NOACH II | נח ב: Noah’s Lesson – Saving Ourselves Isn’t Enough
Introduction
The analogy may seem simple, but its message resonates:
Several people are traveling together in a boat. Suddenly, one passenger takes out a drill and begins boring a hole beneath his seat. The others rush to stop him. “What are you doing?” they cry. “Water will flood in and we’ll all drown!” He looks up, puzzled by their concern. “This is my seat,” he replies. “I can do what I want with it.”
Everyone immediately recognizes the absurdity of his reasoning. In a boat, there are no private sections. What affects one passenger’s area affects the entire vessel. Individual actions have collective consequences.
The takeaway from this analogy is reflected in the sichah that follows. In the previous sichah in this collection, the Rebbe explained how a person can save himself from the metaphorical “floodwaters” by entering the ark – the teivah – whose counterpart is the teivos, “words” of Torah study and prayer. Extending that lesson, the Rebbe exhorts us not to remain content merely with saving ourselves. We bear responsibility for those around us and, in a larger sense, the entire world. All Jews – indeed, all existence – form one interconnected whole and each of us possesses the potential to help bring the world to its desired purpose.
Adapted from a sichah delivered on Shabbos Parshas Bereishis, 5717 (1956)
Looking Beyond Oneself
1. The intent of the command to enter the ark is not that we should simply shut ourselves away in arks – the words of Torah and prayer – without paying any attention to what happens with others, claiming “I have saved my soul.” The Torah’s instruction “Enter the ark… you and your sons and your wife and your sons’ wives” teaches otherwise. Not only you, but also your household should enter the ark. Similarly, “your sons” refers to your students. Ultimately, this includes all of Israel, who are included in the words “your wife” or “your sons,” for a wife represents one who receives, and every Jew receives from his fellow since all of Israel form one complete body.
We must bring all of them into the ark – meaning, we must influence all of Israel to enter into the words of Torah and prayer. Before the Giving of the Torah, there was room for error; one could think, “What do I care about the other person? I have saved my soul.” Nevertheless, even then, G-d told Noach, “Enter the ark, you …. and your wife…,” i.e., he had a responsibility for others. How much more so does this apply after the Giving of the Torah – and after the mutual responsibility of the Jewish people was established at their encampment on the plains of Moav, where all Israel became responsible for one another. From that time onward, certainly, there is no possibility of fulfilling our obligation by taking care of ourselves alone. The condition of others must genuinely and deeply affect us.
As mentioned previously, the entire Jewish people constitute one complete body. Just as in the human body, the health of one limb affects the health of the other limbs, so too, in the entire “body” of the Jewish people, the spiritual health of each individual Jew affects all others. As such, when one does not have a positive effect on another Jew, he will also be lacking himself.
Not Just Doing – Reaching Out to Others with Our Hearts and Minds
2. What was mentioned before – that we need to influence other Jews, and particularly the members of our families – should not be done merely to fulfill an obligation; we must invest ourselves in these efforts with dedication.
There is a well-known saying of the Rebbe Rashab: Just as putting on tefillin every day is a Scriptural mitzvah for every Jew without distinction – whether he is a respected Torah scholar or a simple person – so too, it is an absolute obligation for every Jew to think every day for at least half an hour about the education of his children and to do everything in his power – and even what is beyond his power – to influence his children to conduct themselves in the way they are being guided.
One might ask: Why did the Rebbe Rashab specifically mention the mitzvah of tefillin? After all, there are many mitzvos. Why did he choose the mitzvah of tefillin specifically? One of the implications of this choice is that the mitzvah of tefillin is not merely a mitzvah involving action. Its inner theme is the subjugation of one’s heart and mind, as stated in the Shulchan Aruch and in Tanya.
The same applies regarding influencing the members of our households. We should not do this merely to fulfill an obligation, but rather we must invest our minds and hearts in this effort. When a person does not content himself with saving his own self alone, but takes action – and commits himself sincerely – to saving another Jew from the “harmful, raging flood waters” and bringing him into the ark, he can also be confident about himself, knowing that he will remain whole.
