בְּרֵאשִׁית

All that moves which is alive will be for you for food.

Or HaChaim (1696 - 1743) Commentary: God now gave Noakh and his descendants a right that had never been given to Adam or his progeny: permission to eat meat. Noakh was given the right to eat meat, just as God had given Adam the right to eat vegetation, because (a) Had it not been for the righteousness of Noakh, no life would have survived the Flood; (b) he had toiled over the animals and attended to their needs in the Ark. Of him was it said, “You shall eat the toil of your hands” (Psams128:2). Thus, Noakh had acquired rights over them.

Sanhedrin 59b:14: But when the children of Noakh came, God permitted them to eat meat; as it is stated: “Every moving thing that lives shall be for food for you; as the green herb I have given you all” (Genesis 9:3). One might have thought that accordingly, even the prohibition against eating a limb from a living animal does not apply to the descendants of Noah; therefore the verse states: “Only flesh with its life, which is its blood, you shall not eat” (Genesis 9:4). One might have thought that the prohibition against eating a limb from a living animal applies even to creeping animals; therefore the verse states “only,” a term used for exclusion, indicating that creeping animals are omitted.

Be’Reshit/Genesis 6:3 is written,

And YHVH said, “My Spirit shall not abide/contend/judge inside Adam forever, for he is flesh: his days shall be 120 years.”

I talked on this subject briefly before (read here); I believe that there are more reasons for this permission to consume animals by mankind. Adonai needs to bring down the years we, as mankind, used to live for before the Flood. Mankind used to live for hundreds of years. Living this long made it easier for civilization to gain and retain knowledge, which the civilization before the Flood enjoyed. And it did not go well. The civilization before the Flood corrupted itself because of it.

The second reason is that Adonai’s Nish’Mat/spirit/His Breath of Life, which is inside us, suffers, leaving in a sinful body of flesh. So Adonai decided to cut our lives short to 120 years maximum so that His Nish’Mat would not suffer for hundreds of years inside us.

When someone has a birthdate, people say, “Happy Birthday.” In Israel, they add to this,

“Happy Birth Day! May you live to 120 years!”

What does this have to do with eating animal meat, you ask? Well, research has shown that regularly eating red meat and processed meat can raise the risk of type 2 diabetes, coronary heart disease, stroke, and certain cancers, especially colorectal cancer. But at the same time, we need to eat meat to survive. Red meat provides us with iron, zinc, and B vitamins. Meat is one of the primary sources of vitamin B12 in the diet. Protein from meat offers all essential amino acids (lysine, threonine, methionine, phenylalanine, tryptophan, leucine, isoleucine, and valine) and has no limiting amino acids. Most vegetarians usually have enough protein and calcium (found in dairy products) in their diet. But you could miss essential nutrients if you don't plan your diet correctly. For example, vegetarians must ensure they get enough iron and vitamin B12 in their diets. If you do not consume dairy products, things get worse. So meat is necessary, but it also harms us. This puts a shortening factor on our lifespan.

Is diet all that was needed for Adonai to accomplish these two things

No, also, the Great Flood was necessary. Much research is being done on the difference between the conditions before and after the flood, mainly in the atmosphere and oxygen levels. One such research study can be found in the ICR (Institute for Creation Research). They are trying to prove why and how humans could live longer in the conditions before the Flood, and it has been proven. Before the Flood, pants were bigger and had better nutrition, and mankind lived longer because the atmosphere and oxygen levels were better. The condition of the atmosphere before the flood could sustain us and our plants much better than after the Flood. So, if plant life cannot sustain us anymore, we must eat animals to survive. Animals that both make us sick, but we need to consume them nonetheless.

Bava Kamma 91b and Rashi (1040 – 1105) Commentary: The Torah places another limitation on man’s right to take a life. God states that He will demand an accounting from one who spills his own blood, for a human being’s life belongs not to him but to God. Though Noakh had been granted authority over animal life, he had no right to commit suicide; only God has the right to end life.

