[00:00:00] Hello, my friends, and welcome back to this week's episode of the Practical Parasha podcast. This is Rabbi Shlomo Cohen and I hope you are well.
[00:00:08] It was a beautiful Yuntif and I'm happy to be back in regular schedule.
[00:00:15] School has started, the kids are back to school, work has started again, and we are getting into the swing of things, going right into the winter.
[00:00:23] And the parshios, the Torah portions for the next bunch of weeks, the book of Genesis, each one, we could spend weeks on it, but it's going to be taking us through our history. The history of the Jewish people really starts even before that history of man, which gets us to Abraham and Isaac, Jacob, till it finishes the book of Genesis with the formation of Jewish nation.
[00:00:52] And thank God, very happy to be here for another cycle of Parsha podcasts.
[00:00:58] And for all of you who have been with this podcast already for one cycle, two cycles or even three cycles, I thank you and I look forward to the upcoming year of podcasts together with you. And for those of you who are just starting out, maybe it's a new year and you are looking for something on the Parsha, something a little more practical and you discover this podcast, I want to welcome you. Thank you for joining the Practical Parsha podcast family. I hope you enjoy it. And something I'm going to tell you that all the, you know, all you listeners that have been with, uh, the podcast for a while know already.
[00:01:43] But I want to tell the new listeners, you know what I'm going to tell them, right? That if you have any questions, comments, would like to say hello, would like to introduce yourself.
[00:01:55] Don't be shy, I don't bite. Would love to hear from you. My email address is Rabbi Shlomo kon k o h nmail.com or you can look in the show notes below.
[00:02:07] This week's Parsha is Parshas Noach.
[00:02:10] Now, Parshas Noach is famously known for the story of the Mabal, the story of the flood.
[00:02:19] And the Parsha begins by telling us how Noach was a tzadik. He was a righteous man, but his generation was not so good.
[00:02:30] And it seems that humanity as a whole started to degenerate.
[00:02:35] It started to, you know, become immoral, slowly but surely. And Hashem was waiting and waiting and waiting for people to turn back to him. Finally, he comes to Noah. He comes to Noah and tells him that build a mabu to build this ark, that because in a certain amount of time he is going to bring a flood upon the world to destroy it if the people do not repent, if they do not do teshuvah, if they do not return.
[00:03:06] And the Torah tells us that Noach built the teva, built the Ark for 120 years.
[00:03:13] Meaning during those years, Hashem commanded Noah to build this massive boat.
[00:03:20] And the people saw him doing it. And Rashi tells us that they would ask him, what are you doing, Noah? Uh, he'd say, um, I'm building a boat. Because God said if the people don't repent, if they don't do teshuvah, if they don't return, if they don't fix up their ways, their depravity, their immorality, he's going to destroy the world. And he said, I should build a teva. And they would laugh at him, and they would laugh at him and scoff at him.
[00:03:46] And Noah kept doing, building the teva, preparing.
[00:03:51] At the end of 120 years, God commands Noah, uh, to go with his family into the teva, to bring along with him the animals that they'll be able to survive. The plot. Only certain types of species that didn't corrupt themselves were permitted onto the teva, onto the ark.
[00:04:09] And Noah, uh, goes on to the ark with the animals and starts to rain. And the world, the mabul comes, the flood comes, the great flood comes. And commentaries tell us that the different aspects of the flood, how it was this upheaval, that it was for the entire world, that it covered the highest mountain, and the whole world that was not on the boat, except for Noah and his family and the animals that were aboard were destroyed.
[00:04:45] Parasha continues with the rain stopping, the water receding. The story how Noach, uh, how he knew to leave the teva, to leave the ark, how he sent out first the raven and then the dove.
[00:05:02] And then finally, after the second time, the dove comes back with the branch of an olive tree. And at that point, Noach knew that he was able to leave the ark.
[00:05:15] When Noah leaves the ark, he brings sacrifices to give thanks for surviving. And he's now tasked with rebuilding humanity, him and his descendants, to rebuild the world and to do it with God's.
