Faith, Idols and the Generation of the Flood

by HaRav Eliezer Melamed
Rosh HaYeshiva, Har Bracha

Idolatry leaves man with his animal instinct, and drives him to a life of war and enslavement of others, whereas monotheism advocates towards humanity’s common effort for good and justice * The ‘sons of God’ who captured women, on the one hand, and Noah on the other, represented these two approaches, and the flood that Hashem brought upon the earth decided between them * The appeasing fragrance of the offerings that Noah sacrificed after the flood represented the self-sacrifice with which he conducted himself contrary to the entire world, and it was re-revealed in our forefather Abraham and his descendants, until today

The more man portrays emunah (faith) in a material way, as pagan forces whose character and behavior are drawn from nature, under the influence of his faith, he thus becomes less moral. This is because the human moral idea is not reflected in nature; on the contrary, in nature the tough survives – the stronger animals overpower the weaker ones and prey on them. The forces of nature also act arbitrarily. Without warning, a storm and a flood of rains drowns people and animals, lightning causes fires and death, and sometimes, the skies are held back and rain ceases to fall – trees wither, grain fails to grow, and man and beast die of thirst.

The personification of God also requires the splitting of faith into many gods, because numerous forces are revealed in the physical world, and in order to give expression to them, many idols must be created. Normally, these idols compete and fight with each other, in the same way as the forces of nature, animals, and various peoples’ fight each other. As a result of this, man perceives that war and competition are the natural way of the world, and anyone who is able, must overpower the other people, and enslave them.

Accordingly, we see that in all the stories about the idols, powerful gods murdered their parents and ruled in their place, and when they ruled, used their power to commit adultery and rob those weaker than themselves. For example, Zeus, the powerful Greek god, managed to outwit his father who had never seen him, and in a great war between the idols, defeated his father, cut him into a thousand pieces, and was appointed supreme ruler of the gods. By nature, Zeus was lustful, a drunkard, a pursuer of idols and women, volatile, and hot-headed, but when sacrifices were made to him, he tended to reconcile. These stories deeply reflected to humans what was going on in nature – if this was the way idols behaved, it is understandable that people who believed in them, would follow their example.

The Separation between Power and Morality
According to the belief in monotheism, which is the Jewish faith, Elokim (God) is the source of goodness and justice, and the various forces are intended to serve goodness and justice, and the purpose of man, created in the image of God, is to walk in His ways, to do righteousness and justice, and to add blessing to the world. Therefore, one who believes in Hashem wishes for human beings to cooperate among themselves, to love and help each other, and not deceive one another; no one should take advantage of his friend’s distress to extort his wages, or take interest from him. In this way, society will gain welfare and abundance, and the general good in the world will increase.

In contrast, in idol worship there is a separation between morality and power, and since, according to the materialistic perception, power is more prominent and influential, it is more important. And just as the idols use their power to satisfy their lusts, human beings, garnering power under their idols’ auspices, can also use it to their hearts content, and enjoy all the good in the world, without caring about the world’s cultivation for the benefit of all and future generations.

The Sins of the Generation of the Flood
After the expulsion of Adam Ha’Rishon (the first man) from Gan Eden, in the struggle between the belief in truth and avodah zara (idol worship), the wicked prevailed. Instead of engaging in settlement and repair of the world, under the auspices of the belief in idols, the wicked behaved like the idols – they murdered, raped and robbed as much as they could. Consequently, humanity deteriorated, and when the land was full of idolatry, incest, bloodshed, and robbery, their fate was sealed to be wiped off the face of the earth by the flood (Genesis Rabbah 31: 1-6).

The Torah says:

“Man began to increase on the face of the earth, and daughters were born to them. The sons of God saw that the daughters of man were good, and they took themselves wives from whomever they chose … the sons of God had come to the daughters of man and had fathered them. The titans (Nephilim in Hebrew, literally ‘fallen ones’) were the mightiest ones who ever existed, men of renown” (Genesis 6:1-4).

Our Sages said:

What is the meaning of “and they took themselves wives from whoever they chose”? These were married women who they took by force, “from whomever they chose” means, also men and animals (Genesis Rabbah 26:5).

Who were these ‘sons of God’? Some meforshim say they were judges and ministers. Others say they were literally angels (Midrash Aggadah), and this was an expression of their pagan belief, according to which the sons of the great gods mated with the daughters of man, and thus half-idols were formed, and they were the kings and heroic rulers. In any case, this was not a marriage out of love and loyalty, rather, rape by those in power, who abducted women as they pleased, corresponding to the pagan perspective.

“And the earth was corrupt before God”. Our Sages said: “Anywhere that the term corruption is stated, it is referring to nothing other than a matter of licentiousness and idol worship (Sanhedrin 57a).

The Meaning of the Punishment of the Flood
In consequence of the sins of the generation of the flood, God said:

“I will obliterate humanity that I have created from the face of the earth – man, livestock, land animals, and birds of the sky”.

The possessors of power and authority who saw themselves as sons of gods, thought their power, resting on the forces of nature and idols, was limitless, and without working or adding blessing, they could always take advantage of all the good in the world, and deprive the weak of all they had grown and created. The flood came and taught them that nature and the power of man are limited, and God has the power to take life and goodness from him. The weak and poor also perished in the flood, because they also believed in the same pagan perception, and if they had the chance, they would have also behaved like those who with power and authority, who filled the land with corruption.
Noah – Derech Eretz through Faith

Only Noah was righteous and faultless in his generations. He possessed power and property, but he chose to believe in the true God, and stood up against the wicked; he did not steal and rob, rather, engaged in the world’s development. Our Sages said that he invented the plow, with which working people could extract a great and blessed harvest from the earth, instead of stealing from others or using magical forces to “coerce” nature to give forth its fruits, all the while, destroying its natural powers.

Therefore, God commanded Noah not to be corrupt, rather, add favor and blessing, to make an ark by means of which he, and all the living creatures, would be saved.

Lessons from the Flood
After the flood, when Noah came out of the ark, he built an altar, and on it, offered sacrifices from the clean beasts and birds he had saved. These sacrifices represented a new revelation of true faith, and thanks to them, God established a covenant with Noah and his sons that He would no longer bring a flood to the world, as the Torah says:

“God smelled the appeasing fragrance, and God said to Himself, ‘Never again will I curse the soil because of man, for the inclination of man’s heart is evil from his youth. I will never again strike down all life as I have just done. As long as the earth lasts, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, and day and night, shall never again cease to exist” (Genesis 8:21- 22).

From the time of Noah, mankind realized that there are laws above man and the forces of nature, and man must obey them. In wake of this understanding, God made a covenant with Noah and his sons that from then on, He would not change the laws of nature and destroy the world.

These laws, ideally, are the seven commandments that God gave to the sons of Noah; imperfectly, they are man-made laws, such as the Hammurabi code of laws, which, while not striving for justice and morality, at least determine there are laws that bind everyone. In other words, before the flood the ‘sons of the gods’ thought that those in power were above the law and consequently those under them must obey their laws; they themselves, however, were allowed to rape and steal as they pleased because they were the source of the law. The flood put an end to this lie. After the flood, mankind realized that there are laws, and they are necessary for human existence.

While the yetzer ha’ra (evil instinct) may cause people to corrupt their ways and break the laws or think they are above them, nevertheless, the well-established position is that the challenge facing man is to overcome the passions that lead to it, by way of suppressing, or correcting the evil instinct.

The Appeasing Fragrance of Devotion
Our Sages said that there is a profound secret in the sacrifice Noah offered.

“‘God smelled the appeasing fragrance’ – He smelled the fragrance of our forefather Abraham rising from the fiery furnace … the fragrance of Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah rising from the fiery furnace … the fragrance of the generation of shmad (apostasy)” (Genesis Rabbah 34: 9).

In other words, in the sacrifice that Noah brought was his willingness to give his life for belief in the One God (emunat ha-yichud), which was later revealed in times of crisis among the elect of his descendants who continued on his path, stood in the breach, and saved the world with their mesitut nefesh (self-sacrifice). The first was our forefather Abraham, who preferred to fall into the fiery furnace rather than succumb to the lies and the evil of idolatry, and was privileged to become the first father of the People of Israel. After the destruction of the First Temple by the Babylonians, the whole world seemed to have succumbed to the great power of Nebuchadnezzar and bowed to his statue, however, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah sacrificed their lives, and fell into the fiery furnace, and by virtue of their faith, Israel was able to return to Eretz Yisrael to build the Second Temple. Likewise, after the destruction of the Second Temple when the Romans wanted to deprive Israel of their faith and assimilate them into the nations, thanks to the Jews who sacrificed their lives in the generation of shmad, Am Yisrael continued on its difficult path, to hold on to its ancestors’ faith and Torah, until the time we merit complete redemption.

