Parasha Noaj

 

Noach

Noah — נח

Reading / Audio Instructions

TORAH: Genesis 6:9-11:32

HAFTARAH: Isaiah 54:1-55:5

GOSPEL: Luke 17:20-27

Note: The regular readings above are often interrupted with special readings on Jewish holidays, special Sabbaths, and Rosh Chodesh. Refer to the annual Torah Portion schedule for these special portions.

Portion Summary

The second reading in the book of Genesis is named after Noah. In Hebrew, the name Noah is spelled Noach (נח). The word Noach is related to the Hebrew word for "rest." Genesis 5:29 says that his parents named him Noah (Noach נח) because they hoped their son would give them rest (nacham, נחם) from their toil. The contents of section Noah tell the story of Noah's flood, the tower of Babel and the beginning of the Abrahamic line.

Portion Outline

• Torah
• Genesis 6:1 | The Wickedness of Humankind
• Genesis 6:9 | Noah Pleases God
• Genesis 7:1 | The Great Flood
• Genesis 8:1 | The Flood Subsides
• Genesis 8:20 | God's Promise to Noah
• Genesis 9:1 | The Covenant with Noah
• Genesis 9:18 | Noah and His Sons
• Genesis 10:1 | Nations Descended from Noah
• Genesis 11:1 | The Tower of Babel
• Genesis 11:10 | Descendants of Shem
• Genesis 11:27 | Descendants of Terah
• Prophets
• Isaiah 54:1 | The Eternal Covenant of Peace
• Isaiah 55:1 | An Invitation to Abundant Life

Noah, Noah, and Messiah

When Noah was born, his parents named him Noach, saying, “This one will give us rest…”

 

Portion of Noah mosaic in Basilica di San Marco, Venice (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

Noah has a lot in common with the Messiah. The Torah's story of Noah and the flood illustrates the human condition, man’s sin, God's reaction, the horror of divine judgment, and the need for salvation. Noah was the savior of the world. In the days of Noah, the Almighty held a terrible, universal judgment over the world. The whole earth was corrupt, but Noah “was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God” (Genesis 6:9).

Noah proclaimed a message of repentance to a wicked and adulterous generation. The apostles called him a “preacher of righteousness” who called his generation to repent (2 Peter 2:5, 1 Clement 7:6). He warned the people of his time about an imminent day of divine fury and judgment. Noah offered men a means of deliverance through which they could be saved from the fate about to befall their generation.

The name Noah (Noach, נח) also alludes to Messiah. When Noah was born, his parents named him Noach, saying, “This one will give us rest (nacham, נחם) from our work and from the toil of our hands” (Genesis 5:29). The name Noach (נח), which also means “comforter,” is a form of the word menachem (מנחם). The sages of the Talmud say that Menachem is one of the names of Messiah. Lamentations 1:16 refers to the Messiah as the menachem, i.e., the “comforter.” Yeshua told His disciples that the Father would send them another Comforter, indicating that up until then, He had filled that title. The apostles refer to the Messiah as our “Advocate with the Father,” a term employing the Greek equivalent for Menachem.

Perhaps this hint toward a messianic title explains the unusual repetition of Noah’s name when the Torah says, “Noah, Noah” —“אֵ֚לֶּה תּוֹלְדֹ֣ת נֹ֔חַ נֹ֗חַ אִ֥ישׁ צַדִּ֛יק” (Genesis 6:9). The repetition hints toward the first coming of the Messiah and the second coming of the Messiah.

The apostles also compared the salvation God brought through Noah to the salvation that God brings through the Messiah. Unlike Noah, who saved only himself and his family, however, the Messiah will bring salvation to the whole world. A parable comparing Noah and Moses illustrates the point:

It is as if two ships encountered a storm on the sea. Two pilots steered the two ships. One managed to save himself but not his ship, but the other saved both himself and his ship? Which one received admiration? Surely the one who saved himself and his ship. Similarly, Noah saved only himself, whereas Moses saved himself and his generation. (Genesis Rabbah 11:3)

Messiah is the second Noah, the comforter and the savior of the world. Perhaps that is way the Torah says, "“These are generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man.”

Left Behind

Afraid of being "left behind" when the rapture comes? Study the story of Noah and find out why you might prefer to be left behind after all.

An illustration of the Christian concept of the rapture. (Image: © Bigstock)

Our Master Yeshua compared the generation of Noah to the generation that will witness the day of the LORD and the coming of the Son of Man. When the Messiah returns, He will usher in a day of judgment. In that day, some will be taken away in judgment and others will be left behind:

Then there will be two men in the field; one will be taken and one will be left. Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and one will be left. (Matthew 24:40-41)

I tell you, on that night there will be two in one bed; one will be taken and the other will be left. There will be two women grinding at the same place; one will be taken and the other will be left. (Luke 17:34-35)

A husband and wife will be in the same bed. One will be taken, the other left behind. Two men will be at work together in the same field. One will be taken the other left behind. Two women will be turning the stone mill to grind flour. One will be taken the other left behind. Surprisingly, Christians today often interpret these words to mean that when Jesus comes, the one taken will be whisked away to meet Him in the sky. Since the spouse left lying in bed is not a believer, he (or she) will be left behind. Likewise, the one left working in the field is not a Christian, so he is left behind. The one left grinding at the mill, also not a believer, is left behind.

Contrary to the popular teaching, however, the one “taken” in the Matthew 24 and Luke 17 is not raptured to join Jesus in the air. Just as the flood came and took people away in the days of Noah (and just as fire and brimstone fell upon the people of Sodom in the days of Lot), being “taken away” in Matthew 24:40-41 refers to people taken in judgment.

The disciples asked Him, “Where [will they be taken], Master?” He answered, “Where the body is, there also the vultures will be gathered” (Luke 17:37). In other words, the corpses of those taken away will be food for the birds. With these words, our Master invoked the dire apocalyptic predictions of the prophets Ezekiel and Jeremiah.

The horrific massacres of the war with Rome that engulfed the Jewish people of Yeshua’s generation fulfilled His prophecies: “They left the dead bodies to rot under the sun, and they bestowed the same punishment to anyone who buried a body … anyone that granted the mercy of a grave to another quickly needed a grave himself.” The people of the generation became food for the vultures. Our holy Master Yeshua foresaw it all.

The Hebrew word nesher (נשר) can mean a “vulture” or an “eagle.” The Romans used the eagle as the symbol of their empire. In that sense, Yeshua might have used the word “eagles” as a cryptic reference to Roman legions:

The LORD will bring a nation against you from afar, from the end of the earth, as the eagle swoops down. (Deuteronomy 28:49)

Those “left behind” in Matthew 24 and Luke 17 are the righteous, not the wicked. Those “left behind” can be compared to Noah and his seven family members who survived the flood, as Peter says, “The Lord knows how to rescue the godly” (2 Peter 2:9).

The thrust of the passage calls upon disciples to remain vigilant as they await the coming of the days of the Son of Man. Yeshua’s disciples must not be like the complacent generations of Noah and Lot that were caught unawares, for the Messiah will come suddenly, like a flash of lightning, like a thief in the night. “Therefore be on the alert, for you do not know which day your Lord is coming” (Matthew 24:42).

Fixing a Broken World

Why does God punish sin? Why does He care what we choose to do? Why should our personal choices be judged?

We live on a broken world. (Image: © Bigstock)

Human evil grieves God's heart. God is not peering down on the planet making observations like a dispassionate astronaut. Neither is He watching us like a man sitting on a sofa watching a football game. Rather, He is like a Father who observes the behavior of His children. He is like a king taking note of how events unfold in his kingdom.

When a father sees his children involved in self-destructive behaviors, it grieves him. When a king sees his subjects living in open rebellion against him, it angers him. As God observed humanity in the days of Noah, He was saddened to see the rampant wickedness of His creations. He saw that every human heart harbored evil. "The LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart" (Genesis 6:6).

Then God said to Noah, "The end of all flesh has come before Me; for the earth is filled with violence because of them; and behold, I am about to destroy them with the earth." (Genesis 6:13)

The Bible says that the wages of sin are death (Romans 6:23). Sin affects the world around us. It affects others around us. For example, an alcoholic might suppose that his drinking problem is his own business. But when he abuses his wife and children, it is their problem. When he can't perform at work, it is his employer's problem. When he loses his job, it is his creditors' problem. When he can no longer afford to take care of his family, it is the community's problem. Our sins touch the lives of everyone around us. They pollute the spiritual environment of our world.

Human beings are naturally selfish creatures. We rarely consider the consequences that our choices have on others. In the days of Noah, the violent man never stopped to say to himself, "My violence is making this world worse. My sins are hurting the whole of humanity." Each time we sin, no matter how private and personal we imagine the sin to be, we contribute to the destruction of the world.

God punishes sin. For Him to leave sin unpunished would be unjust.

Think of it this way. Suppose there was a murder trial. The defendant was proven guilty. The jury returned a guilty verdict, but the judge, being a kindly fellow, dismissed the verdict, saying, "Well, the poor bloke is probably sorry. I don't think we need to punish him." Everyone would be outraged at the travesty of justice.

Yet people want to imagine God like that. We don't like to think of God as a punisher of sin. We want Him to just look the other way, like a kindly old grandfather who winks at the misdeeds of his grandchildren. The Bible says, "Righteousness and justice are the foundation of [God's] throne" (Psalm 89:14). In other words, God's kingdom is founded upon justice. Since God is the very standard of justice, He cannot be unjust.

This is the problem with sin. It begets judgment. In the days of Noah, the sin of humanity was so great that justice demanded God take action against it. The easiest thing for God to do would have been to simply will the universe out of existence. He could have just shut the entire thing down and started over with a new creation. Instead, He chose to try to fix the world.

In Judaism, "fixing the world" (tikkun olam, תקון עולם) is an important concept. The world is broken, and it needs to be fixed. Whenever we apply our efforts to doing good by alleviating human suffering, standing up for justice, making peace in the midst of strife, and choosing to do right instead of wrong, we are fixing the world. As we make the world a better, more godly place, we are restoring it to God's original intent.