[00:05:31] And with Noah, uh, God makes a covenant to never again bring a deluge, to destroy the world with the flood again, to make this total destruction. And the covenant that Hashem gives to Noach is the rainbow.
[00:05:49] The rainbow signifies that even though humanity might be deserving of destruction, total destruction. Hashem remembers the covenant that he made with Noach, that it will not destroy the world again.
[00:06:03] The parsha finishes with the descendants of Noach and his children.
[00:06:08] And the story of the Tower of Babel, that not too long after the flood, humanity again gets themselves into trouble.
[00:06:19] That the people together, they decide they want to build this edifice, this structure to wage war against Hashem, to wage war against God. It's the Tower of Babel.
[00:06:32] And everybody comes together with unity to build this structure to wage war against Hashem, to wage a battle against G D.
[00:06:44] And the Parsha tells us how Hashem ruined their plans by splitting up the people, by dispersing them.
[00:06:54] And how does Hashem disperse them? The Parsha tells us that he changes the language of people. And the Midrash tells us, the Torah tells us how, uh, that when one person would ask for a hammer, he wouldn't understand what he's saying and he would give him a screwdriver and then he would get into a fight. And this leads to a mayhem that this tower sort of self destructs and the people become dispersed throughout the earth.
[00:07:20] And actually that's why the land of it's called the Tower of Baville that Babylon comes from. The Torah tells us that at that place, that's where God mixed up. That's what it means literally. Bavel means to mix up. He mixed up the language of man. And from there we have different languages and people throughout the world. The first idea I want to share with you today takes us to the beginning of the Parsha.
[00:07:45] Now we know that when Hashem gave the command for Noach to, to enter the teva, enter the ark, the psukim tell us exactly how the animals came to Noach. And it says as follows. It says, uh, it says in the verse of every clean animal, take unto you seven pairs a male with its mate, and of the animals that is not clean, two, a male with its mate.
[00:08:27] So it means from the kosher animals, Noach took seven pairs, and from the non kosher animals, Noah, ah, took just one pair, one and one. Now the question that's raised by the commentaries is, is that we see later on in the verses when the Torah is describing to us exactly how the animals came onto the ark.
[00:08:52] The verse says as uh, follows, it says shnayim shnayim bo el Noach, el ateva zochar unikeva kashir tziva elokim esnoach.
[00:09:03] Two by two they came to Noach into the ark, male and female, as God had commanded. Noach.
[00:09:12] If you look at Rashi, he explains on this verse that when the Torah says that they came two by two, they came To Noah, that is referring to the non kosher animals because, right, we know that Noah had to take two, one male, one female for the non kosher ones. And it is saying in the verse that they came to Noach. And Rashi tells us that they came by themselves.
[00:09:37] That Hashem made a commandment that the animals should come and they knew instinctively to come to Noach, uh, by themselves to be put onto the ark. But the question is that we see by the kosher animals.
[00:09:51] What's the wording? What was the wording that Hashem, uh, said? What did Noach have to do when it came to those animals? And it says that Noah had to get them. It says, tikach Lechah, you shall take.
[00:10:04] We see from here that for the non kosher animals, they came by themselves to Noach. But for the kosher animals, Noah had to go and find them. He had to go capture them and bring them into the ark himself. They did not come on their own.
[00:10:20] And the obvious question that is raised is, why is this?
[00:10:25] Why did the non kosher animals come on their own, but the kosher ones, Noah had to go find them. You would maybe think the other way around. The kosher ones, they should come on their own, and the non kosher ones he should find. There's different answers that are brought down to explain this question, but I saw two that are very beautiful and very meaningful to me. We know that.
[00:10:51] What was the reason that the animals, the two non kosher animals came to the ark? Why was it two, male and female?
[00:11:00] The reason is it's brought down by Rabbeinu Bachaya and the Ramban.
[00:11:07] And I saw it also brought down by Rab Yaakov Kamenetsky. He explains on this idea that the non kosher animals came for their own preservation.
[00:11:21] In order for their species to continue, you needed a male and a female, and that's it.
[00:11:27] So they needed to, you know, they came for their own to sustain their kind, to keep this type of animal going. So they shouldn't be extinct.