Standing up against idolaters requires mesirut nefesh for on the face of it, owing to their pagan belief, they murdered, raped, and looted – and were successful. People of truth and faith must repudiate their success and their pagan faith, because it is based on evil and falsehood, and forsakes the masses of miserable people on whose battered backs the palaces of evil were built. People of truth and faith must be willing to give their lives for faith in the Lord God, the father of orphans and the judge of widows, who counts the tears of all who suffer and groan, and will help those who walk in his ways to repair the world in the Kingdom of Shaddai.

The appeasing fragrance that rose from Noah’s sacrifice expressed the depth of Noah’s willingness to give up his life for the faith of truth, and it also rises from his heroic, righteous descendants who continue in his path, and in moments of crisis are willing to give their lives for the faith of truth, in order to continue climbing the ladder to the world’s rectification until its redemption, as God spoke. Thanks to them, God made a covenant with mankind that he would no longer destroy the world.

Rav Kook's Igrot Hare’aya: Starting a New Yeshiva in Yafo

#59 – part I

Date and Place: 17 Shevat 5667 (1907), Yafo

Recipient: Rabbi Yosef Rabi, Rav Kook’s brother-in-law. As the letter indicates, he was living in poverty in chutz la’aretz and was interested in moving to Eretz Yisrael if he could find an appropriate position.

Body: It is true that for a while I have been entertaining the idea of establishing a proper yeshiva here in Yafo, which is a crucial matter. However, there are also many obstacles, the biggest obstacle being that there already is the Shaarei Torah institution (for school age children). It is already known in the world, and fundraisers travel on its behalf, as it has to deal with great expenses.

It would be very beneficial to have a yeshiva as I envision in comparison with having a tashbar (old-style religious elementary school), with the approach of simple Judaism, without mixing in new foreign foundations. However, sometimes preserving the sacred old style properly in our times brings along side problems as well. After all, not everyone is adept in the laws of social behavior to know how to ensure that the power of sanctity in education will be properly preserved. It is possible but difficult to maintain the old and perhaps even successfully compete with the new approaches to education, which are built upon the attempt to dry up the bright dew of the sanctity of the Torah of truth, which comes from the source of wellspring water flowing from the Hope of Israel and its Salvation. Thus, there are times when in a place of sanctity and dedication to education in the spirit of fear of Heaven, with teachers who fulfill Torah and mitzvot, there are still those who leave the framework, and matters do not run smoothly. This usually prevents the children from developing healthy spirituality, which is the purpose of our holy Torah.

This is something that exists in all times and places, and it is almost impossible to try to change fundamental things suddenly because of the protests that these changes bring on. This causes us to abandon ideas that are intrinsically worthwhile. But there is still a need to measure the gains and losses, and this is very difficult to do at a time when there is so much confusion and deterioration in the realm of religious life.

We still expect great gains from yeshivot such as Sha’arei Torah in Eretz Yisrael. They will provide us with a nice amount of simple Jews, who saw as children how their teachers were careful in their Torah observance, as has traditionally been the case for the longest time. This was accomplished by good Jews receiving simple education, even though it will not provide the same special characteristics that are possible with new educational systems. We can hope for a similar situation for most of the Jews being raised to loyally follow the Torah of Moshe and the principles of modesty. Such people can have a positive effect on the new arrivals to the country, who can use exposure to a warm brand of Judaism and internal sanctity, which can be found only in a place that educates in an atmosphere of great care to properly fulfill the word of Hashem.

Hopefully, they can also receive positive elements that have been imported from other places, by those who were educated in the new style, and we will be able to adorn the Jewish community with precious children, who are good and complete and who are a credit to our holy patriarchs and will be greatly respected throughout the world. They should at least be no worse on average than their top peers in countries of the Diaspora with a strong Jewish community. To bring this to fruition, we need to have a fine yeshiva so that the spiritual dignity will be a powerful one. Its products will be able to successfully go out to those who have not been exposed to spirituality. This is in the merit of the precious Torah, which is the greatest cure for every malady.

Be"HY, we will continue next time.

Rav Kook on Parashat Noach: Balancing the Universe

The Torah’s revelation at Mount Sinai was such a momentous event, it was heard around the world:

“When the Torah was given to Israel, the sound reverberated from one end of the world to the other. In their palaces, the kings of all the nations were seized with fear.
They gathered around the wicked prophet Balaam and asked, ‘What is this tremendous sound that we hear? Perhaps a flood is coming to the world!’
Balaam replied, ‘No, God has already sworn not to bring another flood.’
'Maybe not a deluge of water, but destruction by fire?’
'No, He already promised never to destroy all flesh.’
'Then what is this tremendous sound that we hear?’
'God has a precious gift [the Torah] safeguarded in His treasury... and He now wishes to bestow it to His children.'” (Zevachim 116b)

How can the Midrash compare that extreme act of mass destruction — the Great Flood — to the most significant event in the history of humanity, the Revelation of the Torah? Why did the majestic sounds from Sinai bring back fearful memories of the Flood?

An Unbalanced Universe
God created the universe with a precise balance between its physical and spiritual aspects. According to the Midrash (Chagigah 12a), Adam was so tall, his height stretched from the earth all the way to the heavens. What does this mean?

The Sages were not concerned with Adam’s physical height. This description of Adam is meant to express the careful equilibrium that existed between his physical and spiritual components. Adam stood between the earth and the heavens, reaching both in equal measure.

After the sin of the Tree of Knowledge, however, Adam disrupted this delicate balance. His transgression of God’s command diminished his spiritual stature. Yet his physical qualities remained as powerful as before. 

The Great Flood
Adam’s descendants inherited his physical powers. They too lived remarkably long lives. And, like Adam, their spiritual strength was diluted. This imbalance between the physical and the spiritual led to a situation in which their intense physical desires overwhelmed their sense of morality and justice. “All flesh had perverted its way on the earth” (Gen. 6:12).

To correct this situation, God brought the Flood of Noah’s generation. This catastrophic event greatly weakened the universe’s material side. The flood waters washed away the top three handbreadths of soil (Rashi on Gen. 6:13). Humanity’s physical strength was also greatly reduced, and people began living shorter lives.

The Rainbow
This insight also explains the covenant of the rainbow. Were there not rainbows before the Flood? How did the rainbow suddenly become a symbol of protection from Divine punishment?

In truth, the rainbow was created immediately before the Sabbath of creation (Avot 5:6). Before the Flood, however, the rainbow could not be seen. It was a Keshet Be'Anan, a rainbow in the clouds. The thickness and opacity of the clouds, a metaphor for the world’s dense physicality, obscured the rainbow. Only after the Flood, in a world of diluted physical strength, did the rainbow finally become visible.

The rainbow is a symbol of weakness. Physical weakness, since the clouds no longer conceal it. And also spiritual weakness, in that only a Divine promise prevents the world’s destruction as punishment for its sins. The Sages taught in Ketubot 77b that rare were the generations that merited tzaddikim so pure that no rainbow appeared in their days.1

The Flood and its aftermath restored the world’s fundamental balance. In addition to weakening the material universe, God bolstered humanity’s spiritual side with the Noahide Code of basic morality. The Flood annulled all previous obligations, and initiated a new era of repairing the world via the Seven Mitzvot of Bnei-Noah.

A Better Path to Realign the Universe
At Sinai, the world gained a second, superior path to maintain its delicate balance. The Torah provided a new way to repair and purify the world. It is for this reason that the Midrash compares the Flood to the Revelation at Sinai. Both events served to maintain the universe’s equilibrium between the material and the spiritual.

The Midrash says that Balaam responded to the kings by quoting from Psalms, “God sat enthroned at the Flood... God will give strength [Torah] to His people” (Psalms 29:10-11). This verse compares the effect of the Flood to that of the Torah.

The path of Torah, however, is a superior one. Instead of destroying and weakening the physical world, the Torah builds and strengthens the spiritual. Thus the psalm refers to Torah as ’strength.’ This is the true path of universal balance and harmony, as the psalm concludes, “God will bless his people with peace.”

(Adapted from Shemu'ot HaRe’iyah 8, Noah 5690 (1929) by Rav Chanan Morrison)

Rabbi Ari Kahn on Parashat Noach: Invincibility

The new world cannot be built on the foundations of selfishness

by Rav Binny Freedman

Contrary to popular myth, there is no better or worse way to lose someone close to you, but there is definitely a worst way to find out about it.

It had been a long day, and I was finally taking a few moments to relax, sitting in our small living room watching the evening news. There had been a terrible tragedy. An elite unit of the paratroopers, on a mission deep in Lebanon, had gotten a little too spread out, and there was a heavy fog. Somehow, without realizing it, the officer leading the unit was allowing them to gradually curve around until the front of the unit was almost heading back in the direction from whence they had come.

