Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Hello, my friends, and welcome back to this week's episode of the Practical Parsha podcast. This is Rabbi Shlomo Cohen, and I hope you are well.
[00:00:08] Before we begin this week's episode, I'd like to dedicate this week's Practical Parsha podcast in memory of Mrs. Fox.
[00:00:18] Earlier this week, the mother of my good friend Darren Fox passed away. As a merit for her neshama, as a merit for her soul, dedicate this week's episode in her memory. May her neshama have an aliyah. May her soul have an elevation in heaven. This week we're continuing. We'll get straight to the Parasha. But before we begin, as always, if you have any questions, comments, we'd like to reach out, feel free to send me an email at Rabbi Shlomokon kohnmail.com I'd love to hear from you.
[00:00:52] This week's parasha is Parshas Noach.
[00:00:55] Just to get a quick overview of the Torah portion of the week, Parshas Noach primarily deals with the story of the Mabal, the story of the flood.
[00:01:06] Now, after the creation of Adamarishan, after Adam, humanity is starting to, you know, happen.
[00:01:15] There's a whole society, there's a whole generations.
[00:01:19] And what slowly begins to occur is that man starts to lose his moral compass.
[00:01:28] He becomes depraved, and society in general starts going bad.
[00:01:35] Hashem, uh, sees what's going on in the world, what man has decided to do, and he tells Noach, who is a righteous man in his generation, that's something to talk about in of itself, and we've discussed it in previous years, that if the people, the generation does not do teshuva, does not repent, then he will bring a flood to the world to destroy the world. And he tells Noah to build a teva, to build an ark. And for a hundred and twenty years, Noach dutifully builds a teva.
[00:02:12] And when people come by, they ask him what he's doing, and he says, I'm, um, building an ark, a boat. Because God has told me that if the people of the generation don't do teshuvah, if they don't return, they don't fix up their ways.
[00:02:27] I'm going to flood the world.
[00:02:30] And therefore that's why I'm building this boat.
[00:02:34] And people laughed at him, they scoffed at him and didn't do anything until it came the time where Hashem said, enough.
[00:02:41] On, um, bringing the flood into the world. He instructs Noah to bring the different creatures of the world, all of them there's different instructions, whether it was the non kosher ones, just two, and the kosher ones seven. And there were some species that were not allowed into the teva, into the ark, because they had corrupted their ways.
[00:03:02] Finally, Noach and his family and all the species that were to survive the flood enter the ark. The people try to hold him back and prevent him. But G D makes it. The Torah tells us clearly he prevents anyone from harming him.
[00:03:17] The rains come, and the Torah is very clear how it rained for 40 days and 40 nights. And it's not just rain. The Midrashim, the commentaries explain that the world had a total upheaval. It wasn't just rain coming down. There was heat and water coming up from the ground. And even the highest mountains were covered with water. The whole world was destroyed.
[00:03:41] And after a certain period of time, the rain stops and the water starts to recede.
[00:03:48] Noach Torah tells us how, uh, Noach sends out the raven. It comes back and then again Noach sends out the dove a few times. And finally after, when the dove comes back, first the dove comes back with an olive branch in its mouth. And the second time, when Noah sends out the dove, it does not return. And Noach knows that the water has started to recede. And finally he leaves the ark to rebuild society.
[00:04:21] Hashem G D makes a covenant with Noach, ah, that he will never destroy the entire world again with water. And he makes a sign, the rainbow.
[00:04:31] That this rainbow is showing that even though the world might be deserving of destruction, Hashem remembers his covenant with Noach and will not destroy it. The Parsha continues with the descendants of NOACH and the 70 nations and tells us about the story of the Tower of Babel where society again makes a similar mistake. They come together, but for the wrong reason. They come together to try to build a tower to heaven to wage war against Hashem, uh, to wage war against G D. But their plan is thwarted because Hashem makes it that their languages get mixed up. Mival Vel. That's why it's called the Tower of Babel and happened in Babylon, because that's where Hashem made different languages. Till this point in time, everyone spoke the same language. And when the people were coming together, they were all unified to build this tower to wage war against Hashem. And Hashem made a miracle that the people didn't understand each other. They started speaking different languages. And this miscommunication, this lack of communication, the fact that they couldn't talk to each other, caused the project to self destruct.
