From Life
Parshas Noach
Posted on October 18, 2012 (5773) By Rabbi Label Lam | Series: Dvar Torah | Level: Beginner
And
Noach began (profaned himself)- the man of the earth, and planted a vineyard.
And he drank of the wine, and was drunk and he was uncovered within his tent.
(Breishis 9:20-21)
And Noah began: “Vaychal”- This can be understood as “he made
himself profane”- for he should have first engaged in planting something
different. — Breishis Rabbah . i.e., he should not have planted a vineyard,
from which wine is produced, but other trees. (Rashi)
Why did Noach degrade himself by planting wine first and getting
drunk? ` Was he not introduced to us as a “righteous and perfect man”!? Why did
he deviate so dramatically from his stature as an extra good man?
Here’s a story hot off the presses, pun intended! Just this past
Friday night I was enjoying a slow paced and conversation filled walk back with
a few of my boys accompanied part of the time by a local Talmud scholar who was
filling my ears with interesting ideas about a subject of common interest. It
could not have been more peaceful and delightful except for the fact that I was
feeling hungry and I could hardly wait for the delicious Shabbos meal to begin.
As we turned the corner for the final stretch of about five houses or so, I
noticed on the opposite side of the street a young Rav from the neighborhood
who was also slowly making his way home. I remembered that I been struggling
with an unresolved question in Hallacha and I thought that this may be the
opportunity to seek an answer.
I crossed the street to greet him and we started our discussion while
continuing to walk. While on our way, I perceived a smell of smoke. He stood
still and curiously agreed that somebody must have been burnt leaves or perhaps
dinner. As we passed the next house it became suspiciously evident that it
might be coming from this house. Taking the risk of being intrusive we knocked
on the door and inquired about the smell of smoke. There was a mommy and a few
young daughters waiting for the father to come home. The house was quiet and
calm and smoke free. We expressed our concern based on the smell of smoke and
curiously proceeded to the next house where the scene was serenely similar and
smoke free.
We were almost ready to abandon our search assuming someone had a
wood burning stove somewhere in the neighborhood when a neighbor from the
second house prompted by our inquiry noticed smoke billowing from the Sukkah on
the porch of the first house. I immediately ran over and kicked open the door
and found two mattresses standing upright leaning against the back wall of the
house and resting on a flood light. The mattresses were on fire. I dragged one
mattress in flames off the porch and a neighbor pulled off the other. We
estimated that in a matter of a few minutes the entire house would have been
suddenly engulfed in flames. The family was on the inside a few feet away where
the window was shut due to the cold weather. I went home and ate a delicious
Shabbos meal.
After Shabbos I received a call from my neighbor who expressed his
deep and sincere gratitude. I told him that I was only glad that things had
turned out the way they did considering how it almost did not. After hanging up
I reflected on how horrible I might have felt had I walked on by and not taken
an extra step to investigate- how waking up the next morning knowing I could
have done something and failed to act- and how filled with regret and angst I
might have been. I realized it was a close call for them and for me too.
Noach was different than Avraham. He is credited with remaining good
and decent but criticized for not having an active program to reach out and
help save others. After a year in the Ark, Noach stepped out for the first time
assessed the magnitude of the human devastation. Everyone was gone. He
suffered from survivor syndrome. So he turned to wine. While some drink wine to
remember, as we do on numerous occasions like Kiddush, many indulge in drink to
forget. That haunting agony lead Noach to drink not L’Chaim “to life” but
M’Chaim – from life.
DvarTorah,
Copyright © 2007 by Rabbi Label Lam and Torah.org.
Parshas Noach
Posted on October 30, 2019 (5780) By Rabbi Pinchas Avruch
| Series: Kol
HaKollel | Level: Beginner
“And
Cham, the father of Cana’an, saw the nakedness of his father and related it to
his two brothers outside.and Shem and Yefes took the garment.and covered the
nakedness of their father.” (Berisheis/Genesis 9:22-23) Noach (Noah), whom the
Torah tells us was a righteous individual, had been treated disgracefully by
one of his sons and respectfully by his other two. The Torah’s record of the
reaction of this righteous individual to this incident is unusual. First he
cursed the descendants of his grandson Cana’an that they should be slaves to
the descendants of Shem and Yefes, and then he blessed the descendants of Shem
and Yefes.
