Noach: The Teivah as a Lesson in Chesed, Responsibility, and Caring for Others

Transcript

This Torah class is brought to you by TorahAnytime.com. ...mitz Hashem, we're going to discuss Noach and the teivah, Mabul and the teivah. It's a big part of the history of the Torah, the story of the Mabul, to understand what exactly was the chet, what was their sin, and why did HaKadosh Baruch Hu want that the world should, so to speak, rebirth itself through the teivah, and how are the lessons to be taken? What are the lessons to be taken from this? We know Hashem said He'll never destroy the world again through water, so someone could come and say, so then it's just a story of the past. It's a nice, quote-unquote, fairy tale. What are we to learn from the Mabul, and what are we to learn from the teivah? So I want to begin by asking a few questions which are brought down in the mefarshim, and with this we'll have a better understanding, a better understanding: what was the sin, the chet, the problem of the dor haMabul, and why the teivah was its solution? Why was the teivah the answer to the dor haMabul? So I want to begin by asking a very simple question. HaKadosh Baruch Hu looks at the dor haMabul and He says— Keitz kol basar ba lefanai, ki malah haaretz chamas. I can't have this. This is not what I had in mind when I created the world. It's ruined. All the flesh, even the animals, everything is no good. So I once saw in the Chasam Sofer that asks a great question. The purpose of creation anyway was not these people. The asarah dorot miNoach v'ad Avraham Avinu is irrelevant. You look at the Mishnah, the mefarshim over there in Avot, it's just we went through it quickly to get through it. The main thing was Klal Yisrael. Avraham, Yitzchak, Yaakov, and Klal Yisrael, Kabbalat HaTorah. So who cares ki hishchit kol basar es darko al haaretz? Forget about them, and that's all, finished. Why does HaKadosh Baruch Hu make such an emphasis and pay so much attention to the dor hamabul? They'll die away and that'll be it, finished. Why is it that the Ribono Shel Olam has to come and destroy the world and make a teivah and a whole story, if anyway they want the purpose of creation? B'reishit, bishvil haTorah shenikra reishit, u'bishvil Yisrael shenikru reishit. We weren't even descendants of these dor hamabul people. Klal Yisrael has nothing to do with the dor hamabul. The dor hamabul were resha'im. Klal Yisrael has to do with Noach. We come from Noach. So anyway, Noach was ish tzaddik, tamim haya bedorosav, and that would be it, and finished. Now we'd move on to the next, to the next generation. Why is there so much effort in cleaning out the dor hamabul? It's a very nice question. The answer needs to be very well examined. And the answer probably is, Vatishachet ha'aretz. If you notice, it doesn't say that the people became ruined, but rather the earth, vatishachet ha'aretz. Even the earth itself, the land, the world itself became ruined, became rotten, became completely mushchat. Chazal tell us that gimel tefachim me'omek hamachreisha, which means three tefachim from the surface, had to be cleaned off. Why did it have to be cleaned off? It had to be destroyed. And the answer is because vatishachet ha'aretz. The sin went so much into the earth that literally, not the people.

The people forget the people. Forget the behemot. The Beit Halevi explains, behemot, behemot don't have bechirah. You look at the Ramban. Ramban says clearly, Vayizkor Elokim, Hashem remembers the zchut of the people and the animals in the teivah before they left. It says in the pasuk, Hashem remembers the zchut. So the Ramban explains, Vayizkor pasuk aleph, chet aleph, Vayizkor Elokim et Noach, et kol hachayah, et kol habehemah asher ito bateivah. Says the Ramban, we don't mean the zchut of the animals, because animals, ein lahem lo zchut v'lo chovah. Animals don't have any zchut, chovah. They don't have taavah, they don't have bechirah. There's other Rambans in the parashah which contradict this Ramban. It's not exactly the right moment to go into this concept. Do animals have bechirah? They don't have bechirah? It's a good question. But simply, we're not blaming the animals. Vatishachet, they did something which was no good, even though they behaved improper, but it was the man's fault. It was the person, says the Beit Halevi, because people did these tremendous sins, these tremendous aveirot, it was mashpia. It left its mark on the animals that they also did these things. So actually, through the actions of man, everything became rotten. You know, there's a Gemara in Ta'anit, daf tet amud bet. The Gemara says an interesting thing, that certain clouds are a sign that it's going to rain. While other clouds, they don't mean rain, depending on how the structure of the clouds is. Is it in a row? It's not in a row. The Gemara says that a certain Tanna went to Bavel, and he sees these clouds which mean rain. And he said, Bring in the clothing. They used to hang the clothing outside to dry. Bring it in. It's going to rain. At the end, it didn't rain, and of course, when a rav says something and it doesn't come out, so all the people started to mimic, to mock him. Ah, ah, well, you said it was going to rain. It didn't rain. How come? He says, It's not my fault. I saw the clouds, and these clouds mean rain. Yeah, but how come it didn't rain? So he answered them, because just like the people here, the Bavlayim are shakranim, so too their clouds are shakranim. Min, with his koach, with his actions, he's the one that's mashpia. He's the one that influences the world around him. So the Beit Halevi says that this is the pshat in the animals. Not that the animals did anything, because they were no good. People were no good. Through the actions of the people, it trickled down into the animals. The Rishonim tell us, so too it trickled into the actual fiber and fabric of the world. Vatishachet ha'aretz. Not vatishachet habasar, kol basar ba'aretz, et ha'adam, et hachaya, lo. Vatishachet ha'aretz. The land itself became rotten. It became mushchat. To the point that when the mabul came, it had to sweep off and scrape off, you hear, three tefachim. What? Omek hamachreishah, because omek hamachreishah is a symbol of man's action. Man takes a tractor and he works on the field, and it reaches three tefachim. So man's action reaches three tefachim to the ground, and they had to wipe that away. There's an interesting Chafetz Chaim in Chayav U'Pa'alov brought down that somebody came to the Chafetz Chaim to ask if he wants to move to Israel, is it a good idea? Chafetz Chaim was a little hesitant, and he said, I'm not so sure, but even if you do move, I want to give you good word of advice. I want you to be zahir in lashon hara when you get to Eretz Yisrael. Why lashon hara more than anything else? So the Chafetz Chaim answered, I want you to be careful from lashon hara because it's in the fabric, in the fiber of Eretz Yisrael, lashon hara, because since the meraglim spoke lashon hara 2,000 years ago, so in the walls, so to speak, in English we call it in the walls.

