Living Parsha

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Noach 5764 (2003)

Fans and Players The Hebrew word for ark, teivah, Story "How was the game?" asked the Rebbe. "By the also means "word". When G-d says sixth inning," the young fan confessed, "the (to Noah) "Come into the ark", He is Dodgers were losing nine-to-two. So we decid- also saying: Enter into the words of ed to leave" prayer and Torah study; there you will find a sanctuary of wisdom, meaning and holiness amidst the Parenting Dignity raging floodwaters of life. Okay, so I yelled a little too loudly when I yelled at my daughter. Okay, so maybe she didn't (Rabbi Israel Baal Shem Tov) deserve as much of my anger as I let out. But, she did deserve some of it, didn't she? I mean, could I just let it pass? Not say anything? Who would she become, then?

A Driving Lesson Trickle of Delight After 70, 80, maybe 120 years, the Living The clock on my dashboard showed 12:50 pm. soul ascends to a place above called My youngest son usually arrives home from school shortly after one o'clock, so I would Gan Eden, a place of ecstasy as great have ample time before he rushed through the as the soul can receive without dis- front door, and even some extra minutes to solving altogether. spare And what is that delight that is so overwhelming? No more than a trickle of light from the pleasure G-d received from the struggle of this Inner Mind and Emotion soul as it was below. Our subconscious "mind" finds its expression Dimensions in the way we think, and the subconscious "emotions" come into play in the way we speak

Noach Genesis 6:-11:32 Parsha Noah makes an ark, G-d floods the earth, a dove brings an olive branch, Shem and Japeth drag a blanket, men build a tower and the first Jew is born

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Story

Fans and Players The Dodgers, replied the boy. by: Dovid Zaklikowski “Does your father have the same feeling for the Dodgers as you have?” No. “Does he take you out to games?” Well, every once in a while my father takes me to a game. We were at a game a month ago. “How was the game?” The last trolley of the evening rolled by on It was disappointing, the 13-year-old confessed. Kingston Avenue on a chilly winter night in 1955 as By the sixth inning, the Dodgers were losing nine- a jolly young Shimshon Stock ushered a close to-two, so we decided to leave. acquaintance and his soon-to-be-Bar-Mitzvahed son “Did the players also leave the game when you into the Lubavitch synagogue, around the corner at left?” 770 Eastern Parkway. Rabbi, the players can’t leave in the middle of the Inside “770”, soon to become famous as game! Lubavitch World Headquarters, was the study and “Why not?” asked the Rebbe. “Explain to me how office of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem this works.” Mendel Schneerson, who a few years earlier had accepted the leadership of this small Chassidic com- There are players and fans, the baseball fan munity still struggling to recover from the ravages of explained. The fans can leave when they like — Stalinism and the Holocaust. At the time, the Rebbe they’re not part of the game and the game could, and had only a handful of emissaries scattered across does, continue after they leave. But the players need Israel, America, Europe and North Africa; but he was to stay and try to win until the game is over. already relentlessly and tirelessly building a global “That is the lesson I want to teach you in network of communities soon to gain worldwide Judaism,” said the Rebbe with a smile. “You can be renown for its unconventional yet contemporary either a fan or a player. Be a player.” ways of reaching out to Jewish youth. Outside 770 father and son said goodbye to Shimshon, born and bred in the New World, was Shimshon, the three now sharing a new admiration very much the “American Boy”. Yet he had enjoyed to a pioneer in Jewish education. a close and special friendship with the Rebbe prior to the passing of the previous Lubavitcher Rebbe — the Dovid Zaklikowski, [email protected] is on the editorial Rebbe’s father-in-law Rabbi Joseph Isaac staff of Chabad.org Schneersohn — which continued on after the Rebbe accepted the mantel of leadership. He now intro- duced his friend and his friend’s son to the Rebbe, who greeted them with his comforting and warm handshake, requesting them to please take a seat. The Rebbe briefly blessed the boy that he should grow to become a source of pride to the Jewish people and to his family. As they turned to leave, Rebbe surprised the three Americans with the question he addressed to the youngster: “Are you a baseball fan?” The Bar-Mitzvah boy replied that he was. The content on these pages is produced by Chabad.org, and is “Which team are you a fan of — the Yankees or copyrighted by the author, publisher and/or Chabad.org. If you the Dodgers?” enjoyed this article, we encourage you to distribute it further, provided that you comply with our copyright policy

parenting

Dignity If you had simply grimaced, she continued, it would have given her the message, taught her the les- by Jay Litvin son, and, yet, left your dignity in tact. Just grimaced?, I asked, disbelievingly. Just grimaced, she repeated. Chaya — all of them — are totally tuned in to you. You are their father. They love you and want you to be happy with them. When you’re not, they notice and it matters. If you believed this, you wouldn’t have to get angry. And if you didn’t get angry, you’d keep your dignity. And if Okay, so I yelled a little too loudly when I yelled you kept your dignity, you’d teach them how to keep at my daughter. Okay, so maybe she didn’t deserve theirs as well. as much of my anger as I let out. But, she did deserve some of it, didn’t she? I mean, after what Whoa! This was a lot to take in. Too much to take she did, could I just let it pass? Not say anything? in. And how did my wife get so wise? And where did Pretend it didn’t happen? she even find the courage to say all this to me, this husband not especially known for accepting criticism Who would she become, then? Should I just tol- in the lightest of ways, especially from his wife; this erate everything for the sake of not getting angry? person who often saw criticism when there wasn’t Okay, so it does make the house unpleasant and even any around. casts a pall over the evening after I yell and she Was there any around? walks off with that look on her face and goes to her room and closes her door. Well, I looked and I couldn’t find any. It felt close to criticism. It had some of the texture and smell of You’re right, it scares the other kids, who just sort criticism. But, there was something in the way she of look away and stay quiet for the rest of the was telling me all this that didn’t feel like criticism. evening, hoping I won’t get mad at them. But it did feel really important. Like something I And, yes, I was in a bad mood when I came home, should hear if I could just get my ego out of my ears. and, yes, that did have some bearing on the way I You mean to tell me that if I just grimace the kids responded. But, still, should I have just let it pass? I will get the message? mean, doesn’t Chaya need some discipline, some- time? Yes, she said, though you might also have to explain what you’re grimacing about. But you don’t Your dignity, my wife said. have to yell to do that. Your displeasure is loud What? What does my dignity have to do with enough. this? And when I yell? I asked. When you yell like that, you lose your dignity, she Painful, she said. Straight into their little hearts. said. The hearts that love you. My dignity? I questioned with exasperation. I Oh, my!! thought we were talking about her, about her behavior, her need to be taught right from wrong. But I don’t want to be so responsible with my behavior, I screeched. What about spontaneity, I You can do that with dignity, she said, again. pleaded. Can I ever be myself again? I cried out to When you lose your temper, you lose your dignity. the One Above. Okay, she got me. I sat down, ready to hear more. Of course, she replied. (My wife, not the One I took a deep breath and tried to stuff my defenses in Above.) Just don’t get so angry. You don’t need to, my pocket long enough to hear what she had to say. and it hurts your dignity. And the kids want you to Chaya loves you, she explained. She craves your have dignity. approval, she continued. Your slightest look of dis- Dignity. What a word. What a concept. What pleasure is picked up by her and all the children, she exactly did it mean? How could you lose it? Where said convincingly.

