As abovementioned, evil had permeated all of existence – the mountains and valleys, the animals and birds, the whole of creation. Yet in the midst of this terrible chaos, four men stood proud and strong: Noah, Shem, Cham, and Yefet,13 and they served the Creator with all of their might. These four people guarded their eyes and hearts with utmost vigilance, and succeeded in creating around themselves an armor protecting them from all the forces of impurity.
Noah managed to survive the “poisoned air” of immorality that pervaded all of existence solely through the merit and power of the Torah. Noah the righteous occupied himself with the holy Torah with all his strength,14 and through this he merited being saved from the surrounding impurity.
As Rabbi Shalom Noach Berezovsky writes in Netivot Shalom (Bereshit, p. 44):
“Noah walked with G-d” (Genesis 6:9) – meaning that aside from being a righteous, wholehearted man, he also managed to create an atmosphere of G-dliness around him. Everywhere that Noah walked, he walked with G-d. The aura of holiness that enveloped him protected him from being harmed by the impure atmosphere all around him.
The only way to achieve this is through the holy Torah, which is a complete environment that encompasses a person’s entire being. This is because Torah study includes many benefits; there is the basic mitzvah of Talmud Torah, which is one mitzvah among others – a Jew who studies Torah fulfills this mitzvah.
Beyond that, however, Torah has a unique quality: as the Rambam writes (Hilchot Talmud Torah 3:6), “Whoever has set his heart to fulfill this mitzvah properly and be crowned with the crown of Torah will not distract his mind with other things,” meaning that Torah involves this special requirement – not to divert one’s mind from it.
In order to fulfill the mitzvah properly and be “crowned with the crown of Torah,” one must not divert his thoughts from it. In it he is meant to be entirely immersed, bathing in the atmosphere of Torah; through this he creates around himself an aura of holiness that purifies all impurity in the vicinity. As Chazal say (Berachot 8a): “The Holy One, blessed be He, has nothing in His world but the four cubits of Halacha alone.” That is, Torah creates four cubits of purity and holiness surrounding the person who is utterly absorbed in it...15
Since this was Noah’s great spiritual level, G-d chose Noah to serve as the bridge between the world that was and the world that would be, and He commanded him to build an ark.
Rabbi Shimshon of Ostropoli wrote16 that through the building of the ark, Noah drew back the holy Divine Names that had departed and fled from creation:
The Torah describes the ark’s dimensions: “Three hundred cubits its length, fifty cubits its width, and thirty cubits its height. A skylight (tzohar) you shall make for the ark, and to a cubit finish it from above” (Genesis 6:15–16).
“Three hundred” – the numerical value of the letter ש (shin).
“Fifty cubits” – the numerical value of the letter נ (nun).
By these, Noah drew back the letters שנ that had been removed from the nachash.
“Thirty cubits” – the numerical value of the letter ל (lamed).
“To a cubit (amah) finish it from above” – the word amah (cubit) begins with the letter א (alef).
By these, Noah drew back the letters אל that confine Samae’l.
Thus, through Noah’s divine service, neither Samae’l nor the primordial serpent could harm him in his ark...
Wellsprings of Wisdom
13. As it is said: “And G-d spoke to Noah and to his sons with him, saying...” (Genesis 9:8). Rabbi Avraham ibn Ezra (ad loc.) comments: “‘And He spoke’ – through their father. And some say that all four of them were prophets.”
14. The holy Zohar (Bereshit 58b) states: “Come and see: Once Noah was born, he saw the deeds of people – that they were sinning before the Holy One, blessed be He – and he would hide himself and occupy himself with the service of his Master, so as not to follow their ways.
If you might ask, with what did he occupy himself? – With the Book of Adam and the Book of Chanoch. He would occupy himself with them in the service of his Master.”
Likewise, Rashi writes (Genesis 7:2): “‘Ha-tehorah’ (the clean [animal]) – [meaning] the one destined to be clean for the Jewish people. From here we learn that Noah studied Torah.”
15. In a talk delivered by Rabbi Shimon Gabay (Tiferet Shimon, p. 303), he said the following:
Chazal teach: “I created the evil inclination, and I created the Torah as its antidote.” The Ramchal explains that when a doctor prescribes the only medicine that can save a patient, and the patient refuses it, he brings the illness upon himself. So too, the Creator who formed the yetzer hara tells us plainly what cures it: learning His holy Torah. Nothing else works.
A person must absorb this truth deeply. If he wants to withstand the yetzer hara, there is only one path: Torah learning.
When someone fills his mind with a passage of Gemara, even walking down the street he barely notices anything around him—his thoughts are protected because they are occupied with Torah.
I once had a friend from yeshivah who used to wander at night and fall into the worst behaviors. But the day he began to learn seriously, everything changed. He rebuilt his life through Torah and eventually became a rosh kollel, a revered G-d-fearing individual, and the author of many Torah volumes. His transformation was complete.
The point is clear: even someone who has stumbled terribly must never despair. “There is no despair in the world at all.” No matter how low a person has fallen, if he truly decides to return to G-d, Torah study can lift him from anything.
In our generation especially, it is only Torah learned with depth that can save a person from temptation. “It is a Tree of Life for those who grasp it.” When one holds on to it, the yetzer hara retreats.
16. Nitzutzei Shimshon (ibid.).