In the land itself, there's lashon hara. What's the chiddush of the Chafetz Chaim? First of all, they didn't speak lashon hara in Eretz Yisrael. They spoke in the Midbar. Yet, but they went to Israel with the intent of speaking lashon hara, Yom Lashanah. Every day that they traveled was to come back and say bad, right? Rashi says they left b'eitzah ra, that originally, when they started to go already, they were in a bad idea to bring. They had a bad plan to bring lashon hara in Eretz Yisrael. Second of all, it was desolate for many years, for many, many years. The story of the Meraglim, 2,000 years ago, 3,000 years ago, and still yet what? It's still in the walls, yeah. Still in the ground, the inyan of the lashon hara. I saw Reb Chaim Kanievsky shlita in his sefer Derech Sicha. He discusses an interesting thing. He says that there was a religious family that moved into an apartment that before them was a Chilonim. Chilonim were in the apartment, and, you know, they didn't behave properly in the apartment. So the person was asking Reb Chaim Kanievsky, does he have to worry that in the walls went in the aveirah, like we find by the teivah? So if you ask me, I would, ah, come on, what's in the walls? Reb Chaim Kanievsky said, No, yeah, it's a problem. And he instructed them, he gave them advice that they should take, in the bedroom al kol panim, where they're going to live, in the bedroom where they're going to sleep, that they should replaster the walls. Why? Vayimach et kol hayekum, you know, it goes into the walls. And this, rabosai, is a tremendous lesson. The same way aveirah goes into the walls, kedushah also could go into the walls. A person that speaks devarim tovim, and he speaks no machlokes, ahavas chesed, and divrei emut, divrei stories of tzaddikim, it's in the walls. You know, there's a very famous expression, aznayim la-kotel. The walls have ears. What does that mean, what, the walls are going to talk? The Gemara even says that when a person comes l'din, kirotav, the walls of his house are going to be me'id. They will say testimony about what he did in the house. You see that it goes into the walls. There's a concept that a person's actions is mashpia around him. In the dor hamabul, their actions were so rotten that vatishachet ha'aretz, it went into the world. So it wasn't only strictly the behavior of the people, because then, you know what? You're right, they'll die and that'll be it, so there'll be the next generation. And let's say they're no good, but so what? There'll be a Klal Yisrael, they will be good. The problem was that the earth itself, the world became rotten, to the point that it was not fit to be a world that the Torah and Klal Yisrael, keeping the Torah, could be in such a world. That's the pshat. Vatishachet ha'aretz. Hashem is not so concerned about that generation. He was concerned about hashchatat ha'olam, the world. The keilim, the utensil, the world would not be a kli ha'ui l'kabalat haTorah, ha'ui l'klal Yisrael lishmor haTorah, because it became infested. And therefore it needed Vayimach et kol haיקום, and to start over again through the teivah. How exactly was the teivah the tikkun to the Vayimach et kol haיקום, to the destruction of Vatishachet ha'aretz? The way the Rishonim are masbir, the way they explain, that the idea of the teivah was twofold. It wasn't to save Noach, because Rashi brings down, Harbeh revach v'hatzalah lefanav. Hashem could have saved Noach many ways. Why did Hashem make a teivah? So Rashi says that when He built the teivah, it was musar. It was a chance for Noach to give musar to the people. They would pass by, they would see an old man build a teivah, they would ask, What are you building the teivah? And he would say, Because Hashem is bringing a mabul because you're not behaving properly.

This answers only, what, why he had to build the teiva. But it still doesn't answer what, why he had to go through 12 months in the teiva. Once he built the teiva, right, the people got the musar, or they didn't get the musar. So let's say they didn't get the musar, so the mabul came. Then Hashem could have made it easy. You know how difficult it was for him in the teiva? Hotziani masger nafshi. The pasuk is by Esther, Hotziani masger nafshi. Chazal are doresh this about Noach. Chazal say that Noach said, Hotziani masger nafshi, take me out of this jail. The teiva was tremendous, tremendous difficulty. It's tremendous yisurim. The Gemara tells us that Noach was busy 24/7 feeding the animals, on the moment. One moment he came late. One time he came late for the lion, and the lion gave him a whack, and he made him an invalid. He couldn't even walk because of it. This, rabosai, was yisurim nora'im. Why was it necessary for him to have the teiva in the mabul? To build the teiva, Rashi already tells us what. Rashi tells why he had to build the teiva. That was to give the musar for the people. Now someone would ask, why do you— I once asked this— why do you need the teiva? Let him just get up and give musar. And the answer could be, if a person is pretty healthy, so you can give him musar. But if a person is very sick in aveirot, so you need to do something chiddush, building a boat, to attract the attention. And once you attract the guy's attention, you can give him the mussar. Otherwise, get up and tell him, Oh, you're supposed to behave. He's not even listening. His mind is somewhere else. They needed something unique, a special, a special type of, you know, to get to them. You build a boat, it gets their attention, their fascination, and then he gave them the mussar, and it still didn't work, and it still didn't work. But the question is, that's the building. Rashi only answers why you had to build the teivah. Rashi doesn't tell us why you had to live in the teivah, and the Rishonim tell us there were two reasons for the teivah. One is because they had to rebuild the world. The world was mushchat. The teivah was called Olam Katan. It was a new—it's like a world for itself, a world for itself. Other Rishonim explain that it was actually for Noach. Why? The Medrash says that Noach was soon going to learn, did many aveiros. Not many, but he did not what he was supposed to do. He didn't completely do his responsibilities before the mabul. So, l'taher, like it says in the pasuk, Kinim ta'aseh lateivah. Kinim is rooms, but it also has to do with ken tzipor, like a nest of a bird. A metzora brings a bird. Chazal say that just like the ken is metaher et hametzora, so too the kinim, the teivah will be metahercha, it will clean you. You see clearly that Noach, Noach himself needed tikkun, taharah. There's also Gemara, Chazal, Vechafarta otam mibayit umichutz. It's a lashon of smearing it with lime pitch. So the Gemara's doresh, the lashon kaparah, forgiveness, that the teivah will be mechaper on you. So you see clearly that Noach needed kaparah and taharah. We're going to discuss in a few moments, for what did he need his kaparah? For what did he need his taharah? But the point is that the building of the teivah, truthfully, correctly so, was to the musar for the people. But the living in the teivah for 12 months, that was either for rebuilding the world, for re-establishing an entire new world. Needed to start the world all over again. The teivah was an olam katan. Many mefarshim say, olam chesed yibaneh. The idea of the world has to be built on chesed, and therefore the teivah was chesed. And since the teivah was the rebuilding of the world, so it had to be olam chesed yibaneh. Rav Gifter, zichrono livrachah, has a whole sichah about this, olam chesed yibaneh, that the rebuilding through the teivah had to be through chesed, which is what Noach did constantly. And the other pshat that's brought down in the Rishonim, it's a tikkun. It was a tikkun for Noach. Question: what tikkun did Noach need? What did he do?