[00:11:36] But why was it necessary to have 7 and 7 for the kosher animals?
[00:11:42] Rashi tells us the reason why seven was the commandment was because Hashem, uh, was commanding Noach to bring seven so that after the flood would end, he would have animals to sacrifice. He would have animals to bring as a carbon, because if there would be only two, they wouldn't be able to, you know, the animals would go extinct if he would sacrifice one of them.
[00:12:07] And therefore it was necessary to give Noach the commandment to have seven to bring seven. So there should be enough for carbonos. So what comes out from this? It comes out that the animals, the kosher animals that were brought into the ark were brought on to do a mitzvah with. They were brought on because they were a commandment to fulfill the will of Hashem.
[00:12:32] And it wasn't just for their own preservation.
[00:12:35] It was to do a mitzvah.
[00:12:38] You see a very powerful lesson here.
[00:12:42] The lesson is that when it comes to doing a mitzvah, when it comes to doing something good, there has to be some effort put into it.
[00:12:54] Sure, we should do mitzvahs if it's easy, but, uh, we have to for sure be willing to do something good even if it's not so easy for us, even if it means we're going to have to give up of ourselves to accomplish that mitzvah. The reason why this idea always talks to me because, I don't know, one of my, uh, pet peeves or one of my things, I've been in, you know, Jewish education and reaching out to other Jews for a little bit of a while, and thank God, I have some experience dealing with people, dealing with other Jewish people.
[00:13:29] And I always feel that it's important for people to have buy in. You know, sure, you reach out to another Jewish to introduce Torah ideas to them and to talk about hashem, uh, to talk about mitzvos, to teach Torah. You give that opportunity.
[00:13:48] But it's also important that people themselves have some buy into it so they're invested.
[00:13:54] And I feel like this idea from the Parasha really, you know, I think it, uh, talks to me because I think it's backing up this idea that I tell people sometimes, you know, other, other people in Jewish education, Jewish outreach, I always said, you don't want to make people give.
[00:14:10] You want to help people achieve their spiritual potential, but you don't want to make it so easy that it's on a silver platter, that they're not doing anything. You want people to have some type of buy in so that they become invested. Because when people invest, uh, when they expend some effort into, it becomes much more meaningful and it's more likely to last and have an effect. And I think this is this idea by Noach that he didn't, you know, those animals didn't come to him. Hashem didn't just send them to him. He wanted him to expend some effort to do it. And there's a term that we use, it's called mesiras nefesh. Giving of yourself to giving, you know, to giving over of yourself to do something good, to do what Hashem wants. You know, sure, sometimes a mitzvah comes right to you. It's easy to do. You should do it, of course. But the point is, when it's not so easy and when you have to expend some effort or some money or some time or it's challenging, we should have the willpower and we should have the attitude that that's what we want to do. We want to become invested. Because if we don't become invested, it doesn't mean as much to us. You know, my father, he should be blessed, he should be gesund. He should be healthy and good. He always would say to me, he's like, uh, oh, you know, when we get us something and maybe as kids wouldn't take care of it as we should, he's like, you need to buy it with your own money, then you'll take care of it. And he was right, because we were vested. You'll take care of something when it's your own sweat, blood and tears. And that's, I think, a very important idea from this week's Parsha.
[00:15:46] Additionally, we see on a second level, this is brought down from Rabbeinu Bachaya and the Ramban is that.
[00:15:53] And I heard this also. Rabbi Fran expounded on this idea from the Ramban.
[00:15:59] We know that the book of Genesis is also referred to as Sefer ha Yashar, the book of the straight. That's literally the translate of Yashar, that's straight. You know, the straight and the narrow, the people who do the right thing. It's the book of Sefer Hayashar. And going along this theme, we know that the non kosher animals came to the ark. And what was the reason why they came? Self preservation.
[00:16:27] To keep themselves, that they should live.
[00:16:30] And the reason why the kosher animals came was so that they should. Obviously there was two of them to be preserved, but primarily to be offered as sacrifices.
