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The eTeacherBiblical team would like to welcome you toour Christmas eBook and thank you for downloading.

The Holiday season gives everyone around the world amoment to pause and reflect on the year that has been,our experiences, what we have learned, and to lookahead in preparation for the new year to come.

As you celebrate and share gifts with your family, wethought we would share a little gift of ours with you. Weoffer an excerpt from the story of Noah and the Flood, areminder of Gods greatness and intent for a kinder andgentler world, a wish we all share and pray for.

In our eBook, we delve into some of the subtleties of thetext to see there is so much to be learned from therichness of the original language of the Bible.

Now is as good a time as ever for you to start yourjourney towards greater understanding of scripture bylearning Biblical Hebrew with eTeacher.

Enjoy our eBook, our gift to you, and we welcome you tojoin our learning community.

Happy Holidays to you and yours,The eTeacherBiblical Team

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Eli Dahan completed his MA at the HebrewUniversity of Jerusalem in 2007, focusing on Biblestudy. He teaches our Biblical Hebrew courses fromlevels A to D. He also writes our newsletter, our

blogs and our articles on Biblical and ModernHebrew. Eli teaches Bible, Jewish Philosophy andMathematics at the Beit Hinuch High School inJerusalem. Hes a homeroom teacher for twelfthgrade students as well as the school's socialcoordinator. Eli is married and has three children;he likes to dance and hike the Israel Trail.

Shalom to our community!

When I try to explain why Biblical Hebrew and theHoly Bible are such a huge part of my life, I am oftenat a loss for words. You see, I feel like Biblical Hebrewis an infinite ocean that never ends. In every coursethat I teach, whether its for beginners or advancedstudents, I explain to my students that we are all

swimming together in order to understand just thatlittle bit more about this beautiful language that weare reading. As a Biblical Hebrew teacher, I amexcited to introduce to you one of the very beststories to help you start your journey, the story ofNoah and his ark, which you are about to read.I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and look forwardto studying with you soon!

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The story of Noah and his Ark is a famousone that we all learned as children. It is found in Book ofGenesis, the beginning, which of course relates to us at thisfestival season as we prepare to celebrate the coming of theSavior, who helped bring light and salvation into the world.

In the story of Noah, we learn that God was unhappy withthe world and decided to wipe the slate clean, as it were, by

flooding the Earth. He instructed his servant Noah, who,"found grace in the eyes of the LORD , " (Gen 6: 8) to build an ark, to collect pairs of animalsand small flocks of animals and birds for re-breeding and towait out the storm.We can begin to understand this story even better by goingback a chapter, to where Noah, son of Lamech, was first

introduced:

But in order to truly understand this story, we must delve a

little deeper into the language. The study of Biblical Hebrew

helps us understand some of the finer points of the text.

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Firstly, we must try to understand why Noah was chosen as the builderof the Ark. We can understand from the text that God was unhappy

with the Earth:

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What made Noah righteous? The text does not speak of his deeds. It

speaks of his generation -. This leaves us to wonder, was Noahtruly a righteous man, or was he simply the least evil of a generation

that God chose to destroy?

But Noah was righteous.

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In his generation: Some of our

Sages interpret it [the word ]favorably: How much more so if hehad lived in a generation ofrighteous people, he would havebeen even more righteous. However,others interpret it derogatorily: Incomparison with his generation he

was righteous, but if he had been inAbrahams generation, he would nothave been considered of anyimportance.

:, , ,

, .

[Sanh. 108a, Gen. Rabbah 30:9, Tan. Noach 5]

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Returning to the Biblical text, God saw violence and corruption inflesh. For this reason, God chose to destroy all things noted as

flesh :

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Lets focus on - flesh, meat. We remember that in thiscontext, it means humans and animals. Biblical Hebrew is rathereconomical in that way, often giving multiple meanings to asingle word. Here it seems clear that all flesh had simply becomeso morally corrupt that God had no choice but to destroy themand start the world all over again.

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Fish are not considered flesh, and perhaps

that is why God chose a floodto destroy the

earth, saving the fish who had not partaken in

this corruption. Gods plan was to cleanse the

earth of all of this indecency and to re-sow the

seeds of creation after the flood with a mating

pair of each species.

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Though we are originally taught that God instructed Noah to bringonto the Ark two -of every kind of animal, God actuallyspecifies in the text additional numbers (seven ) for the"clean" - animals and only twoof the "notclean" animals, perhaps as a precursor to the creation of Jewishdietary laws.

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Speaking of which

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Those laws, though stated more explicitly later on in the Bookof Exodus, suggest that "clean" animals are those that chewtheir cud and have split hooves, which are herbivores, notpredators. It seems that it was important to God, who sawcorruption in "flesh", to specifically repopulate the earth with

gentler, less predatory creatures. In a time of moral corruptionand darkness, God sought to bring light back into the world,through His loyal servant and creations.

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SUMMARY

In these few passages we are left with so much to ponder. Whatwas it that made Noah righteous in his generation? What was the

corruption offleshin particular that so reviled God? Why, in this

episode, are we already introduced to a separation of "clean" and

"not clean" animals? Why the numberstwoandseven? And what

was the criteria for cleanliness?

The study of Biblical Hebrew is what helps better understandour Bible, its history and context in a way we never could before.

At this festival season, we reflect back on our own history, our

own story, as we once again celebrate the birth of God's Son

and His journey to help bring salvation to the people.

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Did you enjoy this eBook? Its likely that it left you with more

questions than answers, which is precisely why were here tohelp.

eTeacherBiblicalis here to start you on your journey of

greater understanding. We offer a complete online

experience so that you can study in the comfort and

convenience of your home, with fully accredited teachers and

state-of-the-art technology.

We welcome you to our community and invite you tojoin our

Biblical Hebrew Course today, to help you start to delve

deeper into the meaning and truths of the Bible!

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