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Noach- To help the other...
For this year’s Parsha Lesson I will be focusing on a chinuch (parenting/ educational) lesson that can be derived from the Dvar Torah.
Background
Noach was an enigma. He was born into a generation of almost entirely wicked people- yet he was righteous. So wholesome and righteous, that Hashem saved Noach alone from his entire generation, and all of humanity for the rest of time descends from him. Wow, what an unbelievable person and what an amazing story! For a person to stand up to their family, their community, their country, etc. and do that which is correct- albeit counterculture and unpopular- is one thing. For someone to literally withstand the entire world and follow the straight path and do that which is right, that is breathtaking.
We do, however, find something peculiar about Noach. While everyone else of his time had children starting from when they were 60, 70 years old and continuing on from there (they lived, generally, until 700- 900 years old) Noach remained childless until he was 500 years old.
Rashi explains that the reason why Hashem did this was actually a kindness. This was in order to ensure that Noach’s oldest children would not be of the age that they would have been already decreed to be wicked and therefore perished in the flood. By not having children until he was 500, this ensured that Noach’s entire family- regardless of how righteous they were- would be able to be saved from the flood and therefore the great Tzaddik (righteous man) Noach, would not have to suffer the anguish of losing children in the flood.
The Seforno. however, gives a different explanation. The Seforno explains that the reason why Noach had children starting from when he was 500 was because that coincided with the time that he began to build the Ark. What was significant about that time? While Noach was building the Ark, people would come to him and question what he was doing. Noach would tell them that he was building an ark because Hashem was going to destroy the world in a flood because of the evil that people were doing. In this way, Noach would rebuke them for the evil they were doing, thereby affording them the opportunity to repent and cease their evil. Ultimately it did not work and the people did not return to the proper path in life. However, the Seforno explains, since Noach was engaged in rebuking people for them to do teshuva (repent) and be saved from the impending flood, he was thereby ‘walking in the ways of Hashem’ in doing goodness with others. Therefore, this merited him to be able to have children.
It appears that the opinion of the Seforno is that Noach was unable to have children through the regular, natural functioning of the world. It was only with a significant merit that Hashem would grant this Tzaddik the blessing of being able to have children. When Noach was engaged in building the Ark, thereby leading to him rebuking others and affording them the possibility to return to Hashem- doing this kindness with others was that tremendous merit that Noach needed to merit having children.
Question
What was great about Noach rebuking others and trying to show them the proper way of life, was that by doing so Noach was making the name of Hashem great and holy in the world- he was being ‘mekadesh shem shamayim’! By Noach standing up, as he did, and build an Ark in accordance with the will of Hashem, and as a way to proclaim to the world that Hashem was bringing a flood, this was a tremendous ‘sanctification of the name of Hashem’- isn’t that the more significant merit and therefore ‘headline’ characterization of what Noach did?
Additionally, in Noach’s rebuking the people of the world to return to Hashem, shouldn’t that be categorized as a great deed and tremendous merit because he was ‘doing G-d’s work’ in trying to bring the people of the world back to the service of Him? Noach, in standing up for Hashem’s honor and putting in effort to bring the people of the world back to Hashem’s service was working to establish Hashem’s kingship and lordship over the world- isn’t this also a more significant characterization of what Noach was doing?
Why would the ‘mundane’ categorization of ‘chessed’ to others be the defining characterization of what Noach did? What he did was so much more than that!
To give an example and to explain further- one would not report that on October 4th, 2022 Aaron Judge hit a home run in the second inning. Rather the headline would read, and did read- Aaron Judge hits his 62nd home run of the season! Aaron Judge broke the single season record for home runs! Of course all of the above are true, but the significance of the home run was much more than any other, regular, home run.
Similarly, while it is true that Noach was helping others- he was also attempting to re-establish the kingship of Hashem and he was also making a ‘kiddush Hashem’ by standing up so valiantly for His honor. Why then would this be reported as ‘Noach helped others’ when the other aspects of what he did were so much more significant?
Answer
Apparently the greatest appellation that could be given to Noach’s heroism, and the great merit that he was missing in order to merit children, was that of doing kindness with others. Not just any kindness- presumably Noach the Tzaddik was engaged in much kindness with others- but the most significant form of kindness a person can do with another: help them to live a righteous and ‘straight’ life in accordance with the ways of Hashem. But fundamentally, what this was was simply: kindness to another person.
This was the ingredient that transformed Noach, according to the Seforno, from someone who was a complete Tzaddik and worthy of being saved even though the rest of the world would perish, into being someone who ‘walks in the ways of G-d’.
Why is this so?
R’ Chaim Volozhin famously told his son that the entire purpose of man being created is to be of helpful service to another person. This is the ultimate manifestation of a person being ‘like Hashem’ and ‘clinging to Hashem’, which is the overarching philosophy of our mission in this world.
Hashem’s fundamental characteristic is kindness and therefore for one to emulate Hashem means to do kindness with others. What is kindness? How should one go about doing kindness? These questions are clarified in the Torah and understood best by those who have ‘daas Torah’ (thinking which has been molded by the Torah), but the fundamental, foundational goal for a person is to do kindness with others. Being kind and helpful to others is the essence of Hashem and therefore the type of personality that all of humanity is tasked with developing.
Chinuch Lesson
Very often when it comes to educating our children, and ourselves, we can work on a lot of different skills and areas of development in order to accomplish our goal of a fully developed person- or we can work on developing certain foundational skills and characteristics from which all of our other goals will stem from.
For a pedestrian example- one can work on their physical abilities and functioning by training and focusing on different aspects: speed, posture, strength, etc. Or one can do gymnastics and develop the core and basis for being physically developed, capable and athletic. In education, one can try to instill in a child knowledge of many different math rules, scientific ideas, etc. or one can teach the child the fundamental understanding from which those rules and ideas stem.
If one were looking for a ‘foundational idea’ or shortcut on which to focus their energies so that life becomes more productive and successful overall, one would not find many better than ‘kindness to others’ or ‘helping others’. Capitalism, the source of so much wealth and prosperity for all of humanity the world over, has as its foundational idea man’s focus on helping others around him and catering to someone else’s needs. In a capitalist society, someone who most caters to the needs and wants of those around him will be blessed with wealth and prosperity.
This simple idea, if we can instill it in ourselves and our children, is the key to a life of success and happiness in all areas of life: to help the other…
Wishing you and your family a wonderful Shabbos!
Rabbi Eli Meir Kramer
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