One would expect such an individual to be more forgiving,
particularly toward his own grandchild. He did not reprimand him to improve his
behavior, he simply cursed him. Why? Further, Noach’s reaction seems to be an
impulsive result of anger. If G-d deemed Cham’s actions worthy of punishment,
He is certainly capable of doing that without Noach’s curse. What is the
significance of Noach’s curse, that the Torah recorded it? Finally, why did
Noach connect his curse of Canaan to the blessings of Shem and Yefes, and once
he did connect them, why did he not offer the blessing first?
Rabbi Shimshon Raphael Hirsch (1) explains that the name Cham –
Hebrew for “hot” – is indicative of his nature. Cana’an, Cham’s son, was an
individual who, in the heat of the moment, would lose his self-control as well
as respect for anything or anyone spiritually elevated, including his
grandfather’s honor. Knowing Cana’an’s nature, he understood his descendants
would likely possess these same traits. For such people, leadership and even
freedom can be very destructive. Chasam Sofer (2) explains that Noach’s curse
did not come from anger. He was interested in fixing that which Canaan (and
Cham) had done wrong. Therefore, Noach “cursed” Canaan’s descendants to be
slaves because that would ultimately be in their own best interest. By being
subservient to the G-d- fearing descendants of Shem, the descendants of Canaan
might be influenced positively and improve themselves. At least they would be
limited in the amount of destruction they could cause themselves and the rest
of the world. The blessings of the other sons were meant to help them be true
role models, secondary help for Cana’an’s service-bound descendants.
We often wonder why we are not the recipients of wealth, power, or
other blessings that we would like, curious why we must face the challenges and
choices we confront daily. We forget that these “blessings” may indeed be
curses, with many tests and responsibilities that we are ill equipped to face
and are not in our best interest. Whatever our current situation presents us,
it is a custom-tailored opportunity from G-d, that He has sent us to utilize to
feed our spiritual growth and forge our G-d consciousness. What we, with our
finite minds and blinded perspective, may view as a curse, He has afforded us
as one of our greatest blessings.
Have
a Good Shabbos!
Parshas Noach
Posted on October 19, 2017 (5778) By Rabbi Berel Wein
| Series: Rabbi
Wein | Level: Beginner
The
deleterious effects of alcohol abuse are clearly evident in this week’s parsha.
Noach, after the trauma of the great flood and the destruction of his society
and world, somehow drowns his sorrows in wine and becomes drunk and loses
control over himself. From that incident, further tragedies, curses and
disasters arise until it seems that the entire exercise of the flood seems to
have been purposeless and irrelevant.
The scourge of alcohol related tragedies that was for many years
almost unknown in the Jewish world is today commonplace in our society. Binge
drinking by kippah-wearing youths is now an accepted way of life in the
Diaspora and here in Israel as well. If one has any doubts about the effects of
such behavior on family life, employment success and social interactions, let
him spend five minutes speaking to Dr. Abraham Twerski. He will quickly
disabuse (no pun intended) you of such a fanciful untrue notion. Automobile
fatalities, broken families and homes and marriages, violent behavior and an attitude
of uncontrolled hedonism all are products of the vineyard of Noach.
Because of this alarming situation in the Jewish world there are now
synagogues that ban any form of liquor except for kiddush wine from being
served or located on its premises. The excuses of Purim and Simchat Torah may
have been valid for previous generations of sober minded Jews. In a generation
of over indulgence and uncontrolled materialism, such as ours resembles,
alcohol has become lethal to Jewish life, behavior and values.
