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Weekly Reading Insights:
Noach
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Overview
of the Torah Reading To
be read on Shabbat Noach, 6 Cheshvan 5781/Oct. 24
Torah:
Genesis 6:9-11:32; Haftorah: Isaiah 54:1-55:5 (which mentions
"the waters of Noach")
Noach is the
2nd Reading out of 12 in Genesis and it contains 6907 letters, in 1861
words, in 153 verses
G-d told Noach that the
world was filled with perversion, and He wished to destroy it through a flood.
He asked Noach to build an ark, promising to save him and his family. He also
told him to bring into the ark seven pairs of every pure animal and bird, and
two pairs of every impure animal and bird, as well as food for his family and
for the animals. It rained for 40 days and nights, and all was destroyed. The
water remained for a year. G-d then commanded Noach to leave the ark, and promised
that He would never again cause such mass destruction by flood on earth. Noach
offered sacrifices from the pure species, and G-d placed a rainbow in the sky
as a sign of the covenant. As a result of an unpleasant incident, Noach cursed
his son Cham, whose son was Canaan, that he would always be slave to his brothers.
Noach died at the age of 950. The Parsha then chronicles the generations of Noach's
sons. The earth had one language, and the people decided to build a tower to heaven.
G-d saw this, and made the people speak different languages, so they could not
understand each other. He then scattered them across the world. The chronicle
of generations continues through to Avram, who married Sarai. They settled in
Charan.
 An
Essay from
Rabbi Shaul Yosef Leiter, Director of Ascent
(for
a free weekly email subscription, click
here)
It was a very sad situation. G-d eradicated the
population of the world because they did not fulfill their potential. The verse
says "And G-d obliterated every being that was on the earth, from person
to animal and creeping creatures and birds in the sky. They were erased. Only
Noach and those with him survived" (Bereishit/Genesis 7:23).
There
is something peculiar about the words describing Noach. In Hebrew it says, "veyeshaer
ach noach" Rashi [1] explains initially that, literally,
the words mean that Noach remained alone. However, Rashi continues to explain
that since (according to the Sifsei Chachamim [2]) the word
ach in the Torah always means to single out something and here it says that Noach
and those with him survived, what is there to single out about Noach? Rashi explains
by citing a Midrashic [3] teaching that Noach was "coughing
and spitting blood" because of the strain of the work with the animals (Midrash
Tanchuma. Noach 9). Or, according to another opinion, because he was late in bringing
the food for the lion and so the lion bit him. Rashi closes with a lesson (Mishlei/Proverbs
11) that the righteous one is punished in this world (leaving only rewards for
the world to come).
The whole book of Bereishit, more than the other books
of the Torah, is teaching us lessons about life. Even the two additional commentaries
here contain deep lessons. The Lubavitcher Rebbe ( Likkutei Sichot : ("Collected
Talks"): An Anthology of Talks. Volume 5. Page 35ff, quoted in Dvar Malchut),
explains that everyone has a mission in this world that is their challenge to
focus on and accomplish. It might change as we grow older and it even might not
be obvious to us what it is, but this is the reason we are here. It might be to
help others or to maintain our family in a Jewish way. It might be to work on
our own attributes, improving them and fine-tuning them, or that personal improvement
might just be the opening to what I really have to do. Regardless, we need to
search to discover our mission.
The first commentary, that Noach was "coughing
and spitting blood" from his efforts with the animals, is teaching us how
much one is supposed to invest in his or her personal mission. To help others
who do not have the same benefits we have, whose lives are more difficult. Even
those types of people who because of their spiritual situation could be on some
subtle level described as domesticated or wild animals. Even if helping them requires
great effort, until we are "coughing and spitting blood" G-d forbid,
a person has to continue with his mission, come what may.
What is the second
commentary talking about? There could be a situation, where a person has trained
themselves to ignore their difficulties and is able to fully give him or herself
over to their G-d given mission under all and any circumstances. It is not hard
for such a person to fool themselves and be convinced that just like I am prepared
to surrender my personal comforts and physical needs for my mission, the other
person should do so too! "Life is not easy, there is no free lunch. Let them
also work harder to get themselves up and running." Ultimately, it might
even be for the other person's benefit.
This is the teaching of the second
commentary. That Noach was punished for the action of being late with the lion's
food. The message here is that when it comes to another person, it is our responsibility
to completely deal with their needs. And if we fall short or even just "come
late" we are liable for a punishment. The point is, we have to be careful
not to let our needs and concerns be at the expense of the true needs of the other
person.
The Rebbe is teaching us about the subtle psychological process
of transference. Transference describes a situation where the feelings, desires,
and expectations of one person are redirected and applied to another person.
It
can come about that a person is so immersed in their own mission of self-sacrifice
that they also demand this same self-sacrifice from others. An example - the owner
of a business works "24/7" and is totally focused on his business. That
doesn't mean he can expect this of his employees, or family, unless they have
also taken on this mission for themselves. When it comes to the Other in our lives,
we should give priority to what they really need.
There was a Jewish custom
to divide the guests coming to a town for hospitality among the various homes
of the residents. Once there was a poor person, a Torah scholar, who, by Divine
Providence, ended up at the home of a wealthy but stingy person. Even though the
householder invited the guest to eat, when the guest arrived, the host surreptitiously
went into the kitchen and quietly told his wife to serve a simple small meal rather
than the usual generous servings so as not to serve the guest all the extras.
Realizing this, the poor person laughed and said, "Now I know the meaning
of King Solomon's statement that the righteous eat until they are full, but the
evil, their stomachs are lacking. The verse does not make sense. A righteous person
should not care about this world, why is he full? While the evil person who only
cares about this world, why is he hungry?"
He went on to explain.
"When a guest comes to the table of a righteous person, even if the righteous
person already ate before, he will push himself to eat again so the guest will
not be embarrassed to eat. And so the result is that the righteous person, like
the verse says, is full. On the other hand, a person who is not truly welcoming
of guests, even if he is starving, he will hold himself back from eating, so that
he doesn't have to put out much food for the guest. This is what it means, that
the stomach of the evil person is lacking…"
(Sichat HaShavua.
Noach 5773/2012).
Shabbat Shalom, Shaul
(for
a free weekly email subscription, click
here)
For last year's essay by Rabbi
Leiter on this week's Reading, see the archive.
FROM
THE SAGES OF KABBALAH ON KabbalaOnline.org Specifically,
for an overview of the recommended articles in the columns:
Holy Zohar,
Holy Ari, Mystic Classics, Chasidic Masters, Contemporary Kabbalists, and
more,
click to Noach one
sample: Ascent
Lights
 Floodwaters
of Wisdom
By Shaul Yosef Leiter
The Torah states that during the
Flood in the year 600 all of the subterranean waterways burst forth. The Zohar
explains this to mean that in the Jewish year 5600 (1830 CE), there will be a
great expansion of wisdom in the world. We have seen this evidenced by the explosion
of expanding secular knowledge in recent history. To
continue, click
here. For a free email subscription to our weekly
anthology, click
here.
For another taste of recommended Kabbalah articles on a variety of subjects,
click to the our
weekly Kabbalah magazine
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