From: Netvort@aol.com Sent: Friday, November 04, 2005 1:17 AM To: JoshHoff@aol.com Subject: Netvort : parshas Noach, 5766 Read My Lips By Rabbi Joshua (horticulturally known as The Hoffer) Hoffman After the waters of the flood subsided considerably, and the ark rested on a mountain top, Noach wished to know if the land had dried up yet. First he sent a raven, but it simply kept flying around the ark, failing to go on its mission. Noach then sent out a yonah, or dove, on the same mission. The dove could not find dry land to rest on, and so returned to the ark. After Noach sent the dove out a second time, however, it returned with an olive leaf in its mouth, indicating that the land was, indeed, dry. Rashi comments that the dove was a male. How did he know this? Although Rashi himself gives a precise grammatical explanation to show that the dove was a male, in the spirit of the rabbinic practice of beginning one’s learning with lighter, even jocular material, I would like to mention another explanation. Yehudah Grinshpan, in his book on humor in the Torah, Chiyukha Shel Torah, writes that if the dove had been a female, it would have been talking too much to be able to carry the olive leaf in its mouth long enough to bring it back to Noach ! Actually, Rashi himself goes on to cite a midrash that refers to a non-verbal message that the dove conveyed to Noach which, according to Rabbi Dovid Pardo in his super-commentary to Rashi, Maskil LeDovid, provides us with an additional way of knowing that the dove was a male. Moreover, beyond the question of the identification of the dove's gender, I believe that this midrash provides us with a key to understand Noach's mission in the world after the flood. The midrash tells us that the dove brought the leaf of an olive tree to Noach, even though it was bitter and therefore not its usual fare, to indicate to Noach that it would rather be sustained by the bitter fruit of the olive tree through God than receive sweet food through man, as it had for the duration of its year in the ark. Of course, the dove could not speak itself, and did not have the intelligence to convey such a message to Noach. Rather, as the Maharal explains in his Gur Aryeh on Rashi, the dove was acting according to its instinctive nature as implanted in him by God, and thereby conveying an important message to Noach. As explained by Rabbi Pardo, the dove was teaching Noach that in order for man to have dignity, he must involve himself in productive work, and not make himself dependent on others for his livelihood. This role, however, according to Rabbi Pardo, devolves upon the man, not the woman, since the man is required to provide for his wife. Although this explanation does not resonate so well for many women of our day, who are regular members of the work force, the more general message of the importance of work for human dignity is not dependent on whether it was conveyed by a male or a female. Furthermore, I believe that this is what the midrash, cited by Rashi (Bereishis 9:20), meant when, in explaining the mistake that Noach made when he planted a vine after leaving the ark, remarked that he should have occupied himself with a different kind of planting. What kind of planting did they mean, and how should Noach have known that he should have planted it? I believe that this is what the dove was conveying to Noach by bringing back an olive branch. Noach, by opting to plant a vine first, was delaying the assumption of the hard work that was needed to rebuild the world after the flood, and, thereby, paving the way for the development of indolence in the world. To give a less-than-subtle modern day analogy, it was the equivalent of beginning to rebuild a hurricane-devastated city by opening up a bar. The midrash says that Noach debased himself by engaging in this kind of activity at the very outset, and the message it gave to others was certainly not conducive to creating a productive society. However, based on other midrashim, I believe that the message conveyed by the dove to Noach had a much wider meaning, carrying implications for the entire span of human history. There is a midrash, mentioned by Ramban in his commentary, that the olive leaf came from Eretz Yisroel, which was the only place in the world that was not inundated by the flood. Why did the dove bring an olive branch from that location? Raabi Ya'akov Sakly, in his Toras HaMincha, explains that the message here was that Eretz Yisroel is acquired through bitterness and suffering. This message must be understood in the context of another midrash, cited by Rabbi Mordechai Ilan in his Mikdash Mordechai to parshas Noach. The Pirkei de Rabbi Eliezer, no. 48, quotes Rabbi Yishmael as saying that, metaphorically, the five fingers of God's right hand point to five stages in the ultimate redemption of the world. Moving progressively from the little finger to the thumb, the fingers represent God's instructions to Noach regarding the ark, God striking the Egyptians, God's writing of the tablets of the Torah, God showing Moshe how the nation should redeem its soul after the sin of the golden calf, and God's ultimate revelation of His strength and glory to all of humanity. Thus, Noach's experience in the ark constituted the beginning process of the ultimate redemption of all mankind, which would come via the Jewish nation and its observance of the Torah. Based on this passage in the Pirkei deRabbi Eliezer, we can better understand why the section of zichronos, or remembrances, in the amidah of Musaf on Rosh Hashanah, begins with a verse from parshas Noach, describing how God remembered Noach and those who were with him in the ark. On one level, of course, it is mentioned because Rosh Hashanah is the day on which every person in the world, Jew and non-Jew alike, is judged by God. On another level, however, we can explain, based on the midrash, that Noach’s experience in the ark was the beginning of the process of redemption that will be completed at the end of days. This process involves bitterness and suffering until the ultimate goal is finally reached, and Noach needed to approach the process with that understanding in mind. By planting a vine when he left the ark, and focusing on easing the difficulties in life, rather than taking them on, with a wider vision of the destiny of mankind, Noach adopted the wrong approach to this process, and helped generate the unfortunate results that played themselves out in the rest of the parsha. Please address all correspondence to the author (Rabbi Hoffman) with the following address - JoshHoff @ AOL.com. To subscribe to Netvort, send a message with subject line subscribe, to Netvort@aol.com. To unsubscribe, send message with subject line unsubscribe, to the same address.