GALVANIZING GRATITUDE: PARSHAT NOACH
Shira Smiles shiur 2017/5778
Summary by Channie Koplowitz Stein
The central motif of Parshat Noach is the flood that annihilated all humanity
and indeed all the earth. Following this devastation, Noach and his family, the
only human survivors of the deluge, emerge from the ark to witness the destruction
and obliteration of all they knew. How would this experience affect them, and
particularly, Noach? This is the question that occupies much of the ensuing
verses and the commentary that accompanies them.
The Torah records that Noach and his three sons, Shem, Ham and Yaphet left the
ark, and that the entire world would spread out from these survivors. Then the
Torah records: "Then Noach, the man of the earth, vayochel/ debased
himself/made himself mundane and planted a vineyard. He drank of the wine and
became drunk, and he uncovered himself within the tent." Noach, who had
earlier been called a tzadik, a righteous man, and one who found favor
in God's eyes is now called a man of the earth. How has he changed to warrant
this new description? Why has he changed? Although most commentators interpret
this as a negative change, can it at all be interpreted in a positive way?
These are the questions that we will deal with in this shiur.
Rav Wolbe z”l z”l notes that for a full year Noach lived in the spiritual
cocoon of the ark, selflessly working to sustain what would become the new
world. When he finally left the ark, he faced the challenge of what to do now,
in the real world, outside the spiritual bubble. This is a challenge we as Jews
face, although to a lesser degree, at the close of every Shabbos and especially
at the end of Yom Kippur. It is important to perpetuate the spiritual high of
the day we just experienced. That is why our rabbis have instituted the custom
of beginning the building of one's sukkah on Motzoai Yom Kippur. This night,
continues Rav Wolbe z”l, can be compared to the reentry of a space craft into
the earth's atmosphere. The reentry from the ethereal atmosphere to the earthly
is the most dangerous part of the entire mission, and the slightest error can
spell doom. The key to maintaining the feeling of closeness to Hashem is to
"stretch" the spirituality of that time into the present. How did
Noach's actions create, or fail to create, a proper paradigm for us?
Rashi comments that Noach should have planted something else instead of a
vineyard. On this idea, the Tov Hapeninim expounds that wine is a
luxury. Noach should first have planted something of necessity, like wheat.
Similarly, when we want to sustain our spiritual high, we should also start
with the simple necessities of spirituality, like imbuing more focus on our
prayers, before we take upon ourselves more difficult stringencies.
The Ner Uziel views the planting of the vineyard as something more
insidious than a mere luxury. He notes that a nazir who, sensing the
lure of corporeality, distances himself from physicality by eschewing certain
of its aspects, most prominently, the consumption of grapes and of wine. Since
one can lose oneself in wine, wine is the symbol of physicality. The Ner Uziel
posits that Noach, after seeing such devastation, chose to immerse himself in
wine, to forget, to leave the spiritual world and wallow in the physical.
At the close of Yom Kippur, having been involved in spirituality not only for
the last ten days, and now at the close of Sukkot, for more than two months,
since the fifteenth of Av, are we also feeling so overwhelmed that we can no
longer keep up with spiritual demands? Are we also thinking we've had enough
already?
Rabbi Schorr in Halekach Vehalebuv points out that man is called Adam,
offering two different sources that present Man from two contradictory
perspectives. The first source ties Adam to the earth, to the adamah
from which he was formed. But Adam also has a spiritual soul which allows him
to elevate himself so that he resembles God, as the verse in Isaiah reads,
"Adameh loElyon/I will liken myself to the Most High." The two
concepts do not coexist easily, but both are equally created by God. It is
man's mission to have his spiritual aspect dominate and control his physical
aspect.
Our lives are constantly challenged by this duality. If we close our eyes and
lose focus for even a moment, writes Rabbi Yehudah Chasman z”l in Ohr Yahel,
we may miss the most important point and run the risk of falling, both
physically and spiritually. Noach's original intention in planting the vineyard
was positive. He wanted to bring Hashem libation offerings in gratitude for
being saved from the flood. But Noach lost his focus, drank too much, and used
the wine for personal pleasure. When the physical became his focus, this
tzadik fell from that exalted position and became a coarse, earthy man.