that needed such kapara. What was it that he did? So to answer this question, I want to show you something very interesting. What did he bring to the teivah? Does anybody know what he brought to the teivah? So it says in the pasuk that he brought all live animals, right? Two of the koshers, seven of the koshers, two of the non-koshers, right? Now why did he bring of the non-kosher two? So that's clear in the Rishonim, kiyum ha-min. In order for the world to continue, you needed two, a husband and a wife, so to speak, even though there's no such thing as a husband and a wife by animals. But the pasuk uses the expression of husband and wife, and the Rishonim already ask, husband and wife, since when do animals have husband and wife? They kept lemin. Those that kept to the same min, that's all it means. Okay, point: in order for it to reproduce further. But if you look carefully in the Rashi and in the Chazal, you see he brought very strange things into the teivah. It says, Mikol hachai, mikol behemah, shnayim shnayim. What is the difference between chai and—I'm sorry, not mikol—mikol hachai u'mikol basar, that's the word of the pasuk. Mikol hachai u'mikol basar. What's the difference between chai and basar? Basar means that that's flesh. So what's chai that doesn't have basar? What, an ameba? You take a look, maybe he brought, maybe. You know, you look through the stethoscope, you look through the microscope, you'll see things which don't have any mamashut, but they're a bacteria, they're alive. Maybe that's what it means, huh? Rashi brings down from Chazal it means something else. Rashi brings from Chazal, mikol hachai, afilu sheidim. Demons! He brought demons into the teivah. I always wondered to myself, who needs demons in the teivah? What, do you need sheidim in the teivah? Ben enough, he lived with sheidim till the teivah. You want to say I should bring the sheidim into the teivah? Rav Shteiman, in his sefer, I saw this year, because many years, every year I work on this question, I never understood it. So this year I was zocheh to see Rav Shteiman's sefer, and he brings down, kanireh, he says, that the world needs it. Sheidim is a part of the briah; it was needed, yeah? And since it was needed, he had to save it through bringing it into the teivah. What do you mean, he couldn't stay outside? What, it would be in danger, the sheidim, if they were out of the teivah? You see fish were able to stay out of the teivah. You see og was able to stay out of the teivah. So why did the demons need to come into the teivah? So I found in Rabbeinu Bechaya that he, in one line, he discusses this question, and he says, from here you see that the sheidim wouldn't have survived out of the teivah. Why? Because the avir, they would be in the air. The air, there was something in the air that was killing everybody. Maybe disease, maybe it wasn't the water. You know, we know in the fairy tale books they have that you throw the water on the witch and she melts. So maybe the sheidim, they melt when they throw water on them. From Rabbeinu Bechaya is mashma it wasn't the water. Rabbeinu Bechaye seems to say that in the avir, there was plague. Hatez kolbas Hashem destroyed the world with mabul, and the mabul caused tremendous disease, and they wouldn't have survived, says the Rabbeinu Bechaye, and therefore you have to bring them into the teivah. And we have to say, kani deh, that the world needs sheidim. I want to tell you something very interesting. There's a Medrash Shocher Tov that the Chafetz Chaim brings down in his sefer Sfat Tamim. Chafetz Chaim wrote a sefer called Sfat Tamim. In perek beis, he discusses an interesting Medrash Shocher Tov, and that is that the mazikim called pachsa came, and they wanted to come into the teivah. So Noach said, You can't come because you don't have a zug, you don't have a shidduch. So he looked around quickly to find, like in America, when you want to stay in America, you have to find the spouse, otherwise you can go green card. So he quickly looked to get into the teivah with a spouse. So he found another thing that didn't have a shidduch. You know what that was? Shikra, lie. The midah of lying didn't have. Yeah, it's a real, real Medrash. So they got married. Pachsa and Shikra got married, and they made a pact between themselves, and that is that whatever Shikra produces, Pachsa can get a part of it, and vice versa. Bottom line is—

But sheker makes nothing; it destroys it, so there was nothing there. But they got married. That's what it says, they got married. Now why only sheker? I guess for a shidduch, the quickest thing is sheker. Maybe that's the easiest way to make a shidduch, you know. In shidduchim, the sheker has more chances, you know. Al kol panim, this is a medrash. I never understood this medrash. Even the sheidim and the mazikim need a shnayim shnayim. It says in the pasuk, Mikol hachai, mikol b'heima shnayim. So even the sheidim needed shnayim. What do the sheidim need shnayim for? Bishlama, you say you need to save the sheidim. All right, so you bring them in. But that they had to come in as pairs of two, and the medrash goes and says, well, there was a shed, there was a mazik called Paksa, and he couldn't find the shidduch, and therefore he had to pair up with Shikra. It sounds like a fairy tale story. Well, what does it mean? So I want you to know that there's different types of sheidim, and what do I mean? You'll soon see what I want from all this. If you look further, it says that the Eibishter remembered, yeah, when they left, it says that they left, what? Mikol, all the beheimos, yeah. Tes, I think it's perek tes. Yeah. Vayomer Elokim, zois osafti... No, not this one. Yeah. It says that the Ribono Shel Olam took him out, all the beheimos. Kol haremes haraimes al haaretz. Yeah, one second. So Rashi says, l'rabos hamazikim. You have it? Here it is. Pasuk yud, tes yud. V'ani hineni meivi es hamabul mayim... v'eis kol nefesh hachayah asher itchem, ba'of, babehemah, uv'chol chayas haaretz itchem. Right? So what's chayas haaretz? Chayas haaretz, says Rashi, l'havi hamazikim, she'einam bichlal hachayah she'itchem, sheheim hilucham im habriyos. So even the mazikim left the teivah. Who are these mazikim? So the Maharal learns we don't mean mazikim sheidim; we mean mazikim, wild animals, like the ari and the dov and the namer, because these mazikim ein hiluchan im bnei adam; they don't go with people. So that's what it means in the pasuk, that I'm hineni meivi them with the chayas haaretz, because they don't go with people, but I'm making the bris, and I'll make sure they reproduce. The Mizrachi argues on the Maharal, and he says, No, no, no, no. When it says mazikim in this Rashi, you know what it's referring to? The sheidim that Rashi spoke about before. Why? There's different types of sheidim. There are sheidim which are not mazikim, and there are sheidim which are mazikim. If you take a look at the Rav in the Mishnayos in Perek vav in Avos, the Mishnah over there says that bein hashmashos of Erev Shabbat, Hashem created a few things. For example, the chamor of Bilam. was created. Now one of the things it says over there, Hashem created with sheidim. Why did the sheidim? So the Rad brings down the Medrash that it was Erev Shabbos, and Hashem was creating these people, but He didn't have a chance to finish creating them because Shabbos came. So they were left with neshama bli guf. They were left with a neshama bli guf. So these sheidim are not bad. These sheidim are tzaddikim. The Medrash even says, why did Hashem keep these sheidim? Hashem kept them as a lesson for us to see if Hashem stopped for Shabbos, so too we have to stop for Shabbos. So those sheidim are good, but those are not mazikim. Mazikim would be like the Medrash Shocher Tov that speaks about pachsa. Pachsa was a sheid, a mazik. Pachsa means to destroy, pachas. So did He bring in sheidim, good ones, kosher sheidim, or did He bring in sheidim, no good ones? Rashi seems to say mazikim. So if you learn like the Maharal, maybe He only brought in good sheidim. He didn't bring in mazikim. Ay, it says mazikim in Rashi here. What is it referring to? The animals, the wild animals. If you learn like the Mizrachi, l'choira even the sheidim were mazikim also. What am I trying to bring out? I'll tell you what I'm trying to bring out. Do sheidim eat? The Gemara Chagigah daf tezayin says that there's three things about—