[00:05:46] Fall apart.
[00:05:47] Finally, the Parasha concludes with the 10 generations from Noach to Avram, which we will continue with in next week's Parasha.
[00:05:57] The first idea I want to share with you today takes us to the beginning of the Parsha.
[00:06:03] Now, it is very interesting. Noach is a very interesting person.
[00:06:07] The Torah says he was a tzaddik, he was a righteous person.
[00:06:12] And I believe in the entire Torah there is no other person that is referred to as a tzadik.
[00:06:18] He is, that is referred to in this term that he is righteous. He was a righteous man. Nobody else in the Torah, it says that about only Noah, but yet at the same time, it says Tamim Hayeh Biday Raisav, that he was righteous for his generation. And the Talmud explains that it's either this could be understood as a compliment, but it could also be understood as sort of like a critique to Noah. Because on one hand we say even in his generation where everyone was doing everything bad, he still was a tzadik, he still was righteous.
[00:06:53] And on the flip side of this, it says that if he would have been in another generation, in the generation of Avramavinu, he wouldn't have been such a tzadik. He was only because in a generation where everyone was bad, so he was the greatest person.
[00:07:09] So we have these two opinions in the Talmud. And it's interesting because we see this repeating itself in the Parsha that Noach was a tzaddik. But at the same time, there's some critiques of Noah.
[00:07:21] And actually, one of the critiques that are brought down by Rashi is that we know that Noah didn't go into the teva, to the ark until the water forced him to go into the ark.
[00:07:35] Now, it's very interesting also, if you take a step back for a moment, we know that Noah was working on this ark for 120 years. Now, in earlier times, the human beings, we had longer lifespans, right? Adam Orishin lived for 960 years.
[00:07:54] Noach, right? Right. Lived for a long time. He was working on the Ark for 120 years.
[00:07:59] And during that time, nobody changed.
[00:08:04] Everybody stayed the same. They didn't believe him. They didn't think it was going to happen. One of the questions that's raised is that why didn't anybody change? He didn't convince anybody, just his family. Not one person changed their mind to be better. They see this man working on the teva, on the Ark for 120 years, day in, day out, and not one person changed. And you see, in the next generation, when it comes to Avraham, uh, Avinu to Abraham, he was able to affect thousands of people, tons of people. He made a huge impact.
[00:08:37] Right? So what was different?
[00:08:40] One answer is given, is that Noach, ah, he just fulfilled his commandment. Hashem told him to build the ark, and that's what he did. And he didn't do anything extra. He didn't go out to try to convince anybody. He didn't try to, you know, he didn't, you know, do it outwardly to try to bring people in. That's one answer that's given. But another answer, which I heard today from my chavruse, from my study partner, Rabbi Weiss, he explained to me that the Bali Musser explained on this. The great giants of the Musra movement explained that. We know that it says about Noach, like I said before, that he didn't go into the Teva until he was forced to. And Rashi explains on this that the reason why this is so. It says that Noach was Mikhtone Amuna. He seems like he was lacking in his faith in God, which is a very interesting thing. To his level, he had a certain. Even though he believed in God, right? And he was a tzadik, but on a certain level, there was some lacking in his belief.
[00:09:34] And it seems like till he was actually forced to go onto the ark to this boat to save his family, he didn't fully believe it to the nth degree.
[00:09:44] Only when he had to did he go.
[00:09:47] And this is a very powerful idea. If we go back to our original question, we're saying, why didn't anybody get convinced? They say when it comes to sales, you have to believe in the product that you're selling in order to be truly successful. If you don't really believe in it, then, okay, maybe you'll make a few sales, but ultimately you're not going to be able to succeed. You have to fully be vested to believe in the product that you're trying to market, in the product that you're trying to get someone else to buy into.
