Noach: Tzaddik And Tammim

In the first possuk of the parsha it says נֹ֗חַ אִ֥ישׁ צַדִּ֛יק תָּמִ֥ים הָיָ֖ה בְּדֹֽרֹתָ֑יו.  At the beginning of the second aliyah, Hashem tells Noach, בֹּֽא־אַתָּ֥ה וְכׇל־בֵּיתְךָ֖ אֶל־הַתֵּבָ֑ה כִּֽי־אֹתְךָ֥ רָאִ֛יתִי צַדִּ֥יק לְפָנַ֖י בַּדּ֥וֹר הַזֶּֽה.  Why is the title תמים omitted?  (See Rashi.)  Rav Ovadia Yosef (who's yertzheit is today, 3 Cheshvan,) explains that the word צדיק refers to refinement in the matter of interpersonal relationships as in צדק משלך ותן לו.  The word תמים means excelling in בין אדם למקום as in תמים תהיה אם ה.  These two titles refer to Noach's refusal to submit to the winds of the times during the generation of the mabul and the generation that built the tower.  The first generation was a test in צדיק, in בין אדם לחבירו.  The second generation was the test of תמים, would he remain loyal to Hashem.  That is the intro. the Torah gives us to Noach for he was complete in both areas.  When it came to tell Noach to make the ark, the reason Noach was saved was because of his steadfastness as a צדיק, because he was able to stand against the evil בין אדם לחבירו tactics of the time.  Hence, Hashem tells him the reason he is being saved is because of his צדקות.

שיר לזכרו ע"י יהודית יוסף, כלתו של מרן:

 ביום בהיר פתאום שקעה השמש, חושך ויתמות עמוק בנפש, עומד מולך רועד, כל כך לבד, שמחת חיי, משוש ליבי אבד. החדר ריק, כסא זועק מסבל, ספרים שמרכינים ראשם באבל, טוב לך עכשיו אני יודע, אבל ליבי יוצא מגעגוע.

פזמון: וכוכב קטן מאיר, מחייך באפילה התעודד ילדי, אני צועד איתך אחוז בידי, המשך בדרכי, אני עוד חי עמוק בתוך ליבך.
אני עוד חי בתוך ליבך ....
מרגיש עוד את ידך המלטפת ורוח חכמתך המרחפת האורות כבים אל מול פניך לאן אלך, קשה לי בלעדיך ודמעותיי, יורדות שוטפות כמים טועה רואה מביט אל השמים עטוף אותי כאב אל בן קטן נחם אותי ותן לי רק סימן

Noach's Sacrifice

Presumably after Noach lands on הר עררט, when he exits onto land and offers his korban, the local is הר עררט and indeed that is what the Even Ezra maintains.  However, in Chazal (the midrash, Targum Yonasan) we find an opinion that the korban was offered in the place of the mikdash.  How Noach flew from  הר עררט to Yerushalim isn't explained, however based upon this view the Mishech Chochma answers a  question.  The possuk (8:21) says וַיָּ֣רַח י״י֮ אֶת־רֵ֣יחַ הַנִּיחֹ֒חַ֒.  The difficulty is that the Mishna in Zevachim 113a says that there is no ריח ניחוח on a במה (Rashi explainsכדאמרינן בפרק בית שמאי (לעיל זבחים דף מו:) לשם ששה דברים הזבח נזבח לשם ריח לאפוקי אברים שצלאן והעלן שאין בהם משום ריח ניחוח:) , so how could the במה of Noach be for a ריח ניחוח?  The Meshech Chachma says that the offerings of Noach were considered offerings in the Mikdash since that was were they offered, not that of a במה.

At face value he seems to be saying it had the din of a korban offered in the mikdash, however, this seems to run contrary to Zevachim (108b) that learns laws of a במה from the korban of Noach?  Perhaps he means that the din of ריח ניחוח stems from the kedusha of the place.  Since Noach offered his sacrifices in the place of the mikdash, even though it had the status of a במה, it still has the din of ריח ניחוח.

