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CHUMASH
Parshas Noach - Shlishi with Rashi
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In today’s Chumash, we learn about the details of the Mabul, which lasted for a complete year.
Rain fell for forty days, until the morning of Chof-Ches Kislev. This was just enough water for the Teiva to start floating, but the water was still very shallow.
Then, hot springs of water from deep under the earth opened up and filled the world with boiling water. The Teiva started drifting on the deep water, away from where Noach built it.
Even more boiling water poured out from the underground springs, until it covered all of the highest mountains! The water of the Mabul reached 15 amos above the highest mountain peak. All of the people and all of the animals that weren’t in the Teivah died, except for the fish.
Why not the fish? We learned that most of the animals had started marrying other animals, and didn’t deserve to live either. But the fish had never acted that way, so they didn’t need a fresh start after the Mabul. But how did they survive if the water was boiling hot? We know that hot water rises above cold water! The hot water of the Mabul only hurt the animals on dry land, not the fish in the cooler seas.
The water continued rising for 150 days, until the end of Iyar. Noach was lonely on the Teiva. It was very hard for him to feed all the animals in the Teivah for so long. Once he was even hit by a lion for bringing its food late! So Noach davened to Hashem for help.
Because of Noach’s tefilos, Hashem decided to have rachmonus on the world. He remembered Noach, and all of the animals on the Teivah who hadn’t done any aveiros. On Alef Sivan, the water started to go down.
Once the water went down enough, on Yud-Zayin Sivan, the Teivah rested on top of a mountain in Harei Ararat. Then, on Alef Menachem-Av, the water was low enough that you could see the tops of the mountains!
Forty days later, Noach decided to find out if it was time to come out of the Teivah. He wanted to do his Shlichus in the world already! On Yud Elul, he opened the window, and the next day he sent out the Orev bird (raven) to see if the water had dried up yet. The Orev was afraid of going all by itself. It didn’t end up going and instead just circled around and around the teiva.
On Chai Elul, Noach sent out a Yona bird (dove) to check. But the Yona came back, and Noach realized there was nowhere for it to rest. A week later, on Chof-Hey Elul, he sent it out again — and this time, it came back with an olive leaf. Noach realized that it was almost time to come off the Teivah, since there were leaves growing on trees! (The Yona picked an OLIVE leaf, which is bitter, to show Noach that it likes getting even bitter food from Hashem more than getting sweet food from a person.) Another week later, Noach sent out the Yona again — and this time it didn’t come back.
On Rosh Hashana, 1657 years after Hashem made the world, the water had cleared up. Noach saw that the earth was drying, even though it was still wet. On 27 Mar-Cheshvan, one year after the Mabul started (365 days — a solar year, not a lunar year), the world became completely dry.
The world had changed a lot during the Mabul — it became tahor and became a place where it would be much easier in the future to be able to do Teshuvah.
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Today’s shiur Tehillim is kapitelach Yud through Yud-Zayin.
Before Dovid Hamelech became king, he was forced to run away from his enemies.
Some people said to him then that he must have done aveiros, because he was suffering so much! In Kapitel Yud-Alef, Dovid Hamelech says that this is not true — this was a test, not a punishment. “Hashem Tzadik Yivchan,” Hashem tests a tzadik!
In fact, a test is sometimes what SHOWS that someone is a tzadik!
Rashi says on this posuk that we can see an example of this from how linen is made. For the threads to be very soft, the stalks of flax need to be beaten. But if the flax is not good quality, it can’t be hit as hard, because the stalks will break. The same thing is with a person: Only a tzadik, who is strong, can have these kinds of hard tests from Hashem!
Dovid Hamelech said that the same was true here: Hashem knows the truth, that he didn’t do the aveiros people were blaming him for, and the reason he was being chased was because it was a test from Hashem.
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TANYA
Igeres Hakodesh Siman Chof-Hey
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Today the Alter Rebbe finishes explaining the vort of the Baal Shem Tov that we’ve been learning over the last few days, about what to do if someone is bothering us during davening.
But first we review about what to do if anything at all is bothering us, from someone or something else that can make us angry, so that we will see what the vort of the Baal Shem Tov is talking about.
There are three KINDS of things that can make a person angry:
1. Something happened that we don’t like. For that we learned before what the Chachomim say, that we need to make our emunah stronger so that we remember that it is B’Hashgacha Protis. Hashem made it happen and we should think about that — not about the cause, the person who did it.