Parenting Dignity I was learning about Chesed (Kindness/outpouring), Gevurah (Restriction/containment) and their merger in Tiferet (Beauty, or what I might now call Dignity). In the description I was reading, the word “bal- can you find it? ance” was used to describe Tiferet, as the dictionary had used this word to describe dignity, decorum and You’re on your own. Figure it out. You’ll get it, poise. she said with confidence, and in such a way as to preserve my … yes…. Dignity. We ended the con- The passage was describing the balance between versation with my ego intact. “outpouring” and the receptacle to contain it. When the ideal balance exits, beauty is the result. When So, I started my research where any good student things fit together properly, when form perfectly would go: to the dictionary. matches content, when balance occurs and propor- Dignity: The presence of poise and self-respect in tions are correct, things are beautiful. They have one’s deportment to a degree that inspires respect; grace and poise. loftiness and grace. Syn. Decorum. And when applied to behavior, I thought, they Intrigued, I followed the link to decorum. have dignity and decorum. Decorum: … suitableness of speech and behavior The Kabbalists say that when the outpouring is to one’s own character, or to the place and occa- greater than the vessel can contain, the result is a sion… Poise in behavior. “shattering of the vessel.” When the outpouring is Poise again. I had to check that out. too little, the result is a vessel left in need. But when, the outpouring is, as Goldilocks says, just right, the Poise: To be balanced; the state or condition of vessel just big enough, the result is beautiful, a per- being balanced. fect fit. This is what my wife was talking about, wasn’t it? Again, it was not difficult to see the relevance to “…suitableness of speech and behavior to the place my daughter and my behavior. And as I continued to or occasion…”, “poise and balance”. My anger had read it was as if the words were printed over a vague been out of balance with both the occasion and my outline of her face looking up at me, sometimes daughter. I had done the opposite of “inspiring smiling, sometimes expressing the shock and respect.” anguish she felt as I yelled at her. I began to think of my little Chaya trying to The passage continued to describe the way that G- receive and contain my outburst of negative energy. d constricts and restricts Himself so that each con- I was angry for my own sake, not for hers. I had not tainer, no matter how small, is provided just the right only lost myself, but I had forgotten my daughter, as amount of G-dliness without breaking, And I now well. She was simply overwhelmed by my intensity, had a glimpse of what was required of me. As chal- unable to absorb or understand it. She was fright- lenging as it seemed, I figured that since I was cre- ened, and I could envision her little mind and heart ated in the image of G-d, He had probably given me bursting from the power of my voice and words and the resources I needed to accomplish what seemed facial expression. There was no way this anger could the impossible. have any positive effect. My anger was only delight- ing in its own expression. And in behaving like this, I would need to match the outpouring of my I had lost, as my wife said, my dignity. And my expression to fit my daughter’s ability to receive. daughter had suffered the consequences. And this would require that I come to know her ability to receive, that I tune deeper into her sensitivities, Later that day, I was studying a book on the the size of her heart, the fragility and strength of her Sephirot, the ten divine “attributes” which G-d emotions, her capacity to understand her own behav- assumes in order to create and interact with our exis- ior and mine, and to keep this knowing foremost in tence. my mind and heart.

Parenting no longer be controlled by outbursts of emotion, neither would it be the artificial result of stiff, premed- Dignity itated thought. From coming to know my daughter — or my wife — in the ways that Chassidism described, I saw the possibility that my expression could rise from a different kind of spontaneity, one that sprung naturally from my best mind, from my open heart, from my caring and love. Returning again to Chassidism and the order of I saw the possibility of maintaining my dignity the Sephirot, I related this level of knowing to the while giving my daughter the ability to receive and sephirah of Daat, which precedes and influences the learn from that which I wished to impart, as my wife sephirot of Chesed — outpouring, expression — and had given that opportunity to me. Gevurah — restriction, containment. And I saw that the result would be beautiful, in the Though Daat is both preceded by and a combina- way that all things are beautiful when they fall from tion of the sephirot of Chochma (Wisdom) and Binah the mind into the heart to be expressed by our (Understanding) it is not an intellectual knowing, not actions and words. a mind knowing, but a deeper knowing — an inti- To my daughter, my apologies. To my wife, my macy with the other that bridges the distance gratitude. To Chassidism, my appreciation for the between subject and object, between knower and refinement you bring to my life. known. As I thought about my daughter, I related Daat to the kind of knowing that occurs between parents and Jay Litvin lives in Rehovot, Israel, and is director of children at their best. The sort of knowing available Chabad's Terror Victims Project, http://www.chabad.org/article.asp?aid=87032; he also serves as Medical Liaison for to those created of the same blood, seed and egg, the Children of Chernobyl, same DNA and soul, the same family and home. It http://www.chabad.org/article.asp?aid=87033; which airlifts was difficult for me to contemplate this level of children out of the areas contaminated by the Chernobyl knowing without imagining the deep love that would nuclear disaster. As a regular contributor to Chabad.org result and the overwhelming desire to give and be Magazine, Jay has gained a global following for his moving kind to that which comes to be known in this intrin- portrayals of his inner life drawing on his experiences in bat- tling illness and raising his seven children. sic way. Jay welcomes your questions and responses, Thinking about this and my little Chaya, my love [email protected] and affection for her filled my awareness, and as I remembered yelling at her on this unfortunate morn- About the artist: Sarah Kranz, [email protected] ing my behavior now seemed unbearably abhorrent has been illustrating magazines, webzines and books (includ- and cruel. ing five children’s books) since graduating from the Istituto Seeing now how ugly I had acted and the pain I Europeo di Design, Milan, in 1996. Her clients have includ- caused her, I marveled at how kind my wife had been ed The New York Times and Money Marketing Magazine of London to me. At the time, I could not have listened to a description of my ugliness without shutting out my wife’s words in my own defense. In her wisdom, she had chosen words that I could hear and learn from. She had spoken to me not of ugliness, but of dignity. I now had this strange feeling that Chassidic teaching was telling me how to be a better father and husband, and my daughter and wife were teaching The content on these pages is produced by Chabad.org, and is copyrighted by the author, publisher and/or Chabad.org. If you me how to better understand Chassidism, and enjoyed this article, we encourage you to distribute it further, pro- myself. vided that you comply with our copyright policy I began to see that I would not, as I feared, be denied my spontaneity. Though my behavior would Story | Parenting | Living | Inner Dimensions | Parshah | Week at Glance 3 5 www.Chabad.org

Living

A Driver’s Lesson You see, just yesterday, my own sixteen-year-old by Chana Weisberg daughter came home in just such a driver’s training car. Excitedly, she entered our home and described to me her first adventure as a driver. Always the ambitious one, she had taken her written test the day after her sixteenth birthday and now was able to drive a car with an instructor. She eager- ly embraced this opportunity to demonstrate her responsibility and maturity. I drove home from work on this uneventful sunny Proudly, I had watched her turn into our driveway, Tuesday afternoon as I do every other day. The clock just yesterday, and observed her patiently and care- on my dashboard showed ten minutes before one. fully looking to her right and to her left before pro- My youngest son usually arrives home from school ceeding. with his carpool shortly after one o’clock, so I would So, right now when I saw the student driving have ample time to spare before he rushed through ahead of me in just such a car, I didn’t see a name- the front door, and even some extra minutes to take less stranger. I could almost visualize my own care of a small chore. daughter sitting beside her own instructor. And sud- Instead, I found myself driving on the quiet side denly, the few moments stolen from my day’s sched- streets near my home trapped behind a student, driv- ule didn’t matter at all. ing in a grey driver’s training car. She drove slowly, When I was able to see my own child in that car, v-e-r-y slowly, unbearably and painfully slowly. This my own view was completely transformed. I found was clearly her first experience on the road. Despite all the patience in the world to allow her to enjoy her the deserted streets, she waited at every stop sign for driving experience. what felt like an eternity, deliberately looking one way and then the other before proceeding. She drove much below the already low speed limit, and at every When we can foster a feeling of empathy for bend in the road slowed down further still. another like we have for ourselves, our perspective changes entirely. Our world becomes a far more Usually, I would be impatiently fuming about how patient, more accepting — and better — place. this threw off my schedule by delaying me (by at least three extra minutes!). On any other day, I would have thoughtlessly swerved in front of this car and Chana Weisberg is the author of two books -- on the lives raced ahead to my destination. of Biblical women and on the feminine soul -- and is current- ly working on two more. She is the dean of the JRCC Institute But this afternoon, I didn’t. Patiently, I drove the of Torah Study in Toronto and lectures worldwide on issues remaining distance to my home behind her. I didn’t relating to women, relationships and mysticism. She wel- check the speedometer five times a minute to verify comes your comments or inquiries about her speaking tours that she was still driving at least ten kilometers under and books, and can be contacted at [email protected] the limit. Tolerantly, I waited by each stop sign as About the artist: Sarah Kranz, [email protected] she checked to her right and to her left, though no has been illustrating magazines, webzines and books (including five children’s books) since graduating from the Istituto cars were anywhere in sight. Considerately, I drove Europeo di Design, Milan, in 1996. Her clients have includ- far behind her grey car, making sure not to tailgate ed The New York Times and Money Marketing Magazine of even slightly, so as not to unnerve her. London What was the change in my mood this afternoon? Had I evolved into a more patient person? Or was I perhaps enjoying the suburban scenery along the route? The content on these pages is produced by Chabad.org, and is No. None of the above. The change in my per- copyrighted by the author, publisher and/or Chabad.org. If you spective on this Tuesday afternoon was for an entire- enjoyed this article, we encourage you to distribute it further, provided that you comply with our copyright policy ly different reason.