Sheidim, they're like people. And three things like sheidim, they're like malachei hashares. They're like malachei hashares; they don't have a guf, they don't have a body. They're like malachei hashares; they have wings. They're like malachei hashares; they can fly around from one side of the world to the other. But they're like Bnei Adam, says the Gemara, that they eat, they sleep, they die, and they have—and paru v'ravu, they have children. They have children like people. Oh, so if they're paru v'ravu, so now I know why they needed a shidduch, and now I know why they had to come into the teivah, af ki amin, in order they should survive. And I also understand that Noach had to feed them. I found that the Altufus Labotka in Chelek Gimmel, perek says he even fed the sheidim. Can you imagine he was feeding the— I don't know what they eat, this I don't know. You look at the Maharsha on that Gemara. The Maharsha says they go to Olam Haba. Maharsha says sheidim, Maharsha says. That's what it means, they die. They die and they go to Shamayim like people. I saw Rav Yehuda Chassid in Sefer Chassidim writes that sheidim are mekaymim kol haTorah kulah, even all the derabbanans they keep. So if so, I hear why the sheidim went into the teivah. What are sheidim? They're people, just they don't have a guf. And you have to save them because they needed to have children. So this is all the years how I understood. The idea of bringing the sheidim into the teivah, because they needed it for the world. They needed to have children, otherwise they won't survive. They can't survive outside, like Rabbeinu Bechaye says. So just like the animals, mikol hachai, mikol basar, he had to bring them in. To make sure they survive the mabul. But this year I came up with an idea, another whole idea. Why did He bring the sheidim into the teivah? I saw the Alter of Slabodka has a whole sichah. Why did Hashem make Noach suffer in the teivah, yeah, to sit there and feed, and why? Why did He do that? Says the Alter of Slabodka, beautiful pshat, ah, beautiful. He says HaKadosh Baruch Hu was teaching Noach that even though I'm destroying the world, and I'm b'midas hadin, being nokem, and I'm killing and ruining and destroying, but it's really midas harachamim. So at the same time, I want you to take in all the animals and feed them. Noach, learn that I don't mean midas hadin, I mean midas harachamim. At the same time where there's midas hadin to such an extent, in truth, it's midas harachamim, yeah? So therefore, he brings down that even ein adam dar b'nachash b'kefifah achas, the Gemara says. A person can't even live with a snake. You know the halachos when you see a snake, you're supposed to kill it. Yet, he had to sit in the teivah feeding and caring for snakes and reptiles, scorpions. What's the pshat? I'll tell you the pshat. You know, we're going to learn soon that Noach had one chisaron. You know what Noach's chisaron was? He cared only about himself. It says in the haftarah, Mei Noach. Hashem promises, and He uses the mei Noach as the nekiyas cheifetz, ke'ilu, that He uses the, I swear on the mei Noach. What is the mei Noach? It's the mabul. So the Zohar asks, why is the mabul called the waters of Noach? Noach didn't bring the mabul. The people brought the mabul. You want to take a tzaddik, and you want to give him a good, what do they call that, a memory, to commemorate his name. Don't call the waters of the mabul after him. Imagine you call cancer after a tzaddik. You know this cancer? We'll call it this tzaddik. You know they do that, like Lou Gehrig's disease they have. Yeah, by the goyim it makes sense. You know, you take a big idol, and they call the disease after the person. But imagine they call a disease, Reb Meir. Well, why would you do that, right? You don't take mei Noach, the mabul water, and call it after Noach. Says the Zohar, it's bedavka. Why? Because Noach was responsible that the mabul came. Noach could have stopped it, or al kaponim should have tried to stop it by praying for the people of his generation. We're going to learn soon in great length that Noach seemed to be more preoccupied with himself than with the people of his generation.

Generation. This is why HaKadosh Baruch Hu put him into a teivah. He put him into a boat that his whole day was busy, preoccupied with what? Not himself. It says clearly in Chazal he didn't have a minute for himself, not one minute. Twenty-four hours a day, for seven days a week, for twelve months, he was busy with the animals. No noach. Vayisha'er ach Noach. Noach left the teivah a broken person. There was no noach left afterwards. Yeah? This is the teivah mitaratcha, the teivas Yokapara, because on a certain level, Noach needed to cleanse himself. Because as we're going to learn in great length in a few moments, Noach, before the mabul, behaved in a way which wasn't about the other person; it was about himself. And to fix that, he needed to go through twelve months in the teivah. So what is the Torah teaching Noach? Mikol hachai, even if it's not an animal, but it has life to it, you have to care for it. I want to tell you a story. A friend of mine's father was once talking in Torah with learning with Rav Shiskal, Rav Moshe Shiskal, the son-in-law of Rav Moshe Feinstein, zichrono tzaddik livracha. He himself, Rav Shiskal, was also a tremendous tzaddik and a gaon; he passed away, he was young. Rav Moshe mourned his death all the years. Remember Rav Moshe, you know, years after Rav Shiskal was niftar, every year would make a hesped on the day of Rav Shiskal's petirah. He would be maspid him. He always spoke very—he was considered a future gadol, Rav Moshe Shiskal. He was talking to this person in Torah, and as the person, my friend's father, was talking, he broke a branch. You know, sometimes when you're preoccupied, you play with a twig, so you broke a branch. So Rav Shiskal turned to him and said, Rav Daniel. Tchalebedik isach. It's alive. How do you break a branch? There's life in it. And we don't mean life like an animal. We're talking about some source of life. You don't have a feeling for it. Go and you break it. Because Noach didn't care about his dor enough to be mitpalel for their yeshuah, Hashem brought him into a teivah. Mikol hachai, anything that had anything to do with life. So even sheidim, even sheidim. Sheidim don't have a body, yet it has life. Hashem bringing it to the teivah, care for it and feed it. There's a medrash that says that actually Noach brought plants into the teivah. Many Rishonim learned that the plants were there to feed the animals. But it's not so simple, and I'll tell you why. Because it says, V'hayah lecha v'lahem l'achlah. The food that he brought for the animals, it says clearly in the pasuk, should be for you and for them to eat. So the Rishonim say clearly, based on Chazal, that it had to be the same food. Noach brought in his food, food that he was able to eat, and he fed the animals with it. So then it wasn't plants. Noach can't eat plants. So I never understood, according to this pshat, that he brought in the food that they should eat, his food. So why would he bring plants in? And maybe it has to do with this mikol hachai. Also, Noach had to care. Noach had to work to preserve anything which had any life in it, because he showed a lack. of caring and a lack of derech eretz for the live people in his generation. You know where I got this yesod from? You know, Yonah really teaches us this yesod. What happened by Yonah? Yonah is that he didn't want to help Ninveh. Hashem wanted Ninveh to do teshuvah, and Yonah didn't care for Ninveh. He had good cheshbonot, because it would be a ta'anah on Klal Yisrael that they do teshuvah and Klal Yisrael didn't. But Hashem said to him, You didn't have rachmanut on Ninveh. So what did Hashem do? Hashem put a plant. Remember after the story of Ninveh, a plant grew on top of him. It covered him, it shaded him, and then Hashem took away the plant. So what does Hashem tell him? You cared about the plant, huh? Did you make the plant? It's a plant, and still, what? You had feeling for the plant. So how could I not have feeling for what? For my creation. You see that the Ribono Shel Olam, through a plant, teaches a person that if there's feelings for a plant, then there has to be feelings for a people. Noach...