Suddenly, the men on point saw silhouettes in the fog and, assuming them to be the enemy, opened fire. As it turned out, they were actually firing at their own comrades, as the patrol line had gotten split up in the darkness, and the ultimate nightmare: a ‘friendly’ firefight, ensued.

As I was watching the story on the news, Dvir’s picture flashed across the screen, and I felt like the wind had been sucked out of me. I must have cried out a horrible cry, because my wife came running out of the kitchen. There is no more horrible way to discover that someone special has been killed, than to see his picture on the evening news.

D’vir Mor-Chaim had been a real project. Years earlier, I had taken a job on the educational staff of an Israeli High School, and as I was waiting outside the principal’s office for what would be the last interview, I struck up a friendly conversation with a boy who was sitting in one of the waiting chairs. He looked like he was waiting for an unpleasant talk with the principal, and I always have a soft spot for the troublemakers, so we started talking. With a tousled mop of blonde hair and green eyes, he had the rugged good looks the girls always swoon over, and you could tell he was a real rebel. But you couldn’t help liking the kid, as soon as he flashed his mischievous, winning smile.

He was in tenth grade, and obviously waiting for a serious meeting dressing down. He seemed pained, as though he knew he didn’t belong in a chair in an office, but outside somewhere navigating the Judean hills he loved to explore.

A short while later, as I concluded my interview with the principal, I was told I had the job, and that I would be working with the eleventh grade when the next year began. So, I asked whether D’vir, whom I had just met, would be one of my students.

“Oh, don’t concern yourself with him; he’s a real trouble-maker, and it looks like he’s on his way out. We’re probably going to expel him from the school; he doesn’t really fit in.”

I don’t know whether I simply wanted to impress the principal, or this kid had touched something, but I offered to take him on as a project.

“Why not give him a couple of months (the current school year was a week away from being over), and I’ll take him on as a project? I think we hit it off….”

And so, when I began the school year, I was reminded that he was my project, and his future was in my hands…. And project he was, but D’vir not only made it through the system, he became one of the leaders of his class. And over the next two years I learned what a difference a little faith in someone can make.

Five years later, I watched as his coffin, draped with an Israeli flag, and surrounded by his fellow paratroopers, was lowered into the ground at Har Herzl, Israel’s national military cemetery.

Of all the things D’vir Mor-Chaim represented to me, what was most powerful was the beauty and value of each individual; everyone has something to bring to the table…

Hidden between the lines of this week’s portion, Noach, there is a powerful idea that gives much to think about regarding this question.

Ask any Jewish kid who ever went to Hebrew School, what the top ten Bible stories are, and he or she has probably heard of the Tower of Babel. But the details of this story often get overlooked, and there may well be, hidden in this story, one of the essential and basic truths of Judaism.

First of all, it is important to note, that despite the fact that this episode is indeed commonly referred to as the story of the Tower of Babel, the tower is, in fact, only half the story. Indeed, the major issue is not the tower, but the city they built first.

“And they said, let us build for ourselves a city and a tower…” (Bereisheet (Genesis) 11:4)

And indeed, “G-d went down to see the city and the tower that they had built.” (11:5)

However, most telling, is the fact that the result of G-d’s reaction was much more about the city:

“And G-d scattered them from there, across the face of the entire earth, and they ceased to build the city.” (11:8)

Was there something wrong with building a city? The Bible is full of the dream of the city of Jerusalem, so what could be the problem with building a city? In fact, a city is a place where many people can come to live together; seemingly a good thing.

Perhaps a closer look is in order:

“And the whole land (the earth) was one language and one speech. And it was, when they journeyed from the East, (Mi’Kedem) and they found a valley in the land of Shinar and dwelled there…

… And they said, let us build for ourselves a city and a tower, who’s top will be in the heavens, and we will make for ourselves a name, lest we are scattered upon the face of the earth.

And G-d went down to see the city and the tower that the children of man were building.

And G-d said: ‘Behold, they are one people and one language, and this is what they start to do? Behold, nothing will come of all that they plotted to do.

And G-d scattered them from there, across the face of the entire earth, and they ceased to build the city. Therefore was its name called Bavel (babble) for there did Hashem mix up (balal) the language of the entire earth, and from there did Hashem scatter across the face of the entire earth.” (Genesis (Bereishit) 11:1-9)

One would have imagined that there was at least one redeeming factor about this group of people who got themselves into so much trouble: namely, the fact that they were all together. Whatever they may have done, at least they all shared the same goal, and they were all of one mind and one purpose.

Imagine how different the world would be, if we could all speak each other’s language. If every Jew spoke perfect Arabic, and every Arab spoke perfect Hebrew, wouldn’t there be so much more room for working things out together?

Recall that these are the descendants of Noach after the flood, such that, at least in the context of the Torah, this is the entire world, and they are essentially one family, living in one place. So, the entire world was at peace! And the entire world shared the same goals. Isn’t that, in the end, the dream we are still waiting for?

And there we were thousands of years ago and we were already there! We were all together! So why is this the one thing that G-d actually undoes? Why is the consequence of whatever goes wrong here, that the world actually becomes divided?

A careful look at the verses tell us that even within the context of their unity, something is seriously wrong.

“Come,” the people say:

“…Let us build us a city and a tower with its top in the sky… “
“… Havah nivneh lanu…” (ibid. 11:3)

The city and the tower are lanu—for us. They are involved in the most magnificent building project the world has ever known, but it’s all for themselves. Indeed, the verse continues: “Na’aseh lanu Shem…” “… We will make a name for ourselves …”

….
And the Midrash (rabbinic legend) adds a deeper understanding, suggesting that as the building progressed it took an enormous amount of time to get the bricks to the top of the tower. So, the people became so focused on the tower that they lost sight of the people building it. If a brick slipped and fell, the people wept. But when a person fell and was killed, no one took notice. So, bricks became more precious than human beings. Do we sometimes fall into this trap? Do we sometimes get so absorbed in our work that it gets prioritized above family and friends? Do we delude ourselves into thinking that what we leave behind that really matters are the towers we build rather than the children we raise? What are our bricks, and how do they measure up next to the people who surround us?

Do we make sure our families and friends more important than our bricks and mortar?

Sometimes we become so enamored of the whole, we lose sight of the value of the sum or all its parts. If what is important is bricks which are all the same, it is because what is really important is the building. Indeed, the more uniform all the bricks are, the more beautiful and lasting the building. People on the other hand, are all very different.

We live in a world that places equality on a pedestal. All men are created equal, suggested a brilliant group of men some two hundred and fifty years ago, and based on that fact, all people have certain inalienable rights.

Indeed, the equal rights movement in America is one of the most important movements in American history, and has accomplished many great things, though of course, there is still a ways to go. There is no reason a woman should be paid les salary than a man for the same job, and people should be judged, in all things, by the color of their deeds, and not the hue of their skins.

To be sure, equality is a valuable idea. The only problem is it simply isn’t true. Because thank G-d, we are not all equal, not any of us. Two pennies are equal, because essentially, they are exactly the same. They have the same value, serve the same purpose, and most often, cannot be told apart.

But two people are anything but the same. We are all so very different. We have different characters and personalities, different loves and likes, fears and concerns, we even look different. In the entire world, with all of its billions of people, you will not find two people who are or even look, exactly alike. And the fact that we are all different, means that every one of us has what to contribute.

If we were all equal, then we could all be replaced. You can always substitute one apple for another. But people can never be replaced. And the world, without any single one of us, simply would not be the same.

Judaism suggests, that while there is great value in building up the whole, whether the whole community, nation, or even the world, such that no one individual supercedes the next, it is only as great as the value inherent in each individual.

The world today speaks of equality, but Judaism begins by stressing individuality.

This is one of the dangers of an atheistic philosophy; if we are all random, having arrived simply as the evolution of what preceded us, then in the end it is all too easy to arrive at the idea that the whole is the greater good, and that the people, and indeed the world, is a cause worth losing a few individuals over. It is no accident that the societies that left religion and the idea of purposeful creation behind, very soon resulted in so much human misery. More people were killed in the last century as a result of Nazism, Communism, and the Khmer Rouge, to name a few, than in all the combined history of the world until now. Because if each human being is just part of the large test tube of life, then in the end, what is one more or less when weighed against the goal of the common good?

But if every human being is created in the image of G-d, then there is a little bit of G-d inside every one of us, and if you can’t see a little bit of G-d in the person sitting next to you, you’ll never find Him anywhere else.

Five thousand years ago, at the dawn of civilization, an entire world was in touch with that idea, that we all are one and yet other as well.

And then they got stuck, in a valley. And made the first mistake (the first chet) of the new world. The issue wasn’t the city they built; it was the reason they were building the city.

“Lest we are scattered upon the face of the earth.” They so loved the beauty of their oneness; they forgot the secret and the beauty of their otherness. Soon they no longer saw each other as individual worlds in the image of G-d. All they saw were the bricks, which were the vehicle for creating a society where the individual was forgotten in the search for the greater good of the whole.

