Parshat Noach A major source of water for the "Mabul" which inundated the World in the time of Noach, besides the forty days of uninterrupted rain, was hot subterranean water, as the Torah describes the onset of the Flood, "…all the streams from the great depths burst forth, and the windows of heaven were opened." (Bereshit 6,11) Earlier, in Parshat Bereshit, reference is also made to water in two places: "me'al la'rakia," "above the firmament," and "mitachat la'rakia," "beneath the firmament." The meaning of the word "firmament" is somewhat obscure, but let us assume, for the moment, that it refers to the earth's atmosphere. Readers of the Science Times may recall an article which appeared during the past year, around the time of the awesome visit of the Hale-Bopp comet, which dealt with a controversy that exists within the scientific community concerning the physical origin of terrestrial water. One group is of the opinion that earth's bodies of water had their origin in widespread volcanic activity in which large volumes of steam from subterranean sources were spewed forth, which then condensed into water. A second group theorizes that the major source of water was the vast number of ice-bearing comets which travel through the galaxies, many of which struck the earth and filled it with water in the period before there was an atmosphere to burn them up, upon their approach to the planet. The idea occurs that there may be support for both opinions in the text of Bereshit. For the water-containing region described by "me'al la'rakia," "above the firmament," may be one and the same with the region of the ice-bearing comets which struck and delivered oceans of water to pre-atmospheric earth, namely outer space, in agreement with one view. And the region described as "me'tachat la'rakia," "beneath the firmament," perhaps coincides with the "deep" region of subterranean streams, "And darkness was upon the face of the deep," which filled the earth with water during the period of world-wide volcanic activity, in the darkness before the sun appeared, flooding light into earth's skies on the fourth "day," supporting the other opinion. And when Hashem did cause an atmosphere, the "rakia" - "firmament," to form, there was indeed a "havdalah," a "separation," between the two regions, the region external to the earth, namely outer space, the region of the comets, and the region within and upon the earth, the region of the volcanoes and the oceans. As the verse says, "And G-d made the firmament, and it divided between the waters below the firmament and the waters above the firmament; And so it was. (Bereshit 1,7)" For now the atmosphere would protect the earth from being struck by comets, and there came into being a closed system regulated by evaporation, wind and rain, under the control of the "Mashiv ha'ruach u'Morid ha'geshem," "the One Who controls the blowing of the wind and the falling of rain," Whose praise in this regard we just re-inserted into our daily prayers, in its annually correct time on the holiday of Shemini Atzeret. Now the above idea may be a little hard to swallow (forgive the pun). But, from the point of view of the writer, who admittedly approaches the subject with only a limited understanding of the science involved, and with an infinitely more limited understanding of "Ma'aseh Bereshit," "the Order of Creation," it appears from a simple reading of the texts, the holy and the profane, that the somewhat enigmatic language of Bereshit allows for the possibility, albeit to be taken with many grains of salt, of such an interpretation to be made. Rabbi Pinchas Frankel Rabbi Frankel is an Educational Coordinator at the OU |