Going to learn in a few moments lacked that feeling for the people around him, to care for them, to the point that it was called Mei Noach. The waters of the mabul were called Mei Noach. And therefore, and therefore what, Rabosai? Therefore, HaKadosh Baruch Hu told him to build a teivah where he was going to spend 12 months, caring nothing of himself and strictly only caring about mikol hachai, mikol basar, anything that had any sustenance of life in it, and even possibly plants, sheidim included, and of course animals, and even the wildest and worst of animals. And this was the tikkun, the kaparah. Where did this come from? Where did Noach's middah come from, right? And like we said, that the teivah was not only to correct Noach, but to fix the generation too. It was to rebuild the world. So let's go back into Noach's not caring about the people, and let's see if it's rooted in the chet and in the atmosphere and in the attitude of the people of the dor hamabul. If you take a look, it says clearly that Noach, yesh doresh lignai and yesh doresh lishvach. Ish tzaddik tamim hayah b'dorosav. Now if you look, ish tzaddik tamim is a very nice title that you're giving somebody. Yet Chazal come along, and yesh doresh lignai. Some say that it's—we don't mean to say nice; we mean to say bad, because if he was in the dor of Avraham Avinu, he'd be nothing. So all the mefarshim ask. I mean, if you can be doresh l'tov and you can be doresh l'gnai, why should you be doresh l'gnai? I mean, there's two roads in front of you, especially a person not alive anymore. You know, when a person is alive, they're very critical of him. And then when it comes to his levaya, the same things that you were critical—oh, he was such a tzaddik, he did this, he did that. Noach is dead. He's not here anymore. So be doresh l'shvach. Why be doresh l'gnai? What do you want? So I was thinking there's an interesting Chazon Ish in Igros, Iggeret Kuf Lamed Aleph, that says that you're allowed to talk about Gedolei Yisrael. They do have this ma'alah, they don't have this one has, this one doesn't have. Why? Because it's all for the sake of limud. You have to learn. Let's say a person is a certain type of person, so he can have more from this gadol because this gadol has this personality or this techunah or this good trait. So a person must, he says—that's what the Chazon Ish says—a person must evaluate the greatness of their tzaddikim and gedolim around them to learn, for the purpose of learning, of growing in avodat Hashem. A person is a tzaddik, so we're not going to go learn by him. Could you learn by him? He doesn't know how to learn. Who says he knows how to learn? So to come and say about a tzaddik he's not such a big talmid chacham, but he's a big tzaddik, maybe there's nothing wrong with it, says the Chazon Ish. Nothing wrong with that. Because each one, you have to see the ma'alah. So I understood that this is what Chazal are teaching us here too. Yesh doreshin l'gnai. We don't need to put down Noach. Like Rashi says, if Noach would be between tzaddikim, he'd also be a tremendous tzaddik. We're comparing him to who? Bedoro shel Avraham. The question was to compare him to Avram. Why? Because a person has to know: was Noach right or was Avram right? What's the difference between Noach and Avram? It's brought down in all the Rishonim, all the Acharonim, they discuss that Noach had a different shittah than Avram. Avram went out, ki adatif l'maan asher yetzaveh es banav es beiso acharav. He went out and helped everybody to return to the Shechinah, to the Ribono Shel Olam. He tried to get everybody back. To be mekarev rechokim, while Noach didn't do that. In Yiddish, there's an expression about Noach, which they've hundreds of years they've been saying this, the Baalei Mussar and the Baalei Noach, that tzaddik in peltz. What is a peltz? A peltz is a fur coat. Tzadikim used to wear fur coats. So a fur coat warms up only the person that's in the coat, but it doesn't warm the person around me. You could be freezing. You stand next to a guy with a peltz, it's not going to help you anything. So Noach warmed himself. Noach was religious. He was working to grow himself. But around him, he didn't care so much for the people around him to be mekarev אותם. And that's how people always say the difference between Noach and Avraham. I'm going to teach you that there can't be anything more further from the truth than this statement. Not true. And there has to be an explanation to what it means, and I'll explain to you as follows. Of course, Noach was busy with the people. There's no question.

As a matter of fact, when Avraham Avinu davens for Sedom, the Aruch HaChaim learns he learned it from Noach. This was in comparison to Noach, and I'll soon explain to you what I mean. To come and say that Noach didn't care at all about his generation—firstly, he built a teivah. But what do you think he was doing when he built the teivah? He was giving them mussar, so you can't say that he wasn't busy with the people. The original person to write this was actually the Chasam Sofer in the teshuvos, in hakdamah to his teshuvos in Yoreh Deah. He brings down that Avraham was mekarev, while Chanoch and Noach were not, and that's why ki lekacho—Hashem takes back Noach. Why does He take back Noach? Because Hashem is eino chafetz b'malachim; He's not interested in malachim. He's interested in people among people to be mekarev, to make others do mitzvos. So since Noach stood mitboded, he was alone, Hashem says, I don't need you. Come up to Shamayim; you'll have better. You want to live in the daled amos shel halachah? Go upstairs; there's better daled amos shel halachah. The truth is, the Chasam Sofer himself writes in many places that that's not what he meant, because he says if you look at the pasuk, it says, Noach ish tzaddik. What is ish? So the Litvisha, the Lithuanian baalei mussar, explain that a person has to first be an ish. You have to be a man. Then you can be a tzaddik. Then you can be a tamim. But if you're not an ish, you're not a man, it's nothing with nothing, yeah? If you take a look, yeah, the Kotzker Rebbe said the same idea. It says, Le'olam yehei adam yerei Shamayim. So simply, what do we mean a person should be? So the Kotzker Rebbe says, No, no, you have to put the commas in the right place. Le'olam yehei adam. First you have to be an adam. Next, yerei shamayim. Works in steps. You have to be a mensch. You have to be a person, to be a mensch. So Baalei Mussar, the Lithuanian Baalei Mussar say over here, Noach ish tzaddik tamim haya. But the Chasam Sofer says a different pshat. Why does it say ish? Ish always connotates that he was a person among the people. Says the Chasam Sofer, shelo hitboded. He didn't sit alone, and he says this by Chanoch also, the Chasam Sofer. Even though he always speaks about Chanoch and Chanoch were not with the people, for the people to be mekarev, but he writes clearly they were among the people. So then what happened? What's between him and Avraham? Just wasn't matzliach. It's not that he didn't try. Of course Noach tried. You see he tried. It just didn't work out. You look at the Siforno. The Siforno, the first two Sifornos on this week's parsha says the same thing. He brings down from the Chaldai, he brings down from the history books, that Noach was busy giving mussar to the people. Noach was giving mussar, constant mussar to the people. So don't think that Noach wasn't mekarev. He was mekarev. He just wasn't matzliach. He didn't have success. Who says it was his fault? Maybe it was the other people's fault. How do you know whose fault it was? Maybe it was the people. You know, they say over from a Bisrol Salanter that he would say over every year the same Shabbos Teshuva drasha, same one. So they went over to him and they asked him, Rebbe, don't you think you should change the drasha? You know what he said? When you change the aveiros, I'll change the drasha. You do the same aveiros, I give you the same drasha. Change yourself, I'll change the drasha. It's very possible a person could get up year after year and give a mussar drasha, and it doesn't go anywhere. People aren't changing. Noach tried. Ish tzaddik tamim. As a matter of fact, my Ral explains that in the beginning it says, Ish tzaddik tamim haya bedorosav. Later on it says, Ki otcha ra'iti tzaddik, and it doesn't say tamim. So they all ask, why does it in the beginning say tamim, and later it doesn't say tamim? So Rashi says, Miktzat shvacho befanav. Miktzat shvacho befanav. You say a little bit; you don't say all the shevach. So in front of him we say tzaddik tamim haya, but in front of him, Ki otcha ra'iti tzaddik. Maharal says a little different. In the beginning, he lived for himself as a tzaddik. He was tzaddik tamim.