More Than What We Can Do Alone
3. To explain the matter: Every endeavor requires Divine assistance. Therefore, after Noach entered the ark, he was still in need of G-d’s help; it was necessary for “G-d [to] protect [the ark] for him.”
If a person tries to enter the ark – the words of Torah and prayer – with his own power alone, there is a possibility that the manner in which he will do so will not be desirable at all. As such, his prayer and study will not lead to Divine blessings. In that vein, our Sages interpreted the verses, “Why was the land destroyed?… Because they forsook my Torah,” as meaning that the Jews’ sin was not that they did not study the Torah, but that “they did not make a blessing over the Torah first.”
The reason why the failure to recite the blessing over Torah study carried so much weight is that before Torah study, we praise G-d “who... gave us His Torah,” and we conclude with “who gives the Torah” – using the present tense of “gives.” In other words, the one making the blessing knows – and states openly – that he is receiving the Torah from G-d. Saying that the Jews “did not make a blessing over the Torah first,” means that even when they studied Torah, they forgot – Heaven forbid – about the Giver of the Torah. Accordingly, the Torah they studied did not elicit Divine blessing and did not protect the land.
Similar concepts apply concerning prayer: It is possible to pray without the prayer being felt in one’s heart. As a result, it will not influence the actions the person carries out throughout the day and ensure that they are as they ought to be.
After all, the main intent in “enter[ing] the ark” is not to remain in the ark, but to go out into the world afterwards and transform it into a dwelling place for G-d. Now, for prayer to be powerful enough to influence a person’s entire day, he must pray in such a manner that he is not aware of the existence of the world at all while he is praying. He should be totally detached from the world; all he is conscious of is G-dliness. When he prays in such a manner, when he returns to the world afterwards, he sees a new world, as Noach did.
In this vein, it is told that, before praying, the Baal Shem Tov would wonder whether he would remain alive, a soul in a body, after prayer. He was not certain whether he would continue to live because his soul might expire due to his intense yearning to cling to G-d during his prayer.
As mentioned before, there is a need for help and assistance from Above for Torah study and prayer to be as they should, as it is written, “G-d protected [the ark, i.e., ‘the words’] for him.” A person becomes worthy to receive this help and assistance as a result of his devotion to other Jews. Then, as our Sages comment on the verse, “G-d enlightens the eyes of both,” he will also experience light. He will be able to “enter the ark” as he should.
For G-d’s Dwelling to Encompass All Existence
4. The narrative of the Flood provides us with a further lesson: G-d told Noach to bring into the ark everything in the world that was liable to be destroyed, “from all living things, all flesh….”
The lesson that every Jew can derive from this is: The very fact that one knows that within the world, there exists an entity that it is liable to be lost and destroyed unless he invests effort in it, obligates him to bring it into his ark. His responsibility is to save it and elevate it to G-dliness. The thought that “this doesn’t concern me” contradicts the concept of Divine Providence. The fact that G-d brought about his awareness of the existence of this entity – and, moreover, that the entity is liable to be lost and destroyed unless he invests effort in saving it – is certainly for a reason: so that he should draw it close in order to elevate it to its G-dly source.
Such a course of action makes one worthy of receiving assistance from Above, enabling him to “enter the ark,” and to proceed until he achieves the state alluded to by el amah techalenah milma’lah, “to a cubit you shall complete it from above.” Amah, “a cubit,” is an acronym for the words Elokeinu Melech HaOlam, “our G-d, King of the Universe.” To explain: By making “our G-d,” the G-d of Israel, we ensure that He becomes also “King of the Universe.”
The verse continues techalenah milma’lah, which literally means “you shall complete it from above.” However, according to Chassidus, it is interpreted to mean that also the “conduits,” keilim, for sustenance are granted milma’lah from Above. This follows the motif, “He will sustain you (yechalkelcha),” i.e., He will provide the conduits, keilim, for your blessings. Our achievements will extend until we bring about “My rainbow I have set in the cloud.” The rainbow is associated with the glow of G-d’s Presence. In other words, through this service, a person makes the entire world a dwelling place, illuminated by the light of G-d’s Essence.