Inner Dimensions

Mind and Emotion and grow through the identical adversity. Some peo- by Laibl Wolf ple habitually put their foot into their mouth and others are always appropriate and considerate in their manner of speech. Developing congruence between Seichel and thought, and between Middot and speech is a mastery skill. Those who are serious about their personal development and fulfilment in relationships will aspire to train and practice in two tasks: One of the fascinating concepts to emerge in west- a) To change the subconscious default of their ern psychology is the notion of the sub-conscious. “mind” and “emotions”, and, Our conscious self, we are told, is a projected ana- b) Allow their thoughts and feelings to become logue of the deeper self beneath the surface. their true expressions The nature of this deeper sub-conscious is little The wise master and leader, Moses, is an example understood, even today. Freud noted that our inner par excellence of such congruence, and the fifth drives derive from deep within and become manifest book of the bible, Devarim, is a testimony to his as the libido drive. Others questioned Freud and mastery of mind and emotions. The congruence of claimed different dominant subconscious drives, thoughts and words are apparent as Moses appeals such as the quest for power and control, or search for emotionally in defence of the Jewish people. self-realization, or a sense of oneness with the Cosmos, or manifestation of the collective uncon- sciousness. Nevertheless, vagueness and speculation MASTERY: Look at yourself from the inside out. are the hallmarks of most western systems seeking What kind of person are you? Are you kind, consid- the key to understanding our deeper selves. erate, secure, and helpful? If you have achieved some of these attributes, ask yourself the next ques- The Chabad Chassidic teachings based on the tion: With what amplitude and frequency do I Kabbalah, albeit ancient in source, are far more express this nature? Choose one aspect of your inner sophisticated and developed in this respect than are self and work on it until a level of progress is the western teachings. Amongst these is the delin- reached. Then choose an aspect of its tangible eation of the subconscious into two soul-pathways expression, and express it repeatedly for two weeks known as Seichel (Mind) and Middot (Emotion). But minimum. the common translation of “mind” and “emotion” does not convey their essential meaning in this sys- MEDITATION: Try to recall the conversations tem. In truth what is meant is that Seichel and Middot you had the past few days. Are there any thought are the subconscious antecedents to the overt expres- patterns and sequence of words that seem to repeat? sion of mind and emotion, and are latent within the If so, are you satisfied with this pattern? If not, Neshama (soul). rehearse alternative mind scripts. When you are satisfied with the thought experiment, commit yourself The conscious expression of Seichel/Mind is to introduce these in your next set of conversations thought, while the conscious expression of Middot/Emotion is speech. This is an interesting Follow-up resources: Relax and Breath and notion, viz. that our subconscious “mind” finds its Achieving Inner Balance (audio) available at Rabbi expression in the way we think, and the subcon- Wolf’s Website (see link below). scious “emotions” come into play in the way we Rabbi Wolf, a renowned mystic, author and speaker, lives speak. in Australia and lectures worldwide on Kabbalah and Jewish mysticism. His daily meditations and weekly essays can be Furthermore, we draw from the subconscious viewed on his website, www.laiblwolf.com those thoughts that express our individual personali- The content on these pages is produced by Chabad.org, and is ty. Likewise, the way we speak is also a signature of copyrighted by the author, publisher and/or Chabad.org. If you our inner character. For example, some people inter- enjoyed this article, we encourage you to distribute it further, pro- pret challenge as a personal threat and others thrive vided that you comply with our copyright policy

PARSHAH in a nutshell disperse across the face of the earth, splitting into seventy nations. Noach The Parshah of Noach concludes with a chronology Genesis 6:9-11:32 of the ten generations from Noah to Abram (later Torah Reading for October 26-November 1, 2003 Abraham), and the latter’s journey from his birthplace of Ur Casdim to Charan, on the way to the Land of Canaan.

G-d instructs Noah — the only righteous man in a world consumed by violence and corruption — to build a large wooden teivah (“ark”), coated within and without with pitch. A great deluge, says G-d, will wipe out all life from the face of the earth; but the ark will float upon the water, sheltering Noah and his family, and two members (male and female) of each animal species. Rain falls for 40 days and nights, and the waters churn for 150 days more before calming and beginning to recede. The ark settles on Mount Ararat, and from its window Noah dispatches a raven, and then a series of doves, “to see if the waters were abated from the face of the earth.” When the ground dries completely— exactly one solar year (365 days) after the onset of the Flood—G-d commands Noah to exit the teivah and repopulate the earth. Noah builds an altar and offers sacrifices to G-d. G- d swears never again to destroy all of mankind because of their deeds, and sets the rainbow as a testimony of His new covenant with man. G-d also commands Noah on the sacredness of life: murder is deemed a capital offense, and while man is permitted to eat the meat of animals, he is forbidden to eat flesh or blood taken from a living animal.

Noah plants a vineyard and becomes drunk on its The content on these pages is produced by Chabad.org, and is copy- produce. Two of Noah’s sons, Shem and Japeth, are righted by the author, publisher and/or Chabad.org. If you enjoyed this blessed for covering up their father’s nakedness, while article, we encourage you to distribute it further, provided that you com- his third son, Ham, is cursed for taking advantage of ply with our copyright policy his debasement. The descendents of Noah remain a single people, with a single language and culture, for ten generations. Then they defy their Creator by building a great tower to symbolize their own invincibility; G-d confuses their language so that “one does not comprehend the tongue of the other,” causing them to abandon their project and

in its side; with lower, second, and third stories shall you Noach make it. Behold, I will bring the flood of waters upon the earth, to Genesis 6:9-11:32 destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life from under Torah Reading for Week of October 26-November 1, 2003 heaven; every thing that is on the earth shall die. But with you will I establish My covenant; and you shall come into the ark, you, and your sons, and your wife, and your sons’ wives with you.

Noah—the only righteous man in a corrupted world—is told Noah is also commanded to bring into the ark two members by G-d: “The end of all flesh is come before Me, for the earth of each animal species—a male and a female (seven mem- is filled with violence.” Therefore, bers of all “pure” or kosher species), as well as food for himself, his family and the animals.. Make yourself an ark of gofer wood, and make rooms in the ark; and you shall pitch it within and without with The Flood pitch. In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second And this is the fashion of which you shall make it: the month, the seventeenth day of the month, on that same length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, the day were all the fountains of the great deep broken breadth of it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits. open, and the windows of heaven were opened. A window shall you make for the ark, and to a cubit shall you taper it on top, and the door of the ark shall you set And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty

Commentary because he did not appeal for mercy on the world’s behalf..