2. Someone said or did something that is an aveira and we can stop it. Then it’s Hashgacha Protis but we need to say or do something to stop it. The Alter Rebbe tells us a story from the Torah where Moshe became angry to stop Yidden from doing something they shouldn’t have been doing.
3. Someone is doing something wrong but there isn’t anything we can do about it. For example, we are doing Mivtzoyim at a fair, and we stop to daven Mincha. All of a sudden, a band starts playing loud goyishe music. This is the type of case the Baal Shem Tov’s vort is talking about! We know it’s Hashgacha Protis, but even though we can’t stop the music, there is still something we can do!
We need to think about what we learned earlier, that Hashem’s Shechinah is in Golus in the people singing the goyishe music. Hashem is making us hear it because He wants us to concentrate harder on the davening. Then we will have used out this opportunity Hashem sent to us in the right way!
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The Rebbe Rashab once said in a sicha the following story:
A little while after the Alter Rebbe became Rebbe, he said to the chassidim, “Men Badarf Leben Mit Der Tzeit!” — “we need to live with the time!” Chassidim wondered what this could mean. The Alter Rebbe’s brother, R’ Yehuda Leib (called the Maharil) was told what this meant and the older chassidim found out from him.
The “time” that the Alter Rebbe was talking about was the parsha of the week. And “living with the time” means that we shouldn’t just LEARN the parsha every day (like we do in Chitas), but we need to LIVE with it. We should be thinking about it all the time, and learning lessons for what to do now from the parsha of the week and the Chumash of each day!
In later years, the Rebbe taught that we should also “Live with the times” with the other shiurim of Chitas that we learn every day, and especially the shiur in Rambam!
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Today we learn another mitzvah about not using animals that are supposed to be korbanos: We are not allowed to cut the hair of an animal, like we usually do to get wool, if it is going to be a korban.
We learn this mitzvah from a posuk in Parshas Reeh: וְלֹא תָגֹז בְּכוֹר צֹאנֶךָ
The details of this mitzvah are explained in Mesechta Bechoros.
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In today's Rambam, we learn more halachos about Me’ilah, a person who uses or benefits from hekdesh, something that belongs to the Beis Hamikdash.
Perek Hey: In this perek we finish learning about which kinds of things are counted as me’ilah, specifically things that were given as a donation to the Beis Hamikdash. One of the halachos in this perek is if it is called me’ilah when a person uses a korban brought by a goy. (Of course we can NEVER take something that doesn’t belong to us! But here we are talking about a separate aveira that needs an extra special kind of teshuva, for taking something that belongs to the Beis Hamikdash.)
Perek Vov: This perek teaches what the person needs to be doing with it for it to be counted as the aveira of me’ilah. If it is something that becomes worth less when it is used, if it becomes worth at least a perutah less, it is called me’ilah.
Perek Zayin: We learn what happens if someone makes a shliach to use the thing that is hekdesh, or has someone else watch it without telling him that it is hekdesh and can’t be used. The Rambam gives many cases and says in each example who would need to do this teshuva of paying back for what was used plus an extra fifth and bringing a korban.
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Today we finish learning the halachos about the Machatzis Hashekel, about what kind of things the money can be used to pay for.
Mazel Tov! We have now finished learning this set of halachos!
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Once at a farbrengen, the Rebbe spoke about how important it is to learn the Chassidishe parsha every week, the maamarim in Torah Ohr and Likutei Torah. The Rebbe said that this is not only for adults, but for kids too! Some people have a minhag to share a part of the Chassidishe Parsha even with children who are under Bar or Bas Mitzvah!
The Mabul happened in the times of Noach, but there is something that is like the Mabul in everyone’s life: The things we worry about. When someone is worried, it “floods” his head. Many people worry how Hashem will give them everything they need, like parnasa or health.
But there is a posuk in Shir Hashirim that teaches us that all of these worries can’t take away a person’s connection and love for Hashem. Not only that, they can make a person feel even CLOSER to Hashem!
All the things people worry about are Gashmius things, that have a strong chayus from Hashem hiding inside of them. When we use these things, WE get the chayus that was inside them! The extra chayus we can get from the Gashmius will make us even CLOSER to Hashem! When we use this chayus to help us daven and learn Torah, the chayus inside the Gashmius comes out, and becomes part of us.
So a person should never think that because he thinks about Gashmius all week, he can’t think about Hashem when he davens. The opposite is true: BECAUSE a person thinks about Gashmius all week, he got so much extra chayus that when he davens like a Chossid should on Shabbos, he will get to use all of that chayus to become so much closer to Hashem!