[00:10:16] And again, I wouldn't say this is the great Bali Musa. Rashi brings it down. That seems like on a certain aspect, even though Noach was a tzadik, he was a big tzadik, he still was lacking in that belief in that faith. And that lack in belief affected over to the people around him that they didn't, you know, even though they saw him every day building this ark.
[00:10:40] Maybe since he maybe in a Certain way, in a certain level, he didn't fully believe it.
[00:10:46] So therefore, it didn't get imparted into the generation, into the people that passed by him that saw him, that had to do with him.
[00:10:54] And I think the lesson for us is that, you know, number one, is obviously we have to believe in our values. We have to be authentic, and especially when it comes to Torah and mitzvahs, we have to be fully believing it. We have to, you know, the things that we say and we learn about, we have to live it. If we wanted to affect ourselves, you know, number one, to change us, to change how we look at things and how we act, we have to believe in the things that we're learning. And if we want it to have an effect on other people, on our children, on our family, on the friends, on the world around us, we have to fully believe and live the values that, you know, these values. We can't just be faking it, because if we fake it, people are going to recognize it and it's not going to have an effect.
[00:11:42] Being authentic, being real, just believing in the things that we actually are learning and we're learning about, you know, that we talk about, that we've talked about since our youth. We have to fully be vested into it if we want it to have an effect on ourselves and on the world around us. Second idea I want to share with you today, which actually brings out the tzidqs, the righteousness of Noah focuses in on the first verse in the Pasuk. It says in the first verse, Ela told us, Noach, Ah, Noach. Ish tzadik tamim, hoya be doi reisav esalech Noach. These are the offspring of Noah. Ah, Noach was a righteous man, perfect in his generations.
[00:12:28] Noach, uh, walked with God. Now, it's interesting because the Pasuk adds in these last few words, Esar eloi kim his salaych Noach with God. Noach wakt. The Sforno explains in these words, the holach, uh, bedrachav lehtev luzulaso.
[00:12:51] How did Noach walk, uh, with God? He did like God, meaning he did good for others.
[00:12:58] That's how he walked with God.
[00:13:01] He did good for other people.
[00:13:03] And Rabbi Plisken brings down from this, that we see from this svarna, um, that when we help others, we become elevated.
[00:13:14] You know, a lot of times we look at helping others as annoying.
[00:13:20] It's hard.
[00:13:22] But the truth is when we help other people, we help ourselves. We become better people. We Refine our traits, we become all around, just improved.
[00:13:35] And it's actually interesting, the rambam.
[00:13:39] The rambam, he brings down that there's different levels of tzedakah, there's different levels of charity.
[00:13:47] The highest level that a person could attain when it comes to giving tzedakah, um, it's not giving a lot of money. That's. Sure, it's important, sure, it's a mitzvah. But the highest and the most, you know, the best level of tzedakah is when a person can help someone attain a livelihood, to give them a parnasan, to train them to be able to earn a. A parnassah, to earn a living on their own.
[00:14:14] Because when we help other people become sufficient, you're not just helping him once, but you're helping him for the rest of his life.
[00:14:21] So when we help other people become a better person, um, I don't know, just help them in any way we could.
[00:14:29] You're not just helping them one time, you're helping them forever.
[00:14:36] And this is something which is even more lofty than a parnassah even, because you're helping them their entire life, how their generations, their children, their family is going to look.
[00:14:46] And the positive influence goes on and on and on. This is a very beautiful idea we see from this week's Parsha.
[00:14:55] The next idea I want to share with you today takes us to the story of the Parsha. After Noah comes off the ark, he plants a vineyard, but he makes a mistake.
[00:15:06] He plants this vineyard and he drinks the wine that he makes from the vineyard, and he becomes intoxicated.
[00:15:14] The parsha tells us how his sons shame Ham and Japhez, how they acted.
[00:15:22] Ham sees his father in this degraded state and makes a mockery of it.
[00:15:29] But Shem and Yafez, they actually, in a respectful manner, they take a blanket and cover their father so he's not degraded.