[00:16:40] The Ramban explains. And similarly the Rabbeinu Chay Bachya, that Hashem is not going to make it, that instinctively animals that are going to go to their slaughter should come on their own to noach.
[00:16:55] Because Hashem, who is, uh, of Harachamon, uh, he's our Father, our merciful Father, he's not going to cause an animal to go against its nature, that it should be to go to the slaughter. Because that's just not right.
[00:17:09] That it's not right that Hashem should make an animal come on its own to be given as a carbon.
[00:17:16] It's not merciful. Meaning again, doesn't mean that carbonos sacrifices is God. For Hashem wants the sacrifices. He wants us to slaughter the animal. He wants us to, you know, to have, have meat right for ourselves. Even not trying to say that there's nothing wrong with slaughtering an animal. That's why Hashem put it into creation for us.
[00:17:39] But the point is, is that Hashem's, uh, not going to make it, that the animal on his own is going to come to the Ark to be slaughtered. Because that's not right. Right for self preservation. The animals, Hashem can make it that the animals will come on their own. But to be slaughtered, it's not just not right, it's not Yashar, it's not the proper thing to do that they should come on their own. And therefore Noah, uh, had to go find the animals so he could fulfill the commandment of Hashem to give them as a sacrifice later on. And I think the powerful lesson here is, you know, going in this theme of the book of Genesis, and I heard this brought down from Rabbi Fran, is that the book of Genesis is really the story of the Jewish people. And we know that Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, you know, there are forefathers, they're the patriarchs, and they're even revered by the non Jewish nations of the world.
[00:18:35] And why are they revered by universally?
[00:18:40] Was it because they studied Torah? That's not the reason. Was it because they, they did mitzvos? That wasn't the reason. It's because they were Yashar, they were upstanding people. They did what was right always.
[00:18:52] And I think this is a very important concept. You know, we have the Torah as our guidebook, as our blueprint of how we're supposed to act.
[00:19:01] But there's also, within the Torah, there is a concept of doing what's right.
[00:19:07] And sometimes a person could be following the Halachah, he could be following the law and still being, you know, maybe he's doing what's, you know, what the book says. But there's a higher level for us to aspire to, which is doing the upstanding thing, which is going above and beyond.
[00:19:23] I think this is a subtle lesson that we could take from this week's Parsha, this concept of being Yashar, being upstanding, that even though something doesn't call for us to act in a certain way, maybe we're all in, you know, we're good. We're all good, even if we do whatever we're supposed to be doing. But there's a higher level for us to aspire to and attain to where we want to do what's right, what's upstanding, so that people should look to us, no matter who the people are Jewish, not Jewish, and look up to us, and, you know, we should be that light unto the nations. I think that's a very powerful idea we see from this week's Parasha. The next idea I want to share with you takes us to after the flood, where Hashem makes a covenant with Noach. Ah, Noach offers sacrifices.
[00:20:13] And the verse tells us about the new existence of man, how the situation before the flood was totally different from what was after the flood.
[00:20:24] The Parsha reads as follows. It says, vayarach Hashem es reah M Nikoyach vayemer Hashem eliboi loy oisif le kal oydes'. Ah, Adam baavor ha Adam um kiyetzer leva Adam minura velo chay kashira sisi. Hashem smelled the pleasing aroma, and Hashem said it in his heart. I will not continue to curse again the ground because of man, since the imagery of man's heart is evil from his youth, nor will I again continue to smite every living being as I have done, meaning Hashem was making a covenant to not destroy the entire world. Again, the next verse continues. O Yomei ha' aretz zera vekatsevikar v' choyim m vikayets continuously all the days of the earth, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night shall not cease.
[00:21:18] So the Torah is telling us how the existence of the world till now is different, that from now on that there's always going to be day on the earth, there's always going to be night on the earth, there's going to be seed time and harvest time, heat and cold. Before the flood, there was an existence where the Midrash tells us that man would sow once in 40 years and he would have what he would need for the next 40 years, that the weather was always perfect, there were no seasons. We see that the longevity of man was much longer. The earth, you know, as we know it was much different. There was no continents, it was all one big mass of land. And after the flood, the existence of man changed.