This is interesting to me. Even though I have read this verse countless times. I have never viewed it this way. This comes from the first section;

But however, your blood, which belongs to your souls/lives.

If you read this part by itself, I guess you could say that it does say that you should not take your own life because it does not belong to you but that it belongs to your nefesh/soul/life. But because of the line that follows, it changes.

I will demand from the hand of all living things.

I thought about this, and if you have read from the beginning, you will know that we all have a purpose, whether you are a God-fearing person who follows His Laws or a sinner who does not believe in Him and does not fear Him. A God-fearing person sets a good example for others, and Adonai delights in you and loves you. A sinner also sets an example of how not to behave and whether that person meets a cruel end, an example that person still is. The events of the life of both are important to others; both their lives will weave into others' lives, influencing others in all sorts of ways that are needed for Adonai’s end plan. If you take your own life, you are interfering with His plan. Your life is not your own but that of Adonai and everyone around you because your life is also the lives of the people around you and even those you have not met yet.

However, I do not see it this way. I believe the Torah has many layers and could also mean this message, but what makes more sense and what I think the Torah is saying is different. From my point of view, the passage says that a person's life should not be taken away by anyone, that being a person or animal. Adonai HaShem demands the life of any living thing that takes a person's life. And it goes on to say that even if someone’s life is taken away by another person. The life of the killer shall be taken away by another person. Justice has to come from man.

Of every beast

Rashi (1040 – 1105) Commentary: Beasts also are forbidden to kill people.

Ran (1290 – 1376), cited by Abarbanel (1437–1508) Commentary: A beast that kills people will be killed through divine means.

Bereishis Rabbah (probably written between AD 300 and 500 with some later additions) 34:13, Rambam (1138–1204), Hil. Rotzeiach (Book: Murderer and the Preservation of Life) 2:3 Commentary: Alternatively, this passage refers to a person who turns over another to be killed by wild beasts.

Rambam (1138–1204) Commentary: Alternatively, the verse refers to murder and warns that God will not permit a murderer to go unpunished. He will be hunted down by wild animals or by man's hand.

Chizkuni (13th Century) Commentary: והקימותי את בריתי, “I shall maintain My covenant as applicable, etc.” God’s promise not to bring on another deluge is repeated in the same verse to underline that even if mankind would again be guilty of similar conduct to that which had brought about the deluge, God would not consider this covenant null and void.

As I said before, I believe Adonai is now micromanaging everyone according to their sins, as in the case of Judah and his three sons.

Be’Reishit/Genesis 38:7

But Er, Judah’s first-born, was displeasing to יהוה/YHVH, and יהוה/YHVH took his life.

Also, if a city or a region sins, displeasing Adonai our God, as in the case of Sodoma and Gamora (Be’Reishit/Genesis 19:24-25), Adonai deals with them independently so the sin that displeases him does not spread. The same can be said of a nation. Adonai took the nation of Caanan and gave it to Israel, and the Canaanites are no more.

Doing this ensures that the world does not have to be destroyed again, which is God's promise.

Numbers 23:19

God is not a man that He should lie or a son of man that He should change his mind. Has He said, and will He not do it?

Adonai’s promises stand forever and always come true, both the fulfilled ones and the ones yet to be fulfilled.

Radak (1160–1235) Commentary: וזכרתי/And I remembered. The Torah again uses a formulation we humans are familiar with, although, as pointed out repeatedly, God does not need to remember, never having forgotten. The exact formulation is found in Leviticus 26:42 and numerous other Torah verses. They are inaccurate approximations, so we can understand God’s reaction in familiar terms.