See Torah Ohr Parshas Noach
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After Tishrei, it is time to start the regular part of the year! In a rally for children in the beginning of Cheshvan, the Rebbe taught an important lesson to keep in mind all year from Parshas Noach:
The Torah tells us that Noach was a tzaddik in his time. Even though all the other nations were not living the way Hashem wanted, Noach was different. He was careful to live in the right way.
This gives a koach to kids today too!
Sometimes the Yetzer will ask us, “Do you really think you can live a life of Torah and mitzvos when nobody else is? Look around at everyone else, they are so different than you! They wear different clothes, go to different schools, and have fun in different ways! You will look so strange if you act Jewish!”
We can answer this question because of what we learn in our Torah, in Parshas Noach! Even though Noach was alone in acting the way Hashem wanted to, he didn’t copy them! He kept doing what he knew was the right thing! And in the end, even though there was a big Mabul, he was able to build a whole new world.
And for us, it’s even easier! Noach was only one person, and nobody else around him was acting like he was. But we are not the only ones! There are tens of thousands of other soldiers in Tzivos Hashem, in every country and in every place! And we are not the first ones, either. We are part of many generations of Yidden, who were able to follow the Torah in every time and place since Matan Torah.
Knowing this gives us koach to be proud Yidden, even if it seems that everyone else is acting differently. Like Noach, we will know that we are doing the right thing!
See rally for children, Beis Cheshvan Tof-Shin-Mem-Gimmel
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Many times, the Rebbe spoke about a song that mothers used to sing to their little children. Part of the song is the words, “Torah iz di beste s’chora,” Torah is the best merchandise — the best thing you can get.
When adults go out to work, they look for things to buy and sell. They might want to have a lot of money, a big house, or a fancy car. But really, the BEST thing to have is Torah!
We all got a very special yerusha, something passed down for us to keep. It isn’t money, it isn’t land — it is something much, much better! We have the best s’chora in the world, the Torah for us to learn and keep!
When we say the first posuk of the Twelve Pesukim, Torah Tziva, we can think about this!
Torah Tziva Lanu Moshe — the Torah that Moshe Rabbeinu gave us, is Morasha Kehilas Yaakov — it is a yerusha for each and every Yid. And our yerusha, Torah, is the very best yerusha there could be!
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“Who knows what is this week’s parsha?”
For many generations, it has been a Minhag among Yidden for a father to test his children on Shabbos. He should ask them about what they learned during the week, especially about the parsha that they learned about in school and heard being read in shul!
See Sicha Shabbos Hagadol 5749
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לעילוי נשמת הרה״ח ר׳ דניאל יצחק ע״ה בן ר׳ אפרים שי׳ מאסקאוויץ
שליח כ"ק אדמו"ר נשיא דורנו למדינת אילינוי
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The beginning of our parsha tells us that Noach was a tzadik in his generation. Rashi explains that Noach was a tzadik compared to everyone else in his generation, but in a different generation he wouldn’t have been considered a tzadik.
Why would the Torah want to tell us that? Why shouldn’t we think that Noach was a big tzadik?
One of the lessons the Torah is giving us is that we don’t have to be the biggest tzadik to save the world! Noach might not have been considered a tzadik in other generations, but he was able to save himself, his family, and the animals from a terrible Mabul that destroyed everything! And after the Mabul was over, he was able to rebuild the world.
The world around us, especially now in the dark times at the end of the Golus, is also like a Mabul. It is full of things that can be dangerous to our Neshamos and to our bodies.
But we are given a Teivah to keep us safe! The Baal Shem Tov explains that the words (Teivos) of Torah and Tefillah are there to protect us. When we “go inside” of these Teivos, by learning the Torah and keeping the mitzvos it teaches us, we are able to be safe from the dangerous Mabul waters around us. And after davening and learning, we are able to “go out of the Teivah” by taking the words of Torah and Tefillah we were connected to and using them to rebuild the world into a place that is fit for Hashem to be.
Knowing that Noach was a more regular kind of person shows us that this isn’t only something a big tzadik can do! Each of us are able to save ourselves, our families, and the people around us from the Mabul too. Each of us are able to rebuild the world and make it a safe and beautiful world that is fit for Hashem to be revealed.
As the Rambam says, any person, through even just one mitzvah, can be the one to tip the scales and bring a Yeshuah and Hatzalah to the whole world!
See Likutei Sichos chelek Hey p. 283
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לע"נ התינוק זאב ארי' ע"ה בן יבלט"א הרה"ח ר' שניאור זלמן שי' גליק
נפטר ב' מנחם אב ה'תשע"ג
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