[00:22:04] And Shamshin Rafal Hirsch has a long piece where he explains the importance of this changing over.
[00:22:13] And really this comes from a conversation that I've had with a good friend of mine. How, you know, how the existence of man. We see that Noach lived much longer. We see the lifespans of people were much greater than they are today. You know, how could that be? And different questions such as how did the animals in different continents come to the ark?
[00:22:33] But the point is, we see that the very existence of man was a totally different existence before the flood versus after the flood. And he gives a very beautiful explanation to this. How it changed that before the flood, man had this utopia. Everything was perfect.
[00:22:55] And it was because of that that they became depraved, that everything was so good to them that they forgot where everything came from. And they rebelled against Hashem.
[00:23:06] And in fact, the midrash brings down that when Hashem, uh, made the mabul, he made the flood, he moved different constellations to create this upheaval in the world.
[00:23:20] So we see that beforehand the existence was different. And now by moving the constellations, it changed.
[00:23:28] And the world before the flood was in a state where either there was this peacefulness to total destruction. And even before the mabul, the great flood, the midrash brings down that God was trying to send messages to the people. He brought upon great destruction. I believe like a third of the world got destroyed. But it went from destruction to serenity, back to normal. The world existed regular to total destruction. There was extremes.
[00:23:56] And now after the flood, the world changed to a place of gradual, you know, gradual change, you know, throughout the world. That the geographic masses of the earth were different, humanity was different, the seasons were different.
[00:24:13] And this general upheaval, rev. Hirsh says, created a new reality that man did not live as long as he did before.
[00:24:24] That since the actual nature of the world changed, you know, human beings weren't able to exist as they were prior. Right beforehand. A person just sowed once in 40 years. Everything was perfect. They were healthy, no one was sick.
[00:24:39] But now the earth changed. It was cold.
[00:24:44] There was, uh, you know, just different seasons.
[00:24:47] There was different issues that would come up. Man was more dependent. He would have to work the land every year to get crop. He was dependent on external factors to get his sustenance. So that shortened the lifespan of man. And the earth exists in a situation. And this is what the psukim are telling us. The verses are telling us that Hashem changed the reality to make it a situation where there was gradual change, where, you know, night and day exist at once, always in the earth. There will be a place where it's hot and cold right all these things are working simultaneously. There's nothing. It's not all or nothing. It's not extreme changes. And two ideas, one of which Rav Hirsch brings down, uh, from these verses, is that Hashem made the new reality a way that evil could not spread in the same way that it had before.
[00:25:47] Beforehand, everyone was together. The earth was together. It was all perfect. But now there was geographic distance between people.
[00:25:56] The lifespan of people was shorter. So even if an evil person would arise, how long would his reign last for 50, 60, 70 years, how long would it last?
[00:26:09] And the fact that there's distance between people, it couldn't spread. There's different nations, different people with different outlooks, with different values.
[00:26:18] Uh, Hashem changed that reality for our benefit.
[00:26:23] And this is an interesting, I think, take on our existence prior to the Flood, to our reality now. You know, these are some good questions of how was the Earth beforehand? How did people live longer?
[00:26:38] And I think Rav Hirsch gives us a little insight into prior to the Flood and now after the Flood. And I think one lesson that we could take out of this is that the way Hashem runs the world is through gradual change, that things change slowly. It's not going to happen overnight.
[00:26:58] It takes time. Right?
[00:27:01] And I think this is how Hashem deals with us here. He waits for us to return to do teshuvah. Uh, and I think for ourselves, we have to have that realization that change takes time. And that's why I always talk about these small steps we do doing small things which are really long, because in the end of the day, the small steps add up. But I think this is, uh, maybe a lesson we can take out from the fact, from the new existence that the world had post the Flood, this gradual change, the differences not going from one extreme to the next, I think that's for us as well. Gradual change is the way to go.
[00:27:41] So with that, I'm going to finish for today's podcast. If you have any questions, comments, or would like to reach out, feel free to send me an
[email protected] have a great day.
