From: Netvort@aol.com
Sent: Friday, October 27, 2006 3:37 AM
To: JoshHoff@aol.com
Subject: Netvort : parshas Noach, 5767





                                                 Thinking in the Box

                      By Rabbi Joshua (constrictedly known as The Hoffer) Hoffman

  In the beginning of this week's parsha, Noach is described as an 'ish tzaddik, tamim hayah bedorosav' - a righteous man, complete in his generations. Rashi, in his commentary to the Talmud (Avodah Zarah 6a), explains the word 'tamim' - complete, as meaning 'anav ushefal ruach,' or, humble and of lowly spirit. Rabbi Meir Simcha of Dvinsk, in his commentary Meshech Chochmah, cites this comment of Rashi, and notes that later, when God speaks to Noach, He refers to him to him only as a tzaddik, and not as a tamim. Although Rashi himself, in his Torah commentary,  explains that this teaches us to say only part of a person's praise in his presence, and all of his praise when not in his presence, Rav Meir Simcha offers an additional explanation. He says that Noach lived in two generations, the generation of the flood, and the generation that followed the flood. During the generation of the flood, his trait of righteousness prevailed, and enabled him to resist committing the various sins that most people were then prone to. In the generation that followed the flood, Noach's trait of being humble was paramount, because, having rescued mankind through building the ark as a shelter from the storm, he could have, after the flood subsided and the world began to repopulate, presented himself as the man responsible for everyone else's existence, and become very haughty. However, Noach did not do so, and, thus, was considered a tamim, a complete person


  Rabbi Yisroel Alter of Gur, in his commentary Beis Yisroel, without citing either Rashi or Rav Meir Simcha, also speaks of Noach's trait of humility, deriving it from a different verse. As the waters of the flood begin to fall, the Torah tells us that all existence was wiped out, and that there remained 'only Noach and those with him in the ark' (Bereishis 7:23). The word for 'only' - ach - is always understood as denoting a limitation. Rashi says that part of Noach was actually missing, because a lion took a swipe at him in the ark when he delayed his feeding schedule. The Beis Yisroel, however, says that the word implies a limit in Noach's sense of pride. The people of his generation sinned out of arrogance, and Noach lacked that kind of arrogance. Rather, he was a humble person, and because of that he was saved from the flood. According to this interpretation, Noach was humble in the generation of the flood, as well. Although, as we have seen, both the Meshech Chochmah and the Beis Yisroel offer reasons for the necessity of Noach being humble, I would like to offer an additional, more essential one, based on the remarks of Rav Amnon Bazak in his Nekudas Pesicha and, more importantly, of Rav Shlomo Goren in his Toras HaMikra.


  Rav Bazak notes that the building instructions for the ark that God gave to Noach are strikingly similar to the instructions for the building of the ark in the mishkan that God gave to Moshe.In both cases, the dimensions of length, width and height are given, in that order. Moreover, Noach is told to cover the ark inside and out with pitch, and Moshe is told to cover the ark both inside and out with gold. In addition, Noach is told to finish the ark to a cubit from above, and Moshe is told to place a covering of an amah's width on top of the ark. Rav Bazak suggests that the similarities point to the fact that both arks marked places of contact between man and God. The ark in the mishkan housed the tablets of the Torah, through which God revealed His Torah to the nation of Israel, and the ark that Noach built served as the place in which served as the place in which the remnant of mankind that was saved from the flood encountered God. Rav Bazak then goes on to explain the differences between the two arks. Although these differences are important in their own right, they a re not relevant to our discussion, and I therefore refer the interested reader to Rav Bazak's work.


It is, however, remarkable that Rav Bazak does not make reference to the Zohar ( volume 1, 59b) , which explicitly states that Noach's ark was actually a representation, as it were, of the ark of the covenant on high. The Zohar demonstrates this by pointing to citing god's words to Noach, "I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall enter the ark" (Bereishis, 6:18). Just as the ark in the mishkan is referred to the ark of the covenant, says the Zohar, so was the ark of Noach. Rav Goren does cite this Zohar, and goes on to explain what this covenant actually was. He cites the Ramban in parshas Terumah, who says that the aron, housed in the msihkan which contained the tablets of the Torah, served as a means of perpetuating the revelation of the Torah at Mt. Sinai. Similarly, after Noach and his family left the ark, there was, for the first time in history, a formal, public acceptance of the seven mitzvos incumbent upon all of mankind to fulfill. Even though Adam had been given six of these mitzvos, there was never any formal covenant made in connection with their acceptance with the earth's inhabitants before the flood. As a result, when mankind continued to flaunt these mitzvos, the world was no longer able to exist.


Rashi, in parshas Bereishis, cites a midrash which says that God made the existence of the world conditional on the acceptance of the Torah by the Jews. Until that event, there still needed to be some kind of spiritual connection between man and God that would maintain the universe,which couldnot exist asaphysicalentityalone.. When mankind openly flaunted all of the mitzvos that had been given to them through Adam, the only connection remaining was that of Noach. After the flood, God made a formal covenant with the survivors, in front of the ark which had served as their shelter. to accept the seven mitzvos. By virtue of that covenant, the world was able to endure until the Jewish people accepted the Torah at Mt. Sinai, and then placed the tablets of the Torah in the aron and placed it in the mishkan, to perpetuate the experience of that covenant, thus facilitating the continue existence of the world.


Following Rav Goren's explanation of the similarities between the ark of Noach and the ark of Moshe, we can better understand the need for Noach to exhibit the character trait of humility. Just as Moshe, who brought the Torah to the Jewish nation, was the humblest of all men, so, too, Noach, who served as the human end of the covenant made in regard to the seven mitzvos incumbent upon all of mankind to observe, needed to be a humble person. I believe that the reason for this need is that acceptance of God's mitzvos requires an attitude of submission to His will, refraining from imposing one's own concept of what is right and what is wrong onto the code of conduct revealed by God. As we noted in Netvort to parshas Bereishis (available at Torahheights.com) this was, according to Rav Shimshon Raphael Hirsch, the essence of Chava's sin when she ate from the tree of knowledge. Instead of following God's guidelines for what is good and bad, she followed her own perception that the tree was good, and transgressed God's command. Thus began the slow fall of mankind, until it reached the state it was in at the time of the flood. Noach, in establishing the covenant with God and accepting the seven mitzvos on behalf of mankind, did so humbly, submitting to God's will and recognizing that He is the final arbiter of what is good for man and what is bad for him. .



  Please address all correspondence to the author (Rabbi Hoffman) with the following address - JoshHoff @ AOL.com.

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