“These are the generations of Noach … Make for yourself an ark of gopher wood ….” (Bereshit, 4:9–14) Concerning the ark, God gave Noach advice and protection until the days of wrath would pass, and similarly all whose hearts are not yet refined can receive advice from the ark as to how to find refuge and protection from all evil that upsets the world. Thus we find in the words of our sages (Tanna Dvei Eliyahu Rabba, Ch. 6), “If a man sees that suffering is coming upon him, he is to run to the inner chambers of the Torah, and it will give him advice as to how to survive.” Advice from the ark based on that is written in the Gemara (Pesachim, 113b), “There are three whom the Holy One, blessed be He, loves—one who does not get angry, one who does not get drunk, and one who forgives.” One who does not get angry is one who does not show any anger through actions. One who does not get drunk is one who possesses a settled mind, recognizing and believing in the Creator of the world. One who forgives means one who removes the anger from his heart, not leaving in his heart any grudges against his fellow man. The ark hints at these three aspects. “Make yourself an ark of gopher wood” means not to get angry, for gopher (gaphrit) or brimstone teaches of anger (cf. Rashi, ad. loc.) We are rather to take the anger and make an ark out of it, to make it a closed structure. Close the anger inside and don’t reveal it in external actions. “Make rooms in the ark” teaches of the next stage, order. In other words, don’t act like a drunk in a state of disorder, but rather attain peace of mind, for one who has many rooms must have a sense of order to know the location and function of each one. The order of the Mishna called Kanim teaches of this.¹⁴ means nest, hence room; thus, organization of space. The mishnayot in Kanim deals with sacrifices brought from birds.Therefore one who doesn’t have peace of mind and a pure heart cannot understand the true depths of the Torah in the order of Kanim. “Seal it from within and without with pitch.” This is the third stage. Do away with all anger and forgive. “Sealing with pitch” or “ve’chaparta” in Hebrew is comprised of the same letters as “atonement,” capara, meaning to atone from the depth of your heart, so as not to leave even a residue of the anger against your fellow man. With the very measurements of the ark we may derive the word for tongue, lashon (Lamed Shin Nun) in Hebrew. “Three hundred cubits in length [Shin], fifty in width [Nun], and thirty in height [Lamed],” meaning not to have a lying tongue. Also, these measurements teach of the way of service commanded in the Shema, with all your heart, all of your soul and all of your possessions.” “With all your heart,” or Levaveicha, is Lamed (30). “With all your soul,” or nafsheicha, is Nun (50). “With all your possessions” or me’odeicha is Shin (300), for me’odeicha, “possessions,” also translates as “much,” hence expansion. Thus me’odeicha signifies all one can fathom and expand upon in his mind, and the most one can fathom is hinted at in the letter Shin, the penultimate letter in the alphabet, the most we could ever fathom in our lifetimes. God hid the secret of the final letter of the alphabet, Tav, in the world to come. Furthermore, whenever the sages wanted to express a very large amount they said three hundred (Shin), as in (Chullin 90b), “three hundred kor,” or the three hundred Cohanim in the Mishnaic order Middot (Ch. 3, Mishna 8). “Make a light for the ark” means to know that everything is in God’s hands, as light stands for clarity and knowledge. “Complete it to a cubit from above” means to constrict one’s self in all receptions of Divine effusion, so as not to be greedy. “Place an entrance on the side of the ark,” in other words, similar to the explanation of the Midrash on the verse (Bamidbar Rabba, Ch. 19:16; Tehilim, 34:15), “seek peace and run after it Seek peace where you are, and run after it elsewhere.” This means that as far as you are concerned, do not create any obstacles to peace, rather run after your fellow man in the pursuit of peace to bring him close to you. However, this too is not always necessary, for in everything there is a certain amount of uncertainty. Sometimes we encounter people who are not fit to bring home, yet still we are not supposed to altogether reject them. And this is the meaning of, “place the entrance on the side,” as if to deal with them in a way that is not readily apparent. “Make lower second and third sublevels,” meaning that Noach was commanded to know how to conduct himself with his three sons, each according to his level. With Ham he was to conduct himself on the lower level, speaking to him only on the surface. With Yaphet, on the second, and Shem on the third, with whom Noach could speak from the depth of his heart and reveal all his secrets. All these were advice for Noach as to how to conceal himself before he had achieved completion. Then immediately after he had left the ark and had in fact achieved completion, he proceeded to do the opposite of what he was advised to do. This is as it says, “and he drank and became drunk.” Then he became angry with Ham, not exercising patience. When one achieves true completion it is then permitted for him to extend himself, for in such a state everything is according to God’s will.