So right there, at the beginning of the world, Hashem separates us, to teach us that we are all different, and that even when we speak the same language, we all speak different languages, and that’s actually okay.

Perhaps this story is in the portion of Noach, because he forgot this simple lesson. In the end, Noach was indeed the most righteous man in the world, but he was righteous on his own. When the rains began to fall, Noach entered the ark alone.

Perhaps he became so focused on the world as it was meant to be, he forgot all the people the world was meant to be for.

And it is interesting, points out the Ohr Sameach (Rav Meir Simchah of D’vinsk) in his Meshech Chochmah that the sign G-d gives Noach after the flood, indicating that He will never again rain such destruction down on the entire world, is the rainbow.

Why a rainbow? Why not a lightning bolt? A rainbow you, see, is the opportunity to see all the different colors of the spectrum. But you only get to see all those different beautiful colors, when the light is refracted through the clouds. Only when light comes through the darkest clouds do we get to see the beautiful colors of the rainbow. Perhaps, suggests the Ohr Sameach, this is to remind us that even in the darkest clouds, one can still find the most beautiful colors. You just have to shine a little light in there. And again, when you take the time to shine that light, you see the beauty of all the different and individual colors. All the different D’vir Mor-Chaims.

Shabbat Shalom.

Ein Breira

by Victor Rosenthal

Recently I have been hearing that Israel can’t stop Iran’s nuclear program, and America is our only hope. For example, here is Daniel Gordis:

[Former PM Ehud] Barak wrote that Israel no longer has a viable military option for preventing Iran from crossing the nuclear threshold, and that the Mullahs are marching steadily forward on their quest. Israel needs the US to develop military plans to stop Iran (Barak said that not only does the US have no such plans, it also has no interest in developing them); furthermore, he said, Israel is going to have to recognize its increased dependence on the US, and to work hard to deepen its ties to America.

But Barak does not draw the appropriate conclusion from the facts that he presents, and neither does Gordis, who thinks that Israel must “mend fences with American Jews” to help influence the US “to do the right thing” and act against Iran. Barak’s argument (Hebrew link) actually implies that we cannot depend on America.

Barak wrote that Iran’s “breakout time” – the time it will take to produce enough enriched uranium for a bomb once Iran has decided to do so – has been reduced to about 30 days. Of course there are other technological hurdles to pass before that uranium can be made into a deliverable weapon, but still, Israel’s moment of decision is closer than ever.

There is a lot of discussion of whose fault this is, with Barak and others placing the blame on Netanyahu and Trump. I don’t want to expend too many words on this, but I disagree. Trump is accused of precipitously ending the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran (with Netanyahu’s encouragement), which allowed the Iranians to increase their uranium enrichment activities significantly. But Iran was already violating the too-weak deal, and Trump’s policy of “maximum pressure” – both economic and covert, as in the assassination of Qassem Soleimani – was causing the regime great distress. The policy’s failure was assured by its early termination: Trump was not reelected, and Biden chose to scrap it. But it doesn’t matter who’s to blame; the question is what to do about it.

Barak suggests that the Iranian regime intends to develop all of the pieces of a nuclear weapon, starting with the necessary fissionable material, without immediately assembling one. Technically Iran will not be a nuclear state, but it will be able to become one in a very short time, perhaps measured in days or even hours. By remaining a “threshold state” and not assembling or testing a weapon, the regime can protect itself diplomatically, while for all practical purposes having a nuclear capability. And Barak correctly notes that the US Administration does not see this situation as sufficiently threatening to American interests to require a military response.

And here I need to say a few words about America. I’ve said a lot of this before, so I’ll summarize.

First, support for Israel among US elites is waning, due to the success of the campaign of cognitive warfare that has targeted the American educational system since the 1970s, when massive amounts of petrodollars were recycled into contributions to universities and think tanks, departments of Mideast Studies were established, and professorial chairs endowed. Money also flowed from organizations linked to billionaire George Soros and left-leaning foundations like the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, into anti-Israel groups targeting sectors of the population, like Jews and Evangelicals, that had traditionally provided the backbone of support for Israel. More recently, the broad Left, which includes numerous student groups, “racial justice” movements, and left-leaning members of Congress, have universally adopted anti-Israel positions regardless of their relevance to their causes.

Second, the officials responsible for Iran policy, prominently represented by special envoy to the nuclear negotiations Robert Malley, are associated with a policy of appeasement of Iran rather than coercion (either economically or by force). Malley also has a history of taking anti-Israel positions in the Palestinian arena.

Third, especially after the debacle in Afghanistan, the US is wary of becoming involved in any military activity in the Middle East, either unilateral or cooperative. The best that Israel can hope for is that if she decides to take action against Iran, the US will not intervene in some way against Israel, such as by leaking information that might compromise an Israeli attack on nuclear sites.

Fourth, the US has its own problems which are rapidly getting worse. Led by an incompetent president who is incapable of being a unifying personality, the nation is wracked by social conflict (which I believe is to a great extent instigated by cognitive warfare being waged against it by external enemies). The collective mind space of the elites is occupied by mass-psychotic aberrations about gender and race. The media are no longer trusted or trustworthy; people get their news in social-media bubbles where they are easily manipulated. The bubbles, where the more radical an opinion is, the more it is valued, create extremists and amplify outlandish ideas. But reality is out there, and while Gen. Mark Milley, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, worries about “white rage,” China prepares to take Taiwan. And it won’t stop there.

I think it is a foregone conclusion that the US will not take military action against Iran, especially if Iran remains a threshold state. Further, it is clear that the Biden administration will not even follow the path of Trump and impose strong sanctions; it is moving in the direction of appeasement. And the Iranian regime is so close to their nuclear goal that they can taste it.

The diplomatic track followed by the US is counterproductive from Israel’s point of view. No deal that the regime will agree to make with the US will prevent Iran from becoming a threshold state. A deal will simply give it time to continue development while protecting the nuclear program from Israel, who would be cast as a rogue state if she acts. This, I think, is why Netanyahu forbade his government to discuss parameters for a deal with the Americans: no possible deal is a “good deal” for Israel.

Therefore there is no reason for Israel to “recognize its increased dependence on the US, and to work hard to deepen its ties to America” as Barak and Gordis suggest. The opposite is true: Israel must realize that she is almost alone in her struggle with Iran, and she must develop a plan to eliminate the threat by herself, with whatever help she can get from her Arab allies in the Gulf. And it’s painful to say this, but Israel must also be wary of a US effort to sabotage her plans.

Barak describes the difficulties and dangers inherent in an Israeli attack on Iran. They are indeed formidable. But there is no solution to be found in America. The alternative to stopping Iran is to give up the future of the Jewish state, or, in other words, there is no alternative. In Hebrew, ein breira.

David Ben Gurion is not my favorite personality in Israel’s history. If I hadn’t been 5-1/2 years old at the time, I would have preferred to be on the deck of the Altalena than on the shore shooting at her. But unlike Barak, Ben Gurion understood that when there is no alternative, you do what you have to do. He knew that the moment he declared the state, it would be at war. He knew that the new state would be weak and outnumbered. But his approach was to declare the state and find a way to win the ensuing war.

We have some number of months before Iran effectively becomes a nuclear state. Dealing with Iran is a technical problem, and technical problems are soluble. We have no choice but to solve this one. Ein breira.

The Yishai Fleisher Israel Podcast: Our Planet is Noah's Ark

Join Rabbi Yishai for a deep dive on hidden meanings of Torah's Flood narrative and what Noah's Ark represents on our life. Then, the roots of the Biblical word "Hamas" - violent distruction - and Israel's fight for control of the Holy Land.

Breaking the Pattern?

by Rabbi Pinchas Winston

Friday Night
WHAT WOULD YOU tell a person who says, “It’s a waste of money filling up your car with gas. You keep filling up the tank, and then it all disappears and you have to come back and do it all over again. It’s as if the gasoline just evaporates into thin air! Can’t they make a tank that keeps its fuel?”

After sizing the person up to see if it is safe to get in a conversation with someone who asks such a question, you would probably tell them, “It’s not a waste at all. Because of the spent fuel I was able to drive to all the places I had to go. The gas didn’t evaporate into thin air. My car engine changed chemical energy into mechanical energy that made my car drive.”

You might even try to explain the Law of the Conservation of Energy. It says that energy can neither be created nor destroyed, though, it may be transformed from one form to another. “So you see,” you tell the person as they scratch their head in bewilderment, “the energy is still here in the world, and I made good use of it while I had it.”

It works the same way in the spiritual world. A person might argue, “What is the point of spending all that money on a sacrifice? All you do is bring it up to the Temple and burn it all on the altar. Wouldn’t it be a lot cheaper and easier just to bring some steaks home from the butcher shop and throw them on the barbecue?”