N O A H W AS A RIGHTEOUS M A N,PERFECT INHIS GENERATIONS (GENESIS 6:9) (Zohar)

Among our sages, there are those who interpret this as being in praise of Noah tried to save his generation by calling on them to repent. But the fact Noah: If he was righteous in his generation then certainly he would have that he did not pray for them implies that, ultimately, it did not matter to him been even more righteous if he would have been in a generation of right- what became of them. Had he truly cared, he would not have sufficed with eous people. And there are those who interpret this as a condemnation: in “doing his best” but would have implored the Almighty to repeal His decree relation to his generation he was righteous, but had he been in Abraham’s of destruction—just as a person who’s own life is in danger would never generation, he wouldn’t have been regarded as anything say, “Well, I did my best to save myself,” and leave it at that, but would beseech G-d to help him. (Rashi) In other words, Noah’s involvement with others was limited to his sense of AND G-D SAID TO NOAH:“THE END OF ALL FLESH IS COME BEFORE ME, what he ought to do for them, as opposed to a true concern for their well- FOR THE EARTH IS FILLED WITH VIOLENCE THROUGH THEM”(6:13) being. He understood the necessity to act for the sake of another, recogniz- ing that to fail to do so is a defect in one’s own character; but he fell short Why was the generation of the Flood utterly destroyed, but not the genera- of transcending the self to care for others beyond the consideration of his tion of the Tower? Because the generation of the Flood were consumed by own righteousness. robbery and violence, while amongst the generation of the Tower love pre- vailed. This also explains a curious aspect of Noah’s efforts to reach out to his generation. When the Flood came, Noah and his family entered the ark—alone. (Midrash Rabbah) His 120-year campaign yielded not a single baal teshuvah (repentant)! Perhaps public relations was never Noah’s strong point, but how are we to AND G-D SAID TO NOAH… MAKE YOURSELF AN ARK (6:13-14) explain the fact that, in all this time, he failed to win over a single individual? G-d has many ways to save someone—why did he make Noah toil to build the ark? In order that the people of his generation should see him occupied But in order to influence others, one’s motives must be pure; in the words with the task for 120 years, and they should ask him, “Why are you doing of our sages, “Words that come from the heart, enter the heart.” Deep down, this?” and he would tell them that G-d is bringing a flood upon the world. a person will always sense whether you truly have his interests at heart or Perhaps, this would cause them to repent.. you’re filling a need of your own by seeking to change him. If your work to enlighten your fellow stems from a desire to “do the right thing” but with- (Rashi; Midrash Tanchuma) out really caring about the result, your call will be met with scant response. When G-d said to Noah, “The end of all flesh is come before Me,” Noah The echo of personal motive, be it the most laudable of personal motives, said: “what will You do with me?” But he did not pray for mercy for the will be sensed, if only subconsciously, by the object of your efforts, and will world, as Abraham would pray for the city of Sodom.. This is why the Flood ultimately put him off. is called “the waters of Noah” (Isaiah 54:9)—he is culpable for them, (The Lubavitcher Rebbe)

Noah waited another 40 days, and then, opening the ark’s window, he sent a raven from the ark, to test the conditions in flooded world outside. The raven proved uncooperative, so, Noach a week later, Noah sent a dove. The dove retuned, finding no rest for her feet; so Noah waited another seven days. This Genesis 6:9-11:32 time, Torah Reading for Week of October 26-November 1, 2003 The dove came in to him in the evening, and, lo, in her mouth was an olive leaf plucked off; and Noah knew that the waters were abated from off the earth. nights… and the waters increased, and bore up the ark, and it was raised above the earth…And the waters pre- When Noah dispatches the dove a third time seven days later, vailed exceedingly upon the earth; and all the high it does not return to the ark at all. Still Noah remain in the mountains, that were under the whole heaven, were cov- ark. On “the first day of the fist month”—307 days after the ered… rains began—the water has completely drained, and Noah removes the covering of the ark; but it takes another 57 days And all flesh perished that moved upon the earth… there for the surface of the earth to dry completely. Finally, on the remained only Noah, and they that were with him in the 27th day of second month, comes the Divine command:d: ark. And G-d spoke to Noah, saying: “Go out of the ark, you, The Flood lasted a full solar year —365 days. The 40 days of and your wife, and your sons, and your sons’ wives with rain were followed by 150 days in which the water swelled you. Every living thing that is with you, of all flesh, both and churned, after which “G-d remembered Noah, and every of birds, and of cattle, and of every creeping thing that living thing, and all the cattle that was with him in the ark; creeps on the earth—bring out with you; that they may and G-d made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters breed abundantly on the earth, and be fruitful, and multi- were assuaged” and began to subside. Sixteen days later the ply upon the earth.”" ark to rest upon “the mountains of Ararat,” but it took another 44 days for the mountain peaks to become visible.. The Vow

Commentary days.

AND G-D SAID TO NOAH… COME INTO THE ARK (7:1) Sivan 17: The bottom of ark, submerged 11 cubits beneath the surface, touches down on the top of Mount Ararat. The Hebrew word for ark, teivah, also means “word”. “Come into the word”, says G-d, enter within the words of prayer and Torah study. Here Av 1: The mountain peaks break the water’s surface. you will find a sanctuary of wisdom, meaning and holiness amidst the raging floodwaters of life. Elul 10: Noah open the ark’s window and dispatches the Raven.

Elul 17: Noah sends the dove for the first time.. (Rabbi Israel Baal Shem Tov) Elul 23: The dove is sent a second time, and returns with an olive branch in IN THE SIX HUNDREDTH YEAR OF NOAH’SLIFE… ALL THE FOUNTAINS OF its beak. THE GREAT DEEP BROKE OPEN, AND THE WINDOWS OF HEAVEN WERE OPENED (7:11) Tishrei 1: Dove’s third mission. Water completely drained.

[This alludes that] in the sixth century of the sixth millennium [from cre- Cheshvan 27: Ground fully dried. Noah exits ark. ation—1740-1840 in the secular calendar], the gates of supernal wisdom will be opened, as will the springs of earthly wisdom, preparing the world Total time in ark: 365 days (one solar year; one year and 11 days on the to be elevated in the seventh millennium.. lunar calendar)

(Zohar)

The chronology of events, as indicated by the dates and time periods given in the Torah’s account and calculated by Rashi, was as follows: AND G-DSPOKETONOAH, SAYING:“GO OUT OF THE ARK...” (8:16)

Cheshvan 17: Noah enters ark; rains begin. This, too, is a Divine command. G-d commands us to “enter into the ark,” into the sanctums of spirituality we are to create in the material world. But Kislev 27: Forty days of rain end; begin 150 days of water’s swelling and then we must “Go out of the ark” to carry forth its sanctity to the ends of churning, in which it reaches a height of 15 cubits above the mountain the earth. peaks.. (The Chassidic Masters) Sivan 1: Water calms and begins to subside at the rate of one cubit each four

For as long as the earth remains, seed time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and Noach night shall not cease. Genesis 6:9-11:32 Man and Animal Torah Reading for Week of October 26-November 26, 2003 G-d then blesses Noah and his son that they “be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth” and issues a number of instructions regarding the new world they are to build. Noah builds an altar and brings offerings “of every pure beast and of every pure bird” (of which he had been commanded to Man is given dominion over all life forms, and the fear of him bring additional members into the ark). is instilled in all animals. He is allowed to kill animals for food (Adam was only given license to eat plants), but is forbidden And G-d smelled the sweet savor, and G-d said in his to eat meat or blood taken from an animal while it is still heart: I will not again curse the earth any more because alive. of man, for the impulse of man’s heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more everything liv- Human life is sacred, and murder is punishable by death—if a ing, as I have done. human court fails to punish the murderer, G-d himself will seek redress. “At the hand of every man’s brother, will I Never again, vows G-d, shall the patterns of nature be so dis- demand the life of man. Who so sheds man’s blood by man rupted: shall his blood be shed; for in the image of G-d made He man.”