It is clear from the beginning of Ch. 2 in Zevachim that a בעל מום can't offer a sacrifice on a במה, however, that Gemorah is in reference to a Jew.  What is the din  regarding a gentile who is a בעל מום, possibly since they can offer a korban that is a בעל מום, they can be a בעל מום as well? It is unclear from the Gemorah.  It does seem that the Midrash (30:6) was bothered by this very point and hence says that it was the sons of Noach that offered the korban, in the words of the midrash:  נֹחַ כְּשֶׁהָיָה יוֹצֵא מִן הַתֵּבָה הִכִּישׁוֹ אֲרִי וְשִׁבְּרוֹ, וְלֹא הָיָה כָּשֵׁר לְהַקְרִיב, וְהִקְרִיב שֵׁם בְּנוֹ תַּחְתָּיו, קַל וָחֹמֶר (משלי יא, לא): אַף כִּי רָשָׁע וְחוֹטֵא, זֶה דּוֹר הַמַּבּוּל.  This may be alluded to in the Rambam Beis Habecheira (2:2) ומסורת ביד הכל שהמקום שבנה בו דוד ושלמה המזבח בגורן ארונה הוא המקום שבנה בו אברהם המזבח ועקד עליו יצחק והוא המקום שבנה בו נח כשיצא מן התיבה והוא המזבח שהקריב עליו קין והבל ובו הקריב אדם הראשון קרבן כשנברא.  Regarding אדם, קין והבל, he says they were מקריב  the korban, but regarding Noach he says he built the מזבח, not that he offered a korban on it, because it was offered by his son.  However, the Meshech Chochma (Emor 22:19) assumes that a gentile that is a בעל מום may offer a korban.  If we assume like he writes here, that the sacrifice of Noach was considered a sacrifice in the mikdash, then its understandable why the midrash assumes a בעל מום is disqualified.  Hence, one Meshech Chochma compliments the other (Bear Miriem.)  But as mentioned previously it doesn't fit with the Gemorah to assume that it had the din of an actual sacrifice in the mikdash.

Sun, Moon And Rain

At the end of the third aliyah in the parsha, the possuk says וּבַחֹ֙דֶשׁ֙ הַשֵּׁנִ֔י בְּשִׁבְעָ֧ה וְעֶשְׂרִ֛ים י֖וֹם לַחֹ֑דֶשׁ יָבְשָׁ֖ה הָאָֽרֶץ׃ .  Rashi says נעשה גריד כהילכתה בכ״ז, וירידתן בחדש השני בי״ז. אילו י״א יום שהחמה יתירה על הלבנה, שמשפט דור המבול שנה תמימה היה.  What is the significance of the fate of the generation of the Mabul lasting for a solar year?  This is a dumb question, but why is the solar year off from the lunar year by 11 days?  And why punish the people through rain of all punishments?

The sun and moon represent the spiritual and mundane aspect of a person's life.  Most people arew in a happier mood when it is sunny outside for the sun with its bright light represents warmth, comfort and peace.  It represents the spiritual side to a person.  The moon on the other hand, shines a dimmer light and it doesn't have its own light, it merely reflects the light of the sun.  This represents the darker side of an individual; the animalistic and mundane side of an individual that is concealed in darkness. It is the job of the person to take the light of his/her spiritual side and illuminate this weaker side.  In short, the sun and the moon represent the contestant struggle of the opposing forces within man.  That is why they are separated by 11 days.  In kabbalah, 11 is a number of the "evil forces" (see Sefer Yitzerah 1:4.)  When there is conflict between the "moon" of a person vs. the "sun" of a person, it can lead to danger.  It is a person's job to bring harmony to these two factions within himself and to avoid  the split of 11.

