Parshas Noach - Build Your Ark

Parshas Noach

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Build Your Ark

By: Daniel Listhaus

וַתִּשָּׁחֵת הָאָרֶץ לִפְנֵי הָאֱלֹקים וַתִּמָּלֵא הָאָרֶץ חָמָס: וַיַּרְא אֱלֹקים אֶת הָאָרֶץ וְהִנֵּה נִשְׁחָתָה כִּי הִשְׁחִית כָּל בָּשָׂר אֶת דַּרְכּוֹ עַל הָאָרֶץ

“And the earth had become corrupt before Hashem; and the earth had become filled with robbery. And Hashem saw the earth and behold it was corrupted, for all flesh had corrupted its way upon the earth.”

-Noach 6:11-12

During the sheishes y'mei haberaishis (six days of creation), everything created was designed with the purpose of serving man.¹ Finally, man was created with the single purpose of serving Hashem. Hence, everything was really created with the purpose of serving Hashem in some way. We, as the only beings comprised of the balance between a neshama (soul) and guf (body)² are the only beings with the capacity of using mundane things for a higher purpose and turning plain things into things filled with kedusha (Holiness). Despite the fact that the Torah was created before the world and was kept by certain individuals before Hashem actually gave it over on Har Sinai,³ it seems that throughout the history of the world there were different levels of Hashem's expectations of man. In Parshas Beraishis, the Torah⁴ emphasizes the single mitzva Adom was commanded to keep – not to eat from the eitz ha'daas (tree of knowledge). There is a tremendous focus on this, and it was the transgression of this mitzva which ultimately led to Adom being driven out of Gan Eden, and the course of mankind changed forever.

Throughout this week's parsha, we find a new focus of expectations which were transgressed in the era leading up to the mabbul (flood) as well as afterward during the episode of Migdal Bavel (Tower of Bavel). These transgressions were ones which we now refer to as part of the sheva mitzvos b'nei noach (Seven Noahide Laws). Aveiros such as marital immorality,⁵ avodah zarrah,⁶ thievery,⁷ cursing Hashem, killing people, and lack of a judicial system are what seem to have been the accepted practice of humanity during that time. Hashem looked at His world and saw that the people who He had created b'tzelem Elokim (in the image of Hashem)⁸ had completely misused their ability to infuse things with kedusha (Holiness), and instead followed their various desires to the point of complete corruptness. This putrescence of mankind led to the decay of the entire world.⁹

At this point, Hashem told Noach that He was going to destroy the world and that in order to survive, Noach was to build a teivah (ark). Noach's teivah defied teva (nature) in every way. The dimensions were not large enough to hold all the animals and Noach could not have packed enough sandwiches for everyone in the teivah to eat for the year, Yet, this was exactly what was necessary for the world to continue. Everything that came into the teivah had to be uncontaminated and with a pair¹⁰ – representing the wholesomeness and perfection of creation, the way the world was meant to be. Noach had to be the one to allow the animals into the teivah and he only allowed those which met Hashem's requirements. As a matter of fact, when the Torah describes the dove returning to the teivah after not being able to find a place to rest, the passuk¹¹ writes about Noach, “So he put forth his hand, and took it and brought it to him to the ark.” Only what Noach reached out to accept into his teivah was allowed. Everything else was left outside the purity of the teivah.

The seclusion of the teivah from the outside world in addition to the emunah (trust) and bitachon (faith) it demanded, were the essential ingredients needed to leave behind the world they had come from and restart the world with the proper perspective of what mankind is all about.

In a sense, each of us is responsible for building our own teivah. We must also choose what is necessary for us to live a proper life and prioritize it according to various floors within our teivah. However, the scary thing we must keep in mind is that we do not live in a perfect world and that every teivah has a window to the outside. It is the responsibility of each and every individual to be deliberate and cautious, when it comes to decisions, in realizing what is good to allow through that window and into the kedusha of our teivah, and what would be better left out. After all, our teivah does more than defy teva, it defines it. It is our Torah and Mesorah (tradition) which serve as the structure of our teivah and tells us how to lead our lives.

Unfortunately, the world around us has many of the attributes of the types of aveiros which caused the mabbul and the destruction of other cities in history. Like Noach in building his teivah, B'nei Yisroel fill the role of representing Hashem and sere as role models to the world what it means to be a G-d fearing nation, which is the true purpose of mankind. This task, though, comes with the titanic responsibility of keeping the kedusha of B'nei Yisroel and making sure that our teivahs do not have any cracks and that we choose extremely carefully what we allow to come in through the window of our teivah.

The Ba'al Ha'Turim points out that the word “va'tonach”, which the Torah uses to illustrate when the teivah came to rest on the mountain top, is a word found only one other time in Tanach and that is when the Torah describes that Eldad and Meidad received ruach hakodesh. The Torah writes, “And the Ruach [Hakodesh] rested [“ va'tonach”] upon them [Eldad and Meidad]...”¹² The Ba'al Ha'Turim suggests that this is to teach that Ruach Hakodesh rests only on those who remained in the Teivah”.

May Hashem help us build our own teivahs according to the Torah and our Mesorah and with His help we should have honesty and clarity on what we should allow through the window.

1See Beraishis 1:26 and 28

2See Beraishis 2:7 and Rashi there

3See Rashi Beraishis 6:11

4Beraishis 2:16-17

5See Rashi Beraishis 2:13

6Ibid.

7Beraishis 6:11

8See Beraishis 1:27

9See Rashi Beraishis 6:12 that the corruptness of man affected the way the animals began to behave.

10Each member of Noach's family came with his wife, and each animal had a mate, except for the kosher animals which had an odd one out to be later be offered as a karbon (sacrifice).

11Beraishis 8:9

12Bamidbar 11:26