The Baal Shem Tov’s Lesson of “Seeing the Fault” in the Mirror

From the Teachings of the Lubavitcher Rebbe Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, Zt”l

This week's Torah portion, Noach, tells the story of the great flood visited upon mankind because of their improper behavior toward one another. After the floodwaters receded and Noah and his family were able to leave the ark, Noah planted a grapevine which he had brought with him. He made wine from the grapes and quickly became intoxicated. Noah fell into a drunken sleep, laying naked in his tent. One of Noah's sons, Cham, saw his father lying naked and told his two brothers about what he had seen. Shem and Yafet immediately went in to cover their father.

The Faces of Shem and Yafet Were Turned Backwards

Shem and Yafet were so careful not to look at their father's nakedness when they went to cover him that "they went backwards, and their faces were turned backwards, and they did not see their father's nakedness."

The story is slightly puzzling. It is clear from the fact that Shem and Yafet walked backwards that they did not see their father. Why, then, does the Torah add the apparently redundant words: "...and they did not see the nakedness of their father"?

There is a saying of the Baal Shem Tov that if a person sees something wrong with someone else, it is a sign that he himself has a similar fault. He sees himself, as it were, in a mirror - if the face he sees is not clean, it is his own face which is dirty.

Can we not see a genuine wrong in someone else without being at fault ourselves?

Man is Blind to His Own Shortcomings

Divine Providence is present in every event. If we see bad in someone, it is to show us our own failings which need correction. Man is blind to his own shortcomings. He needs to see them exemplified in someone else, to force him to reflect on himself and see their counterparts in his own life.

The task of the Jew, however, is not only self-perfection; it is also the improvement of others: "You shall surely rebuke your friend, even a hundred times." Surely, then, when he sees his friend's failings, Providence intends him to help to correct them, not only to introspect on his own weaknesses.

The Need to Reproach a Wrongdoer with Tact and Diplomacy

When one sees a Jew doing something wrong, one's first concern must be to seek the duty required of him - namely, to try and reproach him, with tact and delicacy, in the hope that he will correct his ways.

But when one finds oneself seeing this wrong not as something that he himself must correct, but just as a failing in his fellow this is evidence that the fault is a "mirror."

The Significance of Not Seeing Their Father’s Nakedness

Therefore, after saying that Shem and Yafet turned their faces away from Noach, the Torah adds, "and they did not see their father's nakedness." It is here emphasizing that not only did they physically not see him, they were not even aware of his fault as such-they were concerned only with what must be done (which was to cover him with a mantle).

Reprinted from the 2003/5764 Parashat Noach edition of L’Chaim, a weekly publication of the Lubavitch Youth Organization Excerpted from “Keeping in Touch by Rabbi Eliyahu Touger.