The Midrash Rabba Berashis (20:7) says אֵין תְּשׁוּקָתָן שֶׁל גְּשָׁמִים אֶלָּא עַל הָאָרֶץ, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר (תהלים סה, י): פָּקַדְתָּ הָאָרֶץ וַתְּשֹׁקְקֶהָ, וְאֵין תְּשׁוּקָתוֹ שֶׁל הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא אֶלָּא עַל יִשְׂרָאֵל, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר (שיר השירים ז, יא): וְעָלַי תְּשׁוּקָתוֹ.  Rain is the connection between heaven and earth, between the גשמי  and the רוחני.  The generation of the flood had completely lost the balance between their two sides and could no longer continue existing in their current state of chaos.  Hence, the appropriate punishment was rain for it is rain that represents that coexistence of the  גשמי  and the רוחני that the דור המבול couldn't sustain.  That is why the waters lasted for a complete solar year for they failed to take advantage of their "sun" aspect, rather they were "lunar" oriented, hence they became loony.  "The term "lunatic" derives from the Latin word lunaticus, which originally referred mainly to epilepsy and madness, as diseases thought to be caused by the moon." ( https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunatic.)

Seder

Rav Yerucham Levovitz in the introduction to his sefer on Chumash, Daas Torah, elaborates on the importance of seder.  This is a very basic principle of the mussar school of Kelm in which Rav Yerucham studied.  The language of Rav Yeruchim is so extreme as to say that one who lacks proper seder isn’t even a human being!  For anyone who has a sense of Kelm inside of them it would behoove them to read it in its entirety.  I will just pull out of couple of highlights from this piece.  

  

When the Alter of Kelm came to visit his son, who was learning in yeshiva, the first thing he did wasn’t to ask his son how he was doing or ask him about his learning, he made a beeline for his son’s bedroom to make sure everything was in its proper place and folded properly.  I keep in my desk drawer a newspaper clipping from the FJJ a couple of years ago (I don’t remember the author.)  They are discussing the importance of seder and cite a story from Rav Chaim Shmuel Lopian.  Once the Alter of Kelm came into the room of a talmid and saw one of the boy’s slippers was not in line.  He immediately went into the Beis Midrash and delivered a shmuess stressing how everything Hashem made in the world has a seder.  As he continued he became further agitated and burst out how could it be that one slipper is not in line with the other.  [It sees if the Alter of Kelm would set foot into any current yeshiva dorm he would throw everyone out of yeshiva.]  The Alter suggested that the reason people don’t feel the effects of the Yomim Noraim is because they don’t have the proper seder of simcha on Sukkos and that destroys the feelings felt on the High Holy days.   

The fate of the dor hamabul was sealed because of chamas.  Why was this worse than the arious that they violated?  The Alter of Kelm explains that a lack of clamping down on stealing is a corruption of the whole seder of society.  The moral decline was a result of this blatant violation of seder.  The Kli Yakar (6:17) explains how rain is a punishment middah k’neged middah.  The Gemorah Babba Basra (16a) says that each raindrop has its own path so that it doesn’t interfere with another drop.  Robbery is the opposite of that, its when one violates boundaries.  The boundaries set up in the world are the seder in which Hashem made the world.  Since the dor hamabul didn’t adhere to proper seder, the seder of the world was changed against them (see Rosh Hashana 12a.)   

