~Thoughts on the Parsha~
Parshas
Noach
“Lost His Mabuls”
or Too Stubborn to Change
By: Daniel
Listhaus
בִּשְׁנַת שֵׁשׁ מֵאוֹת שָׁנָה לְחַיֵּי נֹחַ
בַּחֹדֶשׁ הַשֵּׁנִי בְּשִׁבְעָה עָשָׂר יוֹם לַחֹדֶשׁ בַּיּוֹם הַזֶּה נִבְקְעוּ
כָּל מַעְיְנוֹת תְּהוֹם רַבָּה וַאֲרֻבֹּת הַשָּׁמַיִם נִפְתָּחוּ: וַיְהִי הַגֶּשֶׁם עַל
הָאָרֶץ אַרְבָּעִים יוֹם וְאַרְבָּעִים לָיְלָה: בְּעֶצֶם הַיּוֹם הַזֶּה בָּא
נֹחַ וְשֵׁם וְחָם וָיֶפֶת בְּנֵי נֹחַ וְאֵשֶׁת נֹחַ וּשְׁלשֶׁת נְשֵׁי בָנָיו
אִתָּם אֶל הַתֵּבָה:
“In the six hundredth year of Noach’s life, in the second month, on the
seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep
burst forth; and the windows of the heavens were opened. And the rain was upon
the earth forty days and forty nights. On that very day Noach came, with Shem,
Cham, and Yaffes, Noach’s sons, with Noach’s wife, and the three wives of his
sons with them, into the ark….”
-Noach 7:11-13
The Torah[1]
describes that after ten generations from Adom ha’rishon, the world had become
extremely corrupt and filled with robbery. Rashi[2]
describes that the corruptness of mankind seeped all the way into the fabric of
the world even negatively affecting the behavior of animals. As a matter of
fact, only Noach, his family, and some of the unadulterated animals were worthy
of being saved. Yet, despite how bad the world had become, Rashi[3]
points out that Hashem’s patience held strong as He commanded Noach to
build a teivah (ark) over the span of one hundred and twenty years in the hope that
people would see the teivah, heed Noach’s warnings from Hashem
seriously, and ultimately do teshuva (repent). Unfortunately, however,
despite Noach’s many warnings, the dor ha’mabul (generation of the
flood) did not opt to change their ways and do teshuva.
The Torah[4] states
that “in the middle of that very day” that the rains started falling, Noach and
his family entered the ark. Rashi[5]
comments that the Torah uses this rare expression here to relate the following.
The people of Noach’s generation would say, “If we see him entering the ark, we
will break it and kill him.” Therefore, Hashem’s response was to bring Noach
and his family to the teivah in full view of everyone to show that there
is nothing they could do to prevent Noach from entering.
The problem with this Rashi is that it
is difficult to understand what the people would gain by saying such a thing
and who exactly they were challenging. In their minds only one of two things
could be true. Either Noach was a complete crazy man rambling about the world
coming to an end, or he was telling the truth. If in the end they finally accepted
the fact that he was telling the truth, their actions would not have been to
try to stop Noach from getting to the ark, but rather to all do teshuva and
prevent the mabul (flood) from coming in the first place. Since that is
not what happened, it must be that they thought Noach was completely off his
rocker. However, if that was the case, why was their reaction to try to stop
him from entering the teivah? Leave the crazy 600 year old man alone and
do his thing! Furthermore, with Noach locked in an ark thinking the world is
going to be flooded out; it would be the perfect opportunity to loot his house
and take control of his property.
Just to drive this point in from a
different perspective, let us recall an interesting event that occurred – or
rather that did not occur – on May 21st, 2011. In 2001, Harold
Camping, a Christian radio show host, predicted that May 21st 2011
would mark the end of the world and be judgment day. As May 2011 came, some of those
who believed whole-heartedly even put their money where their mouth was. Front
page articles told stories of people who gave up their jobs, sold their homes, and stopped investing in their
children's college funds. For example, Robert Fitzpatrick, a 60 year old
NYC resident, spent his entire retirement money
of $140,000 on a subway billboard warning the public of the coming universal
simultaneous earthquakes and destruction of the world. However, all those who
did not believe did not bother to try to hush the madness, quite the opposite.
Many people poked fun, organizations sponsored counter billboards effectively
saying “I told you so” that nothing would happen, and groups were formed – such
as the 830,000 people who registered as attending a “Post Rapture Looting”
event on Facebook. Those who did not believe took advantage – even if in
harmless ways – and those who did believe certainly did not say to themselves, “I
believe it’s going to happen but instead of going along with it I will just
make life miserable for those who I agree with. So how could we understand – l’havdil
– the reaction of Noach’s generation who tried to stop him from entering
the ark? If they believed, they should have repented; and if they did not
believe, then just leave the man alone or take advantage of the situation. What
is the benefit of interfering to make a crazy man even crazier?
Furthermore,
why did Hashem take this so personally – so to speak? The other times where the
Torah uses the expression of “in the middle of that day” are during events
where people challenged that which Hashem said was going to happen. For
example, Hashem told Pharaoh, through Moshe and Aharon, that He was going to
take the B’nei Yisroel out of MItzrayim. When the Egyptians were
determined to stop that from happening, Hashem said he would take them out in
the middle of the day in front of the entire population and whoever wants to
try to stop Him could try. However, in this case Hashem had promised to bring a
flood if the people did not repent. The dor ha’mabul threatening to stop
Noach from entering the teivah sounds more of battle they were picking
with Noach than a direct battle against Hashem.