Cheaper, yes. Easier, for sure. More effective, not even close…unless you eat l’Shem Shamayim—altruistically.

As mentioned in the past, physical food is just the vehicle for spiritual sparks that we need to live or just exist. They are the spiritual matter of Creation and the energy that keeps it going. Once spent, they must return to their Heavenly source. Moshiach comes when all the sparks that need to be elevated have ascended.

If a person eats for the wrong reasons, the sparks lack the ability to go up and get recirculated. If a person eats something forbidden, the sparks become sullied and must be cleaned off before they can ascend. This means either teshuvah by the sinner or punishment for the sin.

It works the same for sacrifices. When the altar consumes the animal, sparks are released upwards in the holiest way possible. They are in the wood that is burned, the salt that is used, and of course in the animal that is sacrificed. Everyone involved is releasing sparks as well. We may only see a burning animal, but if we could, we’d see light flowing upwards and world rectification resulting.

Wasted? On the contrary, Creation is rarely ever used more meaningfully and efficiently.

Shabbos Day
WHAT ARE WE doing here? It’s an ancient question with countless answers. Nevertheless, few people can answer the question with any real certainty, and most people don’t even ask the question anymore.

Consequently, people eat because they are hungry, or just because they enjoy it. That goes for all the rest of the necessities and pleasures people pursue on a daily basis. “I think, therefore I am,” has become, “We exist, therefore we consume.” Not very philosophical.

Why the change? There are a number of reasons. Once upon a time, man did not know much about the way the world worked. He lacked the experience and a scientific method to figure it out. He was vulnerable and only had his imagination to make any sense of life as he lived it back then. Life was more mystical and awesome, so it tended to make people more philosophical.

Eventually we compiled experience and developed ways to look at the world in a more technical manner. It turned out that gods did not throw lightning bolts or clap their hands to make thunder. It turned out that Creation could do all of that on its own and quite naturally, making life less mysterious, and mankind less religious.

The truth is that mankind has been a victim of its own mistaken assumptions. The original ideas about the way the world worked were naive, so when we understood better, we made the wrong assumption that God wasn’t involved in Creation and history. Many didn’t realize that God created the laws of Physics to run His world and hide His hand. As advanced as we become, He’s been there since Creation. Whatever we discover, He made it for us to discover.

One of the fascinating things about children is how they can play and be oblivious to what is going on around them. Parents can fight and their child just keeps on playing. A plane can fly low overhead, and they keep on playing. Sometimes you have to call their name several times and loud to break their attention and they will look at you.

Adults can do the exact same with life in general. God calls to us all the time, but we’re so focused, or distracted, by what grabs our immediate attention. Miracles happen all around us, but we remain oblivious to them. We thank God in “Modim” of the Shemonah Esrai a few times “for the miracles that happen each day.” How many people pause and think about the truth of these words?

This was the fundamental difference between Noach and the rest of his generation. When the Torah says that Noach walked with God, this is what it means. He was humble and appreciative, and it opened his eyes and mind to the reality of God. He saw God everywhere he went and in everything he experienced. He was one of those tzaddikim who accessed the original, hidden light of Creation.

When evil people look at the world, they only see their own reflection. When righteous people look at the same world, they see from one end of the world to the other end, not just laterally, but vertically as well. Their feet may never leave the ground, but their spirit soars far beyond the limited physical world that has so many people’s undivided attention. It was true in the generation of the Flood, and it has been true ever since, especially today.

Shalosh Seudot
THIS IS WHY the ark sat eleven amos in the Flood waters, while the water itself rose 15 amos higher than the tallest mountain. The ark was the world of man, and it was submerged eleven amos. The waters ascended in the opposite direction, towards Heaven 15 amos higher than the mountains.

The number eleven has two connotations. Firstly, it corresponds to the concept of Da’as, which in this case refers to godly knowledge. It is also the gematria of the final two letters of God’s name, Vav-Heh (6+5), which correspond to the sefiros—Chesed through Malchus—that run the world of man.

The fifteen corresponds to Yud-Heh, the first two letters of the same name, and the sefiros of Keser, Chochmah, and Binah. These are levels of existence we won’t get to know until the World-to-Come, beginning at 6000. So effectively, the 15 alludes to Heaven.

The message? The Flood pushed apart Heaven and Earth because that is what man did through his perspective on life. As Rashi explains, the Hebrew word for “flood” is mabul, which means confound. People accepted and lived with a confounding and conflicting perspective on life, so they were punished with one.

It’s not the way of a Tzelem Elokim, someone made in the image of God. As the Sforno points out, Elokim is a name that alludes to man’s ability to discern truth, to un-confound life. When people choose to ignore the questions that implicate the need for God, they act like the child who is oblivious to the real world around them, and to the animals who respond to reality only as their instinct tells them to. Such people were not who God had in mind when He put this world together.

I stumbled across a fascinating article when looking up something about Einstein. It included a multiple-choice test to help determine if a person is a genius or not. Curiosity aroused, I took the test which had ten questions. I think I scored three out of ten, confirming that I’m not genius material. Oh well.

But one of the questions asked was if a high IQ was important for determining who is a genius. Not surprisingly, the answer was no (one of three I got right). In fact, I know some people with high IQs and though they are smart in some areas, they are intellectually disappointing in others. You can’t know what you don’t learn.

Melave Malkah
THERE IS ANOTHER factor in all of this. EQ, which stands for Emotional Quotient. IQ checks out the efficiency of your brain, and EQ checks out how balanced a person is emotionally, and it is amazing how much of an impact the latter can have on the former.

Intellect is not enough to experience life. It doesn’t matter how sophisticated the brain, or the computer it uses to help solve problems and arrive at solutions. There is something about actually experiencing something that provides extra knowledge to complete the picture the mind could not. There is a reason why the Ramchal refers to it as a knowing heart.

Thus, no matter how sophisticated the arguments become to convince people Torah is from God, Shabbos remains to be the most successful outreach tool. It is the theory in practice, the IQ with the EQ, so-to-speak. Some forms of knowledge remain outside the mind’s grasp until they are lived by the person, a very kabbalistic idea. We’re not just meant to know a lot. We are meant to become one with what we know.

Noach suffered from the same problem. When God told him that He was going to destroy the world by Flood, he didn’t argue like Avraham did to save Sdom. He seems to have just taken it in stride, the way the Torah presents it. He wouldn’t even enter the ark until the Flood waters forced him to.

So God had Noach build an ark for 120 years. A MASSIVE ark for 120 years! This allowed Noach to experience what a world-wide Flood would be like before actually seeing it. Hopefully it would be enough to get Noach thinking about saving the world from the Flood and maybe even averting it. It doesn’t seem to have worked fully.

What does this have to do with the beginning of this discussion? This. People spend incredible amounts of time and money to experience things in life. It’s not good enough hearing about the experience from someone else, or watching a movie about it. Reading about it only makes them want to experience it more, not less. They know that until they do, their understanding of the thing will remain outside of them.

Yet people will wrap up their understanding about God, Torah, and the way the world works with a few words or ideas they heard or read somewhere. They are prepared to make half-cooked assumptions about some of the most important issues in life, never wondering about what they have denied themselves by doing so.

How many times have I heard someone who has become a ba’al teshuvah say, “Until I actually experienced this mitzvah, I just assumed it was this…or that…Was I ever wrong! Better late than never.”

Sometimes. But sometimes late is not good enough, like when the Flood waters came as prophesied, and people realized that Noach had been right all along. The hard-to-imagine became reality, and human logic fell before divine logic. They realized it, but too late, and died knowing this.

It will only take hundreds of years before mankind forgets the lesson of the Flood and tries to build the Tower of Bavel. And it will only take hundreds of years after that before they try the same thing again after it was destroyed. And here we are, thousands of years later, far more sophisticated, and yet making the same error in thinking. Anyone care to break the pattern?

Thoughts on the World Today

BS”D
Parshiot Bereishiet and Noach 5782
by HaRav Nachman Kahana

Thoughts on the world today, 5782 years ago from the time humans (Adam, Chava, Kayin and Hevel) appeared and began destroying the beautiful world that Hashem had created.

As we pondered the various aspects of HaShem’s created world, physicists arrived at the conclusion that all material entities in this created universe have a common basic characteristic: entropy. Meaning: a measure of disorder in all aspects of our daily lives, that if left unchecked, disorder increases, and the entity eventually devolves into chaos. Aging systems go spontaneously from youthful, low entropy and order to old, high entropy and disorder.

In other words, nothing lasts forever in the physical world.

I will return to this later.

What was the rushing and running about?

In another four weeks, in parashat Chayei Sarah, Avraham Avinu sends his servant, Eliezer of Damascus, on a vital mission to find a suitable wife for his son Yitzchak; thus entrusting Eliezer with the future of Klal Yisrael.