[00:15:38] And it's actually interesting because we see in the Parasha that from the behavior of Ham, Noach curses him because of how he acted and what he did to him. But we see from the actions of Shaym and Cha, we see from the axes of shame and Yafes, they get blessed and they act in the appropriate manner. And the possex says, vayikach shem v' yofes EZ asimlo vay simenu al shechem shneyem vayeka acheronis vayechasu eis ervas aviim ufneim acharones v' ervas Aviim, Leiro and Shem and Japhez took a garment, laid it upon both their shoulders, and they walked backwards, and they covered their father's nakedness. Their faces were turned away, and they saw not their father's nakedness, meaning it seems like Noach was sitting in a state which is not respectful for a child, uh, to see their father in. And they walked backwards in a special way that they shouldn't have to see their father in this way. And they covered him to, you know, and they covered him to prevent this degradation, to save his honor.
[00:16:46] Now, Rashi explains on this verse that the fact that the Torah uses the singular form vayikah, it's a singular wording, vayikach. It seems that Shem, one of the two sons that actually put the blanket on, put more effort into this mitzvah, and therefore he received a much more greater reward.
[00:17:13] And what was this reward that Shame's descendants, the Jewish people, merited? To have the mitzvah of a tallis with tzitzis. It's a mitzvah, yet wear a tallis and has tzitzis attached to it.
[00:17:26] So from the fact we see vayikah, the singular wording in the pasuk, in the verse, it seems like there's more of a focus on shame, that shame did more than yafez in this act of covering their father. And because of that, the descendants of Shame merited to have a special mitzvah of talus with tzitzis.
[00:17:49] And I'm sure there's a lot of deeper meanings into this, but one thing I want to focus on, which I saw again brought down from Rabbi Plitzken based on this Rasi, is that a lot of times when we're working on things, you know, talking about doing good for others, we just talked about that before, so you could think about doing good for others.
[00:18:08] You should do good for everybody. Just do chesed, chesed, chesed. It's true, it's good.
[00:18:12] But a lot of times we do chesed, and sometimes it's within our family, it's within our job. We do good things, we're involved in projects, and it comes out that one person is doing more than the others.
[00:18:29] And sometimes we are resentful that we're putting in all this effort while the other people are not really doing as much.
[00:18:39] Now, sure, it's never good to feel resentment and we should never be, you know, abused, that people should take advantage of us.
[00:18:47] But at the same time, when we're doing something worthwhile, you're doing something for the greater good. You're doing a mitzvah, you're doing something to accomplish.
[00:18:58] We should remember that it's not about, you know, doing more. It's not about, like, how much you do and how equal it is. We have to remember that the effort that we're putting in is elevating us. And if we're putting in extra effort, it's going to give us extra elevation. We could think about the story of Shame and Yafes that Shame could have said to himself, um, I'm putting an extra effort here, whatever that was in the situation with their father.
[00:19:27] But he didn't. He knew this was the right thing to do, and he put in the extra effort. But he got rewarded, and it made him. And he got rewarded with a mitzvah, the best type of reward.
[00:19:37] And this is very important for us to remember because a lot of times we focus on how much we're doing, but when we really should be focusing on is how much we're gaining. And if we think about what we're gaining, it doesn't bother us. You know, again, I'm not saying be taken advantage of, but the point is, when we're putting our efforts into something that's positive, that's a mitzvah. Even at work where, uh, we feel that others are not contributing as much as they should, don't focus on that. Focus on yourself. Focus on what you're gaining, what you're contributing. That's what we need to look at. Because end of the day, you could only control your own actions. You cannot control the actions of others.
[00:20:22] But what you could do is be a positive role model. And people are looking, they will be looking.
[00:20:28] And when they see you putting in the extra effort and having the positive attitude because you know what's the right thing to do, it's going to inspire them to also do that. I've seen it.
[00:20:39] And you could ask around people, ask people in the world, uh, of, uh, having a positive attitude, having a cheerful face when you're doing what you need to do, it makes the difference. And this is a very important idea we see for next week's Parasha from Shem and Yafes. And I think that we can all learn out from. So with that, I'm going to finish for today's podcast. I hope you enjoyed. If you have any questions, comments, or would like to reach out, feel free to send me an email at Rabbi Shlomokon kohnmail.com have a great day.