But then later on, he had to start giving mussar to the people. For 120 years he was building a boat and giving them mussar. He had to drop the tamim, because in order to give mussar, says the Maharal, you have to know about a mumiyut. You have to be wise and try to get into the guy's head and try to fix the guy. So in the beginning he was ish tzaddik tamim. Later on he became ish tzaddik because he had to drop the tamim, because once he became a mashgiach in the yeshiva, he couldn't be tamim anymore. So what do you see from all this? They tried, tried, tried very hard, Noach. So then why do we blame him? Why do we blame him? So we can give a few answers. We can give a few answers. It's brought down in the Zohar that the problem wasn't that he didn't give mussar. Mei Noach is not because he didn't give mussar and therefore we blame him for the mabul. It's shelo hitpalel al doro. It's because he didn't pray for the people. Avraham Avinu, if you notice, prays for Sodom. Noach didn't pray. Question: why not? It's not a good question. If he was giving them mussar, let him pray. Why takke didn't he pray? You know, there's a very famous Gemara. The Gemara says that Rameir was living in a town with a lot of baalei aveirah. So he wanted that they should die. So his wife told him, You shouldn't pray for that. What should you pray? Yitamu chata'im v'lo chot'im, that the sin should go away, right? So why would Noach not pray? So you could come and say, maybe Noach held that rishayim. Why should I pray for them? They're rishayim. Why am I going to pray that rishayim should— they do hashchatat olam. I should pray that they should have kiyum? You notice Avraham did pray for Sdom. Could be. The Rishonim explain he prayed through an interesting way. He didn't pray, Hashem should save them. What did he pray? Ulai yesh tzaddikim. Twenty, thirty. Why did he pray that there should be a case of tzaddikim? So the Rishonim say, so the tzaddikim could be mashpia. They could fix the chataim. They could fix the chataim. They could fix the sins. You don't pray that a baal aveirah who's ruining the world should live and be happy and should succeed. So therefore it's not a question why Noach doesn't pray. Noach doesn't pray because he looks at the world and he says, This is what I'm going to pray for? They're garbage. Garbage! Garbage! Who's going to pray for this? I, Avraham Avinu, prayed for Sdom. Maybe he prayed tzaddikim. If there's tzaddikim, they could be mashpia. Avraham Noach saying, It's not working. I tried. So then what's the taanah? And the answer could be maybe he could have prayed that they shouldn't do the aveirot. You're right. Noach can't have a prayer that the rishayim should live, but he could be yitamu chataim v'lo chotim, that the chataim should get taken away from the world, that they should have siyata d'shmaya to do teshuvah. You see a person doing an aveirah, it's your responsibility to pray for him that he should be chozer b'teshuvah, not that he should do aveirot and live. Maybe that's why there was a problem that Noach didn't pray. There's a Chazon Ish at the end of Orach Chaim that says to pray that someone shouldn't do aveiros is a good prayer, and we see this from Noach. I bechirah. I, a person has free will, so what, I'm supposed to pray, yeah, that that guy shouldn't do aveiros, but he has free will to do aveiros. I'm mixing into the bechirah. Says the Chazon Ish, don't worry about that. That's not a stirah to bechirah. What you're praying is, יש סייעתא דשמיא. You're praying that Hashem should help him see the truth and he shouldn't do aveiros. So Noach, true, you couldn't have prayed that the way they are, they should have a forgiveness for their aveirah, but you could have prayed that what? That they don't do the aveiros anymore, maybe. And since you didn't pray for that, maybe Noach, he get punished for that. Very possible, yeah, rabosai, very, very possible. I saw the Kedushat Levi says a different pshat. You know why he didn't pray? Because he was anav. He was very humble, and he thought to himself, who am I to mix in? Who am I? Hashem decides that these people are no good, so I'm going to mix in? If you look at the Orach Chaim, the Orach Chaim says the difference between Avraham and Noach was, he says in this week's parsha.