Commentary him: “What are you planting?” Said he: “A vineyard.” Said Satan to him: “What is its nature?” Said he: “Its fruits are sweet, whether moist or dry, and AND NOAH BUILT AN ALTAR TO G-D (8:20) one makes from them wine which brings joy to the heart.” Said Satan to Noah: “Do you desire that we should plant it together, you and I?” Said The location of the Altar [in the Holy Temple] is very exactly defined, and Noah: “Yes.” is never to be changed... It is a commonly-held tradition that the place where David and Solomon built the Altar on the threshing floor of Arona, is the What did Satan do? He brought a lamb and slaughtered it over the vine; then very place where Abraham built an altar and bound Isaac upon it; this is he brought a lion, and slaughtered it over it; then he brought a monkey, and where Noah built [an altar] when he came out from the ark; this is where slaughtered it over it; then he brought a swine, and slaughtered it over it; Cain and Abel brought their offerings; this is where Adam the First Man and he watered the vine with their blood. Thus he alluded to Noah: When a offered a korban when he was created—and it is from [the earth of] this person drinks one cup, he is like a lamb, modest and meek. When drinks place that he was created. Thus the Sages have said: Man was formed from two cups, he becomes mighty as a lion and begins to speak with pride, say- the place of his atonement.. ing: Who compares with me! As soon as he drinks three or four cups he becomes a monkey, dancing and frolicking and profaning his mouth, and (Maimonides) knowing not what he does. When he becomes drunk, he becomes a pig, dirt- ied by mud and wallowing in filth. I WILLDEMANDTHELIFEOFMAN... FORINTHEIMAGEOFG-D MADE HE MAN (9:5-6) (Midrash Tanchuma)

How were the Ten Commandments given? Five on one tablet and five on a HAM SAW THE NAKEDNESS OF THEIR FATHER, AND TOLD HIS TWO BROTHERS second tablet. This means that “Do not murder” corresponds to “I am G-d OUTSIDE.AND SHEM AND JAPHETH TOOK THE GARMENT... AND COVERED your G-d.” The Torah is telling us that one who sheds blood it is as if he has THE NAKEDNESS OF THEIR FATHER… AND THEY SAW NOT THEIR FATHER’S reduced the image of the King. SHAME (9:22-23)

What is this analogous to? To a king of flesh and blood who entered a coun- One of the cornerstones of Rabbi Israel Baal Shem Tov’s teaching is the try and put up portraits of himself, and made statues of himself, and minted doctrine of Hashgachah Peratit, “specific Divine providence.” coins with his image. After a while, the people of the country overturned his Hashgachah Peratit means that nothing is by chance—every event in a per- portraits, broke his statues and invalidated his coins, thereby reducing the son’s life is purposeful, an integral part of his Divinely ordained mission in image of the king. So, too, one who sheds blood reduces the image of the life.. King, as it is written (Genesis 9:6): “One who spills a man’s blood... for in the images of G-d He made man.” From this principle arises another of the Baal Shem Tov’s famous teachings. “Your fellow is your mirror,” the Besht would say to his disciples. “If your (Mechilta) own face is clean, the image you perceive will also be flawless. But should you look upon your fellow man and see a blemish, it is your own imper- AND NOAH BEGAN TO BE A MAN OF THE EARTH, AND HE PLANTED A VINE- fection that you are encountering—-you are being shown what it is that you YARD (9:20) must correct within yourself.” Otherwise, to what purpose would G-d cause you to see your fellow’s degradation? When Noah took to planting, Satan came and stood before him and said to

And G-d said: “This is the sign of the covenant which I Noach make between Me and you and every living creature that is with you… I have set My rainbow in the cloud, and it Genesis 6:9-11:32 shall be for a sign of a covenant between me and the Torah Reading for Week of October 26-November 1, 2003 earth.

“And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth…the rainbow shall be in the cloud. I will look upon The Covenant it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between G-d and every living creature of all flesh that is And G-d spoke to Noah, and to his sons with him, say- upon the earth.” ing: The First Drunk “Behold, I establish My covenant with you, and with your seed after you; and with every living creature that is with Noah began to be a man of the earth, and he planted a you… from all that came out of the ark… That never shall vineyard. all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of the flood; neither shall there ever again be a flood to destroy the And he drank of the wine, and was drunk; and he was earth.” uncovered within his tent. Ham, the father of Canaan saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside.

Commentary of what had transpired lay in what they must now do to correct it. The e shame of their father, however, they simply did not see. One may ask: Perhaps I am being shown my fellow’s deficiency not as a message concerning my own state, but so that I may assist him in its cor- (The Lubavitcher Rebbe) rection? AND THEY SAID TO ONE ANOTHER: “...LET US BUILD FOR OURSELVES A CITY To answer this question, we must first take a closer look at the principle of AND A TOWER WHOSE TOP SHALL REACH THE HEAVENS; AND WE SHALL MAKE “particular Divine providence.” Particular Divine providence means that FOR OURSELVES A NAME (11:4) not only is every event purposeful, but also its every aspect and nuance. What was their sin? Their motives for building a city with a tower “whose For example, the same event can imply different things to different top shall reach the heavens” seem quite understandable. Mankind was only observers, depending on how much they know about the people involved just reconstructing itself after the Flood that had wiped out the entire human and events that led up to it. Divine providence is “particular” in that it shows race save for Noah and his family. If fledgling humanity was to survive, each observer precisely what is applicable to him. If you witness an event, unity and cooperation were of critical importance. So they set out to build everything about it, including the particular way in which it has affected a common city to knit them into a single community. At its heart, they you, serves a purpose crucial to your mission in life. planned a tower which would be visible for miles, a landmark to beckon to those who had strayed from the city and a monument to inspire commitment When you are confronted with a fellow’s deficiency, there are two distinct to their common goal—survival. All they wanted was to “make for our- elements in your awareness: a) the fact of that person’s wrongdoing; b) his selves a name”—to ensure the continuity of the human race.. guilt, culpability and decadence. The former does not necessarily imply the latter: you may be aware of the fact that a fellow has done wrong, yet such And yet, their project to preserve humanity deteriorated into a rejection of knowledge can be accompanied with understanding, compassion and vin- all that humanity stands for and an open rebellion against their Creator and dication. purpose. Their quest for unity resulted in the breakup of mankind into clans and factions and the onset of close to four thousand years of misunder- In order to correct your fellow’s wrongdoing, it is enough to know that the standing, xenophobia and bloodletting across the divisions of race, lan- action is wrong. To also sense his guilt and lowliness is completely unnec- guage and culture. Where did they go wrong? essary; on the contrary, it only hinders your ability to reach out to him in a loving and tolerant manner. The only possible purpose that can serve is to But precisely that was their error: they saw survival as an end in itself. “Let impress upon you how despicable that thing—or something similar to it, if us make a name for ourselves,” they said; let us ensure that there will be only in a most subtle way—is in yourself, and thereby compel you to cor- future generations who will read of us in their history books. But why sur- rect it. vive? For what purpose should humanity inhabit the earth? What is the content of the name and legacy they are laboring to preserve? Of this they said, This is what the Torah is telling us when it says, “and they saw not their thought, and did nothing. To them, life itself was an ideal, survival itself a father’s shame.” Not only did Shem and Japheth not physically see their virtue. father’s shameful state— this we already know from the (twice-repeated) fact that they turned “their faces were backward”—they also did not per- This was the beginning of the end. No physical system will long tolerate a ceive his guilt or disgrace. Unlike Ham, whose own debasement was vacuum, and this is true of spiritual realities as well: unless a soul or cause reflected in his vision of his father’s, their entire reaction to their knowledge is filled with positive content, corruption will ultimately seep in. A hollow

And G-d said: “Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do; and now nothing will be withheld from them, which they have Noach schemed to do. Come, let us go down, and there con- Genesis 6:9-11:32 found their language, that they may not understand one Torah Reading for Week of October 26-November 1, 2003 another’s speech.”