This is often the case when a crisis has passed. Rabbi Wachtfogel z”l notes
that for 120 years Noach stood firm in his spiritual belief. He withstood the
mocking of his peers as he faithfully built the ark as Hashem had commanded.
But now, after the flood, Adam let his guard down and he fell prey to his
physical side. If that great man, Noach could fall so low from a temporary lax,
writes Rabbi Shach z”l, how much more careful must we be to maintain our
spiritual focus. Now that the high powered months of Elul and Tishrei are over,
it is easy for us to fall back into old patterns, to take our focus off our
spiritual side, and be lured again by Satan. We must always be vigilant and
think before we act, and assess if our intended action is the best way of
achieving our desired result.
In an interesting side note that brings added depth to our story, Rabbi
Goldwicht z”l asks where the sapling for the vineyard came from. He notes that
the word vayitah/and he planted appears three times in the Torah. First,
when Hashem planted a garden in Eden, second, here when Noach planted the
vineyard, and finally when Avraham planted a tree under which he could
entertain his guests. Rabbi Goldwicht z”l quotes the Midrash that notes,
that the two later planting all came from the first, from Gan Eden
itself. Coming from such lofty beginnings, one would expect Noach's vineyard to
be imbued with tremendous spiritual properties. What went wrong?
The problem, continues Rabbi Goldwicht z”l, was that this planting was Noach's
first act upon exiting the ark. As such, it would set the tone for all that
followed in this new world, just as the first step in any new endeavor sets the
precedent for all that follows. In that momentary overindulgence in physical
pleasure that led to his drunken state, Adam ruined his intention of recreating
Eden and set the tone for a world that would be overly consumed with the
corporeal and the mundane. As we are now entering a new world with the rebirth
of the world on Rosh Hashanah, we must be careful as to how we begin as well,
how we focus our attention on our tefillot and on our mitzvah observance, and
not be drawn away into the purely physical pleasures of existence.
Continuing this theme, Rabbi Scheinerman in Ohel Moshe writes that what
you do and what materials you use at the beginning of a project will affect the
entire project. When planting a tree, for example, find a sapling from a tree
that produced excellent fruit, not a tree with rotten fruit. When erecting a
building, pour the foundation from the sturdiest materials, or else the entire
structure might collapse. This was the time for Noach to pull himself together
and begin rebuilding the world, not indulge in self pity at the destruction he
witnessed and fall into a drunken stupor.
Our previous generation witnessed the destruction of its own world during the
Holocaust. The Rebbe of Kovno z”l bore witness to the reaction of the
Klausenberger Rebbe z”l when word of the imminent arrival of Allied troops to
the concentration camps would bring about their liberation. The Klausenberger
Rebbe z”l, who himself had lost his entire family, immediately set his eyes on
rebuilding Klal Yisroel. He understood that many couples would now want to
marry and begin rebuilding families. He wanted them to be able to begin their
married lives according to Jewish law. Immediately, he turned to the Kovno
Rebbe z”l (and I imagine to others) and with their bare hands started digging
and forming a kosher mikveh in that "killing valley" so that many
could marry and begin rebuilding. That's why Reb Simcha Wasserman z”l protested
so loudly against those who devoted millions of dollars into building memorials
to the past instead of devoting those funds to building the future. People fell
into the trap Noach himself fell into. The initial impetus after personal or
national destruction must be on rebuilding. Memorials can come later.
While we all live in a universal world, each of us also lives in our personal
world, writes Letitcha Elyon. Our communal obligation, according to the
Ramchal, is Torah and mitzvoth. But we also have an obligation to make
contributions in our personal world. Noach, during his lifetime, lived in three
distinct worlds. For almost 500 years he lived in the antediluvian world. Then
he lived in the microcosmic world of the ark. When he emerged from the ark, he
lived in the postdiluvian world. Noach needed to change his mission in each of
these worlds, but he failed in his mission to build a more spiritual world in
the last one. He failed to recognize that that world had different
circumstances than the previous worlds, and required a different contribution.