Towards evening, Eliezer arrives in record time at Avraham’s birthplace, Ur Kasdim, setting his caravan to rest by the town’s well close to sundown (sh’ki’ah), as the pasuk states (24,11):

וַיַּבְרֵךְ הַגְּמַלִּים מִחוּץ לָעִיר, אֶל-בְּאֵר הַמָּיִם, לְעֵת עֶרֶב, לְעֵת צֵאת הַשֹּׁאֲבֹת.

He had the camels kneel down near the well outside the town; it was toward evening, the time the women go out to draw water.

He then turns to HaShem with a request (24:12): “…show kindness to my master Avraham” and bring forth a suitable wife for Yitzchak.

Verse 15 begins:

“And it came to pass, that before he (Eliezer) had done speaking, Rivka approached…”

The Torah points out that before Eliezer concluded his prayer, the selection had already been made.

Verse 17:

וַיָּרָץ הָעֶבֶד, לִקְרָאתָהּ; וַיֹּאמֶר, הַגְמִיאִינִי נָא מְעַט-מַיִם מִכַּדֵּךְ.

And the servant ran to meet her, and said: ‘Give me to drink, I pray thee, a little water of thy pitcher.’

Eliezer runs to meet her. He did not walk politely, as befitting one who is approaching a young girl for the first time. He runs towards her.

Verse 18:

וַתֹּאמֶר, שְׁתֵה אֲדֹנִי; וַתְּמַהֵר, וַתֹּרֶד כַּדָּהּ עַל-יָדָהּ–וַתַּשְׁקֵהוּ.

And she said: ‘Drink, my lord’; and she hastened, and let down her pitcher upon her hand, and gave him drink.

We are informed that Rivka “…hastened to put down her pitcher” and to pour out water for the ‘parched’ Eliezer.

In verse 20, Rivka is once again hurrying:

וַתְּמַהֵר, וַתְּעַר כַּדָּהּ אֶל-הַשֹּׁקֶת, וַתָּרָץ עוֹד אֶל-הַבְּאֵר, לִשְׁאֹב; וַתִּשְׁאַב, לְכָל-גְּמַלָּיו.

“And she hastened and emptied her pitcher into the trough”
and then, “…and she ran again into the well to draw (water)”

In all, Rivka is described as running three times and Eliezer once!

What’s happening? What we are witnessing here can only be described as the “theater of the absurd”, with Rivka unnecessarily rushing and running in double time to provide water for Eliezer’s entourage.

But, in fact, there is nothing absurd in Rivka’s seemingly unlady-like rushing. It was the necessary result of Eliezer’s premeditated and deliberate attempt to sabotage his mission.

Eliezer had an agenda.

On the one hand, as the loyal servant of Avraham, he had to fulfill the mission of finding a suitable wife for Yitzchak. On the other, Eliezer had a daughter whom he very much wanted Yitzchak to marry. Eliezer had to reconcile these two seemingly incompatible choices.

In order to make them compatible, Eliezer concluded that he would make an honest attempt to find a wife; and if it failed, he would be in an honest position to offer his daughter to Avraham as a wife for Yitzchak.

Let us return to verse 11 where we are informed that Eliezer arrives at the city:

“…at the time towards evening, when the women come out to draw water.”

It is not yet night, because no one comes out to “draw water” in the darkness. Yet, it is not afternoon, which is too early to draw water for the evening meal. Eliezer arrives a bit before the she’ki’a – sundown – when there is still some daylight, but nightfall is quickly descending.

In verse 12, Eliezer says:

“Oh Lord, the God of my master Avraham, may you so arrange it for me this day, that You do kindness with my master Avraham.”

Eliezer is not just asking for a kind, young lady, of whom there must have been more than one in the entire city. He is conditioning it on happening “on this day”,” when “this day” is about to end, with the arrival of she’ki’a.

Eliezer is putting God “to the test”, to resolve everything in just a few minutes. If night descends and the “basherteh” (soulmate) is not found, then Eliezer’s mission will have been executed honestly but unsuccessfully, and his daughter would be transformed into a suitable candidate as Yitzchak’s wife.

However, since HaShem knows the inner workings of every mind, He has Rivka running three times in her need to bring drink to the entire caravan, finishing with barely a few moments to spare before the end of day.

There was very little time left in Eliezer’s challenge to HaShem, so HaShem brought to bear on the parties involved to quickly bring the matter to a resolution in the short time left until nightfall.

Rushing in our day
In our own time, we see the unrelenting, ardent acceleration of every factor in our lives: medical research, technology, physiology, surgery, astronomy, what not!

What 20 years ago took weeks and even months to complete is accomplished now in a day or even several minutes by computer, cellular phone, or fax machine. One need not travel to distant continents to meet with clients when body language and decisions can be seen and reached by Zoom.

Why just now?

King David in Tehillim 90:4 states:

כִּ֤י אֶ֪לֶף שָׁנִ֡ים בְּֽעֵינֶ֗יךָ כְּי֣וֹם אֶ֭תְמוֹל כִּ֣י יַֽעֲבֹ֑ר וְאַשְׁמוּרָ֥ה בַלָּֽיְלָה

A thousand (of our) years are in Your eyes as one passing day.

The Gemara (Sanhedrin 97a) quotes several rabbis regarding the end date of our planet and society as we know it, with all agreeing that it will last for 6000 years and then will be desolate for 1000 or 2000 more.

Accordingly, the world will last 6000 of our years corresponding to 6 of HaShem’s days corresponding to the six days of creation.

Now, 1000 of our years equal one day of Hashem, and a day is divided into 24 hours. So how many of our years make up one hour in HaShem’s day? Simple: divide our 1000 years by 24, which equals 41.6 years, hence 41.6 of our years make up one hour in HaShem’s day.

Let’s continue.

The age of the world in now 5782 years, leaving 218 more years to reach the year 6000 when the curtain will come down on this world, as stated in the Gemara Sanhedrin above.

And 218 of our years divided by 41.6 (HaShem’s hour) is equal to 5.23 hours to HaShem. This places us now in erev Shabbat (Friday) of Hashem at about 12:30PM when Shabbat will come in at 6 PM.

All combined, HaShem has 5.23 hours remaining to complete His original plans for the Jewish people and for the world. This entails the coming of the Mashiach; restoration of the Bet Hamikdash; techiat hamaytim (resurrection); return and control to the Jewish nation of all the lands promised us by HaShem, as stated in the Torah, spanning almost the entire Middle East; return of hundreds of millions of descendants of the ten exiled tribes; return of the Anusim (Jews who were forced into Christ-insanity in Spain and Portugal) and the international war with Gog King of Magog – all this in 218 of our years.

So just like Eliezer and Rivka who had to complete their missions in a few short minutes before the she’ki’a, HaShem will bring about all these human experiences in the short 5.23 hours left in His world before the year six thousand brings down the curtain as originally decided by the Creator.

A pleasant thought for Shabbat
HaShem granted us human beings three luxury gifts to make our stay here a little more pleasant: music, flowers and a smile.

Shabbat Shalom
Nachman Kahana
Copyright © 5782/2021 Nachman Kahana

Zealotry and Tolerance

by HaRav Mordechai Greenberg
Nasi HaYeshiva, Kerem B'Yavneh

“At the end of forty days, Noach opened the window of the ark which he had made. He sent out the raven, and it kept going and returning until the waters dried from upon the earth.” (Bereisheet 8:6-7)

Chazal comment on this in the Midrash Rabbah (33:6):

[The raven] began arguing with [Noach]. It said to him: Of all the beasts, wild animals and birds that are here, you send out only me?He said to it: What does the world need you for? Neither for food nor for sacrifice...

G-d said to [Noach]: Accept it, because the world is destined to need it.[Noach] said to Him: When?[G-d] said to him: “Until the waters dried from upon the earth.” A certain righteous person is destined to arise and dry out the world, and I will have him need them. This is what it says, “The ravens would bring him [Eliyahu] bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening.” (Melachim I 17:6)

We need to understand, what kind of claim was this, that of all the animals you send out only me? The mission has to be assigned to someone, and if everyone were to claim this, it would be impossible to accomplish any mission? Furthermore, why, in fact, did G-d arrange for the ravens to feed Eliyahu and not, for example, the dove, which is a kosher bird?

The issue at hand is how to deal with sinners. Whether with zealotry – or with tolerance, with “the left hand pushing away and the right hand drawing close,” attempting to influence them to improve their ways, as the famous words of the Chazon Ish (Y.D. 2:16) in the name of the Hagahot Maimoniot in Hil. De’ot, that it is a mitzvah to love [even] the wicked, and therefore, nowadays, “We must draw them back with bonds of love.”

The Gemara in Sanhedrin (37a) relates that R. Zera would associate with certain ruffians, and his colleagues criticized him. In the end, when R. Zera passed away, the ruffians said, “Who will pray on our behalf?” They reconsidered and repented.

