Parashat Noach — the root of the olive branch
D'var Torah

Parashat Noach — the root of the olive branch

In July of 1775, on the cusp of a full-scale armed conflict that would become the American Revolution, delegates to the Second Continental Congress dispatched a letter — the “Olive Branch Petition” — to Britain’s King George III. Issued in the wake of the bloody Battle of Bunker Hill, the petition was a final, desperate plea for King George to prevent further hostilities, overturn repressive trade regulations imposed on the colonies, and forestall impending war.

Pennsylvania delegate John Dickinson led the effort for reconciliation. Benjamin Franklin and John Jay, among others, served on the committee tasked with drafting the Olive Branch Petition. Massachusetts delegate (and future vice president and president) John Adams opposed the measure, considering it both a waste of time and strategically misguided. He urged, rather, immediate formation of a standing American army and navy.

The Olive Branch Petition sought to preserve the “blessings” inherent in the American colonies’ inclusion within the British Empire, “uninterrupted by any future dissensions.” The letter was endorsed first by John Hancock, president of the Second Continental Congress, using his eponymic, boldly oversized signature, later and more famously reprised on the Declaration of Independence.

Word of the petition reached the British monarch quickly; he rejected its terms before even receiving the document. George declared the colonists and their leaders to be in a state of rebellion against the empire, and adjured “all Our officers… and all Our obedient and loyal subjects, to use their utmost endeavours to withstand and suppress such rebellion.”

The Olive Branch Petition was so named in reference to the olive branch the dove Noah had released from the ark brought to him (Genesis 8:11), evidence that the flood waters had subsided. To be precise, the Hebrew of Genesis indicates that Noah’s dove retrieved “aleh zayit,” a single olive leaf. It was Saint Jerome who, in his fourth-century Latin translation (or mistranslation) of the Bible (the Vulgate), first rendered the phrase “olive branch” (ramum olivae). The American Founding Fathers dubbed their communication the “Olive Branch Petition” in homage to this biblical imagery and its historic association with peace and principled co-existence.

An olive branch also appears on the Great Seal of the United States, which depicts an eagle holding 13 arrows in one talon, an olive branch in the other. Originally, the eagle faced the arrows, betokening American martial power. President Harry Truman redesigned the seal so the eagle faced the olive branch, indicating America’s quest for peace. On a tour of the White House, Winston Churchill commented to Truman: “Mr. President, with the greatest respect, I would prefer the American eagle’s neck to be on a swivel so it could face the olive branches or the arrows, as the occasion might demand.”

Astronaut Neil Armstrong left a gold olive branch on the moon, reflecting the Apollo XI motto: “We came in peace for all mankind.”

The use of the olive branch on the flag and emblem of the United Nations might be seen, at best, as aspirational.

The official seal of the State of Israel also features olive branches, to the right and left of a menorah. The design recalls the vision of the Prophet Zechariah (4:3), who saw a golden menorah flanked by two olive trees. Building on the precedent of Noah, an angel immediately tells Zechariah the significance of his vision: “Not by might, nor by power, but by My spirit, said the Lord of Hosts” (4:6). For the Jewish state, too, the olive branch indicates the sometimes elusive, national quest and prayerful preference for peace.

What is the significance in Scripture’s assertion that it was the leaf of an olive tree that the dove returned to Noah?  Why not the leaf of a cedar or eucalyptus or oak tree? The cedar, for example, appears frequently in the Hebrew Bible (Leviticus 14:4; I Kings 10:27; Psalm 92:13, etc.) as emblematic of strength and vigor. The cedar is a famously tall tree; surely, its leaves and branches would have emerged from the flood waters before the lowly olive tree. Some say that this is the point. The fact that the dove found an olive tree shows the great extent to which the waters had already receded.

The olive tree was among the first to be cultivated in the Middle East and Mediterranean region. According to Shimon Lavee of Hebrew University’s Institutes of Plant Science and its agriculture faculty, most olive species are “alternate bearing” or “biennial.” That is to say, olive trees produce viable fruit only every other year. This fact is critical to our understanding of Parshat Noach.

Though the rain that caused the flood persisted for a “mere” 40 days, Noah and his family (as well as diverse fauna) spent a full year aboard the ark (compare Genesis 7:11 and 8:14). They disembarked only after the precious olive leaf had been received. Noah, himself a pioneering horticulturalist (see Genesis 9:20), no doubt found hope in the example of the olive tree. Noah was reminded by the alternate bearing olive tree that even after a year of privation and hardship and suffering aboard the ark, a fruitful, productive future was possible. That a brighter, freer, more peaceful future was at hand. This revelatory insight could not have been conveyed quite so effectively to Noah by a lofty cedar, a mighty oak, or even a resilient eucalyptus.

Readers of Parshat Noach this Shabbat, both in the United States and in the State of Israel, can be especially grateful for this detail of the beloved biblical narrative. We, too, have endured a trying, painful, harrowing year. We have been deluged by reports of cruelty, inundated by accounts of loss and destruction and grief.  May we take comfort in the image of the olive branch, of a single leaf from the tenacious, alternate bearing olive tree. After a full year of cataclysmic loss, privation, hardship, and suffering, may we, too, reclaim an irrepressible if battered covenantal faith that a fruitful future of hope and peace is at hand.

Kein yehi ratzon.

read more:
comments