footnotes: ¹⁴ Kan

“And he sent out the raven, which went back and forth ….” (Bereshit, 8:7) The raven hints at anger. Noach wanted to rid the world of the attribute of anger, yet the Holy One, blessed be He, showed him that there was still a need for the attribute of anger in the world, for sometimes when an evil desire comes to man he may save himself by entering into a state of anger. This is the meaning of the verse, “the raven went back and forth until the waters dried from the land,” in other words, when evil lusts are eradicated there will be no need for anger, for water represents lust. Therefore in the Holy Temple there was a small hint of this, for there was an “ama caleh oreiv” (Mishna Middot, 4:6), a sharpened plate on the roof one cubit high that prevented ravens from roosting there (representing the eventual eradication of anger).

“… and God said in His heart, I will no longer curse the earth because of man ….” (Bereshit 8:21) Here Noach knew God’s thoughts. He had tremendous fear imprinted in his heart after the flood, which led him to understand that it is not befitting for man to extend himself as much as he wants, but must rather curb his spirit. From this he understood that similarly it was God’s will not to curse the land again.¹⁵

footnotes: ¹⁵ Perhaps because of the new consciousness in man that he must limit his desires. This is reminiscent of a line from the poet William Carlos Williams, “Man has hitherto survived because he has been unable to realize his desires. Now that he can realize them, he must change them, or perish.” One may understand this in reference to the principle of kabbalah that from the physical world we may learn of the attributes of the Divine. Therefore, if such a spirit arose in man that he must limit his desires, so it must have arose with the Omnipotent to refrain from destroying and re-creating the imperfect creation, for as our sages said, “G-d would create and destroy worlds until He created this one.”

“And shall be fruitful and multiply, swarm in the earth, and multiply therein.” (Bereshit, 9:7) Regarding this, the Midrash (Bereshit Rabba, 34:21) relates the following story. “A disciple of R. Yossi was sitting before him and could not understand his lesson. ‘Why can’t you grasp it?’ he asked. ‘Because I am an exile from home,’ he replied. ‘Where are you from?’ he asked. ‘From Gabat Shanimai,’ he answered. ‘What is the air like there?’ he asked. ‘When a child is born there we need to smear his head with a salve lest insects should eat him,’ he replied. Though the air of his hometown was infested and evil, still he was homesick and could not concentrate. ‘Blessed is He who inspires people with a love for their place!’ he exclaimed. In the future too it will be like this, as it is written (Yechezkel, 36:26), ‘And I will take away the heart of stone from your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh—lev basar,’ a heart which has no envy [boser] of his neighbor’s portion.” The sin of the generation of the flood was envy, where everyone had an evil eye on the portion of his neighbor. On this, God said to Noach, “and you shall swarm in the land,” for “swarming,” shratsu in Hebrew, indicates smallness, like the interpretation of Rashi of blessed memory on the phrase, “swarming creature” (on Bereshit 1:20, where he says, “every living thing that low to the ground is called sherets”). So this is “swarm in the land,” meaning to be satisfied with your portion no matter how small, and not to be jealous of the portion of your neighbor. “And increase therein” means that you will experience ever greater delights from your own portion, and increase therein.

“And it shall be when I bring clouds over the earth, then the rainbow will appear in the cloud.” (Bereshit, 9:14) “Cloud” signifies fear and the concealment of His presence. “Rainbow” (or simply “bow”) signifies a stronghold. That is to say with powerful fear you shall find great security, and this is what the Holy One, blessed be He, promised Noach. This is as it is said in the holy Zohar (Bereshit, 72b), “do not expect the heels [arrival] of the Messiah until you see the luminous colors of the rainbow.” This means that once the great strengths of God are apparent and explicit before your eyes, then you may expect the arrival of the Messiah. We find this in the question of R. Shimon bar Yochai to R. Yehoshua ben Levi (Ketubot, 77b): As Yehoshua ben Levi proceeded on his way he found R. Shimon bar Yochai sitting on thirteen tables of gold. “Are you,” R. Shimon asked him, “the son of Levi?” “Yes,” he replied. “Has a rainbow ever appeared in your lifetime?” “Yes,” he replied. “If that is true then you are not the son of Levi” (the rainbow was a sign that God would never again destroy the world, which should not have been necessary in the generation of a Tsaddik such as Yehoshua ben Levi. as the Tsaddik’s merits alone should be enough to save the generation. See Rashi). But truly a rainbow had not appeared in his lifetime, but he thought, “I do not want to take the credit for myself.” Rabbi Shimon specifically asked him, “has the rainbow appeared [“nirata,” just as it is worded in the verse],” and not “have you seen [ra’ita],” for the meaning of “appeared” means occasionally but not constantly. Yet for Rebbi Shimon, the rainbow appeared constantly. The rainbow and the great strength of Israel is the “Shema’ Yisroel - Hear O Israel,” which gives strength to the hearts of those who yearn for His mercies.

