Today's Learning Yoma 7:3-4 O.C. 61:20-22 Sponsored by Bava Metzia 109 the Saltzman Family Yerushalmi-- in honor of Yoma 6 Aliza Yardena's bat mitzvah HAMAAYAN/THE TORAH SPRING edited by Shlomo Katz NOACH Vol. IX, No. 2 (386), 3 Cheshvan 5755, October 8, 1994 In the well known Rashi at the beginning of this parashah, we learn that some sages compared Noach favorably to Avraham, and some, unfavorably. Rav Chaim Yosef David Azulai ("Chida") zatz'l explains that both views are correct. The midrash (Shocher Tov 36) relates that Avraham asked Shem the son of Noach, "In what merit did you leave the ark?" Shem answered, "In the merit of the charity which we performed [caring for the animals]." Immediately, Avraham said to himself, "If such is the reward for caring for animals, how much greater must be the reward for caring for humans!" At that moment, Avraham established an inn in Be'er Sheva. It turns out that Noach (through Shem) was a major influence on Avraham; in that sense, Noach was the greater of the two. On the other hand, Avraham carried the lesson which he learned to its logical conclusion, while Noach did not. Thus Avraham was greater. (Lechem min HaShamayim) ************************************ "For all flesh had corrupted its ways upon the earth." (6:12) Rashi teaches that the above condemnation includes the animals and even the earth itself. But how is this possible? Neither animals nor clumps of earth have the free-will to sin! Rav Shalom Noach Brazovsky (the Slonimer Rebbe) explains as follows: The animals and the earth did not sin. At the time of the flood, as on Rosh HaShanah, Hashem judged the world--does it deserve to exist? How does one determine that? The whole world was created for man; if man uses it for good, the earth has a reason to exist. If (G-d forbid) man himself has no right to continued existence, the animals and the very soil lose their "rights" (i.e., their reason) as well. (Netivot Shalom) ************************************ Rav Yosef Dov HaLevi Soloveitchik (the "Bet HaLevi") zatz'l explains differently: In short, just as man's behavior affects himself, as we can readily see, so it affects his environment. Even if a person sins in secret, he changes the world by increasing the presence in the world of the evil influence associated with that sin. This, in turn, actually leads the environment to deviant behavior. (Bet HaLevi: Parashat Noach) ************************************ The gemara (Eruvin 18b) teaches that the dove brought back a bitter olive branch to the ark as if to say, "Let my food be bitter, but let it come from the hand of G-d." Rav Mordechai Shulman zatz'l asks: Don't we acknowledge in Birkat HaMazon that we all eat from G-d's hand? What then did the dove mean? G-d can feed us directly or through intermediaries. But the dove understood that feeling close to G-d is such an exalted attainment that if a person is given a choice of working hard to achieve this spiritual high and instead chooses the easy way out, the deficiency created in his soul because of the great potential squandered can never be filled. That "easy way" is receiving one's sustenance through an intermediary. It remains a shame and embarrassment for all eternity. (quoted in Legacy of Slabodka, p.122) ************************************ "Hashem descended to look at the city and tower which man had built." (11:5) Rashi comments: Of course, Hashem did not need to descend in order to see, but He did so to teach judges not to convict until they see and understand. Rav Eliezer David Gruenwald zatz'l elaborates: What Chazal are teaching is that one should not judge another until he stands in his shoes. This is the meaning of Tehilim 37:10, "Just a little longer and there will be no wicked, you will contemplate his place and he will be gone." When you will contemplate his place and stand in his shoes, your assessment of his wickedness will change. (Chasdei David) ************************************ "Come, let us descend, and there confuse their language, that they should not understand one another's language." (11:7) The gemara (Sanhedrin 109) and the Zohar teach that this was just one of many punishments which Hashem meted out to the tower-builders. Why then does the Torah single this out? Rav Yoel Teitelbaum (the Satmar Rav) zatz'l explains that taking away these people's ability to speak Hebrew was not a punishment; it was Hashem's mechanism for stopping their plans. He explains: When people cooperate and work out their plans in the Hebrew language, miracles will occur for them. For that very reason, sinners cannot be permitted to conspire in Hebrew. (VaYoel Moshe p.433) ************************************ Noach is called "tzaddik tamim in his generations" (plural). "Tzaddik" refers to his relationship vis-a-vis man; in the generation of the flood, when the most common sin was theft, he was a tzaddik. "Tamim" refers to his relationship vis-a-vis G-d; in the generation of the flood, when the most common sin was heresy, he was a tamim. (Kli Chemdah: Parashat Ha'azinu in the name of HaGaon HaSephardi Mahari Ze'evi) ************************************ Rav Yosef Engel died 1 MarCheshvan 5680 (1919) Rav Yosef was one of the most prolific writers on Talmudic, halachic and kabbalistic subjects of the last century. His rebbe refused to teach him any longer when he reached the age of 12, and between that age and his marriage at 19, he wrote eleven sefarim. After his marriage, he lived as an illegal alien in Russian Poland (he was born in Austrian Poland). As a result, he did not see his family for 27 years. During this period he published his first works Shiv'im Panim LaTorah and Lekach Tov. His only child, Miriam, was born during this period. Her husband was the heir to the leadership of the Kotzker chassidim, but he abdicated that position in order to remain near his father-in-law, Rav Yosef. In 1903, Rav Yosef published the first volume of Bet HaOtzar, a Talmudic encyclopedia. The second volume was published in 1908, but the manuscripts of thirty additional volumes have been lost. At age 46, Rav Yosef left his wealthy father-in-law's home and, for the first time, had to seek a living. He found a position-- honorable, but beneath his level--as one of several rabbinical judges in Krakow. Subsequently, during a debate on the court, the Av Bet Din (chief rabbinical judge) abdicated the position and ordered Rav Yosef to take his former seat. During World War I, Rav Yosef fled with hundreds of other Rabbis to Vienna. He died there and is buried there. ************************************ Donations to Hamaayan are tax-deductible.