By the Grace of G-d
Dear Friend,
If you live in Thailand, you may know that there is severe flooding in parts of the country. In certain parts of Bangkok there has been flooding as well.
I didn’t hear all that much about it till yesterday. Yesterday a community member who brought his son for our Bar Mitzvah lessons, shared a video with me, of one of the upcountry reservoirs that is overflowing. As they say ‘a picture is a thousand words’ and I got to see a drone’s view of the water levels.
Oy Vey! I pray that Hashem saves Thailand from this dangerous situation.
Interestingly, just before that, another friend came in to share some new information about his family that he never knew. He had found the ketubah marriage document of his parents and in it he found that his father’s name was Yona (Moshe). It was exciting news, as that name had not been remembered by the family till the uncovering of this document.
Two random tidbits that I didn’t pay particular attention to.
Till this morning.
This morning, I studied the ‘Hayom Yom’ entry for today’s Hebrew date (Cheshvan 2) and read the following:
In the early years of his leadership the Alter Rebbe (founder of Chabad 1745-1812) declared publicly, "One must live with the time." From his brother, R. Yehuda Leib, the elder chassidim discovered that the Rebbe meant one must live with the Torah portion of the week and the particular parsha of the day. One should not only learn the weekly parsha every day, but live with it.
After reading this I realized, (I don’t know why it hadn’t dawned on me before) what I hadn’t realized before. That this week’s portion of Noach speaks about floods. Also, the word Yona gets a prominent mention. Yonah means ‘dove’. It was a ‘Yonah’ bird that was sent by Noach to see if the waters had receded.
How inspiring it is to get Providential signs like this. As we start the cycle of the Torah reading again, I am reminded in the most poignant way that the weekly parsha is not ‘old news’ G-d forbid, rather it is as relevant and pertinent as ever.
There is a ‘parsha of the week’ and then there is also ‘the particular parsha of the day’. This refers to the fact that the weekly parsha is subdivided into seven portions. There is a custom to learn one portion on every one of the seven days of the week.
The Rebbe taught that it is not just the weekly portion, but more particularly, the daily portion, that we ought to look into, to get daily inspiration and direction.
So, lets take a look at the sixth portion of the weekly parsha of Noach.
Noah planted a vineyard, made wine, became drunk and fell into a deep drunken slumber — while naked. Noah's son, Ham, saw his father naked, assaulted him, and informed his two brothers of their father's state. The brothers, Shem and Japeth, modestly approached their father and covered him. When Noah awakened, he cursed Ham's son, Canaan, and blessed Shem and Japeth. This section then names Noah's seventy grandsons and great-grandsons, the antecedents of the "seventy nations," and their adopted homelands.
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What message is there in the above ‘daily parsha’ for us today, day six of the parsha of Noach in 2021?
Truthfully, there is no end to the commentary and lessons that can be learned. Torah is G-d’s Wisdom and is thus infinite.
But one has to start somewhere. So I will share some of the lessons that come to my mind when reading this portion. So that you can get a whiff of what I mean by ‘living with the parsha’.
Noach planted. That is great. Planting is being industrious and having a good worth ethic.
Hmm. Planting a vineyard? Our Sages point out that this demeaned him. He should have planted something more vital first.
Got drunk. That’s not pretty and should have been avoided. But that gives us the opportunity to get a look at two perspectives on how to treat someone who has disgraced himself and is down and out.
Ham, saw his shamed and defenseless father and used it as an opportunity to further debase him. Even assaulting him.
Shem and Yefet saw a poor person in need of their compassion and help. They respectfully did what they could, to protect their father. They covered him.
Ham invoked Noach’s curse.
Both Shem and Yefet got Noach’s blessing.
Shem, having initiated the respectful move, was blessed more than Yefet. Shem was blessed that the presence of G-d would rest among his offspring. The Jewish people descend from Shem and many generations later this blessing came to its fulfillment when G-d’s presence rested in the Bet Hamkidash built by King Solomon.
Yefet, who was a fantastic partner to Shem was also blessed to have G-d’s commitment for expansive success. As a partner who had joined in but not initiated the respectful deed, he didn’t get the full version of blessing that Shem did.
From these three sons, the entire population of the world was replenished.
So many lessons here.
Be industrious. But remember to invest thought and assess wisely where to channel your industriousness.
See someone ‘down and out’? don’t be a Ham type and take advantage. Be a Shem type of person and see how you can initiate to help.
You are not in a position to initiate? At least participate. Become a partner with someone who does have the wherewithal to initiate. Jump in and give a hand. Don’t just hang out and watch from the sidelines.
Not sure how worthwhile it is to invest in doing good?
It may have a global effect.
Your proactivity can change not just you, but the entire world!
Moreover, it may even change the entire course of humanity.
We are still impacted by the actions of Noach and his family more than four thousand years later.
From these three individuals, come the billions of people who are in the world today in 2021.
Are you able to relate to any of these messages in your contemporary life?
Let me end with something even deeper. From the Baal Shemtov’s mystical approach.
The Baal Shem Tov taught that the wording used in the story about Noach being uncovered and his two sons not even seeing their father’s shame, teaches us that:
When a person sees negativity in another person, he is really being shown the negativity in himself.
If you don’t have that negativity in your own persona, you won’t see the other persons negativity. You would simply see a situation which requires your help. And you would help with a totally non-judgmental attitude.
Seeing negative in someone else is a warning sign to yourself. That you have something in your own self that needs to be repaired.
Now that is something that is really relevant…
How easy it is for us to notice unsavory things about other people. And to feel condescendingly superior to our fellow because of their failing.
Hang on a second. Not so fast. Don’t feel so pompous. It is very sobering and humbling to listen to the parsha’s message and realize that these negative issues that jump out glaringly at us when we view someone else, are really reflections of that same negativity that resides within us.
Click here for an essay all about this.
Most importantly this parsha shares with us the lifesaving secret of our spiritual survival in an often morally hostile world.
This parsha reminds us that before flooding our world, G‑d told Noah to build a teva, an ark, to shelter and protect his family and animals.
Teva doesn’t just mean ‘ark’, it also means “word.” By saying holy words and immersing ourselves in the ideas and words of Torah or prayers, taught the Baal Shem Tov, we create a protective shelter from the deluge of negativity and materialism all around us. Moreover, holy words spill over and purify the atmosphere around us.
Save your ‘life’. Get out of the ‘floodwaters’.
Don’t drown in the deluge of immoral and improper attitudes and peer influences.
Get into the ‘teva’ the ‘words’ and ideas of Torah and prayer.
Learn more Torah and pray more.
This is the way to ensure that you don’t ‘drown’ or get ‘washed away’ from your ironclad Torah-based moral values.
Let me end off with a blessing as we embark on our journey into the new year.
(New year? Wasn’t that a few weeks ago on Rosh Hashana. Well, till now we were ‘holidaying’ with Chagim ever few days 😊 but now we are back to hard work, with no holidays till Chanuka..)
May our Torah learning be with success and may our prayers for ourselves, our families, our communities, our people and the respective countries we live in, be accepted on High and may G-d respond to all of our prayers with a resounding YES.
The most significant and important prayer, the one that will solve ALL problems, may Mashiach come NOW!!!
Shabbat Shalom
Rabbi Yosef Kantor