The Door in the Ark

God commanded Noah to place a door on the side of the ark. In Chasidic teaching, the door in the ark symbolizes repentance.

Johan Huibers' life-size replica of Noah's ark in the Netherlands (Image: Youtube screenshot)

The LORD gave Noah instructions for building the ark: "Make for yourself an ark of gopher wood; you shall make the ark with rooms, and shall cover it inside and out with pitch" (Genesis 6:14). The word “ark” translates the Hebrew word “tevah (תבה).”

The Torah uses the same word for the basket in the story about baby Moses: “When she could no longer hide him, she got him a wicker tevah and covered it over with tar and pitch. Then she put the child into it and set it among the reeds by the bank of the Nile” (Exodus 2:3). Both arks, coated with tar and pitch, float on the waters and preserve the lives of their passengers.

Chasidic teachings note that, in Rabbinic Hebrew, tevah also means “word.” Based on this equation, Noah’s ark might symbolize a person’s prayers which he offers with words:

In the face of the flood of concerns over one’s livelihood, one should get into one’s tevah, the words of prayer, which have the ability to keep one afloat, and even more—to raise one up above the waters. (Torah Or, Noach)

God commanded Noah to place a door on the side of the ark. In Chasidic teaching, the door in the ark symbolizes repentance. Along the same lines, our Master compared repentance to a door. He taught His disciples to escape the coming judgment by repenting and passing through the narrow door to enter God’s salvation.

During the decades that Noah built the ark and preached repentance, anyone could have entered the ark. Even after the rains first began to fall, the people still had time to enter through the door and find salvation in the ark. They did not heed Noah’s warnings. They did not seek first to enter the ark because they were busy with the concerns of life, saying, “What will we eat?” or “What will we drink?” or “What will we wear for clothing?” (Matthew 6:31). They were busy “eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark” (Matthew 24:38-39).

God closed the door of the ark behind Noah and his family. This teaches that God appoints a deadline for repentance. He does not leave the door of repentance open indefinitely. A day comes when the time for repentance expires and it will no longer be possible to find entrance into the kingdom. Then the judgment begins.

Our Master also warned us that the door of repentance will close:

Strive to enter through the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able. Once the head of the house gets up and shuts the door, and you begin to stand outside and knock on the door, saying, “Lord, open up to us!” then He will answer and say to you, “I do not know where you are from.” (Luke 13:24-25)

Noah the Righteous Man

The Bible says that “Noah was a righteous man.” Does this mean that Noah never committed a single sin? What does it really mean to be righteous?

 

Portion of Noah mosaic in Basilica di San Marco, Venice (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

The Torah calls Noah a tzaddik (צדיק), that is, “a righteous man.” God spared Noah from the flood because he “was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time” (Genesis 6:9). Righteousness (tzedakah, צדקה) implies behavior conforming to an ethical norm, that is, living by the rules of virtue and morality. A righteous man conducts himself according to ethical principles and treats others fairly and impartially by the same standards.

A righteous person lives a life of obedience to God: “Noah did according to everything God commanded him, so he did” (Genesis 6:22). God makes the rules which define morality. The Bible refers to breaking God’s rules as sin. Righteousness is the opposite of sin.

The LORD said to Noah, “Enter the ark, you and all your household, for you alone I have seen to be righteous before Me in this time” (Genesis 7:1). This illustrates how the righteousness of a single person can save others and even the whole world. The righteousness of Noah saved his family and made a future for humanity. In his merit, all humanity and life on earth survived God’s judgment.

God would have created the world even for just one righteous man … The world endures for even just one righteous man, as it is said [Proverbs 10:25]: “But the righteous is the foundation of the world.” (b.Yoma 38b)

Does this mean that Noah was sinless? According to the scriptures, there “is not a righteous man on earth who continually does good and who never sins” (Ecclesiastes 7:20), “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).

Judaism differentiates between the righteous man (tzaddik) and the completely righteous man (tzaddik gamur). Noah was righteous, not perfect. The sages say that God saved Noah from the flood because he found grace in the eyes of God—but not because he deserved to be saved. Righteousness does not demand perfection. Instead, Judaism teaches that the righteous will live by faith (Habakkuk 2:4). The writer of the book of Hebrews associates Noah’s righteousness with his faith in things not yet seen.

By faith Noah, being warned by God about things not yet seen, in reverence prepared an ark for the salvation of his household, by which he condemned the world, and became an heir of the righteousness which is according to faith. (Hebrews 11:7)

Noah demonstrated his faith in the unseen by obediently building the ark. His obedience demonstrated that he possessed the fear of the LORD: “In reverence [he] prepared an ark.” His reverent obedience manifested his assurance of things hoped for and his conviction of things not seen. “Faith was working with his works, and as a result of the works, faith was perfected” (James 2:22). Therefore, he “became an heir of the righteousness which is according to faith,” which is to say that he believed God and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.

One Language

When did people first start speaking in "tongues"? Did you know that the gift of tongues first appears in the Torah? Long before Pentecost in Acts 2, God gave human beings the gift of speaking in tongues.

Tradition says that God descended to confuse the languages and disperse the peoples. He divided the people of Babel into seventy nations, and He split the single one tongue into seventy tongues. (Image: The Tower of Babel by Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1563), public domain via Wikimedia)

In the days of the Tower of Babel, all human beings spoke one language. The Torah uses two different words to indicate a human language: lip (safah, שפה) and tongue (lashon, לשון). In the Hebrew idiom, to say that a person “speaks in tongues” means that he speaks multiple languages. The Hebrew of Genesis 11:1 literally says “And it was that all the earth was one lip.” If our apostolic writers selected that Hebrew term for language, Pentecostals today would advocate “speaking in lips.”

According to some opinions, prior to the confusion of languages at the tower of Babel, all human beings spoke Hebrew, the language with which God created the heavens and the earth. Rabbinic literature calls Hebrew the tongue of angels and the “Holy Tongue.” Hebrew is the “one tongue” as opposed to the “seventy tongues” of mankind.

If I speak with the tongues of men (the seventy languages) and of angels (Hebrew), but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. (1 Corinthians 13:1)

Tradition says that God descended to confuse the languages and disperse the peoples. He divided the people of Babel into seventy nations, and He split the single one tongue into seventy tongues. Linguists count more than seventy spoken languages in the world (even after many languages have become extinct), and they assure us that Hebrew was not the mother tongue of humanity but is itself a descendent of an earlier Semitic language. Nevertheless, Judaism considers the Hebrew language holy. Hebrew is to Judaism what Latin is to the Roman Catholic Church and what Greek is to the Greek Orthodox Church. Hebrew is the language of the Torah, the language of the Scriptures, the language of the prayers, and (along with Aramaic) the language of the rabbis and our Master.

The revelation of the Torah and the good news of the Messianic Era gather scattered humanity back together into one kingdom and one tongue. Tradition says that when God spoke the Torah at Mount Sinai, He spoke it in the seventy languages of mankind so that all mankind might hear and understand His summons. In the days of the apostles, on the anniversary of that miracle, the Spirit of God again transcended the language barriers created at Babel when the apostles miraculously proclaimed the gospel in all languages. The gospel in all languages reverses the curse and summons humanity to return and reunite under the kingdom of heaven.

Though the LORD dispersed the generation of the flood to the four corners of the earth, the Messiah comes to gather His elect into His kingdom. The holy city, Messianic Jerusalem takes the place of the unholy tower of Babel. In the Messianic Era, all nations will speak the holy tongue of Hebrew: “For then I will give to the peoples purified lip, that all of them may call on the name of the LORD, to serve Him shoulder to shoulder” (Zephaniah 3:9).

The Righteous Cannibal

Who defines what is wrong and what is right? Who is to say that what is wrong in one culture might not be right in another? Is there really such a thing as a moral absolute?

Noah's story teaches us about the company we keep. Humans are gregarious creatures. We tend to imitate those around us. The attitudes of family, friends and colleagues rub off on us. If you want to be a godly person, though, you need to hang out with godly people.

Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation; Noah walked with God. (Genesis 6:9)

When compared with the standards of our present generation, we might feel fairly righteous. We can always find people far worse than ourselves. A man might say, "I'm not a murderer. I provide for my kids. I don't rob convenience stores, and I don't cheat on my wife." According to the standards of our generation, he seems to be a decent fellow. That's not a good way to measure righteousness. Suppose we lived in a society of cannibals, where it was considered normal to cannibalize other human beings. The same fellow might say, "Well, I enjoy eating people, but at least I don't cheat on my wife."

Noah lived in a wicked generation, but he was an exception to the wickedness around him. In describing Noah, the Bible says that he was righteous, blameless and walked with God.

What does it mean to be "righteous"? In Hebrew the word "righteousness" is tzedekah (צדקה). A righteous person is one who lives in accordance with the standards of morality. God sets the standards. Breaking God's standards is sin. Therefore, righteousness is the opposite of sin. To be righteous is to live a life of obedience to God. The Torah says, "Noah did [everything] God had commanded him" (Genesis 6:22).

The Torah says that Noah was blameless in his generation. What does it mean that he was blameless "in his generation"? Rashi says there are two ways of answering this question:

There are some among our Rabbis who interpret these words as praising Noah, saying, "If he had lived in a more righteous generation, he would have been even more righteous." But others interpret these words as a criticism, saying, "When compared with the standard of his [wicked] generation he was righteous, but if he had lived in the generation of Abraham [who was very righteous] he would not have been considered righteous." (Rashi on Genesis 6:9)

Noah's story teaches us about the company we keep. Humans are gregarious creatures. We tend to imitate those around us. The attitudes of family, friends and colleagues rub off on us. If you want to become a thief, hang out with thieves. If you want to be a godly person, though, you need to hang out with godly people.

Few individuals can maintain high moral standards while living and working with immoral people. Noah was one of those rare individuals. Though the society around him was utterly corrupt, he was able to keep from adopting his generation's social norms. When compared with the godly Abraham, Noah might not have seemed unique, but when compared with the ungodly generation of the flood, he stood out as completely different from those around him.