How could we understand the irrational behavior of
the dor ha’mabul trying to stop Noach from entering the teivah
and the fact that Hashem responded as if they were picking a battle with Him
when it seems it was more directed to just making Noach miserable?
In order to make sense of the situation, it must
be that the reality was that indeed when the rain started coming, the people in
Noach’s generation came to the realization that Noach’s warnings were real and
that G-d was not bluffing when He said He would destroy the world with a flood.
They realized at that point that their lifestyles were replete with corruption,
but even with death staring them in the dor ha’mabul had no interest in changing.
Instead, their response was to say, “We may all die, but we will take Noach and
his family down with us.” This was audacious to the fullest degree –
essentially telling Hashem, not only do we know the graveness of what we are
doing and understand the severe punishment but will continue to live our lives
as usual anyway, we will even attempt to drag down those who are good down with
us.
Remember,
the people of the dor ha’mabul did not particularly like each other. They
took advantage of one another, would steal and cheat each other day in and day
out. As a matter of fact this was the single difference between them and the dor
haflagah (generation of dispersion) later in the parsha who
tried to build a tower to fight Hashem. The dor ha’mabul was wiped out,
yet the generation waging war on Hashem, was merely dispersed. Rashi[6]
explains that the reason the dor haflagah was not punished as severely
was because at least they maintained peace amongst themselves. Granted they
joined forces for a disgraceful and pointless cause, but at a minimum they
joined together. The dor ha’mabul on the other hand despised each other
and took advantage whenever possible. They did not live in a functioning
society, rather in a completely corrupt society where everyone did what they
wanted when they wanted – each man for himself. Yet, one thing they agreed on.
They would rather living the horrible lifestyle they chose for themselves than
turning around and changing to become better people. They heard Noach’s mussar
(rebuke) loud and clear, and when the rain started falling they believed it
without a doubt, however their stubbornness prevailed and they were drowned in
the mabul trying to defend the nature of their corrupt society.
It is easy
to look at the dor ha’mabul and write them off as complete fools. After
all, not much was being asked of them. The things they were transgressing on
were so obviously corrupt that any normal person would realize it. Noach was
not being spiritual, merely logical! He was not asking them to do anything
other than change to be better people who work together and help each other
instead of rob, cheat, and kill. However, the truth is that many people have
things which deep inside they know are incorrect and perhaps even understand
the ramifications or severity of the punishment. Yet, many would rather remain
in their ways and even try to drag down others to their level than to even take
the smallest steps to change themselves for the better. Our job is to make sure
not to be like those of Noach’s generation who were too stubborn to change for
their own good, but rather to be like Noach himself who worked hard and went
against the pressure of those around him in order to do what was right and live
properly.
This Shabbos there is an unbelievable event taking place in
this country and around the world. About one million Jews are participating this
week in “The Shabbos Project”. An
idea implemented in South Africa only last year for the first time and
participated by close to 70 percent of the country’s 75,000 Jews, has now
spread to around 50 cities in
Israel, over 100 cities in the US, and more than 340 cities in 35 countries
around the world. These numbers include Jewish Nobel Prize winners,
authors, politicians, athletes, musicians, and celebrities. Non affiliated Jews
will have the opportunity to experience a full orthodox Shabbos
united with orthodox Jews learning about the laws and customs.
The keeping of Shabbos is much more than a necessary weekly “day
of rest”, but rather the day itself is testimony to Hashem’s creating and
running the world. The Malbim[7]
points out that hidden within the dimensions of the teivah itself
exist the fundamental principles that Hashem is the creator of the world, on
Whom the world is completely dependent on every second to renew its creation,
as well as the controller of the world. Hashem’s name representing His timelessness
and Him being Creator of the world is His name of – Yud and Hey
and Vuv and Hey. Hashem’s name which represents Him as Master and
Controller of the world is his name of Aleph, Daled, Nun,
and Yud. If one adds the numerical value of the two names together one
will get 26 + 65 = 91 which is the same value of Succah (Samech, Vuv,
Kaf, Hey). If you put the name of Hashem one on top of each other,
like s’chach on a succah to line up the each of the
aforementioned four letter names, one will get the Yud and Hey
above the Aleph and Daled respectively, the Vuv on top of
the Nun, and the Hey on top of the Yud. The first Yud
(10) x Aleph (1) = 10. Hey
(5) x Daled (4) = 20; 10+20=30, which was the height of the teivah.
Next, Vuv (6) x Nun (50) = 300, which was the length of the teivah.
Last, Hey (5) x Yud (10) = 50 which was the width of the teivah.
The Gemara[8]
states that if B’nei Yisroel would keep even one Shabbos
properly, that that would merit the immediate arrival of mashiach. Unlike
Harold Camping, we do not predict the end of days[9]. However
we do know that it is in the near future and that the path of doing teshuva
and coming closer to Hashem is the correct one to take and will only hasten his
coming.
May Hashem help
all those involved with the Shabbos Project across the world to make
this experience more than just a positive one, but one which reignites the
spark that every Jew is born with. May this be a Shabbos which all the
non orthodox and orthodox Jews from all backgrounds who are constantly flying
around feeling dissatisfied and unfulfilled finally find true menucha, as
we sing of the yonah (dove) that Noach sent from the ark – yonah matz’ah
vo manoach, v’sham yanuchu y’giei choach.
No comments:
Post a Comment