There is a wonderfully true and pithy Yiddish aphorism that
states: “What a sober person has on one’s lung (controlled within) a drunken
person has on one’s tongue (exhibits in one’s outside behavior.)” I knew Jews
who when drunk on Purim would pour their hearts out to G-d and recite the
entire Yom Kippur services by heart. Others who were great scholars would
repeat countless sections of the Mishnah by pure memory.
When wine enters then the inner secrets of a person are revealed is
certainly a correct assessment. Therefore, I was mightily disturbed when on the
night after Simchat Torah “religious” Jews who were visibly drunk went on a
stone-throwing binge at passing cars here in Jerusalem. No matter what type of
dress they wore on the outside, their true inner selves was revealed to be one
of hatred, violence and vandalism. By such behavior, Jews can revert back to be
Sons of Noach instead of Sons of Avraham.
I think that Noach’s failure to realize the inevitable consequences
of his drunkenness is one of the saddest narratives in the Torah. We will meet
another incident of the dangers of an alcoholic binge in the story of Lot and
his daughters. There too, as in the case of Noach, future generations of
history are affected negatively by the drunken behavior of an ancestor.
I therefore think that the story of Noach in this week’s parsha is
most relevant to us and our times. To ignore that lesson is truly to place
ourselves personally and society-wise in a very dangerous and unfortunate
position.
Shabat shalom.
The
Hidden Blessing
Parshas Noach
Posted on October 30, 2019 (5780) By Rabbi Pinchas Avruch
| Series: Kol
HaKollel | Level: Beginner
“And
Cham, the father of Cana’an, saw the nakedness of his father and related it to
his two brothers outside.and Shem and Yefes took the garment.and covered the
nakedness of their father.” (Berisheis/Genesis 9:22-23) Noach (Noah), whom the
Torah tells us was a righteous individual, had been treated disgracefully by
one of his sons and respectfully by his other two. The Torah’s record of the
reaction of this righteous individual to this incident is unusual. First he
cursed the descendants of his grandson Cana’an that they should be slaves to
the descendants of Shem and Yefes, and then he blessed the descendants of Shem
and Yefes.
One would expect such an individual to be more forgiving,
particularly toward his own grandchild. He did not reprimand him to improve his
behavior, he simply cursed him. Why? Further, Noach’s reaction seems to be an
impulsive result of anger. If G-d deemed Cham’s actions worthy of punishment,
He is certainly capable of doing that without Noach’s curse. What is the
significance of Noach’s curse, that the Torah recorded it? Finally, why did
Noach connect his curse of Canaan to the blessings of Shem and Yefes, and once
he did connect them, why did he not offer the blessing first?
Rabbi Shimshon Raphael Hirsch (1) explains that the name Cham –
Hebrew for “hot” – is indicative of his nature. Cana’an, Cham’s son, was an
individual who, in the heat of the moment, would lose his self-control as well
as respect for anything or anyone spiritually elevated, including his
grandfather’s honor. Knowing Cana’an’s nature, he understood his descendants
would likely possess these same traits. For such people, leadership and even
freedom can be very destructive. Chasam Sofer (2) explains that Noach’s curse
did not come from anger. He was interested in fixing that which Canaan (and
Cham) had done wrong. Therefore, Noach “cursed” Canaan’s descendants to be
slaves because that would ultimately be in their own best interest. By being
subservient to the G-d- fearing descendants of Shem, the descendants of Canaan
might be influenced positively and improve themselves. At least they would be
limited in the amount of destruction they could cause themselves and the rest
of the world. The blessings of the other sons were meant to help them be true
role models, secondary help for Cana’an’s service-bound descendants.
We often wonder why we are not the recipients of wealth, power, or
other blessings that we would like, curious why we must face the challenges and
choices we confront daily. We forget that these “blessings” may indeed be
curses, with many tests and responsibilities that we are ill equipped to face
and are not in our best interest. Whatever our current situation presents us,
it is a custom-tailored opportunity from G-d, that He has sent us to utilize to
feed our spiritual growth and forge our G-d consciousness. What we, with our
finite minds and blinded perspective, may view as a curse, He has afforded us
as one of our greatest blessings.
Have
a Good Shabbos!
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