We were discussing on Avodah the origins of the idea of Qiddush. I argued that the notion of celebrating or thanking G-d with wine would seem to be one people would stumble upon naturally, arguing from Noach’s instinct to plant a vineyard.
Rn Toby Katz noted that I was making an unsupported assumption:
“Celebrating”? as Noach celebrating the “human condition” of having almost everyone you know dead in a world-wide catastrophe, and desperately wanting to escape the pain and grief of it all?
Interesting question: Was Noach drinking to forget, or to thank G-d for being saved? I really just assumed the latter. But looking at the context, I can see why I did so.Here is the sequence. Noach:
- gets off the ark,
- brings olos (entirely consumed offerings) thanking Hashem for being saved, and
- enters into a covenant with HQBH.
This covenant ends with “peru urevu … umora’akhem vechitekhem” (a repetition of the blessing to Adam to be