Hashem comes to Noach, Keitz kol basar ba lefanai. So He already told him that it's finished. Moshe came by Avram, Hashem comes to say to him, I'm thinking of destroying. So Avram saw from that that Hashem is discussing with him, which means that Noach saw that Hashem came to him with a decision already, while Avram says, Derech chayim, saw that Hashem was discussing, Hamechaseh ani me'Avraham asher ani oseh. He wanted to discuss it. So Avram felt that he's able to pray, while Noach felt there was nothing to pray for. So this is very good with the Kedushas Levi's pshat. The Kedushas Levi explains that he felt that he was very humble. What, Hashem says, I'm going to go argue with what Hashem says? We find by Moshe Rabbeinu, Hashem also said, I'm going to destroy the... The Chaim explains that Avraham Avinu did daven. Why? Because Hashem came to him without a final decision that He's going to destroy them. He came, Hamechaseh ani me'Avraham, I want to discuss it, says the Derech Chaim. If you're going to discuss with me, there's still room to pray. But Noach felt that Hashem came to him with a decision already. This is very good with the Kedushas Levi's pshat, that once Hashem comes and tells him that He's going to destroy, he didn't have the gevurah. He didn't have the strength to go and argue with what Hashem said. If you look, Moshe Rabbeinu does have the strength. Hashem says, I'm going to destroy Klal Yisrael. What does Moshe Rabbeinu do as a leader? He comes and he puts himself, Mecheini na mi'sifracha, right? Erase me. Meaning, he did have the gevurah, he did have the strength to go fight directly against what Hashem said. Why? Because he cared about Klal Yisrael. So, and even though he had an aveirah, but you see that the anav of Noach caused him, that the anav of Noach caused him that he shouldn't argue with what HaKadosh Baruch Hu said. So we have a tremendous yesod here, rabosai. We have a tremendous yesod that Noach showed indifference to the dor. He wasn't ready to fight for them. He wasn't ready to care that much, like Yonah, who was taught this lesson that just like you don't have rachmanus on ninveh, look at this plant, and you have rachmanus on the plant. So Noach was being taught the same thing. How can you not have rachmanus on the bnei hador, that they should do teshuvah, and therefore I put you into a teivah, that you should learn this lesson. I want to go one step further, rabosai. What was the atmosphere that the dor hamabul caused that did have hashpa'ah to some effect, to some point on Noach? Noach obviously was somewhat of a product of his dor, to the point that you see that the teivah had to be metaher Noach. So what was it in the dor hamabul that, of course, Noach was above them and greater than them and better than them, but had some effect on him? And the answer, of course, is, rabosai, that they also had this nekudah, that they were about themselves and not about the other person, and I'll explain to you what I mean. The Gemara tells us that the dor hamabul had ervah, shfichas damim. They had avodah zarah, like it says clearly, kol wherever there's avodah zarah in Gilah arayos, ardamlusya ba l'olam. So you see clearly that they did all these aveiros. Yet the Gemara says, Keitzad ba'ah baalafanekimah l'aretz chamas, lo nechtam gzar dinam ela al hagezel. That the reason why they got punished at the end was because of gezel, which means they did all these tremendous aveiros: avodah zarah, gilui arayos, shfichas damim, everything they did. Yet lo nechtam gzar dinam ela al hagezel. I'm sorry, not shfichas damim. They did ervah, avodah zarah, and lo nechtam gzar dinam ela al hagezel. Why? So the Medrash Tanchuma says, she'ein lecha issur gadol yoter mehagezel. The greatest issur we have is gezel. Medrash Tanchuma. Pela, why? Why should gezel be worse? Now you know on Yom Kippur we talk about by neilah, Hashem should protect us mioshek yadeinu. We ask Hashem that we should cleanse us from geneivah. And the Rishonim and mefarshim explain because geneivah, Hashem doesn't listen to tefillah where there's geneivah. It's terrible, horrible.

Why is it so? Why, from all the aveiros that a person could do, geneivah, oshek yadeinu is the worst? Meiri Tachchumah seems to say, yeah, it's the worst. There's a Ramban on that pasuk of Mala artzcha chamas, and he says, you know why it's so bad? One, it's min hamuskalos. It's an aveirah which the seichel, any normal thinking person understands you're not allowed to steal. And the second thing the Ramban says, because it's ra labriyos, it's not only ra laShamayim. Avodah zarah, and giluy arayos is ra laShamayim, but if a person steals, it's ra laShamayim v'ra labriyos. Okay. I saw the Brisker Rav brings down in the teshuvos, this was before the Beresheva on that Gemara, Lo nechtem gzar dinam ela al hagezel, says the same thing, the Beresheva, very famous sefer, because of tzaakas hanigzal, the nigzal screaming, You're stealing from me. Shoma es tzaakato. When a person screams to the Eibishter in pain, the Ribono Shel Olam listens to him, so therefore, lo nechtem gzar dinam ela al hagezel, because people were hurt, people were screaming to the Ribono Shel Olam. Now it's interesting, normally it says by almanah, by almanah it says, Shomaa es tzaakatah, listen to the cry. So the Beresheva seems to learn Hashem anyway listens to the cry, any time, any nirdaf, Elokim yevakesh nirdaf. Whenever someone comes, cries to Hashem, he's stealing, he's hurting me, Hashem listens and pays back right away the person who's doing that chet, who's hurting that person. Says Brisker Rav here too, problem, I found the Reb Yehuda Chassid in Sefer Chassidim, os tof reish nun ches, that it says clearly over there that the dor hamabul... They didn't cry out. There was no tzakas hanigzal in the Dor Hamabul. So the Mabit, the Beis Elokim, explains why not. Because they were stealing from each other. Each guy was stealing from the other guy. So what's he screaming about? Why are you screaming? You stole from me, but I stole from you. What? What? Everybody was doing it. What are you screaming about? So what did the Brisker Rav and the Ber Sheva hold? I hold a very pashut pshat, yeah. You can steal from the other guy, but the moment he steals from you, you can scream. That's the way it is. There's a very famous story that there was a dayan, a judge, who was very corrupt, and he was, you know, going through a din Torah, and one guy was losing. So the guy who was losing goes over to the judge and tells the judge, You know, what happens— I mean, sorry, what can I do that maybe you could make the judgment in my favor? So the judge says, I have a good idea for you. The morning of the verdict, you'll take an envelope, and in the envelope you'll put a few meah, a few dollars over there, yeah? Wave the thing from the back so I should remember that, you know, that— and you slip it under the table, and I'll be posek the mishpat in your favor. Good. Comes the morning of the verdict. Even though the guy was losing, it was obvious the guy lost. Waves the envelope, puts it under the table of the judge, and the judge paskens— he judges in his favor. Okay. The judge takes the envelope and he walks into his chamber. You know, the judges have their own private chamber. He opens up the envelope, and guess what? Empty. So the judge starts screaming, Oy, oy lo masheker! Oy, because oy lo meshashakanim! It's very possible that you steal from me, the minute I steal from you, you're screaming, Ah! ... You stole my money. This, rabosai, it's possible that even though each guy was screaming—I'm sorry, each guy was stealing from the other guy—it didn't take away the fact that it was still ohel masheker, and he was hurting him, and he was yelling, and because they were yelling, Malach Chamas, Hashem paid back both of them. Hashem hit both of them with an onesh. Possible. L'maaseh, I want to say a very big yesod. There's such a thing called taavah. You know, the main chisaron of the Dor HaMabul, brought down in the mefarshim, was taavah. I saw in the Kli Yakar, very famous sefer, he brings from the Morah Tzedek of Vilna, that there it says, it says in the pasuk, Arubos tehom rabbah v'arubos hashamayim niftachu, that the tehom rabbah opened up, the ground from underneath, rabbah. Says Rashi, b'rabbah chatu, uv'rabbah ne'enshu. Because they sinned in rabbah, so tehom rabbah opened up. Says the Morah Tzedek of Vilna, the Kli Yakar brings it down, what does it mean they sinned with rabbah?