איתן שבנפש

לעילוי נשמת הסבתא שלי, שולמית בת דוב יהודה/ שרה שאשע, שיום אזכרה הראשונה שלה היא היום, כח תשרי. אנחנו הגענו עכשיו לסוף חודש תשרי, וי"ל קצת הרהורי דברים בענין מהות החודש.  ספר התניא בפ"א מתחלת "תניא [בספ"ג דנדה] משביעים אותו תהי צדיק ואל תהי רשע ואפי' כל העולם כולו אומרים לך צדיק אתה היה בעיניך כרשע."  וצ"ע שהגירסא לפנינו אינו תניא, אלא דרש ר' שמלאי? יש מציינין שמצינו מקורות שבאמת שמועה זו היא ברייתא אבל אפי' יכול למצוא איזה גירסא ככה, מ"מ למה בחר בו אדמו"ר הזקן ולא בגירסא שיש לפנינו?  הצמח צדק (הובא בשיחות אדמו"ר הריי"צ תש"ג עמ' 95) מסביר שתניא הוא אותיות "איתן", שיש בתניא הכח לעורר האיתן שבנפש ויפעול בו התחזקות בעבודת ה'.  וכונתו עפ"י משכ' אדמו"ר הזקן (בפרשת ראה) שיש איתן שבנשמה.  היינו הרצון החזק שיש בפנימיות נש"י לעשות רצון הבורא נקרא איתן הנפש. ובמילים אחרות זה נקרא חכ' שבנפש. (עיין משכ' בזה פה.) וזהו הסוד של "משכיל לאיתן", שאיתן מקושר אם השכל שבנפש.  ויש להוסיף משכ' באיגרת הקודש שלו שהנפש יותאית מד' אותיות של שם הויה וי', ה' הוא חכ' ובינה וזהו האיתן שבנפש. והוסיף אדמו"ר שנחל איתן היינו הו' שבנפש (שו' היינו המשכה כמו שהנחל ממשכת והולכת,) שהמוחין משפשטים להמדות.  (ע"ע תניא קונ' אחרון ד"ה וצדקה כנחל איתן.)  וביאר הצמח צדק שע"י לימוד התניא נעשה התעוררות באיתן שבנפש וכדי לרמז לזה בחר אדמו"ר הזקן במלת תניא. (נקודת הדברים לקשר מילת תניא אם מילת איתן כבר נמצא בתיקו"ז תיקון כא.)

וי"ל לפ"ז זהו הטעם שעורפין עגלה ערופה בנחל איתן. שחלל במובן רוחני הוא זה שנפסקה דביקותו בהקב"ה - מקור חיותו.  ואין הכונה שפסק לגמרי הקשר שלו אם הקב"ה אלא שעושה המצות בלי שום חיות אלא רק כמת שחסר כל רגש.  מה שמת הוא הזרם בין חכמת הנפש והמדות.  ולכן התיקון לזה הוא לערוף העגלה בנחל איתן להמשיך המוח להמדות.  

הפסוק במלכים א (ח:ב) אומרת וַיִּקָּ֨הֲל֜וּ אֶל־הַמֶּ֤לֶךְ שְׁלֹמֹה֙ כׇּל־אִ֣ישׁ יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל בְּיֶ֥רַח הָאֵתָנִ֖ים בֶּחָ֑ג ה֖וּא הַחֹ֥דֶשׁ הַשְּׁבִיעִֽי. למה נקרא תשרי ירח האיתנים? מסביר הגמ' בר"ה (יא.) שאיתן הוא מלשון תקיף ולכן תשרי נקרא איתן משום שהוא תקיף במצות או שנולדו בו איתני עולם (האבות.)  תשרי הוא זמן שהחכמה שהנפש שנתכסה בלכלוך כל ימות השנה יש לו זמן של התעוררות וצחצוח הנפש.  אבל סוף החודש הוא הנחל איתן – הזמן להמשיך כח התעוררות זאת לתוך עבודתנו כשאנחנו חוזרין לימות השנה והמים רבים שיש בו.  

Book-Ended With Chesed

The Gemorah in Sotah (14a) says דרש ר' שמלאי תורה תחלתה גמילות חסדים וסופה גמילות חסדים תחילתה גמילות חסדים דכתיב ויעש ה' אלהים לאדם ולאשתו כתנות עור וילבישם וסופה גמילות חסדים דכתיב ויקבר אותו בגיא.  The Maharal in Nesiv Hatorah Ch.1 says that the Torah in the seder of the world so it would seem quite apparent from here if the Torah is book-ended about גמילות חסדים that its integral to Torah.  Why is this so?

In the intro. to the Nefesh HaChayim, the son of Rav Chayim Volozener says his father said that a person was created in order to help out someone else.  If that is the purpose of why a person exists then it is understood that principle is the beginning and end of the Torah.  That is the great curse of the snake, ועפר תאכל.  What is the curse, he has food everywhere?  He doesn't have to rely upon anyone else.  It is the need for mankind to help each other that is the biggest blessing.  Based upon this idea we can also understand that this is the mussar lesson to be gleaned from the fact that originally man and woman were created in one body with two faces (Rashi 2:21.)  Why was mankind created that way if it didn't last?  The lesson is that two people are two halves of one coin; one can only be successful to their fullest potential if one individual is helping another.