Similarly, we must approach each of our circumstances, each of our worlds, and
make our decisions appropriately. With the conclusion of our yomim tovim, we
are not in the same world as we were during the month of Tishrei, and we must
approach our lives with a new mindset.
Perhaps we can approach Noach's actions from a different perspective. Perhaps his
mindset was indeed to rebuild. According to Rabbi Yosef Nechemiah Kornitzer,
Noach understood that he was saved not strictly for himself but for the future
world. He also knew that Bnei Yisroel would be compared to a vine, prompting
him to plant the vine symbolically. The Shvilei Pinchas develops this
idea more fully. When Noach exited the ark, he wanted to be the progenitor of
Bnei Yisroel and that his three sons would be the patriarchs. They would
represent the foundation of the new world. In the original creation, the Torah
states before there was not any siach hasadeh/trees of the field...
Hashem did not bring rain and there was no man to work the soil. Noach
interpreted this to mean that the world could not exist before Siya"Ch,
before Shem, Yaphet and Cham who would become the
threefold foundation of the world. Although Noach is connected to the
Patriarchs through Shem, Noach miscalculated, for this was neither the right
time nor he the right man. Just as new vines grow on old vines, so does Bnei
Yisroel flourish through the merit of their Patriarchs and the interventional
prayers of the Patriarchs and our great rabbis. But while Avraham Avinu prayed
for others, hoping to save the people of Sodom, Noach did not pray for the
people of his generation. How could Bnei Yisroel rely on him to pray for them?
As Rabbi Meislish notes, it was only when Noach and his family saw the fury of
Hashem raging in the waters around them that they began praying, but it was too
little too late. A leader needs to be able to daven for his generation.
Noach's miscalculation can be compared to Adam's error in judgment. Adam had
received one simple command from Hashem, not to eat of the tree in the garden.
According to Rabbi Tatz in Worldmask, Adam felt complying with this one command
was not challenging enough for him to prove his devotion to Hashem. He felt if
he could bring his world down to a more physical existence where he would be
constantly tempted and yet would resist, he would have a greater opportunity to
draw closer to Hashem.
Rabbi Eisenberger develops this idea more fully in Mesilot Bilvovom.
Adam indeed was trying to reach a higher spiritual level through his sin.
Nevertheless, he disobeyed Hashem's direct command. According to several commentators,
the fruit he sinned with was the fruit of the vine, the grape. Noach, in his
newly created world, was trying to rectify the sin of Adam. He even stripped
and remained naked in his tent to copy the condition of Adam. However, once you
partake of the fruit, you put physical pleasure before serving Hashem. Noach's
attempt was doomed to failure.
Had Noach planted one vine and thus symbolically tried to rectify Adam's sin,
perhaps he could have succeeded. But he planted an entire vineyard, setting
himself up for failure as he drank the wine for personal pleasure and became
drunk, rolling naked in his tent.
Noach saw that the grape was different from other fruit. With other fruit, one
can easily peel away the outer covering and access the important
"meat". With the grape, it is difficult to separate the outer peel
from the inner essence. Similarly, man is composed of his outer body which
houses his inner essence, his soul. But the two cannot be separated. As human
beings, and especially as Jews, we are meant to elevate the corporeal body, the
physical world, to its holy, spiritual purpose. In so doing, we must not slip
and lower the spiritual to the level of the mundane. Simple examples include
bar mitzvah celebrations where the "bar/party" becomes primary to the
mitzvah, or weddings where the details of food, photography and venue are so
elaborate that they overshadow the holy aspect of the ceremony and the union of
two individuals in marriage. These missteps are especially dangerous since they
may take our focus away from the spiritual essence of the ceremonies which
signify the beginning of new lives, either for a boy who is now entering
manhood or for a young couple starting their new family.
Whether we are beginning a new year or entering a new stage of life, let our
focus remain true to the mission Hashem has entrusted to us. May Hashem help us
succeed this year and in all our endeavors.