Parashat Noach - Let's Try to Understand Noach

Who was Noach? How righteous was he? One would think that the lone person saved in the generation of the flood must have been an incredibly righteous person. The Torah and Chazal’s understanding of Noach seem to be somewhat confusing. Let’s take a look at a few pesukim:

(אלה תולדות נח, נח איש צדיק תמים היה בדורתיו, את האלקים התהלך נח. (ו:ט

(ויאמר ה׳ לנח בא אתה וכל ביתך אל התבה, כי אתך ראיתי צדיק לפני בדור הזה. (ז:א

(ויחל נח איש האדמה ויטע כרם. וישת מן היין וישכר ויתגל בתוך אהלה.(ט:כ-כא

Let’s explore two overarching questions:

1. What exactly was Noach’s level of righteousness compared to other leaders in Tanach?

2. What are we to learn from Noach’s turn to drinking after leaving the Teivah?

The first pasuk states that Noach was a righteous person ״בדורותיו״, “in his generation.” Rashi quotes the famous Midrash that wonders if this language is meant לשבח, as a compliment, or לגנאי, literally translated as a depreciation of Noach. Does it mean that he was so righteous that even if he lived in the generation of other righteous people he would be viewed as righteous, or does it mean that in “his” generation he was considered righteous, but had he lived in the generation of Avraham Avinu he would not be viewed as righteous?

What should we take away from this?? If the Torah begins by calling Noach a Tsadik, why would Chazal even think this pasuk was meant to depreciate him? Furthermore, he is not just called a Tsadik, but a Tsadik Tamim, a complete Tsadik? Clearly, the word בדורותיו must be teaching us something important.

After planting a vineyard and getting drunk, the Midrash says Noach  went from being an איש צדיק to being an איש אדמה, a man of the land. What happened to Noach? He was the most righteous man in the world and he gave it up for wine? Wine led to the him to become totally exposed in front of his sons; how could he let that happen?

The sefer Otzrot HaTorah explains that the righteousness of Noach was in his ability to protect himself from the outside world - from those who stole and were involved in illicit relationships. He knew how to avoid negative outside influences and protect his own spirituality. You could say that his philosophy in serving Hashem was focused on the סור מרע, avoiding evil. However, perhaps Noach did not do all that he could in reaching out to  sinners in his community, try to bring them closer to Hashem, and to help them see their own shortcomings. Perhaps he did not focus enough on the עשה טוב of life. In reality, Noach as an איש אדמה, a man of the ground, but he grew spiritually to great heights by avoiding all the evil around him. That is why he is called an איש צדיק. But his greatness lied in his ability to keep himself protected; something he maintained until leaving the Teivah. However, once he left the Teivah into a world without evil people around him, he didn’t understand what spiritual challenges would confront him, and the איש אדמה in him returned to the forefront. This ultimately leads to his focus on the mundane of drinking wine and then to to his son’s sin. (An interesting study for another time would be to look at Moshe’s rise from an איש מצרי to an איש אלקים).

Rav Yosef Dov Soloveitchik, zt”l, The Rav as he is known in the Yeshiva University world and beyond, wrote a book called The Lonely Man of Faith. In this book he describes how every tzadik feels alone, set apart from the rest of the world. This is the reality of a righteous person; knowing that he will often live in his own world, not connected or understood by those around him. If Noach was a lonely man of faith before the flood, we can only imagine how lonely he felt after the flood. Not only was he alone as a tzadik, but he watched the destruction of every single human being on earth except for his own family.

Rabbi Moshe Weinberger, once used this to to explain Noach’s turn to wine in a similar vein to that of the sefer Otzrot HaTorah mentioned above. He said that many great Chassidic masters often referred to Noach as the “tzadik in a fur coat.” If a room is freezing, there are two ways to warm up. One is to wear a fur coat. It warms the person up, but allows everyone else to freeze. The other method is to build a fire to give warmth to everyone in the room. Noach was a tzadik who wore a fur coat to shelter himself from a world which was freezing because of a lack of G-dliness. His loneliness eventually got the better of him and he was overcome by it. Avraham Avinu, however, built fires to warm up everyone he came into contact with. Even though he was alone in the world, he loved and cared for everyone else. 

Let us all remember that  we live in a world full of pitfalls and challenges that endanger our spirituality. It is our job to have our guard up, constantly looking to avoid succumbing to our physical temptations that are contrary to the Torah or that can lead us down the wrong path. Let us value spiritual pleasures. Children are like clay and will take the shape according to the way in which you mold them. If you want your child to appreciate Torah and Mitzvot with a real spiritual focus, then you must show him the way; lead by example. Finally, let us  emulate Avraham Avinu and look out for our fellow Jews. Let us not just look out for their physical and emotional well being, but for their spiritual well being too.

