In this week’s parsha we read about Noach, though we first learn of his birth at the end of Parshat Breishit. There we are told that his father Lemech calls him Noach because “this one will relieve us (yeNACHamenu) from our work and from the toil (itzavon) of our hands” (5:29). Lemech creates a midrash to explain his son’s name: Noach, whose name means comfort, will provide relief to a humanity that has just been cursed by God with the burden of working the soil with toil (itzavon) all the days of their lives. (Yeats: “It’s certain there is no fine thing / Since Adam’s fall but needs much labouring.”) The midrash relates that Noach provided this comfort because he was the first human being to be created with opposable thumbs, which made it much easier to till the earth or do almost anything with one’s hands.
I thought about this midrash when Matan began sucking his thumb for the first time this week. He has been trying to master this skill for quite some time now: First he noticed the thumb and stared at it for a few days; then he realized that he could put it in his mouth; and then he would chomp on it and gag himself, only to stick the thumb back in and gag again. Yet now he sucks away gleefully. As a result, his parents can sleep better at night – in the past, each time Matan would stir, one of us would have to reach over the side of our bed, feel around for the pacifier strewn somewhere across his crib, and poke our hands around in the dark (like a blind person groping around in broad daylight, to invoke an image from the Tohekha) until we found (oops, that was the wrong side of his head; nope, an eyelid; yeah, there it is!) his mouth and could stick the pacifier back in and then roll over back to sleep. But now Matan knows how to pacify himself: He wakes up, finds his thumb, and sticks it in his mouth with gusto. This one will comfort us indeed! Matan can rest (Nach) more deeply, and this solution finds favor (Chen) in his parents’ eyes much as Noach (in another anagrammatic midrash – chen is Noach backwards) found favor in the eyes of God.
Inevitably, in our lives as parents, I’m sure Matan will be the source of some Itzavon, which Rashi interprets as צער גידול בנים, the pain of raising children. It is not just pregnancy and childbirth that are part of God’s curse to Eve, but also the gap between expectation and reality: Parents invest everything in their children, only to find that thorns and thistles spring up from the soil in which they have planted their hopes and dreams. Itzavon, like Teshuka (desire), is the difference between what we have and what we want. Eve is saddled with Teshuka for her husband and Itzavon for her children, leaving her with little room for satisfaction. And yet until this point, Matan has been only a source of Naches, which of course comes from the Hebrew word Nachat, itself a variant on Noach/comfort. When I peer into the Teyva (ark) of his crib at night and watch him fumble for his thumb, I find myself paraphrasing the most poetic line from this week’s parsha: So long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night; my love for you, Matan, shall never cease.
Note: Like everything I write, this dvar Torah owes much to the insights of Avivah Zornberg. For more on Noach and Itzavon, see “Despondent Intoxication” in The Murmuring Deep.
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Back pain is one of the most common ailments today. In fact, it is one of the number one reasons for visiting a doctor’s office. Many people suffer from back pain of some type. Upper back pain is just one of the many types of back pain experiences. It can happen to just about anyone, and at any time. There are many reasons for pain in the back to appear. Sometimes, it doesn’t take much to bring on the onset of pain. You can actually be doing basically nothing and rise to get up and find that you twisted wrong. Upper back pain can be just as annoying and painful as any other type of back pain. This article will talk about upper back pain, and some ways to get some possible relief.
There are a few different types of things that can cause upper back pain. One of the most common causes is known as muscle strain or spasm. You might have over exerted yourself and caused the muscles to tighten. When the muscles tighten, they usually become inflamed and the swelling that occurs can cause a lot of pain. A car accident can also cause a type of whip lash to occur which will cause the muscles to become inflamed. The muscles may not be damaged, but until the swelling and inflammation goes away, you will experience pain. Ice packs can be helpful some times or the change off of heat and cold can be beneficial as well. Upper back pain can be relieved by massage and relaxation techniques as well, and often it takes pain relievers and anti inflammatory to eliminate the swelling.
Upper back pain can also be caused by stress. It doesn’t really matter what kind of stress you are going through, the fact remains that stress causes the muscles to tighten up, and this can cause upper back pain. Relaxation techniques might be very helpful in reducing upper back pain associated with stress.
There are some other reasons for upper back pain that are not as simple as a muscle strain. You may have a disc problem in your spine that is causing this upper back pain. You can experience a herniated or ruptured disc and not be aware of it. The only symptom you might have, is the pain associated with it. In most cases, upper back pain can be taken care of, and will usually go away. In the case of a ruptured disc, you might need surgery to correct the upper back problem, but you will definitely need to get medical attention when upper back pain continues.