Godly people need to be in fellowship with other believers who share their values if they want to remain godly. Godly people should conspicuously stick out from the rest of the world. They should be fundamentally different from the generation around them.

Parashat Noach - Genesis 6:9-11:32

Leaving A Legacy

Our parasha opens with the words, “These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God” (Genesis 6:9). In this passage, the word “generations” is the Hebrew word toldot (תולדת). Most of the time the word toldot is used in the Scriptures it is in relationship to genealogy, since its primary meaning is descendants or offspring. For instance, toward the end of this week’s parasha we read, “These are the generations of Shem” (Genesis 11:10). Immediately following is a list of Shem’s descendants. When it comes to Terach it repeats this pattern saying, “Now these are the generations of Terah” (Genesis 11:27) followed by a list of his children. It is the same when it lists the sons of Ishmael in Genesis 25, etc.

However, in the case of the Bible’s description of Noah (and a few other select individuals), rather than listing his children, his character traits are listed instead. It appears that the Scriptures are emphasizing that more than his literal offspring—the very ones that would repopulate the world after the flood—the legacy of Noah was to be found in his character. The Scriptures list three “offspring” of Noah: his righteousness, his blamelessness and his relationship with God. Let’s briefly explore these concepts.

Noah was righteous. What does this mean? Righteousness is a legal status by which one person is declared to be in right relationship with another. It means that Noah held to the standard which the Lord had given him, as it is written, “The Lord tests the righteous, but his soul hates the wicked and the one who loves violence … For the Lord is righteous; he loves righteous deeds; the upright shall behold his face.” (Psalm 11:5, 7). When the Lord told Noach to enter into the ark, he reminded Noah of his righteousness by saying, “Go into the ark, you and all your household, for I have seen that you are righteous before me in this generation” (Genesis 7:1).  

Noah was blameless. What does this mean? A person is blameless when they avoid the things that displease God. For instance, when the Children of Israel were about to enter into the Promised Land, the Lord commanded them saying, “You shall be blameless before the LORD your God” (Deuteronomy 18:13). He desired that they no follow the abominations of the nations they were about to dispossess. The Lord qualifies what it means to be blameless by saying, “For these nations, which you are about to dispossess, listen to fortune-tellers and to diviners. But as for you, the LORD your God has not allowed you to do this” (Deuteronomy 18:14). Although there was wickedness all around him, Noah stood firm and did not succumb to the temptation to reduce his religious observance to the lowest common denominator of his environment.

Noah walked with God. What does this mean? God desires that His children walk with him. The prophet Micah tells us this saying, “He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” (Micah 6:8). Walking with God is an idiom for faithfulness, as the Scriptures tell us, “Ephraim has surrounded me with lies, and the house of Israel with deceit, but Judah still walks with God and is faithful to the Holy One” (Hosea 11:12).

Although Noah lived in a wicked generation, yet he was a righteous man, blameless in his generation and walked with God. What can we say of ourselves? Are we righteous, blameless and walking with God? How will our toldot be remembered?

Parashat Noach - Genesis 6:9-11:32

The Rainbow Covenant

When Noah and his family came out of the ark, God told them to be fruitful and multiply, repopulating the earth. He also entrusted them with certain moral obligations regarding the treatment of both man and animal. Last, He made a covenant with humanity to never again destroy the earth by water and created the rainbow as a testimony to this covenant:

And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: I have set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh. And the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. (Genesis 9:12–15)

Now, whenever one sees a rainbow in the sky we are to recite a blessing: “Blessed are You, O LORD our God, King of the universe, who remembers the covenant, who is faithful to His covenant, and who stands by His word.” Whenever we see this sign of the covenant we are reminded of God’s promise to never destroy the world through water. Because of this, many people are excited when they see a rainbow, because they view it as a sign of God’s favor and blessing. However, we should examine the concept of the rainbow more fully to understand it's meaning. 

First, who is the rainbow a sign for? Is it a sign for us or for God? Genesis 9:14–15 says, “When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, I will remember my covenant …” God says, “I will remember my covenant.” In other words, God created the rainbow to be a kind of buffer between Himself and humanity, to not release His entire anger upon the earth in the same manner as in the days of Noah. Our sages understood this and said that the appearance of the rainbow is a sign of a wicked generation. The rainbow is a reminder that although the generation deserves destruction He will maintain His agreement and withhold the waters of destruction from upon us. 

According to one source, there were two generations that did not ever see the sign of the rainbow, because of their righteousness. They were the generation of Hezekiah, the king of Judah, and either the generation of the Men of the Great Assembly or the generation of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai (Gen. Rabbah 35:2). 

What about our generation? The rainbow has been seen in abundance in our generation. What does this say about our generation? We are living in a generation where right has become wrong and wrong has become right. We are living in a generation where morality is governed by the consensus of a morally bankrupt culture, rather than the boundaries established by the Word of God. How, then, should we respond today when we see a rainbow? Our hearts should be filled with remorse and repentance as the Talmud tells us:

One who sees the rainbow in the clouds should fall on his face, as it says, ‘As the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud, and when I saw it I fell upon my face’ [Ezekiel 1:28]. (b.Berachot 56a)

This is a reminder of the good news that Yeshua taught us. He was continually preaching, “Repent! For the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!” His good news was that through true repentance the Kingdom could become a reality in our lifetime. What does it mean to repent? The formula for true repentance is found in a very familiar passage:

If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land. (2 Chronicles 7:14)

Whether or not we see a rainbow, let us continually take up the task of true repentance in hopes that not only will our God will continue to be merciful to this generation, but also that His Kingdom would be established in our lifetime.

Leaving A Legacy

Parashat Noach (Genesis 6:9-11:32)

Parashat Noach opens with the words, “These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God” (Genesis 6:9). In this passage, “generations” is the Hebrew word toldot (תדלות). The word toldot is most often used in the Scriptures in relationship to genealogy, since its primary meaning is “descendants” or “offspring.” For instance, toward the end of this week’s parashah we read, “These are the generations of Shem” (Genesis 11:10). Immediately following is a list of Shem’s descendants. The pattern repeats with Terah, the father of Abraham, saying, “Now these are the generations of Terah” (Genesis 11:27), followed by a list of his children. The same goes for the lists of the sons of Ishmael in Genesis 25, etc.

However, in the case of the Bible’s description of Noah (and a few other select individuals), rather than listing his children, his character traits are listed. The Scriptures appear to be emphasizing that, more than his literal offspring—the very ones that would repopulate the world after the flood—Noah’s legacy was to be found in his character. The Scriptures list three “offspring” of Noah: his righteousness, his blamelessness, and his relationship with God. Let’s briefly explore these concepts.

Noah was righteous. What does this mean? Righteousness is a legal status by which one person is declared to be in right relationship with another. This means that Noah held to the standard that the LORD had given him, as it is written, “The LORD tests the righteous, but his soul hates the wicked and the one who loves violence. … For the LORD is righteous; he loves righteous deeds; the upright shall behold his face.” (Psalm 11:5, 7). When the LORD told Noah to enter into the ark, He reminded Noah of his righteousness by saying, “Go into the ark, you and all your household, for I have seen that you are righteous before me in this generation” (Genesis 7:1).

Noah was blameless. What does this mean? A person is blameless when they avoid the things that displease God. For instance, when the Children of Israel were about to enter into the Promised Land, the LORD commanded them saying, “You shall be blameless before the LORD your God” (Deuteronomy 18:13). He desired that they not follow the abominations of the nations they were about to dispossess. The LORD qualifies what it means to be blameless by saying, “For these nations, which you are about to dispossess, listen to fortune-tellers and to diviners. But as for you, the LORD your God has not allowed you to do this” (Deuteronomy 18:14). Although there was wickedness all around him, Noah stood firm and did not succumb to the temptation to reduce his religious observance to the lowest common denominator of his environment.

Noah walked with God. What does this mean? God desires that His children walk with him. The prophet Micah tells us, “He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” (Micah 6:8). Walking with God is an idiom for faithfulness, as the Scriptures tell us, “Ephraim has surrounded me with lies, and the house of Israel with deceit, but Judah still walks with God and is faithful to the Holy One” (Hosea 11:12).

Although Noah lived in a wicked generation, he was a righteous man, blameless in his generation, and he walked with God. What can we say of ourselves? Are we righteous, blameless, and walking with God? How will our toldot be remembered?

Noach: The Descent of the Dove

The 153 verses of Parashat Noach (Genesis 6:9–11:32) speak of a cataclysmic flood upon a sinful world, and the salvation of humanity. As such, they serve as a prototype of the Chelvai Shel Mashiach. While many scholars regard this story as a mere myth, there are over 500 stories in ancient mythologies with remarkably significant parallels. From the most famous Epic of Gilgamesh, to lesser known accounts of Eridu Genesis and the Greek story of Deucalion, the similarities are summarized as follows, “Of the flood traditions which have survived up to the present time, about 95% describe a global cataclysmic deluge, 88% tell of a favored family of humans saved from drowning to reestablish the human race after the deluge, 66% say the family was forewarned of the coming cataclysm, 66% blame the wickedness of man for the deluge, and 70% record a boat as

Epic of Gilgamesh

being the means by which the chosen family (and animals) survived the flood. More than one third of these traditions mention birds being sent out from the boat.” GotQuestions.org, Did the Bible Copy the Flood Account from Other Myths and Legends? [1]

The Book of Jubilees places the sight of the rainbow on Shavuot, “And He gave to Noah and his sons a sign that there should not again be a flood on the earth. He set His bow in the cloud for a sign of the eternal covenant that there should not again be a flood on the earth to destroy it all the days of the earth. For this reason it is ordained and written on the heavenly tablets, that they should celebrate the feast of weeks in this month once a year, to renew the covenant every year.” Jubilees 6:15-18

In modern thought, the rainbow is a symbol of God’s grace and mercy. While this is true there is another side to the coin. A rainbow is a reminder of God’s grace despite mankind’s sinful actions. Whenever one sees a rainbow, it is a reminder that the world deserves Divine Judgment (although it is restrained) and it forms a lower reflection of the Throne of God (Ezekiel 1:28, Revelation 4:3). The blessing when one sees a rainbow is as follows:

בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה ה’ אֶלוֹהֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם זוֹכֵר הַבְּרִית וְנֶאֱמָן בִּבְרִיתוֹ וְקַיָם בְּמַאֲמָרוֹ

“Blessed are you HaShem, King of the Universe, who remembers His Covenant and is faithful to His covenant and keeps His word.”

