The Gemara (Zevachim 113b) states that there is a huge animal called אורזילא. Even when this animal is just born, it is as large as הר תבור, Mount Tavur. How did this animal survive the flood? The Gemara says that we can't answer that it placed its head in the teivah because even its head was a parsah and a half long! Its large head wouldn't fit into the teivah. The Gemara answers that this animal placed its nose into the teivah. Rashi writes, "So it could breathe." In this manner, the animal survived and later had children. Reb Chaim Kreisworth zt'l said that there is a great lesson here: Even if a person fell to very low places, and he is drowning in the waters of the mabul (which means he is drowning in the tumah and debased culture of the non-Jewish world), if he will at least place his nose into the teivah, into kedushah, this will save him, and it will save the generations after him...
This lesson is particularly important for our generation. We are living in a very trying time. The tumah around us is powerful, and it tries to capture everything into its "flood." A person should place his nose into kedushah. This means he should have experiences of kedushah. He should go to a beis medresh to daven, and he should have set times for Torah. He has to "breathe" healthy, spiritual air. This will help him survive the mabul, the flood of tumah of our times. These moments of kedushah will be his oxygen, and like the אורזילא animal, he will be able to survive these difficult times.
The Significance of a Drop of Good
The story of the אורזילא animal teaches us the significance of a "drop of good." Fortunate are those who can be in a beis medresh all day long. Tzaddikim said that the yeshivos are our teivas Noach, and fortunate are those who can spend many hours studying Torah and serving Hashem in them. This will certainly elevate him above the debased nature prevalent in this world. But even a person who doesn't have time for that (or he isn't yet on the madreigah to spend so much time with ruchniyus), nevertheless, even a "scent" of kedushah helps. The few moments he is among kedushah will have an influence and save him from the flood of this world. This teaches us the concept of nekudah tovah, a drop of good, how great it is, and how much it can accomplish! The אורזילא smelled the scent of the teivah and was saved, so should everyone seek moments when he can be among kedushah. The scent and the experience will elevate him and save him.
In the days of the generation of the flood, the entire world was corrupt. Therefore, Hashem said (6:13) לפני בא בשר כל קץ, "The end of all flesh has come before Me..." Everything had to be destroyed; there was almost no good in the world. However, Noach was the spark, the kedusha that remained in the world. צדיק איש נח, Noach was the tzaddik. Noach was a bright light of good among all the bad. He was saved, and from him the world continues until today. This teaches us the significance of a drop of good, how much it can accomplish. Noach was a bright light of goodness, but in comparison to all the bad of the world, it was a spark in the darkness. Nevertheless, it was sufficient to save Noach and the entire world. So, too, when a person has many aveiros, r'l, he should seek to at least have a scent of goodness. Perhaps he has mitzvos in the past, which he already performed. Perhaps he can perform some good now? Perhaps he can go to a beis medresh to learn some Torah? This scent of holiness might be slight, in comparison to all the bad he is attached to, r'l, but it has the potential to save him and pull him out of where he is.
Just as Noach – a spark of goodness – saved the world, so, too, each person is called קטן עולם, a small world (Tikunei Zohar 130b). In his olam katan, small world, one drop of goodness can turn everything around. About this it states (Mishlei 10:25) עולם יסוד צדיק, "a tzaddik is the foundation of the world." A drop of righteousness can establish the world.
We say at the beginning of the Selichos: נדבר מה ,נאמר ומה נתאונן מה ,הפנים בושת ולנו הצדקה 'ה לך בחסד לא ...'ה אל ונשובה ונחקורה דרכינו נחפשה ,נצטדק ומה דלתיך דפקנו וכרשים כדלים ,לפניך באנו במעשים ולא, "To You, Hashem, is the righteousness, and we are ashamed. What can we say? How can we say we aren't guilty? We will seek our ways and investigate them and return to Hashem..." Reb Moshe Shapiro zt'l asks why we must search our ways so carefully to find our sins (as it states ונחקורה דרכינו נחפשה "we will seek our ways and investigate them...")? Unfortunately, our bad deeds are easy to find, they don't need to be searched for, to find them. We know our faults without looking for them. We know which areas we need to improve in. So why does it state ונחקרה דרכינו נחפשה, "we will seek our ways and investigate them?"
The answer is that we aren't looking for our faults. We are looking for our good deeds. דרכינו נחפשה means we are searching for the drop of good that is in us. We are looking for the sparks of goodness and good deeds that we have. It is essential to find them, because with them, we will be able to do teshuvah sheleimah before Hashem.
