Results tagged ‘ Noach ’

Noach

                      Noach

 
In this week’s parsha, Noach becomes the first person in the history of the world to be called a righteous (6;9). 
 
However, at the end of the parsha we find that Noach got drunk (9;21). How then could Noach be considered truly righteous? What occurred that made Noach, a perfectly righteous person, get drunk? 
 
Secondly, Rashi (7;7) states that Noach had a small amount of trust in Hashem as “he believed yet he did not believe fully that the flood would come.” However, if indeed Noach didn’t fully believe in Hashem, why then was he considered so righteous? 
 
Thirdly, Rashi (7;23) relates that the lion attacked Noach because he was late feeding him. However, if Noach was perfectly righteous then the lion would have (presumably) had respect and not attacked him!?! 
 
Fourthly, Rashi (8;7) relates that the raven suspected Noach of wanting to have relations with the female raven. However, how could the raven suspect someone who was perfectly righteous of having relations with a raven? 
 
Fifthly, the torah (6;9) states that Noach walked “with” Hashem whereas Avraham walked “in front” of Him (17;1). Rashi (6;9) explains the difference to be that “Noach needed support to bear him up, but Avraham would strengthen himself and walk in his righteousness on his own.” What does that mean exactly?
 
Sixthly, the Zohar states that Noach didn’t daven for his generation to repent. However, why didn’t Noach daven for them when he spent 120 years building the ark? 
 
Lastly, Chanoch became an angel and yet he was never called righteous. Why is it that Noach was called righteous and yet Chanoch wasn’t? Surely Chanoch must have had a closer relationship with Hashem!?! 
 
Rashi (6;9) says that the torah mentioned Noach’s righteousness to teach us that “the main offspring of the righteous are good deeds.” Rabbi Yochanan Zweig explains this to mean that a righteous person’s actions are a reflection of who they are. Regular people, however, constantly do things because they don’t want to get looked down upon–not because it’s who they are. For Noach, however, everything he did was a reflection of who he was (an unbelievable compliment). Therefore, we could now define a righteous person, according to the torah, as one whose actions reflect who they are. Thus, even though Noach didn’t fully believe in Hashem, the torah nevertheless refers to him as righteous.
 
Similarly, we could explain that although Chanoch became an angel, he still wasn’t called righteous because he didn’t perfect his human condition. The reason he became an angel is because he truly understood his connection with Hashem–but the torah’s definition of righteousness isn’t based on one’s connection with Hashem.
 
Rabbi Zweig explains that Noach’s agenda was merely to perfect himself whereas Avraham perfected others as well. Therefore, Avraham felt a true connection to Hashem whereas Noach was constantly struggling to fulfill the mitzvot because he didn’t understand the whole reasoning behind them. For this reason Rashi (6;9) says that “Noach needed support to bear him up, but Avraham would strengthen himself and walk in his righteousness on his own.” Meaning, Noach always needed help to follow in Hashem’s ways whereas Avraham was fine on his own because he understood the purpose behind all the mitzvot through having a connection with Hashem.
 
Further, Rabbi Zweig explains that Noach was actually part of Hashem’s punishment of flooding the world. What was his punishment? Rabbi Zweig explains that Noach’s punishment was that he had to live with all the animals in the ark and other similar troubles. Interestingly, in parshat Noach man is called “flesh” (“basar”) instead of the usual word “adam” (man). Rabbi Zweig explains that Noach walked in to the ark as a man but then became an animal as a zoo keeper. Hashem was therefore telling him that if he just perfects himself and not others then he’s really no better than an animal–he therefore became a zoo keeper.
 
Rabbi Zweig explains that Noach got drunk because he couldn’t live with his lower position from a human being to an animal so he tried to forget his problems by drinking.
 
Even further, Rabbi Zweig explains that the raven suspected Noach of bestiality and that the lion attacked him (even though the torah calls him “righteous”) because he became an animal just like them–so they were on the same level.
 
Lastly, Rabbi Zweig explains that Noach didn’t pray for his generation to repent because he thought everyone had an obligation only to perfect themselves. Therefore, Noach’s sole agenda was to perfect himself. Thus, he spent 120 years building the ark because that was for himself and didn’t pray for others to repent.