NOACH

Noach was the tzaddik (righteous one) of his generation. The righteousness of Noach is a subject of considerable debate among the rabbis, since Scripture uses the qualifier “in his generation.” One opinion says he was a righteous person, but the other says it he was only relatively righteous, when compared to the people of his generation. They say that if he lived in the days of Abraham, he would not have been an outstanding tzaddik. Despite the fact that Noach was a “preacher of righteousness”[2], the real contrast between two lies in the fact that Abraham interceded for Sodom and Gomorrah, whereas Noach did not pray for his generation. This teaches us that it is not enough to merely “preach” the word to people, but we also must pray and intercede for our generation. Although Noach did not merit to pray for his generation, he nonetheless became the instrument of God’s salvation, as Genesis says,

 וְנֹחַ מָצא חֵן בְּעֵינֵי יי

“But Noah (נח) found favor (חן) in HaShem’s eyes.” Genesis 6:8

The name of Noach (nun-chet) is the word “favor” reversed (chet-nun). The word grace and Noach, with a gematria of 58, form a mirror image of each other,

חן = נח = 58

Interestingly, our Parashah doubles his name, “This is the history of the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man…” Genesis 6:9

Genesis 5:9 tells us of the significance of the name of Noach,  “… he named him Noah, saying, This same will comfort us in our work and in the toil of our hands, because of the ground which HaShem has cursed.” Genesis 5:29

יִּקְרָ֧א אֶת־שְׁמֹ֛ו נֹ֖חַ לֵאמֹ֑ר זֶ֞֠ה יְנַחֲמֵ֤נוּ מִֽמַּעֲשֵׂ֙נוּ֙ וּמֵעִצְּבֹ֣ון יָדֵ֔ינוּ מִנ־הָ֣אֲדָמָ֔ה אֲשֶׁ֥ר אֵֽרְרָ֖הּ יי

The Shelah, R’ Yeshayahu Horowitz writes, “…the Torah reminds us that נח, whose name is half of that of חנוך, is referred to by the words זה ינחמנו, “This one will comfort us” (Genesis 5:29). His name also amounts to half the name of the angel מטטרון, Mattatron, since the first three letters in that name equal 58, i.e. the same as the numerical value of נח.The remaining letters in the name of that angel spell נור, a burning light, to signify that חנוך had been turned into a flame of fire and become that angel. What had remained of חנוך after the חן =58 had been removed is וך i.e. 26, a number equaling the numerical value of the Ineffable name of G’d.” Shelah, Shnei Luchot HaBrit on Parashat Noach, Translated by Eliyahu Munk, pg. 52

In English, this may appear innocuous, but this doubling is significant in Midrashic thought. Interestingly, we find a parallel where the word grace (chen) is doubled, thus connecting these verses,

מִי־אַתָּה הַר־הַגָּדֹול לִפְנֵי זְרֻבָּבֶל לְמִישֹׁר וְהֹוצִיא אֶת־הָאֶבֶן הָרֹאשָׁה תְּשֻׁאֹות חֵן חֵן לָהּ׃ וַיְהִי דְבַר־יי אֵלַי לֵאמֹר

“Who are you, O great mountain before Zerubbabel? You shall become a plain; and he shall bring forth the top stone with shouts of Grace, grace, unto it.’ Zechariah 4:7

According to Midrash Tanchuma, this passage is a Messianic prophecy, “What does it mean, “Who are you O great mountain?” This is King Messiah. And why does he call him great mountain? Because he is greater than the Fathers…loftier than Abraham…more elevated than Moses…and higher than the ministering angels…and from whom will he issue? From Zerubbabel…” Midrash Tanchuma, Toledot 14, ed. Buber 1:139, cited in the Messiah Texts by Raphael Patai, pg. 41

Accordingly, Noach is a prototype of Mashiach, as he is the Tzaddik HaDor, the righteous one of his generation, “…This Noach is the Messiah. . . the two musical accents on the word “zeh [this one]” (Gen 5:29) are a clue to the first and last redemption; “from our work” – from the generation of the Flood, “and from the toil of our hands” – from this long exile. Furthermore, why is his name doubled, Noach Noach? This is hinted at the haftorah “Shout for joy” [Zech 2:14-4:7), which concludes “chen, chen.” This is the secret of Noah. Had his name been chen, we would not be sitting in exile.” Sefer Chizyonot, R’ Hayyim Vital, Jewish Mystical Autobiographies, pg. 256 

THE ARK

The word of “ark” in Hebrew is Teivah. The Baal Shem Tov comments,

“The Hebrew word for “ark,” teivah, also means “word.” “Come into the word,” says God; enter within the words of prayer and Torah study. Here you will find a sanctuary of wisdom, meaning and holiness amidst the raging floodwaters of life.”
Rabbi Israel Baal Shem Tov cited at Chabad.org [3]

The Teivat Noach was to be coated with pitch (black tar),

“Make a ship of gopher wood. You shall make rooms in the Ark, and shall seal it inside and outside with pitch.”
Genesis 6:14

It appears that the basket that carried Moshe to safety was a microcosm of Noach’s ark, as the word for “basket” is teivah, which is also coated with pitch,

“When she could no longer hide him, she took a papyrus basket (teivah) for him, and coated it with tar and with pitch. She put the child in it, and laid it in the reeds by the rivers bank.”
Exodus 2:3

Both arks brought salvation to the world. The Shelah comments on the link between the Ark and the Temple,

“G’d hinted to Noach that this would be his real task in building the ark. The ark was to be as much a spiritual sanctuary as a physical sanctuary…According to the Tziyoni, the instruction to Noach to build an ark meant that he was to employ combinations of the letters in G’d’s Name to do so and to build what could become the equivalent of a Holy Temple.” Shelah, Shnei Luchot HaBrit, R’ Isaiah Horowitz, translated by Michael Munk

THE DOVE

In the account of the Ark, Noach sent forth a raven, who did not return, “It happened at the end of forty days, that Noah opened the window of the ship which he had made, and he sent out a raven. It went back and forth, until the waters were dried up from the earth.” Genesis 8:6-7

Noach then sent out a dove “from himself”, which not only returned, but returned with a sign of hope, “He sent out a dove from him, to see if the waters were abated from the surface of the ground, but the dove found no place to rest her foot, and she returned to him into the ship; for the waters were on the surface of the whole earth. He put out his hand, and took her, and brought her to him into the ship. He stayed yet another seven days; and again he sent the dove out of the ship. The dove came back to him at evening, and, behold, in her mouth was an olive leaf plucked off. So Noah knew that the waters were abated from the earth.” Genesis 8:8-11

The contrast between the raven and the dove is literally a contrast between black and white. The Hebrew word for raven is עֹרֵב (Orev), which is the same as evening.  The Dove on the other hand represents the Light,

“. . . just as the dove brought light to the world, so you bring light to the world, as it says, ‘And nations shall walk at thy light’  (Isa. LX, 3). When did the dove bring light to the world? In the days of Noah, as it says, ‘And the dove came in to him at eventide; and lo in her mouth an olive leaf freshly plucked’ (Gen. VIII, 11)” Song of Songs Rabbah 1:66, 4:2, Soncino Press Edition

This dove brought light to the world via the Olive Leaf. The Midrash Tanchuma reveals why olive oil is so important,

למה לא שמן אגוזים ולא שמן צנונות ולא שמן דגים או שאר שמנים אלא שמן של
זית? לפי סהזית סימן אורה לאולם.
מדרש תנחומא

“Why not nut oil, radish oil, fish oil or any other oil, but only olive oil? Because olive oil symbolizes the light for the world.” Midrash Tanchuma

The Targum comments on the origin of the Olive Branch, “And the dove came to him at the evening time, and, behold, a leaf of olive gathered, broken off, she brought in her mouth, and which she had taken from the Mount of the Meshiha.” Jerusalem Targum

Incredibly, the gematria for Light of the World and Mashiach are the same,

אור העולם = משיח = 358

Yeshua said, “I am the light of the world. He who follows me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the light of life.” John 8:12

 

HOVERING OVER THE WATERS

Noach’s dove flying over the waters symbolizes a new beginning. This episode echoes Parashat B’resheet, “The Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.” Genesis 1:2

Rashi comments, “The Throne of Glory was suspended in the air and hovered over the face of the water with the breath of the mouth of the Holy One, blessed be He and with His word, like a dove, which hovers over the nest . . . ” Rashi, cited at Chabad.org [3]

Genesis Rabbah says, ”AND THE SPIRIT OF GOD HOVERED: this alludes to the spirit of Messiah, as you read, And the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him (Isaiah 11:2). In the merit of what will [this spirit] eventually come? [For the sake of that which] HOVERED OVER THE FACE OF THE WATERS, i.e. in the merit of repentance which is likened to water, as it is written, Pour out thy heart like water (Lamentations 2:19).” Genesis Rabbah 2:4, Soncino Press Edition

The Baal HaTurim says,

ורוח אלהים מרחפת. בגימטריא זו היא רוחו של מלך המשיח

“The gematria of this phrase (1034) is equivalent to that of זה היא רוחו של מלך המשיח, this refers to the Spirit of the Messianic King.” Baal HaTurim on Genesis 1:2, Mesorah Publishers pg. 11

Rebbe Nachman says, “…[Mashiach’s] “breathing” will have a very positive effect upon mankind.  . . The breath that Mashiach will breathe will emanate from the Torah and its 613 mitzvot. This is “The spirit of God [that] hovered over the waters.” The spirit is Mashiach and the waters are the Torah. Mashiach’s spirit is embedded in the Torah and he will draw his breath, the awe of God, from it. With this spirit, he will be able to “breathe into others” filing them with an awe and respect for God.” Mashiach, Who, What, Why, How, Where, When, Chaim Kramer, Breslov Research Institute, pg.63

As the dove hovered over the waters, the Torah says the Ark “walked” upon the waters,

  וַיִּגְבְּרוּ הַמַּיִם וַיִּרְבּוּ מְאֹד עַל־הָאָרֶץ וַתֵּלֶךְ הַתֵּבָה עַל־פְּנֵי הַמָּיִם

“The waters prevailed, and increased greatly on the earth; and the ship floated (vateilech) on the surface of the waters.” Genesis 7:18

The Gospel of John echoes the mastery of the Spirit of the Messiah, represented by a Dove, as being above the chaos of primordial waters, “…The sea was tossed by a great wind blowing. When therefore they had rowed about three or four miles they saw Yeshua walking on the sea, and drawing near to the boat; and they were afraid. But he said to them, “It is I. Don’t be afraid.” They were willing therefore to receive him into the boat. Immediately the boat was at the land where they were going.” John 6:15-21

This seems to echo the book of Job, “He alone stretches out the heavens, and walks on the waves of the sea. He makes the Bear, Orion, and the Pleiades, and the r ooms of the south. He does great things past finding out; yes, marvelous things without number.” Job 9:8-10

The Septuagint translation of Job reads, ‎”He alone has stretched out the heavens, and walks on the sea as on firm ground.”Job 9:8, LXX

Mashiach transcends the natural order and forces of of the world, and is the vivifying force in all of Creation.