So G-d scattered them abroad from there upon the face of all the earth: and they ceased to build the city. And Shem and Japheth took the garment, and laid it Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because G-d did upon both their shoulders, and went backward, and cov- there confound (balal) the language of all the earth, and ered the nakedness of their father; and their faces were from thence did G-d scatter them abroad upon the face backward, and they saw not their father’s shame. of all the earth. And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his Abram’s First Years younger son had done to him. And he said: “Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be to his Noah’s son, Shem, had a son named Achparshad. Achparshad brethren.” And he said: “Blessed be G-d, G-d of Shem; fathered Shelach; Shelach’s son was Eber (one of the sources and Canaan shall be his servant. G-d shall enlarge of the appellation “Hebrew); Eber fathered Peleg (“division”— Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem; and it was in the year of Peleg’s death that the division of human- Canaan shall be his servant.” ity into nations occurred in wake of the sin of the Tower); Peleg’s son was Reu; Reu’s son was Serug; Serug begot And Noah lived after the flood three hundred and fifty Nachor; and Nachor was the father of Terah.. years. And all the days of Noah were nine hundred and fifty years; and he died. Terah had three sons: Haran, who died in his father’s lifetime, Nachor, and Abram. Haran had a son, Lot, and two daughter: The Dispersion Milkah, who became the wife of her uncle Nachor, and Sarai The Torah now lists the seventy nations that formed when the (also called Yiskah), who also wed a younger brother of her descendents of Shem, Ham and Japheth (Noah’s three sons) father’s, Abraham. Sarai was barren, having no children. dispersed across the earth. It then tells the story of how this The Parshah of Noach concludes by telling how the entire dispersion came about. family set out from their hometown, Ur Casdim, to journey to At first, the descendents of Noah formed a single community, the Land of Canaan. They stopped, however, at Charan, sharing “one language and mutual words.” Migrating west- where Terah dies at the age of 205. ward, they settled in the valley of Shin’ar (Babylon).

And they said: “Come, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach to heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.”

And G-d came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men were building.

Commentary name and shrine soon becomes a tower of Babel. tower of our resurgence with the higher purpose for which we were created. Never has the lesson of the Tower of Babel been more pertinent to our people than it is today. We, too, are a generation struggling to recoup after a (Based on an address by the Lubavitcher Rebbe in 1959) holocaust of destruction that threatened to erase us from the face of the earth. Reconstruction and survival are uppermost in our minds, and togeth- AND G-D DESCENDED TO SEE THE CITY AND THE TOWER WHICH THE SONS er, with G-d’s help, we are succeeding. OF MAN HAD BUILT (11:5)

At a time like this, it is extremely important that we not repeat the error of Obviously, G-d did not need to “come down” in order to see their crime; but the builders of Babel. Rebuild we must, but the objective must be more than He wished to teach all future judges that one must not judge the accused a more enduring name, a greater city, a taller tower. If we are to survive, we until they see and appreciate. must give import to our survival, reiterate the “why” of our existence. We must fill our name with value, our city with significance, and crown the (Rashi)

www.therebbe.org; adapted by Yanki Tauber, [email protected] FROM THE CHASSIDIC MASTERS THE 40-DAY MIKVEH THE MEMORY OF WATER A nation’s stories reveal its national psyche. What Your earliest self-knowledge is of a being distinguishes the ancient Jewish spiritual tradition is immersed in water. its complete negation of fiction. With the rare excep- tion of a small section of the ethical literature and one You were one with your environment: you were branch of Hassidic literature, the story is not a story mother and mother was you, you were the universe — it is a statement of reality, and truth is stranger and the universe was yourself. There was no I, she, it than fiction. or that, for all being was one. Take the story of Noah and the global flood. A man Then came the day when you were thrust out from hears a Divine instruction from Above and spends the enveloping waters. Distinctiveness and identity decades constructing a huge ferry that carries the were conferred upon you, and your oneness with your species of the world across time into a new future. A source became a vestige of a memory. You now revel mere story? Some will say so. Yet it is a curious fact in your apartness, your ego a shield, wresting suste- that the account of the flood is contained in so many nance and purpose from an environment that is dis- of the ancient pathways. tinct of yourself and which you share and compete over with like-armored others. But the mystics of the Torah never doubted the veracity of the story. There was indeed a huge tidal But the memory remains. And when the strange- destruction of the inhabited world. Why? Was it an ness of your world becomes too much to bear, and the act of cosmic wrath? Not really. Kabbalah teaches loneliness of your battle too heavy to carry, you seek that the foremost energy that guides the Cosmos is solace in your watery past. The memory of the womb that of Chessed — goodness and compassion. Wrath comforts you, reassuring you that you are not truly is incompatible with this spiritual posture. There is alone, that underneath it all you are one with the uni- clearly something much more sublime in the account verse, with your creator. of the flood. Anyone who has been involved in renovating their On the face of it, the Torah’s account of Noah’s house will recall those moments of self-doubt: I Flood tells the tragic tale of a corrupt generation erad- should have started right from scratch rather than tin- icated from the face of the earth. But an axiom of kered with a bit here and bit there. But starting from Chassidic teaching — particularly as expressed in the scratch also destroys the memories and the emotions writings and talks of the Lubavitcher Rebbe — is that that are the fabric of our context and consciousness. every word of Torah, at its core, is a gem of unadul- What we would desire is the best of both worlds: a terated goodness. Our world is a place where nega- house with clean aesthetic lines and function, while tivity and even outright evil may occur, and the retaining the warmth and homeliness of its Torah, which addresses and describes our world, antecedent. We want to clean it up. reflects this. But as our Sages tell us, the Torah pre- Something went wrong — not with creation, but cedes the world, precedes creation; in its quintessen- with the “wild card” — the joker of the pack — the tial state, the Torah’s every story and law has a posi- human being. The Cosmic house had to be renovated. tive meaning. Noah was chosen as builder-foreman. In essence, Noah’s Flood is the earth’s immersion That is why the Chassidic master, Rabbi Shneur in the mikvah of divine knowledge, in the womb of Zalmen of Liadi, describes the flood as a cleansing primordial oneness. And though the earth eventually process. The waters of the flood are like the waters of emerged from the Flood’s waters, the memory a ritualarium — a mikveh — where the waters spiri- remains in its soil and stones, in its trees and clouds, tually cleanse the dross that accumulate in our life’s and in every living being that crawls or walks upon it. endeavours. The world received a spiritual cleansing, Never is our world too distant, too apart, too alienat- and this set the course of history on a course of hope ed, to draw on this memory of total submersion with- and purpose. in the all-embracing totality of its Creator. Based on the teachings of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Noah’s is not a story. It is an account of spiritual redirection. Noah’s very name reflects the positive