“And it was, that the whole earth was of one language and one speech.” (Bereshit, 11:1) The verse is formulated “one language” (“one lip,” sfat echad) and not “one tongue” (lashon echad). This is because the principal tongue is the holy tongue, the Hebrew of the Tanach, emerging from that which is imprinted in the depths of the heart, where all the other languages are called stammering. Thus is it written (Yeshahya, 33:19), “of a stammering tongue, of no understanding,” meaning that it has no root of life in its heart, for understanding is in the heart. With the generation of the division of mankind (builders of the tower of Babel), even though they spoke in the holy tongue, their language was not from the root of life, but rather lip service. Their speech was more like the chirping of birds and other animals.¹⁶ So it was with the snake, where all the commentaries ask why it was not cursed by having its tongue removed (only its legs were removed). Truly it did not have a tongue at its roots since it spoke lashon hara (evil speech) against its Creator. This idea deserves deep consideration.

footnotes: ¹⁶ That is, not conveying the depth of understanding from the source of life of which speech is capable.

“And the days of Terach were two hundred and five years. And Terach died in Haran.” (Bereshit, 11:32) Rashi explains (why the Torah mentions Terach’s death at the end of Parshat Noach, and not when he actually died, after Avraham has set off for Canaan,) that this is so Avraham will not be criticized for not fulfilling the commandment of honoring his father. It is said in the Midrash (Bereshit Rabba, 39:7), “The Holy One, blessed be He, said to Avraham, you are exempt from honoring your father.” God also established a covenant with Noach, but He did not establish a covenant with Noach in the way that He established a covenant with Avraham Avinu. With Noach, God established a covenant regarding behavior (derech erets), as is explained above (see, “and God said in Heart”) where He says, “and I will establish My covenant with you and not destroy the world.” This is because after the terror of the flood Noach accepted upon himself not to extend himself as much as he wanted, and God agreed not to destroy the world. This being so, Noach began to involve himself in the world, using his wisdom in worldly endeavors (farming, etc.). However, he was not yet included in the realm of Torah. God’s covenant with Avraham Avinu centered around the Torah and he did not have to involve himself in worldly conduct, for worldly conduct (derech erets) precedes the Torah. Therefore he did not have to fulfill the mitzvah of honoring his father. One who is involved in Torah does not have to be engrossed in worldly conduct, for if he is truly involved in Torah than proper conduct will be inherent in everything he does, even unconsciously. Therefore it says, “and Terach died in Haran,” for “the evil are called dead even while they are alive.”

When enumerating the ten generations from Adam until Noach (Bereshit, Ch. 5) it says, “and he lived … and all his days were …” Yet with the ten generations from Noach until Avraham (Bereshit, Ch. 10) it does not say “and all his days were.” This can be understood through the verse (Mishlei, 23:24), “The father of a Tsaddik will greatly rejoice, and he who gives birth to a sage shall take joy in him.” With the sage, it does not say “the father” as it says “the father of the Tsaddik.” When a man gives birth to a Tsaddik, then the father has a connection to him, for the level of Tsidkut—righteousness—that is active in the son exists in a hidden way with the father. Yet when a sage is born to him, meaning wise in words of Torah, then he is a completely new birth, and the son has no connection to the father, for he is a new entity. Therefore it does not say with the sage, “the father will take joy,” for he is no more connected to the father than the rest of the world. It says only “shall take joy in him,” meaning that the whole world will take joy in him, and they will no longer be involved with the father, only with him. For the sage is born of words of Torah, and then the whole world rejoices, becoming involved with the son but not with the father. Therefore, with the ten generations from Adam until Noach, it says “and all his days were,” even though he had already fathered a son, therefore it is fitting to remain involved with the father. Because “Noach was a righteous man [Tsaddik],” and still has a connection to his father. However, with the ten generations from Noach until Avraham, it does not say “and all his days were,” for Avraham Avinu was a sage in words of Torah, as we say that he fulfilled the entire Torah before it was given. Therefore he has no connection to his father, so then after each generation fathered a son the verse does not go back and deal with the father, saying “and all his days were,” for it is no longer necessary to deal with the father, but only to take joy in the son.