NEW CREATION

The Gospel of Matthew’s account fuses all of these elements into a powerful secret,

“Yeshua, when he was immersed, went up directly from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him. He saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove, and coming on him. Behold, a voice out of the heavens said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” Matthew 3:16-17

As Mashiach comes up out of the waters, it is describing the beginning of a New Creation. The spirit of Mashiach hovered over a New Creation, the Dove flew over the waters of Noach, and the Dove descended and found its ultimate rest on the Mashiach. As the apocryphal Gospel of the Hebrews says,

“And it came to pass when the Lord was come up out of the water, The whole fountain of the Holy Spirit descended upon him and rested on  Him and said to him: “My Son, in all the prophets was I waiting for you that you should come and I might rest in you. For you are my rest. You are my Firstbegotten Son that reigns forever.” Gospel of the Hebrews, cited by Jerome, Commentary on Isaiah 4, The OTHER Bible, edited by Willis Barnstone, HarperCollins, pg. 335

 

Parsha Noah

The Influence of the Righteous in this World and the Next

“These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man and perfect in his generations. Noah walked with God” (Gen 6:9).

In the name of the Sages, Rashi says the following on this verse, “For some of our Sages, ‘in his generations’ is to his credit, for if he was righteous in his own generation, how much more would he have been in a generation of righteous men. For others, this is to his discredit, for he was righteous only in comparison to his contemporaries, but had he lived in the time of Abraham, he would not have been so notable.”

Let us begin by relating what Rabbi Hiya bar Achy said: “The righteous rest neither in this world nor the next, as it is said, ‘They advance from strength to strength; each one will appear before God in Zion’ [Ps 84:8]” (Berachot 64a).

Concerning this subject, the Vilna Gaon wrote that in this world, it is said that man “walks”, for he advances without stop and grows in the knowledge of Torah and the performance of commandments and good deeds. But in the next world, he no longer has any obligations, for it is written, “I will grant you passage among these [angels] who stand here” (Zec 3:7). In the next world, everyone is static (like the angels), and it is only in this world that we have the possibility to grow spiritually. This is why it is said concerning angels that they “stand up”, but of men that they “walk”, for men should always be progressing.

We can go on further and note that, once we leave a dead body we say “Lech Beshalom”, but when we leave a living person we say “Lech Leshalom” (Berachot

64a). This is because the letter Beth represents a state that is static and permanent, which is the case with the dead, whereas the letter Lamed represents movement and activity. And yet, it is said concerning certain of the righteous that they “walk” even in the next world, because there too they continue to progress. The Sages say concerning them, “Even in the next world they have no rest,” and they continue to grow and advance in the service of God.

We see therefore that there are two types of people: Those who, when they arrive in the next world, remain static, and those who continue to progress. What is the difference between a man who observes the Torah, obeys the commandments, and performs acts of goodness in this world – yet in the next world remains static – and a righteous man who did the same yet continues to progress in the next world?

There are pious men who study and observe the Torah, but who unfortunately work only for themselves, giving no thought to others. They share none of their teachings with others, don’t pray for them, don’t care about the welfare or well being of their fellow, don’t correct them in their conduct, etc. Of such people it is true, they don’t have rest in this world, but they grow without concerning themselves over the needs of others, needs that they don’t come to aid. They remain cloistered in their “four cubits”. All the time that they spend in this world, they grow. But when they leave this world for the next, they remain calcified in the level that they reached when they passed away. In the next world, they will no longer be able to take action, as it is written, “Among the dead who are free” (Ps 88:6)  which means that “Death frees one from all obligations” (Shabbat 30a, 151b; Niddah 61b). Concerning these righteous, it is said that they find peace in the next world, having no longer to exert themselves, but they remain at the level that they attained in the lower world.

On the other hand, there is another category of men, righteous as well, who of course occupy themselves with the study of Torah, obey the commandments, and fear God, but possess the additional characteristic of coming to the aid of others. They help to encourage and bring people back to God. Aside from their individual piety, they put themselves at the disposal of others, and their reward is great. Although they have no rest in this world (occupied as they are with gladly providing for the needs of other), they are happy to help and direct people in the right path and teach them Torah, and are rewarded by seeing the fruit of their labor.

Since “God deprives no creature of its reward” (Bava Kama 38b; Nazir 23b; Pesachim 118a), and He pays back to each measure for measure, their joy and reward in the next world will be to continue to progress by concerning themselves over the fate of Jews still living. As our Sages say, “Jews, even when dead, are called alive” (Berachot 18a).

Noah is an example. As we said earlier, even though the Torah testifies that he was “a righteous man and perfect in his generations” (Gen 6:9), some Sages judge him unfavorably. Why did they interpret this verse negatively?

It is because at the end of the section, it is simply said of Noah that he was “a man of the earth” (Gen 9:20). And why? Because he was concerned only about saving himself, not others. His very name, Noah, indicates rest (mihnuha in Hebrew); Noah was troubled only over himself. This wasn’t the case with Abraham, who thought not only of himself, but also came to the aid of others, whom he instructed in the fear of God. It is written, “And the souls that they made in Haran” (Gen 12:5), which are Sages explain as follows: “Abraham converted the men and Sarah the women, and the Torah considers this as if they themselves had created them.” It is possible that this is the reason why it is written, “Noah walked with God” (Gen 6:9), for he went only with God in his observance of the commandments, without concerning himself with others.

The  Sages  ask,  “With  what  do  the  righteous  occupy  themselves  in  the  next world?” (Zohar I:183a, III:159b-160a). They answer as follows: “In the next world, they occupy themselves with the same things that they did in this world.” This means that if they were occupied only with Torah, they will continue to study Torah, and if they also helped others – praying for and having a positive influence on the lives of their contemporaries – then in the next world they will continue to do so.

This is why “the righteous rest neither in this world nor the next” (see Maharcha, Berachot 64a). In the next world, “they sit and rejoice in the Divine Splendor” (Berachot 17a; Avoth D’Rabbi Nathan 1:8). Because of this, if we make mention of their merit in our prayers, we will disturb them in their rest, and what’s more, will connect them to the material world, which for them constitutes a great disruption. It is extremely difficult for them to leave their rest, up there, to take note of the concerns in this lower world and to pray for us. Yet despite this, when we expose them to the problems of the material world, they remember that they too were once part of it. They recall how difficult it is to live in this world, and so they pray for us in order that we may be granted an abundance of blessings and success.

Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai protected his entire generation in his lifetime, to the point that he could say, “I could have saved the entire world from catastrophe” (Sukkah 45b). After his death he also continued to protect the world, and even in our days his name is revered by all. It is the same with Rabbi Nachman of Breslov, may his merit protect us. I’ve heard it said that the previous Lubavitcher Rebbe, in his lifetime, felt the personal problems of everyone. If such was the case when he was alive, how much more so after his death. It is therefore not without reason that, in order to benefit from the merit of his father-in-law, the Lubavitcher Rebbe z’’l would read at his gravesite the requests and letters that he received. Similarly, it is said concerning my ancestor and revered teacher, the holy Rabbi Haim Pinto, that he had promised before dying that whoever would pray at his gravesite on the day of his Hilloula (Elul 26), would be favorably mentioned on the day of Rosh Hashanah.

And yet all the men who have, during their lifetime, observed Torah in the hopes of being able to eternally bask in the Divine Splendor don’t become renown after their death. This doesn’t mean that the righteous who have remained unknown have not helped others, but rather that their contemporaries were incapable of recognizing the great sanctity of their souls, and that is why they remain relatively unknown.

It is therefore natural that certain people mistake themselves into thinking that men known for their piety don’t deserve the honors that they receive, or that they attained their position without effort or pain. This is simply not true. These righteous men greatly suffered before becoming known, struggling day and night to become one of the “Righteous for whom God executes the decree” (Shabbat 59a). Nothing is gotten without effort and without pain, even less so the fear of God, of which it is said, “Everything is in the hands of God except the fear of God” (Berachot 33b; Zohar I:59a). It is certain that they worked very hard before attaining their position.

Without a doubt, the righteous after their death continue to work for their people, and they progress and their powers grow due to those who follow them and who give them merit. When we recall the Patriarchs in our prayers, God is favorable to us because of their merit, as it is said, “And I will remember My covenant with Jacob, and also My covenant with Isaac, and also My covenant with Abraham will I remember “ (Lev 26:42).

 

The Duty to Perform the Commandments Unselfishly

“One must study Torah even in a selfish way, for in so doing one will arrive at studying it in an unselfish way” (Pesachim 50b). The principle goal is to study Torah for its own sake and to obey the commandments as much as possible, to the point that in the morning blessings that precede the daily study of Torah, we ask that we “know Your Name and study Your Torah for its own sake” (Alfassi, Berachot 11b).