Remember, the rainbow is a sign made by Adonai for both parties to remember the covenant. That is a sign of a covenant, whether it is between Adonai and mankind or between two men. Adonai HaShem has to say this to ensure that Noakh and everyone alive with him understand that God never forgets. Because most people have forgotten from Noakh to now. You ask people nowadays what the rainbow in the sky means to them; they have other ideas or do not know. They say that the rainbow is just a byproduct of the rain clouds and the sunlight shining through them. They know the science behind it but not the meaning of why this is so.

and between all alive, living thing in all flesh.

We seem to think that because we are alive, the body is us when, in fact, the flesh is just flesh. What is inside us, our thoughts, the part that makes you feel love, anger, remorse, etc., is you. That thinking part of you that you use to talk to yourself, the Nish’Mat, the ruakh, the spirit, the breath of God, is what is alive, not the flesh. Without that living part of us inside, the flesh is nothing; it is chemicals and matter made of stuff that can be found here on Earth. Our bodies are nothing but dirt and ashes.

As it says in this verse, “Everything that is alive that has life inside the flesh.”

The thing is that the body without that living part inside us is nothing; we are not living flesh, but rather, we are flesh that is alive because of the living part inside it. We are living beings only because Adonai lent us this living part of us. When a doctor pronounces your brain dead and puts you on a ventilator, a ventilator delivers oxygen to the lungs (the heart can initiate its beating without nerve impulses from the brain). Still, despite the beating heart and warm skin, the person is dead. Without this ventilator, the person won't be able to breathe if the ventilator is switched off. That body is not that person anymore. There are no more thoughts, memories, or feelings inside of that person because the living part of that person is gone. If you have a loved one in this state, I am sorry; I believe with all my heart that what is written in the Bible is true, and it will not change. Espacially what is written in the Torah, or the five books of Moses, which is the law of God.

Sforno (c. 1470/1475-1549) Commentary: “שלשה אלה בני נח/These three were Noakh’s sons,” seeing that all of them were Noakh’s sons, God blessed them all, even though one of them was wicked when He said, “be fruitful and multiply and fill the globe.” As a result of this blessing, the entire population of the earth traces its origin to one of these three sons of Noakh.

What people do not understand is that Earth is the lowest of creation, and in it, good and evil exist, but from evil can come good as well. Where does evil come from? If there were no Adam/mankind on Earth, what evil can there be? Without evil in the world, how can we prove our righteousness to Adonai? Yes, HaShem, our Elohim, knew that Kham was evil, and yes, He blessed him as well because evil must and will exist all the way to the end. We must be tested, and we must endure; evil will come our way, and we must make it submit to us; we must overcome it. If things are going wrong in your life, will you fold and curse the world and become evil yourself, or will you silently endure and fight to be happy with your life and make it better for yourself and those around you? Evil is in this world for both our benefit and to test us. So yes, Kham was evil, and yes, his descendants are too, and yes, they filled the world with their evil intent, and we should be glad for them because, without them, we can not prove ourselves to God All Mighty, King Most High, King of the world and King of all. Bless be His name, Y-H-V-H.

Cassuto (1883-1951) on Genesis, From Noakh to Abraham 9:19:1-2 / Commentary: These three are Noakh's sons. There were only three and no more. From these three sons, the whole Earth was divided. And even though there were only three, they had the privilege of raising sons and sons of sons in such great numbers that from them, all the people of the land came out and were dispersed (this is the meaning of the phrase "all the earth" in this verse, as in 11:1), and by their dispersion, they were able to fill the earth.

Abarbanel (1437–1508) Commentary: The ancients (these sons of Noakh) divided three continents: Asia was taken by Shem, Africa by Kham, and Europe by Yafet. Abarbanel (1447 - 1508)

Malbim (1809 - 1879) Commentary: These three are Noah's sons. Because the sects of the people who stood in the world from Noakh's sons will be divided into three, some people will choose the intellectual life to walk before God and engage in study and intelligence and wisdom and faith, and He is the good, and this was the religion of Shem, and there are religious people who will choose to live a religious life under honest manners which is the beneficial, and this was the religion of Yafet, and there are people in the sea who will live a life of lust and passion. The evils are like beasts, and this is the evening, which is the religion of Kham.

