Today I have a special patient: a three-year-old girl with phenylketonuria (PKU), an inability to metabolize the amino acid phenylalanine. The disease can culminate in mental retardation and intractable seizures. The recommended treatment is to avoid intake of the amino acid above the minimum requirement, and have a diet rich in fruits and vegetables, and some cereals. Lofenalac, a formula and "complete food" (except for the missing phenylalanine), is a preferred supplement.
Laboratory screening for PKU shows normal findings of 0-2 mg/ml of phenylalanine in the urine. At the first visit, my patient had elevated urine levels of 17mg/ml! Her tongue was hanging out; her eyes were glassy; and she was lethargic and didn't want to play.
My bus rides to treat my young patient at her house will take two-and-a-half hours. The first half hour of the ride is taken up with my morning prayers. The two hours that are left can be used to learn the Chumash (Bible). Today's reading is the story of Noah. The L-rd* told Noah, "Make an ark 300 cubits long, 50 cubits wide and 30 cubits high."
What's a cubit? The distance from the elbow to the tips of the fingers, right? Your cubit, my cubit or Noah's cubit? Rabbinic literature for 3,000 years has debated exactly how big a cubit is. There are four possibilities:
- 18 inches
- 21 inches
- 24 inches
- Noah's cubit
Noah lived in the biblical period known as the "time of giants." He was a large man, even by today's standards, so exactly how big was Noah's cubit? No one knows.
The ark, given the smallest measurement of 18 inches, would be 450 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet high. Given the largest measurement of 24 inches, the ark would be 600 feet long, 100 feet wide and 60 feet high. Only the L-rd knows how big an ark would be based on Noah's cubit. The largest ark would be about half the size of one of the towers of the late World Trade Center: 60 stories in length, 10 stories wide, and six stories high - an amazing structure!
The ark took 120 years to build. With four people working (Noah and his three sons), it took 480 man-years to complete. If you and a crew of three started to build an ark in 1882, 13 years before the founding of chiropractic, the ark would be finished in time for the publication of this article in 2002.
Why did it take so long? The L-rd wanted the corrupt generation of that time to ask Noah why he was embarking on such a ridiculous project, so that Noah could reply to them that they would have the opportunity to correct their sins. The sinners only laughed at him, and in the end they all died.
The smallest measurement would yield a ship of 1.5 million cubic feet. The largest measurement would yield a ship of 3.6 million cubic feet, with a displacement of 28,800 tons (57.6 million pounds).
The amount of wood needed to build the ark was:
- 540,000 board feet for the decking;
- 162,000 board feet for the sides;
- 27,000 board feet for the front and the back;
- 72,000 board feet for the shell, not including ribbing or furnishings; and
- 10,312 cubic feet of pitch, used to seal the ship (5,156 tons of tar).
- A Boeing 747 weighs about 750,000 lbs (375 tons) fully loaded;
- Viking ships were 45 to 75 feet in length;
- the Elizabeth of 1561 was a 100-foot ship;
- Lord Nelson's Victory was 186 feet in length and 2,500 tons;
- the Mauritania, built just before WWI, was 762 feet in length and displaced 32,000 tons; and
- the Titanic displaced 46,000 tons.
Clearly, Noah's ark, built with the engineering advice of the L-rd, was one of the great engineering marvels of the last 5,000 years!
I am sure that you remember that the second floor (somewhere between one-half million and 1.2 million cubic feet alone) was made for the animals. The animals came in pairs, except for the seven pairs of kosher animals (all cud-chewing) and certain birds, such as pigeons, chickens, turkeys and doves. Incidentally the giraffe is a kosher animal and came in seven pairs.
Rabbinic literature states that many of the animals slept most of the time. They just got up once in a while to eat and exercise. Noah would wake them (out of a state of suspended animation), take them out of their cages and let them exercise in a special room for that reason. Then he would put them back to "sleep" in their cages. (He once woke the lions up too late, and one of them raked him with his claws; Noah walked with a limp for the rest of his life.)
The animals embarked as little babies. A baby is 20 to 100 times smaller than a full-grown animal. A full-grown lion weighs about 800 pounds, while a baby lion is only the size of a house cat. Yet there were very few large animals the size of an elephant. Also, the animals the size of water buffalo and rhinos were relatively few. Animals the size of deer were not in the majority. Most animals were small, like the mink; the raccoon; the dog; the cat; and the weasel. When you think how small the babies of these are you will see how 26 million animals could be placed side-by-side in small cages while they are sleeping. (A baby mouse or a baby possum can sleep curled up in a teaspoon.)
Walking into my patient's house in Bene Brak, I noticed that her mother was quite excited. "Look at my baby!" she cried. I did. The patient's eyes were shiny, her tongue was back in her mouth, and she was playing with the other children of the family. Her mother told me that after the second treatment she had her monthly PKU test, and her levels had come down from 17 to seven.
For me, learning the Chumash and praying for my patients brings the L-rd into the treatment plan. I gave the little girl her third treatment and got back on the bus for the long ride home.
Out of reverence, Jews do not put the Almighty's entire name in print, because the paper on which it is printed will eventually be thrown away, and they don't want the "L-rd's" name in the trash.
Rabbi Shmuel Brody,DC
Jerusalem, Israel