Noach

                  Noach

 

In this week’s parsha Hashem floods the whole world (except the land of Israel–Zevachim, 113b).

 

The Mishna (Pirkei Avos, 5;2) states: “There were ten generations from Adam to Noach, to show how great was His patience, for every one of those generations provoked Him continually until he brought upon them the waters of the Flood.”

 

The Torah (6;13) tells us that Hashem flooded the world due to stealing. The commentators explain that the people stole at amounts less than a “perutah” (comparable to a penny) so that they could not be taken to court. Interestingly, Rashi (6;11) tells us that the people were also guilty of sexual immorality and idolatry…

 

The obvious question arises: Why did Hashem punish them due to stealing “pennies” when they were also engaging in sexual immorality and idolatry? Surely those 2 sins are far more severe!?!

 

Additionally, if for 10 generations Hashem was constantly provoked, why did he destroy the world due to such a seemingly petty sin?

 

To answer these 2 questions, I think we need to examine the 3 sins…

 

Idolatry (serving other g-ds) is something in which people do in order to become closer to the master of the world. Although serving idols is a sin, it is mostly done with positive intentions (to become closer to G-d) and comes about through lack of knowledge of the real master of the world (Hashem). Therefore, perhaps for this reason the sin of idolatry wasn’t great enough to cause Hashem to flood the world. Now, sexual immorality is a sin in which people perform due to uncontrollable desires, mainly due to the Yetzer Hara. At this point in history Hashem hadn’t given over the torah and its laws. Therefore, perahps due to the strong pull of the Yetzer Hara and the unawareness of its prohibition, the sin of sexual immorality wasn’t great enough to cause Hashem to flood the world.

 

However, why was stealing objects worth less than a “perutah” a great enough sin to flood the world?

 

Stealing is something in which doesn’t need to be told that it’s prohibited, for it is obviously wrong to take something which is not yours! A person doesn’t need a law to figure out that he shouldn’t steal from others…Therefore, perhaps it was for this reason that Hashem destroyed the world due to stealing, albeit it was less than a perutah at a time…

 

I think we could say there’s a lot more to it…Stealing shows there’s a problem with a person’s middos (character traits), for one should respect his fellow’s property.

 

Why should lack of middos cause Hashem to flood the world?  What’s the greatness of good middos?

 

The Midrash (Vayikra Rabbah, 13;3) says that as a whole, the mitzvot were given to enable us to refine our character. Rabbi Chaim Vital (A.K.A. The Arizal) says that the torah doesn’t obligate us to have good middos because they’re the very essence of the whole torah. He explains that if one possesses good middos then he’ll come to fulfill all the mitzvot with ease. Similarly, Rabbeinu Yona (Pirkei Avos, 3;21) states that the torah will not rest upon one with bad middos. Furthermore, the Gemara (Eruvin, 100b) states that had we not been given the torah then we would have been obligated to learn good middos from nature. For example, we would have had to learn modesty from cats, theft from ants, forbidden relations from doves and how to have relations from roosters. Lastly, the Midrash (Vayikra Rabbah 9:3) states that derech eretz (proper behavior) precedes the torah.

 

We could now understand why Hashem flooded the world due to people stealing “pennies” from each other…The torah was given in order to perform the mitzvot, and the mitzvot were given in order to improve our middos. Therefore, middos are in effect the foundation of the entire torah. Thus, for stealing from one another and thereby not showing good middos, Hashem flooded the world.

 

Summary:  After 10 generations of constantly being provoked, Hashem decided to flood the world due to the generation of Noach stealing from each other at amounts less than a “perutah” (comparable to a penny) among idolatry, sexual immorality and many other sins because it shows bad middos (character traits). The Midrash (Vayikra Rabbah, 13;3) tells us that the mitzvot, for which the torah was created, were given to us in order so that we should refine our middos. In fact, the Arizal explains that the torah doesn’t obligate one to have good middos because they’re the foundation of the whole torah! Therefore, we should all learn from the generation of Noach to correct all our character flaws, for the consequences could be deadly!

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