Yeshiva
Beit Midrash
- Torah Portion and Tanach
- Bereshit
- Noach
Noach’s level of righteousness and holiness also seems to slip in the aftermath of the flood. The rabbis allow him to question the judgment of Heaven that inflicted such a tragedy upon so many souls. He somehow forfeits his titles of being righteous, innocent and holy that accompanied him before the deluge. I feel that it is not his faith in God that is shaken as much as his faith in himself. Why was he spared? What does God want him to do now in the newly emerging and troubled world? He was powerless to prevent the first flood so what can he now do to prevent a second debacle from engulfing humankind? Noach feels himself to be an archaic remnant of a past civilization and completely without influence in the new world arising before his eyes. To a certain extent therefore, he gives up on shaping the new world, letting the baser instincts of human beings again drag down human society. He does not exploit his status as the lone survivor of the flood, the person who knows better than anyone else what society needs. That is what the rabbis meant when they criticized Noach for planting a vineyard as his first project after the flood. He should have created a school of learning and taught a generation the path of holiness and divine inspiration. It is this failure of will and initiative, of misplaced priorities and of unwarranted pessimism that is held against him. He could have been the bridge between the old world and the new. Instead he ended up not being the force for good in either of the worlds. It will remain for Avraham to fill that role ten generations later.
Rabbis in Midrash
Lessons
fast navigation
Hosha'ana Rabba FLYDUBAI & HOSHANA RABBA- ANI VAHU HOSHIA NA- I & HIM SAVE US
"Ani vaHu Hoshia Na", "I and Him, Save Us". We don't just pray to Him, but we also pray to and for ourselves that we should emulate and educate our children to have that instinctive altruism with which He created the world. President Trump seemed amused about Yaniv Hayon, our PLUMBER who confidently worked with G-d like Superman (he learned from a pilot on a TV show!) to save 174 lives on the Dubai hijacking, but we in Israel are totally accustomed already 78 years to our plumbers, teachers, garbage-men, rabbis, farmers & doctors being Hashem's shlichim! This is what Zionism is about.
Moreshet Shaul Hashem Is your Shadow – part I
Based on Siach Shaul, Pirkei Machshava V’Hadracha p. 420 – an address from 1941
