Man’s Dominion Over Man
Adapted from Rabbi Braun’s sermon in 5768
Before Avraham was born, relates the Midrash, Nimrod was a powerful king who denied the existence of the creator, of God. He was arrogant and conceited and believed himself to be a God and the people of his time worshiped him and bowed to him. Yet he was a wise king and he observed the stars and foresaw that one would soon be born who would defeat him and bring knowledge of God into the world, and he was frightened. What did Nimrod do? He called his advisors and asked their advice. The suggestion that was agreed upon by all present was to build a grand hall and command all of the pregnant women to stay at the hall and when they were about to give birth they would determine the gender of the baby and if it was a boy they would kill it then and there and if it was a girl the baby would live. So it was ordered and so it came to be and all told over 70,000 male children were killed in this palace.
Avraham’s mother fearing for her newly created fetus manages to hide her pregnancy, gives birth early, hides Abraham in a cave and then a nurse is arranged for Avraham, albeit an angelic one.
This midrash is striking for two reasons:
- It clearly mirrors and borrows from the story of another great Biblical figure, namely Moshe Rabbeinu, Moses. There too a powerful king saw himself as a god and foresaw an enemy born and decreed against all male children. And there too a pregnancy is hidden, and a baby hidden and a nurse arranged. The literary parallel is so exact that it begs the first question- why link nimrod to Pharaoh and Abraham to Moshe? What do these personalities and their struggles have in common?
- Nimrod is certainly painted in an awful light in this and many other midrashim and commentaries. In the text that we will look at in one moment we will see that it is less than evident that Nimrod is such a terrible person- and thus the second question – what motivates Chazal to paint him in such a terrible light?
As is usually the case the best place to begin and to find the clues that will lead us to an answer is in the text itself.
Chapter 10 begins by listing the offspring of Noach.
ו וּבְנֵי חָם כּוּשׁ וּמִצְרַיִם וּפוּט וּכְנָֽעַן:
ח וְכוּשׁ יָלַד אֶת־נִמְרֹד הוּא הֵחֵל לִהְיוֹת גִּבֹּר בָּאָֽרֶץ: ט הֽוּא־הָיָה גִּבֹּר־צַיִד לִפְנֵי יְהוָֹה עַל־כֵּן יֵֽאָמַר כְּנִמְרֹד גִּבּוֹר צַיִד לִפְנֵי יְהוָֹֽה: י וַתְּהִי רֵאשִׁית מַמְלַכְתּוֹ בָּבֶל וְאֶרֶךְ וְאַכַּד וְכַלְנֶה בְּאֶרֶץ שִׁנְעָֽר: יא מִן־הָאָרֶץ הַהִוא יָצָא אַשּׁוּר וַיִּבֶן אֶת־נִינְוֵה וְאֶת־רְחֹבֹת עִיר וְאֶת־כָּֽלַח:
6. And the sons of Ham: Kush, and Egypt, and Put, and Canaan.
8. And Kush fathered Nimrod; he was the first on earth to be a mighty one.
- He was a mighty hunter before the Lord; therefore it is said, As Nimrod the mighty hunter before the Lord.
- And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar.
- Out of that land went forth Assyria, and built Nineveh, and the city Rehoboth, and Calah,
From a simple reading of the text we get the following information: he was the son of Cham, he was a strong person, he was a hunter before God, he had a large
kingdom.
At first glance that does not seem to be so terrible. But if we look a bit closer we will see:
- The Torah tells us that הוּא הֵחֵל לִהְיוֹת גִּבֹּר בָּאָֽרֶץ – he was the first on earth to be a mighty one. There is something that he started and brought to the world.
- That strength manifested itself by establishing a kingdom and ruling over other men.
That is what Nimrod brought to the world. To appreciate the problem with this we must look at the blessing and command that Hashem gives to Noach upon leaving the ark.
In chapter 9 we read as follows.
1. And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.
- And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth…
There is then a fascinating transition in the text. We are told not to eat the blood of the animal and the Torah then details the sin of killing your fellow man and the punishment for one who does so.
One might well wonder what the connection between the two ideas is. Why connect the new allowance to eat meat and the prohibition of killing your fellow man?
Yet the text seems to be suggesting that once man is allowed to kill animals he might think that he is allowed to kill his fellow man and needs to be warned against it. The text seems to imply that once the “fear and dread” of you is unleashed upon the animal world you might have trouble controlling it and you might attempt to impose that upon other people as well. Thus the Torah juxtaposes these two ideas to impress upon us the following message. Control and subjugate the animals but DO NOT control and subjugate your fellow man! For your fellow man is created in the image of God. We are all equal, one is not better than that other. We are all created in God’s image!
But that is exactly what Nimrod does. He is a hunter; He subjugates the animals. And he is a ruler, an establisher of a kingdom, the first to ever exist and he subjugates people as well. That is what Nimrod introduced to the world. Certainly government and kingdoms have advantages but there is always the danger of man imposing his dread and fear upon other men and that is wrong!
That is Nimrod and that is why Chazal view him in such a negative light. He believes himself to be so important that he can control others. The midrash paints an extreme picture of those characteristics. He will kill 70,000 babies to try and get rid of one enemy.
He is compared to Pharaoh, another ruler who chose to subjugate other people and denied God and the image of God contained in all people.
That was the first time that humans subjugated humans but certainly not the last. It is an evil that has pervaded the pages of history and continues to afflict the world to this very day.
The lessons of the Torah are needed to be heard today as loudly and as clearly as ever.
Control and subjugate the animals but DO NOT control and subjugate your fellow man! For your fellow man is created in the image of God. We are all equal, one is not better than that other. We are all created in God’s image!