Why do Chazal need to go to the fact that Hashem made clothes for man to find chesed at the beginning of the Torah, there was chesed beforehand for in fact the very creation of the world is a chesed from Hashem?  We say in Shemone Esrai גומל חסדים טובים.  Obviously חסד is טוב, what does it mean?  Rav Elyah Lopian explains with the principle of נהמא דכיסופא.  One can do חסד in a manner that the recipient feels that they aren't deserving of what is being bestowed upon them therefore they will feel bad.  However, greater than that is to do חסד for someone else and they feel that they are receiving what they deserve.  That is גומל חסדים, its given as a גמול, reward for what the person did and therefore טובים, it is a great form of חסד.  Based upon this, says Rav Avrohom Gorvitz, that is why Chazal point to the chesed Hashem did in making clothes for Adam.  Beforehand there was עולם חסד יבנה, there was חסד but it wasn't גמילות חסדים.  It is only in the making of the clothes that the chesed was done as a reward.  What did Adam do to deserve this chesed?  He explains based upon a Briskor Rav.

The Briskor Rav asks why did Adam hide from Hashem (after eating from the aitz haddas,) obviously one can't hide from Hashem?  He explains that Adam was right for hiding for now after the sin when he recognized his ערוה, then it had to covered in order to stand before Hashem just as we find regarding prayer (Berachos 24.)  Rav Gorvitz says as a "reward" for keeping this halacha, Hashem made clothes for Adam.

The Great Light

I’m sure everyone feels that after all the Yomim Tovim of Tishrai it’s a letdown to have to go back to the everyday grind of live.  Being the first parsha after the Yomim Tovim possibly Parshas Berashis can give us a clue as to how to make this transition. 

Rashi (1:4) quotes Chazal that Hashem created a great light and then hid it for the tzaddikim in the future.  If the light was going to be hidden why create it in the first place?  The Ba’al Haturim says the numerical value of את האור is the same as בתורה.  Seemingly he is alluding to the idea that this great light is hidden in the Torah (this idea is shared both in the name of the Baal Shem Tov (see Degel Machena Epraim) and in the name of the Gra.  I once heard from Rav Asher Weiss that in that case we can be sure its Torah miSinai.)  The Gemorah Niddah 31a says that a malach teaches a person the entire Torah when he is in the womb of his other and when he’s born he forgets it.  What’s the point of teaching a person the entire Torah if he’s going to forget it?  Because the Torah is so great, it’s the chochmas Hashem, that without being taught it before being born a person wouldn’t be able to comprehend it at all.  It’s the same idea in regard to the light of creation.  Without this light being exposed to the world at the time of creation there wouldn’t be any way for the world to become purified the world enough to absorb such light (based on Toras Haparsha with additional piece about Torah and a little different explanation.)  Rosh Hashana is the great light at the beginning of the year.  Chassidus points out its not called תחילת שנה, the beginning of the year, rather Rosh Hashana, the head of the year.  Just as all limbs and organs are connected to the head so too Rosh Hashana is connected to the rest of the year.  It is on Rosh Hashana that the din takes place for the totality of events of the individual’s year; everything is connected to Rosh Hoshana.  It is the great light of Rosh Hashana that gives us the power to survive through the year. 

The Rebbe (Likutay Sichos volume 10) takes a different approach as to the purpose of the creation of the great spiritual light.  He says that when one builds something s/he always starts with the goal in mind.  If one wants to build a building they first envision it in its totality and only after that start getting down to the details.  Similarly, when Hashem created the world (the midrash says He built it like one builds a building,) He first set up the goal and then let go of it to fill in the details.  We learn from here that one must start his day, week or year with the end goal in sight; it is his/her mission to bring light to the world.  Similarly, Rosh Hashana serves as the model for the year.  It is the great light which both gives us the power to retain our acceptance of the malchus of Hashem throughout the year and gives us the frame of mind as to what we are supposed to be accomplishing throughout the year as well.