THE WINDOW FROM THE CHASSIDIC MASTERS It happened before: a world drowning in violence awaited redemption. Waited for Divine action, because man had done all that was in his power and the rest was up to G-d. nature of the events. The name “Noah” is etymologi- cally connected to the word for inner peace and tran- Man waited in a sealed ark, but the ark had a window. quillity. This describes the mind and heart of the And from the window a dove was dispatched to circle world after the “clean-up” of the flood. Just as a the skies, to agitate the heavens with its restless recon- mikveh has to have 40 seah (an ancient measure of naissance. For the next four thousand years its spread volume) of “living” waters, so did the flood last for wings and the olive leaf clutched in its beak would sym- forty days. bolize humanity’s quest for harmony and peace. In all seeming adversity there is both opportunity No, waiting is not a passive endeavor. On the thresh- and positivity. It may not always be apparent — even old of redemption, we must open windows through if we look for it. But it is there. But that is only true which to look upon a harmonious tomorrow, and of true stories of a sentient universe — that which we through which to dispatch winged emissaries to hasten call “reality”. The fiction that derives from a finite the divine response from on high. human mind cannot contain the code for eternal truths. Hence the bias against fiction. The Book of Genesis (chapters 6-8) relates the story of the great deluge which swept the earth in the dawn of MASTERY: Every moment and place has a door- human history. way for our entry. But we may not have the agility to Outside the ark Noah had built and populated by enter with ease or elegance. Our clothes may become divine command, the Flood raged, the violent culmina- soiled. Our thoughts may become confused. Our feel- tion of a violent world. Within, Noah presided over a ings may be inappropriate. How many words we say miniature universe: his family; and — as G-d had that later we would like to retract? How many instructed him — “of all living things, two of each kind, thoughts do we think that we would like to recant? a male and a female; and specimens of every food that is Therefore be pure in the spiritual clothes you wear. to be eaten ... to keep seed alive on the face of the earth.” Be spiritually agile. Move elegantly through the trap- For forty days and nights the rains fell, followed by pings of life. five months in which the waters swelled and churned, MEDITATION: Sit silently and recall your last cleansing the earth for the promise of a new beginning meaningful conversation. What door did this episode contained in the floating ark. Finally, the waters calmed open? Replay your words in your mind and determine and began to recede. what legacy they left — both for you and the other. Noah then opened the window in the sealed ark and What feelings did that conversation awaken in you? sent out a raven “to see if the waters had subsided from Are these optimal? Could they be spiritually refined, the surface of the earth.” The raven which refused the even now, long after the conversation has ended. mission, was followed by three doves: the first returned Every week, perhaps on Shabbat, enter your ark and immediately, indicating that the Flood’s waters still rise above the turbulent waters of everyday affairs. engulfed the earth; the second came back in the evening, Enter your spiritual spa and purify both body and clutching “a plucked olive leaf” and the promise of a soul. new life for earth. The third did not return at all, inform- Follow-up resources: The Healing Light (audio) ing the Ark’s inhabitants that the earth was ready for and Relax and Breath (audio) available at Rabbi habitation. Wolf’s Website (see link below) Why did Noah dispatch these winged emissaries? Based on Torah Ohr, a collection of discourses by Chassidic Obviously, he was eager to rebuild, to replace the may- master Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi (1745-1812); adapta- hem of the Flood with a new, harmonious world. tion by Laibl Wolf. Rabbi Wolf, a renowned mystic, author and However, it would seem that Noah would have had little speaker, lives in Australia and lectures worldwide on use for whatever information these “reconnaissance Kabbalah and Jewish mysticism. His daily meditations and flights” might provide him. In fact, even after he was weekly essays can be viewed on his website, www.laiblwolf.com. convinced that the Flood was over, Noah could not act on his own assessment that the earth was ready for a new

ing the entirety of creation, will grow. Our mission in FROM THE CHASSIDIC MASTERS life is to create a world free of greed, jealousy and hate, a world suffused with the wisdom and goodness of its Creator; to translate the G-dly perfection of our personal teivot into the divinely perfect world of Moshiach. beginning to take root. Noah had first entered the ark The directive, “Come into the ark,” which character- by the explicit command of G-d, and as long as he did izes our task during the mabul-years of history, is but a not receive further instructions to the contrary, the prelude to the “Go out from the ark” era of Moshiach, divine injunction “Come into the ark” remained in when the holiness and perfection of a Torah-defined force. Only upon being commanded to “Go out from existence will extend to all of creation. the ark” and “be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth” — commands which came several weeks after Awaiting Word the third dove’s mission — could he begin settling As with Noah, we must await the word. It is not for and developing the world outside the ark. us to decide that the era of Moshiach has begun. It is by Hence the question: for what purpose did Noah dis- G-d’s command that we entered the “ark,” and it is He patch the raven and the doves? who will send Moshiach to herald the new dawn. Contemporary Arks This may lead to the belief that we must passively wait for the redemption. Therein lies the lesson of Rabbi Israel Baal Shem Tov explains the relevance Noah’s winged emissaries: well before he was com- of the divine instruction to Noah, “Come into the ark” manded to “Go out from the ark,” Noah opened a win- to our daily lives. The Hebrew word for ark, teivah, dow to the outside world. As soon as he sensed signs of also means “word.” Come into the word, says the the Flood’s abatement, he dispatched messengers to Almighty to each and every one of us; enter within “test the waters” and confirm the fact that the world was the words of prayer and Torah study. Here you will ready for rebirth. Noah did not content himself with find a haven of wisdom, meaning and sanctity amidst developing the inner world of the teivah while allowing the raging floodwaters of life. history to take its course, but did everything in his The word that the Torah uses for the Flood is power to establish the world’s readiness, thereby has- mabul, which means disorder and confusion. Our tening the divine empowerment to make his ark a uni- world is a mabul of moral disarray and distorted pri- versal reality. orities. But even as the chaos of a still-unperfected Today, we find ourselves at the same crossroads that world churns about us, we have the ability to create, Noah faced forty-one centuries ago. All around us, we as did Noah, an island of tranquillity and perfection, detect signs of a world that is bettering and perfecting sheltered by the protective words (teivot) of Torah itself, beating its nuclear swords into the plowshares of and prayer. aid to the hungry and accepting the principles of free- Furthermore, the personal havens we create are not dom, justice and compassion as universal givens. confined to the interior world of our minds and Amidst this calming and abatement of the mabul’s hearts. As was the case with Noah’s teivah, we also waters, we cannot, and must not, closet ourselves in our bring “specimens” from the outside world into the insulated arks, concerning ourselves only with the per- sanctity of our “ark.” Through our observance of the fection of our individual lives and communities, waiting mitzvot, we employ a great variety of the creatures for G-d to send Moshiach. We must throw open the win- and elements to fulfill G-d’s will: the animal hide that dows of our “arks” and reach out to a world that is shed- is made into tefillin, the wool spun into tzitzit, the ding the turmoil of its mabul past. Our continued efforts food which provides the energy to pray, the money to establish that the world is indeed ready for redemption given to charity. These are all “brought into the will hasten the divine word from on high, instructing us teivah” — made part of a personal universe that is that the era of universal peace is upon us. wholly devoted to good and G-dly pursuits. Based on the teachings of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, www.therebbe.org; But our personal arks are not ends in themselves. It adapted by Yanki Tauber, [email protected] is not sufficient to bring “samples” from the outside into the insulated havens of Torah and prayer and content ourselves with these pockets of perfection adrift in a strife-torn world. Our “arks” must also serve as the seeds from which a new world, embrac-

turies (Noah’s grandfather, Methuselah, lived 969 years; his father, Lemech, 777 years; Noah himself, FROM THE CHASSIDIC MASTERS 950 years). The Zohar explains that this was an era of divine benevolence, in which life, health and prosperity flowed freely and indiscriminately from Above. THE RAINBOW Following the Flood, we see a steady decline in the And G-d spoke to Noah and to his sons with him, human lifespan. Within ten generations, Abraham saying: “... This shall be the sign of the covenant is “old” at the age of 100. which I am making between Me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all gen- The second difference is one that seems at odds erations. with, and even contradictory to, the first: after the Flood, the world gained a stability and permanence My rainbow I have set in the cloud.... When the it did not enjoy in the pre-Flood era. Before the rainbow shall be seen in the cloud, I shall Flood, the world’s very existence was contingent remember My covenant.... Never again shall the upon its moral state. When humanity disintegrated waters become a flood to destroy all flesh.” into corruption and violence, G-d said to Noah:

