Facing Adversity with Faithful Love
Dedicated
to a beloved young man, Shimon Yosef Grama
1.
Noach needs to be commanded to leave the Teiva - why?
[8,15:16]
Hashem spoke to Noach, saying, Depart from the ark, yourself
and your wife, your sons, and your son's wives with you.
One simple approach [Bartenura on
Chumash]: Earlier, Hashem had commanded him go in and thus
he may not leave without a command to get out[1]
A
midrashic explanation goes in a different direction.
Apparently, Noach did not need a command to leave - were
he to desire to leave. Noach however wanted to stay:
Noach said, If I shall leave the ark, and procreate, Hashem
will once again be angry and destroy the world - why should
I leave? [Yalkut Shimoni, Yeshayahu 477]:
Who
can blame him? Noach had every reason to get depressed.
Hashem, commands him to move on. If you are still here, then
you have a taphkid.
2.
Noach then brings korbanos - even as there is no
direct command: [Midrash Rabah]
(ט)
ויבן נח מזבח לה' ויבן כתיב נתבונן אמר מפני מה צווני הקב"ה
וריבה בטהורים יותר מן הטמאים אלא להקריב מהן קרבן מיד ויקח
מכל הבהמה הטהורה וגו'
He
contemplated - why did Hashem command me to bring so many
more Kosher animals [than the non Kosher ones] ... it must
be to sacrifice them - he immediately took from all the
kosher animals
A
finely calibrated seichel hapoe'l (active Divine
intellect) - can intuit Divine will; Thus the Talmud teaches
that to derive halacha - at times we do not need a source
in the Torah; compelling human logic is enough[lamah li
kra sevara hu ?].
3. What sacrifice does he bring ?
וירח ה' את ריח הניחוח
-
רבי אליעזר ורבי יוסי בר חנינא רבי אליעזר אומר הקריבו בני נח
שלמים
,
רבי יוסי בר חנינא אומר עולות הקריבו
Rabbi
Eliezer said shelamim [partially burnt, partially eaten] .
Rabbi Yossi said Olos [completely burnt] (Midrash Rabah,
ibid)
What
is the significance of this debate? How does Noach
rededicate society to Hashem? - by incorporating the
material or by completely rejecting it? [2]
4.
What does it accomplish?
21.
And the Lord [Hashem] smelled the pleasant aroma, and the
Lord said to Himself, "I will no longer curse the earth
because of man, for the imagination of man's heart is evil
from his youth, and I will no longer smite all living things
as I have done.
Consider the import of Noach's actions:
a.
During the flood, it is only Elokim. Now it is Hashem.
b.
Note also that the phrase for pleasant aroma is reiach
Hanichoach - it is the only time that it appears
in all of Torah [as opposed to reiach nichoach
without the hei] - this was the most pleasing scent
of all!
So
great and wondrous is this Noachide action, says Yismach
Moshe, that Hashem responds by promising never to destroy
the world again.
My
friends have taught me that those who face adversity and
have the courage to rise - offering with the purest of
emunah - their sacrifices to Hashem - with such great love -
evince great Divine mercy for the whole world.
In
the process, they also transform all who look on in wondrous
amazement at the depth of one's emunah.
Good Shabbos,
Asher Brander
[1] Rashi, Rabeinu Bechayei
and others derive from here the permission to have
marital relations
[2]
Rambam paskens that Gentiles may only bring olos; only the
Jew knows how to bring Shelamim. Who is Noach might be at
the root of the debate
Good Shabbos -
Asher Brander
[1] Cf Pesachim 36b. Rashi
here based on R. Shimon [who says that a kohen onein
may eat bikkurim] uses this pasuk to teach
that the bikkurim must be brought during the
time of simcha, i.e. from Shavuous until Pesach.
Chachamim however say that an Onen may not eat
bikkurim. It could be that the Chachamim's
source is a comparison to ma'aser sheini. Cf.
Rabbeinu Bechayei who explicitly derives from our
pasuk the source that an onein may not eat
bikkurim.
[2]
One is with regard to the 1st year of
marriage, v'sim et ishto. The other with regard to
the mitzvah of being happy on the regalim