Parshat Bereishit: Sibling Rivalry Begins

The Torah does not waste any time introducing sibling rivalry into the world. The very first brothers in the world end up fighting, a fight that was so critical it led to one murdering the other. What exactly happened here and what are we supposed to learn from it? Let’s explore the story as told in the Torah and then fill in some gaps from the Medrash.

In chapter four, the Torah tells us Chava gave birth to Cain and Hevel.  Cain becomes a farmer and Hevel a shepherd. They both become successful and seek to bring offerings to Hashem. Cain brings an offering of the fruit of the ground, not his best quality, while Hevel follows with his own offering of the finest animals. Hashem “turns” to Hevel’s offering, but not to Cain’s. Cain gets really upset, and Hashem asks him “why are you so upset?”. Cain proceeds to speak to Hevel in the field and ultimately kills him. The aftermath is also interesting in how Hashem approaches Cain about this, but let’s leave that for another time.

What happened here? Why did Cain get so upset? The Torah clearly states Cain was upset, so why did Hashem ask him why he was so upset? Even if he was really upset, how did this lead to killing Hevel?

Medrash Rabba says they were fighting about how to rule the world.  One took the earth and one took the moveable objects. One said "That land you are standing on is mine!" and the other said "What you are wearing is mine!" One said "Take it off!" and the other said "Fly!" Because of this, "Cain rose up against Hevel his brother and slew him."

There is a famous story that once took place in the city of Brisk where a shochet came to the Beit din concerned one of his animals might have become a treifa and no longer kosher. He presented the animal to the dayan, Rav Simcha Zelig who confirmed the shochet’s fears that the animal was treif, and he had to bear the huge financial loss. The shochet accepted his ruling humbly and went home. A few weeks later, the same shochet comes into the beit din with a financial dispute with another individual, one of relatively minor financial impact. After hearing the case, the dayan rules against the shochet, whereupon he gets up enraged, begins yelling at the dayan and had to be escorted out of the beit din. Everyone was stunned and wondered why the same shochet who had accepted the dayan’s ruling a weeks prior on a matter that cost him a huge financial loss, would now get enraged over losing a few dollars? Rav Chaim Brisker explained the difference; in the second case he lost to someone else! When it was a case of his animal being treif, that was just him and halacha, no opposition, but in the second case he lost to someone else. The amount of money wasn’t the issue; it was that he couldn’t stand losing to someone else.

With this story in mind, Rabbi Frand suggests we can understand Cain and the source of his anger. If he was upset Hashem ignored his gift and felt rejected, that would be an understandable reason to be hurt. If, however, his anger stemmed from losing to Hevel, then his anger was unfounded. Hashem said to Cain, “Why are you annoyed?. It was because he knew Cain was angered by the competition. He was teaching Cain a lesson: When we get upset and angry, we need to assess our emotions to see where they stem from. Are we hurt because of our own failure or because someone else did better than we did?

The lesson for us is the same; we should strive for excellence in all we do, and if we have a setback or failure, it is ok to be upset and use that energy to refocus ourselves to be successful the next time around. But to be angered by competition and/or because others are striving while we struggle is not a healthy emotion.

Taking this one step further, the Medrash Tanchuma says Cain’s offering consisted of flax, while Hevel’s was of wool. Clearly the mixing of wool and flax (linen) is flammable and leads the Torah to prohibit the wearing of shaatnez (clothing with a mixture of wool and linen). Add this to the Medrash Rabba we mentioned above, it became clear to the brothers that they could not coexist and that is why they sought to divide the world - one with the land and one with the moveable objects. These offerings of shaatnez led to destruction... the first murder! I once heard Rabbi Pesach Krohn add to this the understanding of why there is only one exception to the halacha of shaatnez, only one person who not only is allowed to wear shaatnez, but is obligated to. The Kohen Gadol’s special clothing consisted of shaatnez. The first Kohen gadol was Aaron who we know was an אוהב שלום ורודף שלום, someone who always sought after peace. He was the opposite of Cain and Hevel; he brought people together as the rectification of discord.

Let us learn this invaluable lesson and seek self improvement, but not competition for its own sake. Let us seek to bring people together in peacefulness and not do things to create strife or hostility. Finally, let’s get along with our siblings!