Rabbi Michael Leo Samuel

Shortly after the flood, or perhaps years later, the biblical narrator depicts Noah-not as a virtuous person-but as a man who is trying to make sense of his life. He alone, was the sole survivor, and his experiences made him wonder, “Why me?” At any rate, Noah engages in what appears to be one of his former life’s favorite hobbies-planting vineyards. Was he the first to plant the vineyard? Hardly, but many years had transpired since he last made vintage wine.

This time, he makes his favorite wine and he gets drunk. But why did he get drunk? It may have been an act of innocence, or perhaps it was because of self-indulgence. In any event, the biblical narrator does not criticize him for drinking. As we mentioned before in other postings, biblical stories leave the reader asking many questions about its heroes. The absence of detail is never happenstance-it is didactically purposeful. Without you and me interpreting the story, the biblical story might just as well sleep in the tomb of history. From this perspective, we are just as important as the biblical characters themselves.

In eisegetic terms, Noah may have felt like he needed an escape from everything he had experienced since the beginning of the Flood. Assuming that this was the case, wine for Noah may have deadened his awareness of the painful anxiety and guilt he carried because he survived while the rest of his world perished. Elie Wiesel has written extensively about the anxiety survivors often experience. Often the survivor feels torn between feelings of anger and gratitude:

[Noah] chose gratitude. For being spared? Yes. As a survivor…he or she knows that every moment means grace, for he or she could have been in another’s place, another who is gone. And yet, many survivors are haunted, if not plagued, by unjust guilt feelings at one time or another. At one point Noah must have wondered, “Why me?” Surely he did not think he was chosen because he was a better person. [1]

Wiesel’s explanation could well explain why Noah felt the compulsion to drink, but ultimately, the reason of his drinking is all a matter of speculation and belongs to the realm of the Midrashic imagination.

Wine has a remarkable history in the Tanakh-both positive and negative.

One of my favorite Midrashic teachings presents a sobering view about wine that every wine-lover should remember before drinking at a party or dinner.

On the very day Noah planted his vineyard, it bore fruit, he put it in the wine-press, drew off the juice, drank it, became drunken, and was dishonored—all on one day. His assistant in the work of cultivating the vine was Satan, who had happened along at the very moment when he was engaged in planting the slip he had found. Satan asked him: ‘What is it you are planting here?’ Noah: ‘A vineyard.’

Satan: ‘And what may be the qualities of what it produces?’
Noah: ‘The fruit it bears is sweet, be it dry or moist, It yields wine that rejoices the heart of man.’
Satan: ‘Let us go into partnership in this business of planting a vineyard.’
Noah: ‘Agreed!’

Then Satan slaughtered a lamb, and then, in succession, a lion, a pig, and a monkey. The blood of each as it was killed he made to flow under the vine. Thus he conveyed to Noah what the qualities of wine are: before man drinks of it, he is innocent as a lamb; if he drinks of it moderately, he feels as strong as a lion; if he drinks more of it than he can bear, he resembles the pig; and if he drinks to the point of intoxication, then he behaves like a monkey, he dances around, sings, talks obscenely, and knows not what he is doing.

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Notes:

[1] Messengers of God: Biblical Portraits and Legends: (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1985), 78