Taiva, a lot, more. Taiva. The yesod—it's a true lo nigzar dino ela lachamos, that was the final blow. But the yesod of it, the shoresh of it, was what? A raya, taiva, rabah. Berabah chatu u'berabah kilkelu. Okay. What is the one taiva which is a direct stirah to Torah? The one taiva. Chazal tell us that when the ger came to Hillel to learn the whole Torah, what did Hillel tell him? Ma d'sani lach, l'chavercha lo saavid. The rest is a peirush. So the yesod haTorah is based on the other person—don't do to the other person what you don't want to be done to you. Taiva is bad. Taiva is a stirah to Torah. What taiva is the biggest stirah to Torah? Taiva which causes another person pain. Ma d'sani lach, l'chavercha lo taavid. Why? Because the yesod of the Torah means not me. Ve'ahavta l'reacha kamocha. The mefarshim explain if a person doesn't respect another person, his rights, his feelings, he doesn't respect the Eibishter either, because it's all about him. Torah is—it's not all about you. It's to live a life l'maalah mimcha, above you. It's more than you. It's bigger than you. It's about Hashem. It's about your friend. So ma d'sani lach, l'chavercha lo saavid becomes the yesod of the Torah. I want to tell you something interesting. The Medrash Tanchuma... This week's parsha, Eileh toldos Noach. Noach ish tzaddik, yeah? Says the Medrash Tanchuma, you know the difference between Torah shebiksav and Torah shebaal peh? Torah shebiksav is easy to learn. Torah shebaal peh, very hard to learn. Torah shebaal peh needs yegiah; it needs tremendous hard labor work, and only someone who loves Hashem would learn Torah shebaal peh. This is what the Medrash Tanchuma says on the words, Eileh toldos Noach, Noach ish tzaddik. Comes along the Etz Yosef and asks the question: What does that have to do with Parshas Noach? It's a very nice sicha, beautiful, beautiful Medrash Tanchuma, very famous. All the baalei mussar, all the baalei shmues in the yeshivos use this Medrash. Yeah, but what does that have to do with Noach? What does that have to do with the Dor Hamabul? It says that Noach learned Torah, but what does that have to do with—there's nothing to do with Noach, yegiah baTorah. What does that have to do with anything? So I wanted to say pshat: if you look at the lashon of the Medrash, someone who is asuk in taavah, he can't learn Torah. You need yegiah; means prishah mitaanugei olam hazeh. That's what the Medrash Tanchuma says. And why is the Medrash saying it here? Because the Medrash is explaining what went wrong in the Dor Hamabul. What went wrong in the Dor Hamabul? Vatishachet haaretz; it was full of taavah, to the point that it's not possible to learn Torah like this. And like I explained to you from Chasam Sofer from the beginning of the shiur, they destroyed the world in a way that the world couldn't have Torah later. They ruined the world that the world is not fit for Torah. That's what Eileh toldos Noach, Noach ish tzaddik, tamim hayah bedorosav. And I want to tell you more. You know what the Medrash says, Eileh toldos Noach? Okay, that's how you start a conversation? Noach had three children. You're soelech. Who's Noach? What did Noach do? And then at the end, you say he had three children. Is that how you start a conversation about a biography about a person? His name was Chaim and he had three children. Who talks about—later on you say how many children he had. Says the Medrash that in the dor hamabul they had women, but they didn't have children, because it was all about their taavah. They weren't interested in having children. So I saw Rav Maimon, he's the Merkazol in Brisk, in his sefer, says a beautiful pshat. That's why it starts off, Eileh toldos Noach. The opposite. Noach didn't live for himself. Noach lived and he had children. Noach tried to have children. Noach lived his life not for taavah. Noach lived his life for what? For tafkid, to have children. Eileh toldos Noach. That's what was so great about Noach in the dor, where everybody walked around with a dog, like in France. You have the dog and then two wives. That's the family. No, Noach's family was what? Eileh toldos Noach. Noach had children, because Noach lived not for taavah. And that's what the Medrash is saying, because taavah means you can't learn Torah, and therefore they had to destroy the world. The Ribono Shel Olam had to destroy the world.

To start over again. So how do we start over again? By making the teva, which is all about what? Not me, not taiva. There's no me. ביטול. Completely no me in the teva. And that was a tikun for Noach, because Noach had a little bit of the not caring for the people around him. So therefore he had to carry for the kol hachai, even mikol basar, even plants maybe, because he had to be metaken. He had to be metaken all this, you hear? This is the pshat. This is the pshat of Otai. This is the pshat in Noach. Noach, mei Noach. There was something in the mabul which Noach didn't care about Bnei Doro enough. מה דסאני לך לחברך לא תעביד is a stira to the Torah. You can't have Torah like this. You know, it's interesting. It says in the pasuk, שתולים בבית ה'. Who is שתולים? says the Medrash, זה נח, ששתלו הקדוש ברוך הוא בתיבה. And what do we call it? Beis Hashem. Why is it called Beis Hashem? Because this pshat, rabosai. It was like a yeshiva. It was like a Beis Hashem, the teva. The world was not fit for the Ribbono Shel Olam to be mashreh Shechinah on it. You know, it's interesting. The teva was locked. You know which way the teva was locked? Who knows how? From the outside. How were the shi'arim in the Beis Hamikdash locked? From the outside. Baalei Tosafos say this clearly. There was a lot of resemblance between the Beis Hamikdash and the teva. The inyan of השראת השכינה cannot be in a place where there's no caring for the other person. The taavah is such that I hurt the other person. So the tikkun was the teva. The teva was where it's not about, it's all about the other, the briyah, the Ribono Shel Olam's briyah, not me, not zich. And this was the tikkun for future generations. So the Dor Hamabul was all about me and only me. Gezel, lonechtam gzar dinam ela al gezel. I'll hurt the other guy. The taiva was such that I don't care about the other person. The tikkun was the teva, that it's all about everything but me. And m'meila, from that he rebuilt the world to be able to be a place for later generations, because if not, it's in the walls, Rabosai. The selfishness and the taiva becomes in the walls to the point that this is not a place where there could be Torah. This is the lesson that we could learn, Rabosai, from the Mabul. It's a lesson that a person has to know: Torah means, Mah d'sani lach l'chavercha lo taavid. Not to think only about yourself. And if it means to pray for other people. You know, I always wondered to myself, how can anyone could read a newspaper, the Jewish newspaper, the first page this tzarah happened, and the next page this. After two pages your heart should be, your heart should burst. I mean, how much could you read of the tzarot of Klal Yisrael and not become completely bent out of shape, as they say in English? What do we do? We became numb. Noach became numb also. Noach became numb. Yes, they're going to destroy the world. What are you going to do? No, it's palel. The least we could do is to daven. You see a choleh, you see a tzarah, your reaction should be quickly: take the names of the people, take the families around, and be מתפלל for them. You see people doing aveiros, be מתפלל שיחזרו בתשובה. This is called Torah, and this is called keva, and this is called hatzalat ha'olam, that a person is not living for himself; he's living for the klal, for the... Let's be zocheh to take these lessons. And Avraham took these lessons. There was no Avraham. You know, Avraham, this coming week's parsha we're going to learn, yeah, by the brit milah, he had a brit milah. He was in pain. Yet what was he running to help and to do? There was no Avraham Avinu. He had no concern for himself whatsoever. You're no man. You're sick. You're patur. You're patur. And what's the answer? When you think about yourself, yeah, you're right, you're patur. But you don't think about yourself at all. It's all about helping the other person. So you run even shlishi limilato to do chesed. Let's be zocheh to learn the lessons, and let's be zocheh to hatzlacha in Torah. You've just experienced another Torah class, brought to you...

You, VictoriaAnytime.com.