Shabbos Project Parshah Questions to Ask

Some of you may have been invited for the Shabbos Project where hosts will try to "to offer those who may (or may not) be new to Shabbos a chance to experience the warmth of a Shabbat home", i.e., try to convince them of Orthodox Judaism.

So I compiled 15 inconvenient questions on the weekly parshah, parshas Noach (I feel so sorry for the Shabbos Project they chose the worst Shabbos for kiruv!). Just in case they may indeed try to be mekarev you (try to win you over to OJ).

Feel free to add your own, here they are:

1. Start with this excellent video for some flood absurdities:
   
   
   
2. How did the earth repopulate after the flood?
3. Nobody in documented history ever lived a 950 years.
4. How many climates were there on the boat? Some animals can't survive in cold places, some not in warm ones.
5. Why did ALL life on earth deserve to be destroyed? And why the babies, too?
6. Why is there a contradiction between Genesis 6 where 2 animals of each species were required and in Genesis 7 seven pairs of clean and 1 pair of unclean animals?
7. Some animals are carnivorous. Were these animals (food) part of the 2 or the 7 and 1 animals? Or were they extra?
8. How did the kangaroos from Australia, the pandas from China and the penguins from Antarctica?
9. Were there any dinosaurs on the boat?
10. How did Noah know all the animals had entered the Ark? Did he know all millions of species by heart?
11. There is no geological evidence of a global or even larger local flood (a uniform layer of sediment in the earth). No archeological evidence of whole societies and buildings destroyed.
12. Did the flood extend to the sea? In that case, salty water mixed with fresh water and many animals would not have had drink water after the flood.
13. How did light refract when it was raining an the sun shone before the rainbow?
14. Points of similarity between the Babylonian and Noachian flood stories.
15. All. The. Shit.

Recommended bonus reading: Why the Shabbos Project is Dividing Us, by Suzanne Oshinsky and Shloimie Ehrenfeld.

‘Seeing’ The Truth

Yaron Yadan raised an interesting point on his Facebook profile. When Samuel searches for the donkeys in Samuel I:9, it is interrupted by the following statement:

ט  לְפָנִים בְּיִשְׂרָאֵל, כֹּה-אָמַר הָאִישׁ בְּלֶכְתּוֹ לִדְרוֹשׁ אֱלֹהִים, לְכוּ וְנֵלְכָה, עַד-הָרֹאֶה:  כִּי לַנָּבִיא הַיּוֹם, יִקָּרֵא לְפָנִים הָרֹאֶה.

Beforetime in Israel, when a man went to inquire of God, thus he said: 'Come and let us go to the seer'; for he that is now called a prophet (‘navi’ in Hebrew) was beforetime called a seer (‘ro’eh’).

So in Samuel’s time, they used the term ‘navi’. But before that, they called him ‘ro’eh’.

The problem with that is that the word ‘navi’ is mentioned at least twelve times in the Torah (and ro’eh zero times). This appears to indicate that the Torah’s final redaction must have been after or around the time of Samuel. Or, in any case, long after the time of Moses.

A certain Yoav Etzion remarked that there is a verse in this chapter that contradicts a verse in Genesis (Samuel I:10:2):

בְּלֶכְתְּךָ הַיּוֹם, מֵעִמָּדִי, וּמָצָאתָ שְׁנֵי אֲנָשִׁים עִם-קְבֻרַת רָחֵל בִּגְבוּל בִּנְיָמִן, בְּצֶלְצַח; וְאָמְרוּ אֵלֶיךָ, נִמְצְאוּ הָאֲתֹנוֹת אֲשֶׁר הָלַכְתָּ לְבַקֵּשׁ, וְהִנֵּה נָטַשׁ אָבִיךָ אֶת-דִּבְרֵי הָאֲתֹנוֹת, וְדָאַג לָכֶם לֵאמֹר מָה אֶעֱשֶׂה לִבְנִי.

When thou art departed from me to-day, then thou shalt find two men by the tomb of Rachel, in the border of Benjamin at Zelzah; and they will say unto thee: The asses which thou wentest to seek are found; and, lo, thy father hath left off caring for the asses, and is anxious concerning you, saying: What shall I do for my son?

Here, the tomb of Rachel is located within the border of Benjamin. However, Genesis 35:19 mentions that Rachel was buried in Beit Lechem, which is inside of Judah.

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In any case, it remains difficult to maintain that the Torah was written during Moses’ or Joshua’s times.