In other words, The people of Shem are those who study Torah, love HaShem, our creator, and are in pursuit of trying to understand Him as much as possible through the study of the Bible. The people of Yafet are religious and have good manners but are content with their lives without the pursuit of really knowing God. The people of Kham are evil people who are selfish and care only for their own gain and happiness. They are willing to do evil to maintain their body needs with no regard for others.

גָּלָה/Gala

This word means: uncover[things]/to uncover/remove/depart/to go into exile/to uncover oneself/to discover or show oneself/to reveal himself (of God)/to be disclosed, be discovered/to be revealed/to be removed/to uncover (nakedness)/nakedness/lay bare/to make known, show, reveal.

This word will be very important to the meaning of the verses to come.

Midrash: “Inside his tent [oholo]” – but oholah is written – it was inside his wife’s tent.

This also will be important in the verses to come.

Rabbeinu Bahya (1255–1340) Commentary: ויחל נח איש האדמה ויטע כרם, “Noakh the man of the earth debased himself and planted a vineyard.” The Torah reports the planting of a vineyard by Noakh immediately following the covenant of the rainbow may well be to tell us that wine is an allusion to the attribute of Justice. Concerning this, our sages have said in Berachot 50: “One is not to recite a benediction over wine until one has added some water to it.”

No one had paid any attention to this until Noakh's time. The early generations had each planted vines for their personal consumption. Noakh began to plant vines in rows, which we call כרם/vineyard. This is why the Torah wrote ויחל, “he commenced,” i.e., he commenced/started to go about this matter in a novel fashion.”

Another possible way of explaining the word ויחל is connected to the fact that Noakh was the first member of the tenth generation of mankind, and every tenth is sacred (ten generations from Adam to Noakh and ten generations from Noakh to Abraham). Now that he became preoccupied with the growing of wine, an intoxicating drink, he debased himself from his former state of holiness. This is the meaning of the word ויחל.

The Torah informed us of many problems that are apt to be caused by wine if the wine was even able to cause a righteous man such as Noakh, a man who had saved all mankind, to commit a sin by cursing his descendants. This whole paragraph is at least as much a warning to mankind as is the passage in Numbers chapter six, which discusses that a Nazirite (an Israelite consecrated to the service of God, under vows to abstain from alcohol, let the hair grow, and avoid defilement by contact with corpses (Num. 6)) must abstain from wine and any grape product. Our sages in Sanhedrin 70 note that the passage discussing wine contains the letter ו (which means “and”) thirteen times (ויחל, ויטע, וישת, וישכר, ויתגל, וירא חם, ויגד, ויקח שם ויפת, וישימו, וילכו ויכסו, ויקץ, וידע, אחורנית ) “And he debased himself, and he planted, and he drank, and he got drunk, and he uncovered himself, and Kham saw, and he told, and Shem and Yafet took the cover, and they placed the cover, and they walked backward, and he woke up, and he knew, and they did not look at their father’s nakedness. This is what Solomon had in mind when he said in Proverbs 23,29 למי אוי, למי אבוי למי מדינים למי שיח למי פצעים חנם, למי חכללית עינים “Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has contentions, who has quarrels? Who has injuries without cause, who suffers from redness of his eyes? Those who linger over wine, etc.” Solomon does not refer exclusively to wine, but he includes all other matters which are the objects of man’s lusting after worldly pleasures and which are addictive and become the cause of man’s [premature] death in this world and his losing his right to eternal life in the hereafter. This is why Solomon adds in Kohelet 2,25 כי מי יאכל ומי יחוש חוץ ממני, “for who should eat and who should make haste (to enjoy these things) more than I?” He meant that he, more than any other mortal being, could indulge himself by tasting all the pleasures of the body available in this life. Having tasted all these pleasures, he concluded that these, too, were all vanity and not worth having.