference to the
10 Shevatim, who were also called Ahalah -- after the Shomeron. (A
nickname for Malkhus Yisrael that finds its way into Qinos...) And
why? Because the 10 Shevatim were lead astray through grape -
"hashosim bemizreqei yayim (Amos 6:6)".

There would seem to be an implied undercurrent of MY being accused of
assimilating the attitude toward wine their Kanaanite neighbors picked
up / demonstrated in this story.

And, judging from Amos, the problem with wine that Rashi is focusing
on is inappropriate revelry.

Tir'u baTov!
-mi

-- 
Micha Berger             Spirituality is like a bird: if you tighten
micha at aishdas.org        your grip on it, it chokes; slacken your grip,
http://www.aishdas.org   and it flies away.
Fax: (270) 514-1507                            - Rav Yisrael Salanter