Eliyahu Hanavi was very strict. “G-d said to him: You are always zealous” (Pirkei D’Rebbi Eliezer ch. 29) Therefore G-d ordered the ravens, in particular, to provide for him, since the ravens are known to be cruel, and G-d demonstrated to Eliyahu that there are good and righteous ones even among them, and they come to feed him. Therefore, he, too, needs to be compassionate on Israel and to make sure that it should rain, since this was dependent on Eliyahu, as he said, “There will not be dew nor rain during these years, except by my word.” (Melachim I 17:1)

The commentators explain that when it says that Noach “sent out” the raven, this does not mean that he sent it on a mission, since then the pasuk should have concluded, “to see whether the water subsided,” as it says later regarding the dove. Rather, it means that he chased away the raven, as it says regarding divorce, “He sent her away from his house.” (Devarim 24:1) This is because Chazal said that three committed relations in the ark (despite the prohibition): the dog, the raven and Cham. Therefore, Noach sent him away from the ark. Thus, the raven argued with him, “Why, of all of them do you send away only me?” After all, Cham and the dog also sinned in the same way. (He used the phrase “animals and birds” euphemistically.) Noach responded to the raven that is has no purpose, unlike Cham, who can repent, and the dog, which is needed for man. In response to this, G-d said to him that the raven is also needed, since Eliyahu is destined to dry out the world, and through the raven he will learn not to be cruel even to the wicked.

With this we can understand the Gemara in Bava Batra (8a) that Rebbe opened the grain storehouses in a drought year, but did not want to support the ignoramuses, until R. Yonatan b. Amram pushed his way in unidentified, and said to Rebbe, “Feed me like a dog and a raven.” He was alluding to him with this that the dog and the raven also sinned in the ark, and nonetheless Noach supported them.

The Baal Shem Tov similarly writes (Parshat Kedoshim):

A person should train himself to judge the wicked and those who sin out of desire meritoriously. Any sin that he sees the wicked doing he should judge meritoriously ... and bring them to repentance with all his might, and he should know that he, as well, undoubtedly has a certain degree of this sin. However, he always finds merit about himself, and so, too, his should find merit and chesed about all of Israel, who are all righteous and all pure.

Noach was held accountable for this, so that the flood was named after him, “For [like] the waters of Noach, etc.” (Yeshaya 54:9), since he didn’t take care that the people of his generation should repent.

The Israeli Arab Murder Epidemic

by Victor Rosenthal

Everyone in Israel is talking about the explosion of violent crime among Arab citizens. As of today there have been 95 murders of Israeli Arabs in 2021. Extrapolated to 12 months and divided by the Arab population of Israel, this comes out to an annual rate of 6 murders per 100,000 people. This does not approach Chicago’s murder rate of 29 per 100,000 (in Chicago’s black community this number rises to 66!), or El Salvador’s 84, but it is still 12 times greater than the 0.5 per 100,000 rate among Israel’s Jews.

It’s also true that the police solve fewer cases in the Arab community. Ha’aretz reported that only 23% of murders with Arab victims were solved, compared to 71% of those in which Jews were murdered. So why are there more murders of Arabs, and why aren’t the police solving them? There are numerous reasons.

Let’s take the number of murders first. One important subgroup consists of women murdered by family members “to preserve family honor,” which means that either they engaged in illicit sexual activity, gave the impression that they did, or disobeyed the family’s instructions regarding marriage or life-style. Many of the 13 Arab women murdered so far this year fall into this category, although it’s not easy to be sure, since it is difficult to find witnesses who will testify in such cases.

Then there is the problem of organized criminals who engage in turf wars, which seems to be a significant problem this year. This is exacerbated by the large number of weapons in their hands. Although Israel has strict gun laws, Arab criminals have homemade “Carlo” automatic rifles or weapons stolen from the IDF in one of the embarrassing break-ins to IDF bases.

The number of murders is multiplied by the tradition that honor requires revenge. So when someone is killed, family members seek revenge, sometimes by murdering family members of the killer if it’s not possible to reach the presumed killer himself.

Some argue that the problem is that neglect of the problem by the police has allowed lawlessness to flourish, but while that might be true to some extent, keep in mind that obedience to the law is only in a small degree due to fear of arrest and punishment. Most of the time citizens obey the laws of their state because they are generally in agreement with them. Many Arab citizens of Israel – certainly not all of them, but a large enough number – are alienated from the state, which they accuse of discriminating against Arabs, and they blame it for their personal misfortunes.

Even successful individuals sometimes have a sense of grievance, abetted by politicians and Arab media pushing the Palestinian Narrative. Even though Israeli Arabs did not become refugees, many still believe that they are the rightful owners of the land, and that Jewish sovereignty is a usurpation of justice. The idea develops that the laws of the state don’t apply to them, because the Jewish regime that stands behind them is illegitimate.

This is true even though most of the victims of Arab criminals are Arabs – although there is plenty of Arab crime against Jews as well, especially in the Negev and Galilee where crime by Bedouins has become endemic. Unfortunately the increased crime, especially if it’s coupled with inefficient enforcement of laws, leads to its normalization in society. More and more, crime is seen as an option by young people in Arab towns. This is what is going on now, and it’s particularly noticeable with regard to the crime of crimes, murder.

One indication that alienation from the state – or outright enmity to it – is a big part of the problem is the way Israeli Arab criminals moved seamlessly from ordinary crime to anti-Jewish pogroms in May, during the most recent small war with Hamas.

Why are the police failing to stop it? One reason is the lack of cooperation they receive. And this in turn has several causes: “good citizens” fear the retaliation of organized gangs, which don’t hesitate to take violent revenge on informers and their families. But most important is a lack of trust in the police, who are seen as enemies since the two intifadas, in which police faced rioting Israeli Arabs. Notably in October 2000, 12 Israeli Arabs were killed by police at riots around Umm el-Fahm. There is also the general distrust of the “Jewish regime.” This manifests itself in numerous ways, such as the disinclination of Arab Israelis to get the coronavirus vaccinations that are available to them in precisely the same way as they are to Jews. As a result, all of the 55 towns and cities in Israel that are considered “red” today – with the highest infection rates – are Arab-majority areas. A few weeks ago I heard an interview on the radio with an Arab, an educated professional man, who had recovered from a severe case of Covid. The interviewer asked him why he hadn’t gotten vaccinated, and he responded that “we [Arabs] don’t trust the government” that was telling them to do so. This, even though many doctors and nurses in Israel are Arabs, and have made public statements about the need to be vaccinated.

Many Arabs choose to blame the police for the prevalence of crime in Arab areas. And until recently there has been an unbalance of resources dedicated to Arab towns. Now the shock created by the wave of murders has prompted a number of initiatives to improve the situation. More officers, including Arab officers, need to be assigned to Arab towns. Police and prosecutors must remove the leaders of the crime families and their more violent members from society. The police have carried out several operations to confiscate illegal weapons, and that has to continue. In the Negev, a large-scale campaign will be required to take back control of the region from the criminals.

Israel has high-tech tools that have been used successfully against terrorists. Now they have to be applied to criminals. We’ve dedicated an enormous amount of our resources to fighting our external enemies. Now we have to stop neglecting the internal ones.

But don’t kid yourself. Nothing will change until the great majority of Arab citizens take the situation in hand themselves. The heads of big clans will have to put on the brakes, and tell the young men of the community to find jobs that do not involve criminal activity. Perhaps Arab women themselves will have to force an end to the tradition of “honor killings.” If Israel’s Arabs don’t want to live in a violent culture, they’ll have to make their culture less violent.

The Flood and the Tower

by HaRav Zalman Baruch Melamed
Rosh HaYeshiva, Beit El

The Torah study is dedicated in the memory of R. Avraham ben-tziyon ben shabtai

Between the Generation of the Flood and that of the Tower of Babel
In this week's Torah portion - Parshat Noach - we bear witness to additional stages in the evolution of both the physical and spiritual realms of our world. This evolution is riddled with complications and crises which reach their peak with the Torah's depiction of the Generations of the Flood and of the Tower of Babel.

Concerning the Generation of the Flood the Book of Books teaches us that,
"The earth was corrupt before God, and the land was filled with violence. God saw the world and it was corrupted. All flesh had perverted its way on the earth. God said to Noach, The end of all flesh has come before me...'" (Bereisheet 6:11-13).

The Sages explain that the people had sinned through the performance of idol worship and sexual immorality, adding, "their decreed punishment, though, was not signed and sealed until they began to perform thievery." The core of their sin, then, was their increased inclinations toward base physical gratification. Unbridled craving for sexual pleasure and for wealth was what brought the world to such a depraved moral level that complete destruction became the only rectification possible.