The Sages say, “Eliezer, Abraham’s servant, asked Shem the son of Noah, ‘How were you saved from the flood?’ And Shem answered him, ‘It was by the merit of taking care of and feeding the animals that were in the Ark. We were always running around day and night taking care of their needs, for there are some animals that eat during the day and sleep during the night, and there are others that eat at night and sleep in the day. It even happened that a lion struck and bit my father Noah because he was late in bringing him his meal’” (see Bereshith Rabba 30:6).

Some questions may be asked concerning this.

1. The Meyil Tzedeka asks how it is possible to say that they were saved for having taken care of the animals. The Torah explicitly testifies that God told Noah, “It is you that I have seen to be righteous before Me in this generation” (Genesis 7:1), meaning that they were saved because they were upright men. Why, therefore, did Eliezer ask by what merit they were saved? Did he not know that they were upright men?

2. Shem’s reply must be analyzed. Was it really for having taken care of the animals that they were saved? How could this be, since in order to have meat to eat after the flood, they fed the animals for their own benefit? What kind of service did they render to the animals in that case? If the verse says that they were saved by reason of their piety, why didn’t Shem reply in this way to Eliezer? Why did he tell him that it was for taking care of the animals?

Noah and his sons feared that they would become arrogant and consider themselves righteous, an unforgivable sin (Berachot 4a) for which they would be punished. This also explains why Noah did not enter the Ark until the waters rose on the earth and God pushed him in (Bereshith Rabba 32:5). He did not think that he merited to live while others perished. Noah and his sons avoided believing that it was due to their own merit that they were saved.

This explains the care with which they maintained the animals. Noah and his sons did not think of taking care of the animals so that they could have something to eat after the flood. They guarded themselves against such a thought, attributing their survival on the care they gave to the animals, doing so in order that no one could say that their efforts were performed out of selfishness. They obeyed God’s command only, which effectively directed them to make provisions for the animals, as it is written, “And as for you, take yourself of every food that is eaten and gather it in to yourself, that it shall be as food for you and for them” (Genesis 6:21). This consisted of all types of food in order to provide for the needs of every animal (Tanhuma 58:2). They fulfilled their duty by occupying themselves with providing the animals with as much care as possible, and in the final analysis it was this that saved them from the flood. The lion is proof that they acted in conformity to God’s command, for the meat of a lion is not edible, yet Noah continued to nourish the lions even after having been bitten by one. This proves that they acted in an unselfish manner.

We may yet add another reason. At the time, the attribute of Divine Justice hovered over the world, and the Accuser said, “the work of His hands is being drowned” (Megillah 10b). This is why, in order that the Accuser not plead that there was no reason for God to save them while the entire world was being destroyed, they were busy performing good deeds, deeds “which save from death” (Tanna D’vei Eliyahu Zutah 1). As it is written, “charity [tzeddakah] rescues from death” (Proverbs 10:2), and they annulled their will before the Divine will. This was because the Accuser was pointing his finger at them and demanding justice: “Why did they not reprimand their fellows? Why should they live while others die?”

The answer to this is that they held the interest of the animals – thanks to whom they were saved – as their top priority, and they forsook their own comfort in order to fulfill the task that God had entrusted them with. They occupied themselves with taking care of the animals, both clean and unclean, with equal devotion, and it was because of this that they were saved from the flood.

This is the question that Abraham’s servant Eliezer had asked Shem, namely: “What merit managed to save you from the flood? God’s creations perished, and you didn’t reprimand your neighbors as required to lead them to repentance and be saved. And if you think that you were saved because of being upright, this is because your pride leads you in error! Perhaps you took care of the animals in order to gladly partake of their meat after the flood? Perhaps you only acted out of self-interest!” (See Sanhedrin 108b).

To this, Shem the son of Noah replied that they had no thoughts whatsoever of this type and no intention of personally profiting from the meat of the animals. The attribute of strict Justice did not have any grievance against them either, for everything that they did for the animals was done in a strictly unselfish way. The proof for this is that they continued to feed the animals even after “a lion struck and bit my father Noah.”

From this we learn a lesson that is valid for everyone. When one obeys God’s will, it is proper to so without ulterior motives, as it is said, “Fulfill His will as you would your own will” (Perkei Avoth 2:4). Do it solely because God commands it. If God testifies that a man is upright, he should not feel proud of himself, for “Every haughty heart is an abomination to the LORD” (Proverbs 16:5) and “God cannot live in the same world as the conceited” (Sotah 5a). One must submit oneself to God with humility and feel that one is not worthy of being called upright. If not, then to make us lose any merit that we have acquired, the evil inclination will chime in our ear: “How righteous you are!”

It is written, “Noah did according to everything God commanded him” (Genesis 6:22), which “consisted of the construction of the Ark” (Bereshith Rabba 31:14). Furthermore it is stated, “And Noah did according to everything that the LORD had commanded him” (Genesis 7:5), which consisted of his entry into the Ark (Rashi ad loc). Even if he did not merit being saved by his virtues, he merited it for his good care of the animals in the Ark. He built the Ark, and in the final analysis he entered into it as God had commanded him, doing so without pride, and only to obey God to the letter.

 

Peace: The Receptacle For All Blessings

 

In the commentaries we find that two generations grievously sinned and were pun- ished as a result: The generation of the flood and the generation of the Tower of Babel. However there exists a great difference between them with regards to the sins they committed and the punishments they received.

Concerning the generation of the flood, it is written, “Now the earth had become corrupt before God; and the earth had become filled with robbery” (Genesis 6:11). Rashi states that “the earth had become corrupt” refers to immorality and idolatry (see Sanhedrin

57a). It is also written, “The end of all flesh has come before Me” (Genesis 6:13), meaning that “anarchy accompanies immorality and idolatry wherever it is found” (Yerushalmi Sotah

1:5). Similarly the Sages have said, “With hot passion they sinned, and by hot water they were punished” (Sanhedrin 108b). The Sages also said, “The waters of the flood fell for 40 days and 40 nights, which corresponds to the number of days of the embryo’s development in the womb, for they forced the Creator to make illegitimate offspring” (Yalkut Shimoni 56). Concerning the verse, “They took themselves wives from whomever they chose” (Genesis 6:2), Rashi says that they even took “a married woman, even a man or an animal” (see Yalkut Shimoni 43). They were so perverted that even domestic animals, wild animals, and birds mated with species other than their own (see Rashi on Genesis 6:12).

Despite these grievous sins, the fate of the generation of the flood was not sealed until they committed robbery (Sanhedrin 108a), for “the earth had become filled with robbery” (Genesis 6:11). This clearly demonstrates the gravity of stealing, for although the generation of the flood committed all kinds of transgressions, its fate was sealed only because of theft.

The question becomes self-evident: Why were immorality and idolatry, two of the Torah’s three principle sins, not sufficient to provoke the punishment of the generation of the flood? Why was it precisely robbery that tipped the scales and provoked the decision to erase them from the earth?

Another question is raised by Rabbi Aryeh Leib. The Sages say, “The LORD of Mercy does not inflict suffering on human beings first” (Vayikra Rabba 17:4). God warns them first, and if they pay no attention to these warnings He afflicts their possessions, followed by their homes and their clothing. It is only when these punishments are ineffective (meaning that they do not lead people to repent and correct their sins) that God afflicts a person himself, in his body. Yet for the generation of the flood, we see no warnings whatsoever being given, and it is stated: “I will blot out Man whom I created” (Genesis 6:7).

Contrary to this, we see that the men of the generation of the Tower of Babel said, “Come, let us build us a city, and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed across the whole earth” (Genesis 11:4). What was their goal? They wanted to build a tower and climb to the heavens with axes to fight against God (Sanhedrin 109a), as if that were even conceivable! What was their punishment? They were scattered about the world, as it is written: “The LORD dispersed them from there over the face of the whole earth” (Genesis 11:8).

Here too a certain number of questions arise, which we shall explain:

1. Is it not surprising that the punishment of these men, who knew their Master and rebelled against Him to the point of wanting to climb to the heavens to fight Him, was only to be dispersed? Why only the punishment of exile – to be sent to all the corners of the earth – and not more? We do not see the generation of the flood rebelling against God, but only allowing themselves to be carried away by their desires. Yet they were totally destroyed, erased from this world, and according to one opinion they were excluded from the World to Come (Sanhedrin 108a). Why was the punishment of the generation of the flood much more severe than that of the generation of the Tower of Babel, which blasphemed?

2. We must also understand how, after the flood, there could exist ungrateful men and sinners who renounced God and thought they could fight against Him. Is it possible that they could be so foolish? Did they not know that it is truly impossible to reach Heaven and fight against God?

3. The verse “The LORD descended to look at the city and the tower which the sons of man built” (Genesis 11:5)  also needs to be explained, for it implies that God Himself descended. This is a difficult thing to understand, for does God – Whose Glory fills the world and Who knows all its mysteries – need to “descend” in order to know what men are doing on earth? Even though the Sages explain that “this teaches men to not judge the accused before having personally examined and verified the facts” (Tanhuma 58: 18), God knows what men are doing. Therefore why did He Himself have to descend?

4. Why did God punish them by confounding their language and dispersing them throughout the world? Why not some other punishment, such as the loss of their wealth, a plague, the death of some of them (which would have frightened the others and caused them to flee), or some other penalty?

5. We also need to ask ourselves why, after having finished the account of the flood and the Tower of Babel, the Torah recounts how Abraham was tested: “Go for yourself from your land, from your relatives, and from your father’s house…” (Genesis

12:1), yet we are not told about the miracle of Ur Kasdim. Abraham was thrown into a fiery furnace by Nimrod (Bereshith Rabba 38:13) and miraculously saved, however the Torah only tells us of Abraham’s departure from Ur, not the astounding miracle that occurred there. This is surprising and also needs to be explained.

The Sages teach, “For transgressions between man and the Omnipresent, the Day of Atonement procures atonement. However for transgressions between man and his fellow, the Day of Atonement does not procure atonement until he has pacified his fellow” (Yoma 85b).

