Netvort Noach 5753:   There’s No Room

By Rabbi Joshua (fittingly Known as the Hoffer) Hoffman

In Memory of Dr. Henry Hersh, my friend and study partner, who passed away this week in Washington Heights.  Dr. Hersh, who worked as a dentist until his death at age 94, was very dedicated to Torah study.  He was especially well versed in the writings of the Maharal of Prague, and was consulted by prominent Rabbis seeking information on those works.  May his memory be a blessing.

After God decides to destroy the world through flood because of mankind’s evil deeds, he informs Noach, the righteous man who deserves to be spared of His decision, and directs him to build an ark to be able to withstand the flood. Besides Noach and his family, pairs of all the animals in existence were to be brought into the ark as well as an adequate food supply for all those to be saved. The dimensions of the ark, as set forth in the Torah, were clearly not sufficient to hold all those to be saved together with their food supply.  Therefore, many commentators write that the ark accommodated them through a miracle. However, asks the Ramban, if there was a need for a miracle to save those in it, why build an ark at all? God could have performed a bigger miracle and lifted everyone above the water, or performed some other kind of miracle to spare them. Why trouble Noach with such a long building campaign that, according to the Rabbis, lasted 120 years? 

The Ramban answers that God prefers to maintain the natural order of the universe, that even when he deems it necessary to perform a miracle for someone, man must first do all he can on a natural level, and only then will God miraculously intervene on his behalf. This is the general principle of the Ramban in his commentary that appears for the first time at this point in the Torah. Is there any significance to the fact that it appears here, in the context of Noach, the ark, and the generation of the flood?  Is there any special message to Noach beyond the basic principle of maintaining as much as possible the natural order of the Universe? 

I would like to suggest that there is, indeed, an additional message to Noach being delivered through God’s directive to him to build an ark. There is a dispute between the Rambam in the Moreh Nevuchim (2:32) and the Abarbanel in his commentary there, as to the nature of prophecy. According to the Rambam prophecy is, in essence, a natural process, although ultimately triggered by God, while according to the Abarbanel, it is an entirely miraculous process. In order for someone to attain prophecy, says the Rambam, he must develop his intellectual and ethical faculties to the fullest, and then, if God sees fit, he takes him beyond that point and grants him prophecy.  For Rav Yehudah HaLevi this kind of development is not necessary for one to become a prophet.  God will, at times, grant prophecy to a person who has relatively not developed his capacities very highly. The Malbim, in his commentary to Amos, offers a middle position. Usually, he says, God only grants prophecy to a person who has developed himself in the manner outlined by the Rambam. However, if there is a need for a prophet to speak to the people and there is no one who has properly developed himself, God will grant prophecy to someone who otherwise would not receive it. Perhaps, then, this was the case with Noach as well. 

Rashi, in the beginning of the sedra, contrasts Noach with Avrohom. In regard to Noach the Torah says that he walked with God, while in regard to Avrohom it says that he walked before God.  Rashi explains that Noach required God to support him while Avrohom did not, but led the way before Him. Perhaps we can explain that this is the reason that Noach was not able to teach others about God in the way that Avrohom did, and therefore was not able to save them from the Flood. The Midrash tells us that Avrohom, although reared in a home that worshipped idolatry, had an inner struggle and finally understood intellectually that there must be a God who created the Universe and controls it. God then appeared to him and said that He was the creator and master. Due to his inner struggle and understanding, Avrohom was able to bring others in Charan, and later in Canaan to eschew idol worship and accept God as their ruler. Noach, however, did not come with an inner struggle, but, rather, needed divine support to maintain his commitment. The commentary Binyan Ariel, in fact, says that the reason Noach failed in his warnings to the people to change their ways was that he treated the symptoms, the people’s evil deeds, rather than their root cause, which was idolatry. Following our analysis we can say that Noach, not having developed himself in the way that Avrohom did, was not able to wean the people away from their idolatry, and because of that was not able to save them. 

Perhaps, then, when God told Noach to build the ark in a natural way, even though, ultimately, a miracle would be needed for it to serve its purpose, he was hinting to Noach that he needed to develop his theological understanding in a natural way in order to influence people properly. During the 120 years in which he built the ark, people asked him why he was engaged in that activity, and he told them of the coming flood, warning them to change their ways.  Had he taken the hidden message of the building of the ark to heart, he may have succeeded in realizing that the cause of mankind’s corruption was their addiction to idolatry, and, like Avrohom after him, drawn them away from it and spared them from destruction.