When we reflect, though, upon the iniquity of the generation which sprang up after the Flood - the Generation of the Tower of Babel - we encounter a different sort of corruption:

"And all of earth was of one language, with uniform words" (Bereisheet 7:23).
It is with this declaration that the Torah chooses to begin its discussion of this generation. The Sages lend great importance to this statement, as the following Midrashic source indicates:

"Rabbi Eliezer said that the [negative] actions of the Generation of the Flood were revealed [to us in the Scriptures], while the actions of the Generation of the Tower of Babel were not.

This said, the Rabbi proceeds to reveal the generations undesirable actions to us by examining the words of the Torah:

"'With uniform words' - They made sharp remarks concerning [the following Biblical passages:] 'The Lord our God, the Lord is one.' and, 'Avraham was one in the land.' [note: the terms 'sharp' and 'uniform' are almost identical in Hebrew, hence the association here.]
"[Concerning 'Abraham was one...'] They said, 'Avraham is a fruitless grain, he produces no offspring.'
"And regarding 'The Lord our God,' they would say, Who is He that He choose the heavens for Himself and give us the earth!? Come, let us build a tower and construct an idol on its top, and place a sword in its hand, so that it appears to be doing battle with Him.'"(Bereisheet Rabba 38:6)

According to the Sages, then, the essence of the Sin of the Generation of the Tower of Babel was not the drive for physical pleasures. The world had advanced and risen above that impulse; it presently stood before a corruption of a loftier sort - a spiritual corruption. This corruption, because of the its severity and its inherent danger, cannot be referred to outright in the Torah, rather it can only be hinted at. The root of the corruption: rebellion and apostasy with regard to God's providential rule in the world - "Who is He that He choose the heavens for Himself?"

The battle of this generation is waged against the ideals of the Patriarch Abraham, who, active at that time, was the first to reveal God's rule to the world - a rule which supervises and guides all events under the sun. Their main claim against Avraham is that, "Avraham is a fruitless grain, he produces no offspring." Avraham's course, according to them, lacks continuity - instead of creating growth and increase on earth, it will bring about cessation.

The Need for Diversity of Opinions
Rabbi Chaim ben Attar, in his commentary on the Torah, Or HaChaim , too sees the core of the Sin of the Generation of the Tower of Babel as contained in the words, "And all of earth was of one language, with uniform words." The people of that generation, explains Rabbi Attar, attempted to concentrate themselves in one location instead of spreading out upon the face of the earth. This desire stemmed from their conviction that humanity would be more capable of developing and perfecting itself through joint and concentrated efforts than it would through dispersal.

On the face of things, theirs was a correct and healthy desire, their assertion a most logical one. This being the case, why were they punished so? The Or HaChaim explains that their sin stemmed from the fact of God's disapproval. God desires the settlement of the entire world, as opposed to concentration in one place.

Yet why is it so important that the entire world be settled? The Or HaChaim is intentionally obscure in this regard, saying "...the reason for this is a great secret, as the mystics well know.

Let us, at any rate, try to understand the more revealed aspect of God's desire that mankind be spread out upon the face of the earth.

Every place on earth has its own climate, its own natural conditions. The natural conditions of an area influence the settlers of that region. God desires a variety of opinions in the world, and the appearance of many differing personalities, for, as a result of their appearance the status of the world improves. In this lies the great importance of man's being spread out on the planet - that there should appear as many differing personalities and traits in the world as possible. God desired that the world be illuminated from many differing angles, that the worship of God should be varied in nature, possessing intellect, emotion, fear, love, calmness, exultation etc. Every personality has a purpose in the world, a mission reserved for it alone, which only it can carry out. It is for this reason that a variety of opinions and lifestyles is so important.

The Nation of Israel represents a culmination of mankind, and therefore embodied in it are all the varieties of opinions which exist in mankind. As a result, the character of Jewish People is that which receives Torah, for the Torah contains seventy varieties of understanding, corresponding to the seventy nations of the world and their seventy languages. God did not desire the creation of a world in which all of its inhabitants were similar, possessing the same personality, and of one way of thinking. That sort of world would be monotonous, corrosive, lacking the power of fertility and perfection, and therefore not glorifying its maker.

I once heard a Torah scholar express himself in a rather biting manner. He claimed that he was not impressed by the Maharal's miraculously creating a Golem which carried out the precise will of it's creator. "I know," he said, "a number of Heads of Yeshivas who have, in their study halls, molded hundreds of Golems who think in exactly the same manner as their Rabbis, all of them possessing identical ways of thinking and living." The people of the Generation of the Tower of Babel attempted to prevent the dispersal of mankind, and by so doing to prevent diversity of opinion in the world. In this they sinned - in their banding together to act against God's will.

What Does All This Have To Do With Us?
We have touched upon the fact that the Sin of the Generation of the Flood symbolizes the world's drive to satisfy its base physical desires while that of the Generation of the Tower of Babel represents spiritual rebellion and denial of God's rule in the world. The latter's was a war against the idea which Abraham began to make known to the world - the faith in one God, and in the oneness of all of creation under His rule. These tendencies have not disappeared from our world and the struggle against them continues even until today.

Until recently, it was possible to identify quite clearly two dominating outlooks in the world. The western world raised the banner of sexual liberation, and of aggressive pursuit of economic prosperity, which correspond with the sin of theft and of sexual immorality of the Generation of the Flood.

In contradistinction to this attitude stood the outlook of the eastern block, emphasizing the idea that the perfection of the world was entirely dependent upon man, and that if only man would learn to improve his character, distancing himself from the aggressive pursuit of money, and dividing up his possessions evenly with others, he would be able to perfect the world without the help of God. The source of this outlook can be discerned in the Sin of the Generation of the Tower, who believed that, were they to unite themselves and to join forces, it would be within their ability to bring about the perfection of the world. Because they were incapable of creating a bridge between the physical and spiritual worlds, they came to the conclusion that the world is unaffected by God's rule, that there is "nobody governing the city." Therefore, they reasoned, the burden of elevating humankind falls upon man alone. It is man's responsibility to create a united and consolidated society in order that mankind succeed in fulfilling its purpose.

We though were privileged to witness with our own eyes the decay of this philosophy, the moral corruption which it brought, and the human depravity which it caused to all those who championed its cause. This outlook fell apart on its own and today practically nothing remains of it. God willing, the day will soon come when the western world outlook will crumble as well, and these two world views will make room for the appearance of a new, Jewish outlook, which unites the physical and the spiritual, and links the holy and mundane.

Thus, we see for ourselves how the world - with God's help - is advancing, throwing off its corruption in preparation for the appearance of God's word throughout the entire world, and its perfection through the Kingdom of the Almighty.

Towers and Destruction

by Rabbi Dov Berel Wein

After the destruction of civilization in the great flood a new generation arose and searched for a way to immortalize itself – so that their existence would withstand any new natural disasters. They gathered in the Tigris-Euphrates valley and there built the great city that would be called Nineveh. And to guarantee that their achievements would be forever remembered, they embarked on building a colossal structure – a great tower pointing towards - and seemingly even touching - the sky.

It was the first ancestor of our modern-day skyscrapers. This was the great technological leap forward in the discovery of creating bricks as a building material, which enabled such a project to be imagined and executed. The Torah specifically relates to us that the sole purpose of this tower soaring heavenward was "to build for us a name" – a remembrance, an eternal monument to human technology and ability that later generations would gaze upon in awe and admiration.

It was a testament to the human ego and its accompanying hubris. That is perhaps what Midrash is implying when it states that, "…..we will prop up the heavens" with this tower. They were saying that puny man could successfully defy God and nature and immortalize itself with its technological wonders and its insatiable ambitions.

Every dictator in history has sought to immortalize his achievements in stone and marble lest his greatness become unknown to future generations. Almost all of these memorials have failed to live up to their original purpose. The slaves who built the pyramids of Egypt are more well-known than are their pharoanic masters.

The Parthenon and Coliseum lie in ruins and Nineveh itself has long since disappeared from the map of the world. And the great twin towers of the World Trade Center of New York City are also no longer with us.

The irony of all of this is that none of the great architectural monuments of the ancient, medieval and modern world were felled by nature. There was no need to prop up the heavens in order to save Nineveh from destruction. Nineveh and all of the other great monuments of the ancient world were all destroyed by human beings who were themselves bent upon creating their own eternal monuments to their own achievements.

It is part of the inborn competitive nature of human beings to attempt to destroy the immortality of others as a means of guaranteeing one’s own immortality. Thus we continue to hound people who are already in the grave, searching for scandal and blame. The Torah itself tells us that the tower at Nineveh was never completed because people did not understand each other’s language – basically, they could no longer cooperate one with the other.

The fractiousness and parochialism of humans towards each other is what truly stands in the way of human immortality. Rabbi Yisrael Lipkin of Salant summed up this lesson in his pithy remark: "Concern for the needs of others in this world is my entry ticket to the World to Come." Torah values and its observance coupled with good deeds, not physical monuments, are our guarantors in achieving immortality.