The sins committed by men against one another (such as theft, blackmail, and slander) are also transgressions against God. This is because He prohibits us from doing these things, especially since the person victimized by his fellow, be it physically or financially, is “God’s creation” (Ecclesiastes Rabba 3:14). A man who has committed a sin against his fellow will only obtain forgiveness from God once he has obtained the forgiveness of his fellow. It is only then that the Celestial Court will forgive his sin.

The Sages have said, “Spreading gossip about your fellow is equivalent to renouncing God” (Erachin 15a). By speaking ill of your fellow, who was created in God’s image, you irritate God Himself. It is for this reason that sins committed against others are only forgiven once peace is made and forgiveness obtained, so as to restore God’s image; only then does God forgive. Shaming and scoring another person is tantamount to despising the image of God that is in him, and spreading gossip about another is to speak ill of God’s image. One who acts in this way will himself lose his resemblance to God. It is only once the victim forgives the offender, and they are reconciled to one another, that the sin is forgiven and the image of God restored. God forgives at that point, and the sinner can continue to live in this world and the other. This is not the case for sins committed against God, such as not wearing Tefillin or transgressing Shabbat. By wholeheartedly repenting of these sins, the wrong committed is instantly rectified, and in His goodness God immediately accepts a person’s repentance and his sin is straightaway forgotten.

What we have said deals only with individual sins perpetrated by a man against his fellow. However for the collective transgressions of a community (for example, when everyone speaks ill of others, or when everyone steals, extorts, or destroys), the sin is a hundredfold worse. The image of God disappears completely from such a community, for by their deeds everyone has renounced God. It is then that God inflicts a collective punishment upon it, given that everyone is equally at fault, and at that point God shows no mercy.

We are now in a position to answer our questions. God gave the generation of the flood a reprieve of 120 years to repent (Tanhuma Noah 5), since it is a fact that God is patient and waits for a sinner to return to Him on his own, as it is written: “I do not desire the death of the wicked one, but rather the wicked one’s return from his way, that he may live” (Ezekiel 33:11). This is why God did not punish these men for their immorality and idolatry, which are sins against Him. However when they began to steal and deceive their fellowmen, the image of God left them. God patiently waited 120 years before punishing them, the length of time for the Ark’s construction. During that entire period, Noah warned them concerning the approaching flood so that they might sincerely correct their sins against their fellowmen. However they did not repent, and God executed the judgment against them.

The Sages say, “Although the generation of the flood transgressed all laws, their decree of punishment was sealed only because they stretched out their hands to rob” (Sanhedrin 108a). This refers to sins against their fellowmen, which God does not forgive unless the victim has forgiven. Given that everyone was stealing from everyone else (it was total anarchy), and that nobody asked for forgiveness – nor did they even apologize for the harm they caused – they were all liable to the penalty of death decreed by God. We therefore understand why it is precisely theft, a sin perpetrated by man against his fellow, which sealed their fate. It was not immorality or idolatry that did so, for these are sins perpetrated against God.

Since God “does not inflict suffering on human beings first,” why did He not first warn them, then take away their goods, their wealth, homes, and finally afflict their bodies? Here God immediately blotted out man whom He had created. The reason is because if God had punished one of them by taking away his sustenance, instead of suffering, that person would have stolen what he lacked from his neighbor, and so evil would have spread without end and have only become worse. “The earth had become filled with robbery” (Genesis 6:11)  means that everyone had become so accustomed to stealing that they no longer feared any punishment, and nothing could stop them. This is why God gave them no further reprieve and sealed their fate.

The generation of the Tower of Babel was different than that of the flood. Although they did not act with faith, they still knew that God grants a reprieve and forgives sins committed against Him, which is not the case with sins committed by men against their fellowmen. Hence they were careful not to sin with respect to each other, this in order to avoid the fate of the generation of the flood. Their interpersonal relations remained acceptable.

Unfortunately, the language they shared through lip service, as well as their mutual expressions of love and goodwill, were not sincere. To free themselves of fear and to live as they pleased, they plotted a war against God – as if such a thing were possible

– for they wanted to liberate themselves of every obligation. However they kept far from theft, and “the whole earth was of one language and of the same words” (Genesis 11:

1) in order to avoid divine wrath.

Their mutual love and goodwill rested only on their fear of God’s anger, and they began to build a tower whose summit was to have reached heaven. Obviously they had no real intention of actually reaching it, since that is impossible, however they wanted this tower to symbolize to the whole world their desire to fight God. If they had possessed the ability to build a tower that would have actually reached heaven, they would have done so without hesitation.

Such was that generation’s level of perversion. They feared that God would punish them, as He had punished the generation of the flood, yet they were not afraid to fight God Himself. To demonstrate their rebellion, they began to build a tower that would have, had they been capable of the feat, reached heaven.

It is written, “The LORD descended to look” (Genesis 11:5), which means that God penetrated to the depths of their thoughts and saw the true reason behind their “love” for their fellowman. It consisted of nothing other than a fear of punishment, whereas in their hearts they hated each other. Nevertheless, “Intention that does not bear fruit, the Holy One, blessed be He, does not combine with deed” (Kiddushin 40a). This is why He did not wipe them out, but instead punished them in proportion to their sin. They outwardly expressed that they were unified with “one language and…the same words,” which is why their language was confounded, as it is written: “It was there that the LORD confused the language of the whole earth” (Genesis 11:9). The Sages have said that when their language was confounded and they could no longer understand one another, they killed each other: “Thus one said to his fellow-worker, ‘Bring me water,’ whereupon he would give him earth, at which point he struck him and split his skull; ‘Bring me an axe,’ but he brought him a spade, at which point he struck him and split his skull” (Bereshith Rabba 38:10). They were going to build a city with the intention of being united, and God paid them back, measure for measure, in that they were divided and dispersed throughout the world. In wickedness this generation surpassed the generation of the flood, for in the depths of their hearts they had no love for one another. Without faith in God, by renouncing Him and rebelling against Him, one cannot love one’s fellow. Yet because they did not commit any actually sins with regards to their fellowman, their punishment was only exile, not annihilation, as was the case with the generation of the flood.

Concerning them it is said, “Behold, they are one people with one language for all” (Genesis 11:6), and previous to that: “The whole earth was of one language” (v.1). This means that their love for one another was only in words and expressions; it did come from the depths of their hearts. God confounded their language before it was too late, for if the situation had deteriorated, each of them would have come to openly hate his fellowman and have fought him to the death. God would then have had no choice but to once again wipe everyone out, as He did at the time of the flood. Now God had already promised that there would never again be another flood on the earth (Genesis 9:11), which is why He dispersed them to the four corners of the world.

The text continues: “Now nothing which they purpose to do will be withheld from them” (Genesis 11:6). Everyone thought ill of his fellowman up to that point, but they did not act lest they suffer the fate of the generation of the flood. Henceforth they would abandon their fear, and so “nothing which they purpose to do will be withheld from them.” They would have murdered one another, forcing God to destroy the world. Therefore they had to be dispersed and separated from one another as soon as possible.

God thus demonstrated His mercy and kindness. He did not wipe them out, but rather punished them measure for measure by scattering them throughout the world. They gave up on building the city at that point. Nevertheless, these liable to death by fire were burned in the tower itself, and each person received the punishment he deserved.

This allows us to understand the name that was given to this generation: Dor Haflaga (“The Generation of the Dispersion”). This is because they wanted to separate, cut-off, and completely detach themselves from God, Who punished them as a result. In reality, “Knowing [one’s] Master, and yet purposely rebelling against Him” (Rashi on Genesis 10:9) cannot go hand in hand with loving your fellowman. It is impossible to love your fellow if you do not love God, and it is impossible to love God without loving your fellow, for these feelings are mutually dependent.

The Torah commands, “You shall love your fellow as yourself. I am the LORD” (Leviticus 19:18). You must love your fellow and infuse yourself with God’s love. Concerning this verse, Rabbi Akiva said, “This is a great principle of the Torah” (Yerushalmi Nedarim 9:

4). Why is this so? Because by loving our fellowman, we in fact love the image of God that is in him, and so we naturally come to loving God. This is the meaning of “You shall love your fellow as yourself,” for your fellow also carries the image of God in him, which is why you must love him.

When the Jewish people stood at Mount Sinai, it is written: “Israel encamped there, opposite the mountain” (Exodus 19:2). Our Sages explain this to mean, “As one person, with one heart.” In other words, to receive the Torah – to stand in front of Mount Sinai and hear God’s words – they had to be united by a mutual love and act as a single person. Unity and love for one’s fellowman gives a person the merit to receive the Torah. This is what constitutes “a great principle of the Torah.”

There is a profound difference between the generation of the flood and that of the dispersion. Before the flood, as long as the generation sinned exclusively with regards to immorality and idolatry, God gave them the time to repent, for these sins were committed solely against Him. However when they began to steal and sin against their fellowman, they lost the image of God. Thus there was no further hope that they would rectify their ways, which is why they were immediately destroyed.

Such was not the case with the generation of the dispersion, which was more corrupt.  These  men  revolted  against  the  Master  of  the  world,  yet  they  were cordial and demonstrated love and goodwill to one another. Even though their love was not sincere, God in His infinite mercy did not completely wipe them out, but only dispersed them in order to prevent them from actually sinning against each other. The Sages have said, however, that for being guilty with respect to God, “The generation of the dispersion has no portion in the World to Come” (Sanhedrin 109a). For having rebelled against God, they no longer deserved to stand in His presence.

All this allows us to understand why the Torah does not describe the miracle that happened to Abraham in Ur Kasdim, and also why it fails to mention how Nimrod threw him into a fiery furnace or how he was saved. Abraham did not bow before idols, he did not give in to Nimrod’s demands, and he did not renounce God. The Torah does not go into this, for man’s destiny and his purpose in life is to obey God without seeking personal glory.

We also understand why the account of the Tower of Babel and that of Abraham’s trial are juxtaposed, for God created opposites. Some acted against God on the one hand, while on the other hand Abraham (who lived among them) did not act like them. A love for his fellowman and all creatures was his goal in life. He brought people closer to God and taught them how to serve Him. He accomplished this precisely by deeds that govern proper relations among men.