Genesis 9:8-15 The end of all flesh is come before Me, for the earth is filled with violence through them; The rainbow, of course, is a natural phenomenon. behold, I shall destroy them and the earth. Rays of sunlight pass through water droplets sus- pended in the atmosphere; the clear, crystal-like Following the Flood, G-d vowed: droplets refract the light, unleashing the spectrum of colors it contains and displaying them in an arc I will not again curse the earth because of across the misty skies. man.... neither will I again smite everything living, as I have done. For all days of the Yet before the Flood, this natural occurrence did earth, [the seasons for] seed time and harvest, not occur. There was something about the interac- cold and heat, summer and winter, day and tion between the moisture in the earth’s atmosphere night, shall not cease. and the light emanating from the sun that failed to produce a rainbow. It was only after the Flood that No longer would the cycles of life and nature totter the dynamics that create a rainbow were set in on the verge of extinction whenever man strays place by the Creator as a sign of His newly-formed from his G-d. The post-Flood world is a world covenant with His creation. whose existence is assured, a world that is desired by its Creator regardless of its present state of con- The spiritual and the physical are two faces of the formity to His will. same reality. This change in the physical nature of the interaction between water and light reflects a And the guarantor of this assurance, the symbol of deeper, spiritual difference between the pre- and this new stability, is the rainbow. post-Flood worlds, and the resultant difference in G-d’s manner of dealing with a corrupted world. An Opaque World

Contrary Differences Before the Flood, man’s role in creation lay prima- rily in reacting to G-d’s involvement in the world. An examination of the Torah’s account of the first The flow of divine vitality into the world was plen- twenty generations of history reveals two primary tiful and uninhibited, enabling man to attain great differences between the world before the Flood and material and spiritual heights; but these achieve- the post-Flood era. ments were merely man’s acceptance of what was being bestowed upon him from Above, rather than The pre-Flood generations enjoyed long lives-we the fruits of his own initiative. find people living into their 8th, 9th and 10th cen-

FROM THE CHASSIDIC MASTERS from Above. Such was its spiritual nature; as a result, the conditions for a physical rainbow also The pre-Flood world was like a brilliant pupil who failed to develop-the mist it raised could only grasps the most profound teachings of his master, absorb, but not refract, the light of the sun. but who lacks the ability to conceive of a single original thought of his own. So once corrupted- Lacking a creative potential of its own, the pre- once it had distanced itself from its Master and dis- Flood world was left without reason and right for avowed its relationship with Him-it lost the basis existence when it ceased to receive the divine for its existence. When man ceased to respond, the effluence from Above. Then came the Flood. The world held no further use for the Creator. rains that destroyed a corrupted world also cleansed it and purified it, leaving in their wake a After the Flood, G-d imbued the world with a new new world with a new nature: a world that rises to potential-the potential to create. He granted it the meet and transform what is bestowed upon it; a ability to take what it receives from Above and world with the “translucency” and refinement to develop it, extend it, and expand upon it. The world develop the gifts it receives into new, unprecedent- was now like a disciple who had been trained by ed vistas of color and light. his master to think on his own, to take the ideas which he learns and apply them to new areas. Man When this world goes astray, G-d sees its rainbow, was now able not only to absorb the divine input and the sight causes Him to desist from destroying into his life but also to unleash its potential in new, it. For the rainbow attests to the world’s new matu- unprecedented ways. rity-its ability to ultimately rise above its present lapse and rebuild its relationship with its Creator. Such a world is in many ways a “weaker” world than one that is wholly sustained by divine grace. It is more independent, and thus more subject to the Based on an address by the Lubavitcher Rebbe limitations and mortality of the human state. Hence www.therebbe.org; adapted by Yanki Tauber, the shorter lifespan of the post-Flood generations. [email protected] But in the final analysis, such a world is more enduring: even when it loses sight of its origin and purpose, it retains the ability to rehabilitate itself and restore its relationship with its Creator. Because it possesses an independent potential for self-renewal, it can always reawaken this potential, even after it has been suppressed and lain dormant for generations.

Rising Mist

The rainbow is the natural event that exemplifies the new post-Flood order. Moisture rises from the earth to form clouds and raindrops, which catch the light of the sun. A less refined substance would merely absorb the light; but the purity and translucency of these droplets allows them to focus and

channel the rays they capture in such a way that The content on these pages is produced by Chabad.org, and is reveals the many colors implicit within each ray of copyrighted by the author, publisher and/or Chabad.org. If you sunlight. enjoyed this article, we encourage you to distribute it further, provided that you comply with our copyright policy The pre-Flood world lacked the rainbow. There was nothing in or about it that could rise from below to interact with and develop what it received

Link: two stories http://www.chabad.org/search/keyword.asp?kid=2301

s u n d a y Tishrei 30 | October 26

ROSH CHODESH f r i d a y Cheshvan 5 | October 31 Laws & Customs: Rosh Chodesh observances LIGHT SHABBAT &FESTIVAL CANDLES BEFORE SUNSET Today is the first of the two Rosh Chodesh ("Head of the www.chabad.org/calendar/candlelighting.asp Month") days for the month of Cheshvan (when a month has 30 days, both the last day of the month and the first day of the following month serve as the following s h a b b a t Cheshvan 6 | November 1 month's Rosh Chodesh). Special portions are added to Torah reading: Noach (Genesis 6:9-11:32) the daily prayers: Hallel (Psalms 113-118) is recited -- in its "partial" form -- following the Shacharit morning Haftarah: Rani Akara (Isaiah 54-56) prayer, and the Yaaleh V'yavo prayer is added to the Amidah and to Grace After Meals; the additional Musaf prayer is said. Tachnun (confession of sins) and similar prayers are omitted. Many have the custom to mark Rosh Chodesh with a festive meal and reduced work activity. The latter custom is prevalent amongst women, who have a special affinity with Rosh Chodesh -- the month being the feminine aspect of the Jewish Calendar. Links: The 29th Day; http://www.chabad.org/article.asp?aid=2764 The Lunar Files http://www.chabad.org/article.asp?aid=1209

m o n d a y Cheshvan 1 | October 27 Laws & Customs: Rosh Chodesh observances [see above]; month of Cheshvan begins The month of Cheshvan is also called Mar-Cheshvan. Mar means "bitter" -- an allusion to the fact that the month contains no festive days; it also means "water", alluding to the month's special connection with rains (the 7th of Cheshvan is the day on which Jews we begin praying for rain (in the Holy Land), and the Great Flood, which we read about in this week's Torah reading, began on Cheshvan 17th). Link: The Last Jew http://www.chabad.org/article.asp?aid=60358

W e d n e s d a y Cheshvan 3 | October 29 On This Date: Passing of R. Israel of Ruzhyn (1850) The 3rd of Cheshvan is the yahrtzeit (anniversary of the passing) of the famed Chassidic master Rabbi Israel of Ruzhin (1797-1850), known as "The Holy Ruzhiner." The content on these pages is produced by Chabad.org, and is copy- Rabbi Israel was a great-grandson of Rabbi DovBer of righted by the author, publisher and/or Chabad.org. If you enjoyed this Mezeritch; a close friendship existed between the article, we encourage you to distribute it further, provided that you com- Ruzhiner Rebbe and the 3rd Chabad Rebbe, Rabbi ply with our copyright policy Menachem Mendel of Lubavitch.