בס”ד
By Rabbi Moshe Goodman, Kollel Ohr Shlomo, Hebron
This painting seems to gather a number of themes of parshat Noah in an interesting way. One of the ideas that seems eminent in this painting is the connection of animal offerings in the Temple to all animals of the world. This idea, mentioned in various seforim, says that by the animal, vegetable, and mineral [salt] offerings at the Temple man elevates all these aspects in the entire world, thus bringing spiritual illumination to the entire world. Actually the Kabbalah ties these four aspects to the four letters of the Tetragrammaton, yod to human, first heh to animal, vav to vegetable, and last heh to the inanimate/earth. These four aspects are seen in this painting. We see reference to all these aspects in Noah’s ark, as the olive leaf [brought by the dove] represents vegetation. After the flood Noah brings an offering on an altar, a protoype of the altar in the Temple, as seen in this painting. A lion is seen next to the altar here, as our Sages taught that a fire in the form of a lion would descend to an offering that found favor before Hashem. We also see the tablets of the covenant given here, at Mount Sinai, and also in regard to Noah a covenant is formed with him by Hashem in the form of the rainbow, where Hashem commits not to bring a Flood again. Indeed, the Arizal identifies the generation of the Flood with the generation that left Egypt in the time of Moshe Rabeinu, reincarnated. Thus, fascinating lines of resemblance can be found, and this painting seems to point to some of them. Another line of resemblance we still have not mentioned [and not found in the painting] are Moshe Rabeinu being in and saved by an “ark/teiva” on the Nile when he was a baby – like Noah’s ark which saved him from the destructive waters.
There may also be resemblance between Mount Sinai and Mount Ararat, both associated with Hashem’s covenant, either the covenant of the Torah or the rainbow-covenant. In fact another name of Mount Sinai is Mount Horeb, “horeb” meaning dry land, just like Ararat was the first dry land! The book Sha’ar Hahatzer makes a connection between Sinai and Hebron, saying that the numerical value of Sinai spelled out (i.e samech, yod, nun, yod) has the same numerical value as Hebron. Hebron may also stand for Horeb + nun=50, hinting to the fact that the Torah was given on the fiftieth day of the Omer/Exodus. Hebron as well stands for covenant, for here are our holy Patriarchs with whom Hashem formed a covenant to them and their offspring.