This behavior played such a role in Abraham’s life that when God told him to leave his land (Genesis 12:1), this constituted a great trial for him. He had no thoughts of leaving the inhabitants of that place, people whom he knew and to whom he taught the knowledge of God. He wanted to continue to instill them with righteous thoughts and good deeds.

The Sages ask why the generations were counted up to Abraham’s time. Their answer is that it is “to indicate how great is His patience, for all those generations repeatedly angered Him, until Abraham our father came and received the reward of them all” (Perkei Avoth 5:2). Why is this so? It is because he was perfect as much with respect to his relationship with God as with his relationship to others. However if we compare one generation to the other, the generation of the Tower of Babel appears preferable to that of the flood, for they were cordial and honest in their relationships with one another. Thus it is certain that “Peace is the best receptacle for blessings” (Sifri Nasso 6:26).

 

The Extraordinary Power of Unity

There are two generations that disobeyed God: The generation of the flood and the generation of the dispersion. Let us examine the marvels of our Torah and look into their deeds to see what became of them.

Concerning the generation of the flood, the Torah tells us: “Now the earth had become corrupt before God, and the earth had become filled with robbery” (Genesis 6:11). In the name of the Sages (Sanhedrin 57a), Rashi explains that “had become corrupt” refers to immorality and idolatry. As a result, the generation of the flood sinned by giving themselves over to the most forbidden kinds of relationships.

What was their punishment? Why did God erase their name from under the heavens, and why did they all die in the flood? On the verse, “the earth had become filled with robbery,” the Sages say: “Come and see how great is the power of robbery, for although the generation of the flood transgressed all laws, their decree of punishment was sealed only because they stretched out their hands to rob” (Sanhedrin 108a).

This is difficult to understand. The generation of the flood committed the gravest sins, yet their fate was only sealed because of robbery? Is such a thing possible? Were their gravest sins not enough to incur punishment, such that they needed to be found guilty of stealing from one another?

If that were not enough, after the generation of the flood came the generation of the dispersion, who wanted to, as it were, “help” the Holy One, blessed be He in protecting the world from ruin. However they also wanted, God help us, to wage war against Him (Sanhedrin 109a), and so they built a tower whose top reached to the heavens. Had they lost all reason? After the generation of the flood received such a severe punishment, the generation of the dispersion still denied the Omnipotence of God and attempted to wage war with Him?

To top it off, what was the punishment of the generation of the dispersion, which had renounced everything? Hashem came down to see the city and tower that they had built, yet what did He do to them? He scattered them over the entire earth. Is that truly a fitting punishment for one who renounces God? The Torah is teaching us a very important principle here. We know that the sins of a person against his fellowman are more serious than those against God, since as the Sages have said: “For transgressions between  man  and  the  Omnipresent,  the  Day  of Atonement  procures  atonement. However for transgressions between man and his fellow, the Day of Atonement does not procure atonement until he has pacified his fellow” (Yoma 85b).

It follows that if a person commits these two kinds of sins, it will be easier for him to procure atonement for those which he committed against God, for He is filled with mercy and ready to forgive. However if a person does not repent of what he has done against his fellowman, he has not done enough, even if he asks God for forgiveness. This is because the essential thing in such a case is for his fellowman to forgive him for what he has done.

From the time that the generation of the flood began to commit sins against their fellowmen, the situation began to change. They started to swindle from each other, and they had neither love for one another nor unity of any kind, and so the entire earth became filled with robbery. Everyone stole and committed abuses, to the point that no one sought the forgiveness of others, for everyone committed the same sins. Since they did not obtain forgiveness, they were erased from the world.

On the other hand, the generation of the dispersion completely renounced God, and they wanted to, as it were, fight against Him. Nevertheless, the generation of the dispersion acted in unity and with love for one another, and of them it is said: “The whole earth was of one language and of the same words” (Genesis 11:1), for they did not sin against one another. We know that when one acts in unity, even idolatry is forgiven, for unity is the essential thing. What did the Holy One, blessed be He, do as a result? He did not kill them, but simply confused their language and scattered them over the entire earth. Hashem made it such that no one could understood the other, as the Sages have said: “Thus one said to his fellow-worker, ‘Bring me water,’ whereupon he would give him earth, at which point he struck him and split his skull” (Bereshith Rabba 38:

10). Hashem did all this so that they would no longer be unified, and thus they would no longer be successful. How much greater, therefore, is the power of unity in serving God! When we act in unity with one another, we can achieve their greatest levels of perfection, for unity leads man to listen to what the other is saying. It leads him to lend an ear to the other person’s troubles, to think of him, and to help him in every possible way. It is said that Rabbi Moshe Leib Zatzal, the Rebbe of Sassow, once stated: “Today I learned the meaning of loving a fellow Jew from a passing Gentile. I was walking in the street when I heard a Gentile asking his friend, ‘Tell me, do you love me?’ His friend replied, ‘Of course I love you.’ The Gentile then said, ‘If you love me, then tell me what I lack.’ ”

From here we see the power of unity. Above all else, we can merit the Torah through unity, for “the Torah is acquired through collective study.” Let us do everything possible to arrive at the level of unity and a love for our fellow Jew, for in this way we will merit the greatest virtues.

 

Hashem’s Honor, Not Your Own

Our holy Torah states that Nimrod “began to be a mighty man upon the earth…a mighty hunter before the LORD (Genesis 10:8-9). The Sages explain this to mean that Nimrod “ensnared people” by his words (Bereshith Rabba 37:2), for he wanted to rebel against God. In fact Nimrod eventually managed to ensnare everyone at the time when “all the earth was of one language and the same words” (Genesis 11:1). Not only were they united against the Holy One, blessed be He, but they were also under Nimrod’s control, with Scripture telling us that his domination began at Babel (ibid. 10:10). This is very surprising, for how could it be that everyone was united and did not speak Lashon Harah about one another, yet they spoke Lashon Harah about the Holy One, blessed be He, because of the flood? When unity exists between two people, they end up acknowledging Hashem. Yet in the case of the generation of the dispersion, they ended up rebelling against the King of the entire earth, even taking Nimrod as their king to revolt against Him!

I thought I would explain this by looking to the words of the Sages for inspiration. They tell us: “Terah was a manufacturer of idols. He once went away somewhere and left Abraham to sell them in his place. A man came and wished to buy one. ‘How old are you?’ Abraham asked him. ‘Fifty years,’ was the reply. ‘Woe to such a man!’ he exclaimed. ‘You are 50 years old and would worship a day-old object!’ At this he became ashamed and departed” (Bereshith Rabba 38:13). There are other stories like this as well. Terah knew in his heart that idols had eyes but could not see, that they had ears but could not hear. He knew that they were simply made by man. Yet despite realizing that there was no truth to them, and despite the fact that he did not believe in them, he allowed himself to get swayed by the prospect of personal gain, since he sold these idols for great profit. This shows us that a person is liable to reach a point at which he actually believes in Hashem, yet he will ignore the truth due to personal interests or for reasons of honor and gain. He then reaches a state in which “love upsets the natural order, and hate upsets the natural order” (Bereshith Rabba 55:8).

We learn a great principle from this, which is that a person cannot love Hashem and honor Him with all his heart, with all his soul, and with all his might if he also loves himself, honors himself, and worries about his own honor! Furthermore, a person cannot love and respect the Torah if he loves money and personal glory. Why is that? It is because the Torah “is not found among merchants or peddlers” (Eruvin 55a). That is, it cannot be acquired with money. Instead, it can only be acquired by one who abases himself and yields to it (see Berachot 63b; Taanith 7a). If a person loves money and personal glory, how can he annul and lower himself before the Torah? Abraham’s service of Hashem consisted of just that, following His ways to the point that his innards taught him wisdom and Torah (Bereshith Rabba 61:1; 95:3). Abraham never sought person glory, but instead all he yearned for was increasing the glory of Heaven! This is why he overcame every trial he went through, demonstrating the tremendous power of his love for Hashem. He reached a point at which he was truly able to give his life to sanctify His Name, so much did he love Him.

It follows that there exits a fundamental difference between the righteous and the wicked. The wicked are only concerned with their own personal gain and glory, which is why they try to show that they are in control, as Nimrod did. This is not the case with the righteous, who are only concerned with God’s honor and are prepared to suffer and endure humiliation for it. Even when the world respects them, the righteous remain humble, for their only desire is to increase the glory of Heaven. Such was the case with Abraham, who gave no thought to personal honor, but instead was constantly concerned with increasing the honor of Heaven and bringing people closer to God, since he did everything for His sake with love.

There is a tremendous difference between a person who is only concerned with his own honor, and one who is sincerely concerned with the honor of Heaven. The former cares only about himself and his money, with all his deeds being geared to that end. Even if he teaches Torah and encourages others to perform mitzvot, it is only with his own interest in mind that he does so. He turns the Torah into an instrument for person gain, taking the honor of the Torah for himself. Such a person is like Nimrod, who assembled his entire generation together as one, yet in his heart sought only his own glory. In fact if the unity of his generation had been real, they would have continued to serve Hashem in truth.

Such is not the case with righteous individuals, who actually do love Hashem. When  someone  truly  loves  Him  and  works  for  His  glory  with  all  his  heart, this enables him to arrive at “with all your soul,” for his entire life is devoted exclusively to Heaven. Furthermore, such a person is constantly prepared to give his life for the glory of Hashem. Hence it follows that he is constantly giving his life for the sanctification of His Name, as it is written: “Because for Your sake we are killed all the time” (Psalms 44:23). Of such a person we can say that he is a true servant – with all his heart and all his soul – of Hashem, and from him we must learn a lesson for our personal and social lives. That is, when we love ourselves and our money, when we seek out personal honor, then not only will we be left with nothing as honor flees from us, we will also be unable to love Hashem. In that case, how can we serve Him? Therefore we must first and foremost love Hashem, after which honor will come, for Hashem loves those who love Him and grants them an abundance of blessing and success.