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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