When Noach, his family, and all the species of animal life left the ark, the Torah says that they departed from the Ark תחפשמלה ם. Our Chazal comment on that by saying a cryptic message, לא הם it was not them. The Meshech Chachma's explanation to this comment is the following. Hashem could have saved Noach and all the Taiva's inhabitants without being cramped inside living quarters for an entire year. However, by doing so, the survivors of the Flood would not have become spiritually rehabilitated. The Torah describes that both man and animal became perverted by developing deviated natures and instincts. They required an intensive lChinuch training program to return them back to normal behavior and conduct. In the Taivah they were disciplined to realize they could not just eat when they desired to. They could not rip other animals apart in order to obtain their sustenance. They were fed manually by humans.
The passuk says that ויזכר אלקים את נח Hashem remembered Noach and all who was with him in the Taivah which means that Hashem's presence was felt inside their dwelling. When they left the Taivah they were changed completely from whom they were before they entered. This corrective process and training took no less than a year but when they left it was manifest to all that these animals were םה אל not similar to the same ones which entered twelve months ago. The Torah said they left the Ark םהיתחפשמל. This description relates that all the species accepted upon themselves to cleave to their own species in contrast to before the Flood when all boundaries even amongst the animals were crossed. Even the descendants of Noach for decades took upon themselves the restriction of sexual immorality even not to violate a virgin (Bereishis 34,7 Rashi) all because of the one year chinuch to rehabilitate them.
So we see that Life in the Taivah's environment enabled all its inhabitants to change their nature to a degree more desirable and appropriate than before. The Baal Shem Tov gives us a tremendous insight to another type of Taivah that parallels the ability to change just like Noach's Taivah and that is the word of Tefillah. In Lashon Hakodesh the word הבית also means speech and word. The Baal Shem Tov says that when Hashem commanded Noach לא אב התיבה that it was time to enter the Ark, Hashem is talking to Bnei Yisrael to come into the words of tefillah. One can daven from rote and the words become merely lip service without any heart or thought. To have a successful experience of davening to Hashem one must concentrate on the words he says and allow them to envelope him just like he enters a Mikveh and Succah. It is interesting that the words of טבילה תפילה are similar. The letter פ in the Torah must have the space letter of ב inside it. There must be some connection to this relationship.
The measurements of the Taivah of Noach also point to this parallel of word and speech. They were 30 amos height, fifty amos width, and 300 amos length. Together the numbers equal לשן which means tongue and language. According to the Baal Shem Tov the Taivah in the parsha is also referring to the spectacular koach of Tefillah besides being a refuge habitat to preserve future life in a new world.
Another example of the parallel between the two Taivos is found in the passuk השעת רהצ .לתיבהA tzohar is either a precious stone or a window, both of which illuminate. Similarly when davening, one must bring a light to the words he says. If one says the words quickly and in a rush, unclearly, without understanding, without heart and supplication, then his words lack light and luster. If he davens in the opposite manner then his words become lit up and sparkle. The results of his tefilla understandably are contingent upon the degree of his צהר. If he takes the time and energy to make his words the צהר type, then he can make Hashem have a ר הצ (desire) for his tefilla. If not, he will remain unfortunately with the הרצ that he is requesting from Hashem to remove.
Tefillah is called בלבש הדובע service of the heart. The heart is the organ where the yetzer hara and the middos reside. Chazal relate to us that we should emulate certain positive middos of animals. Every morning we are told to arise like a lion. In Pesachim 112 Chazal tell us to serve Hashem
שר רץ ðמר וקל כðרבי יהודה בן תימא אומר הוי עז ככצבי וגבור כארי לעשות רצון אביך שבש םימ
Some animals possess exemplary attributes and others negative. In short, we have a zoo in our hearts and the "animals" have to be trained and channeled into avodas Hashem just like the animals that inhabited the Taivah of Noach.
According to this inner connection between the Taivah of Noach and the Taivah of Tefillah we can deduce that Tefillah also has the power and segulah to change one's middos. However in order to achieve this one has to truly daven with avodah of the heart and not merely with a recital of words. Just to give an example, the Mishna in Berachos writes ויה םינושארה םידיסח םימשל םבל ונווכיש ידכ ,םיללפתמו תחא העש ןיהוש. The earlier Chassidim would wait an hour prior to their davening in order to have devotion in their tefillos. What these Chassidim did during this hour of preparation is not mentioned in Chazal? However, if we reexamine the reading of the Mishnah, we can find the answer, for it all depends where the comma is put. חסידים הראשונים היו שוהין שעה אחת, ומתפללין כדי שיכוונו םימשל םבל they would wait an hour, in which they davened to have kavvanah in their tefillos. This was their preparation in order to achieve a true avodah of the heart, to daven in order to have kavannah. If our tefillos were so sincere and heartfelt then we too would step back from the Shemoneh Esari with a slightly changed heart and a resolve to a fresh start because we feel לא הם.
This is one of the explanations given how tefillah actually helps to answer one's request to remove the middas hadin which seems to be upon him. The gezairah was placed upon him because of his dysfunctional spiritual behavior and his waywardness from the Torah. By seriously davening, one brings his consciousness to realize the severity of his shortcomings and that his true singular inner desire is only to get closer to Hashem and therefore he commits himself to do so. After his tefillah he is not the same individual he was before his tefillah. Therefore the gezairah just lost his address and it cannot be delivered.
The Rishonim say that the verb to daven is להתפלל and not לפלל which is the simpler and more basic tense. The tense of התפעל conveys a reflexive intensive experience that the act that one is doing is effecting him. It is similar to the statement of Dovid Hamelech on himself ואני תפלה that his identity is tefillah. Not that he was busy with davening and saying Tehillim all day, but rather that he had the lasting effect and impression of his actual tefillah upon himself in his thoughts and actions, in his tikkun hamidos and deveikus with Hashem.
In our time of הרצ let us try to put a little more רהצ into our הבית and send a speedy yeshuah to Am Yisrael.
הצר ה' אלקינו בעמך ישראל ובתפלתם
Gut Shabbos
Rav Brazil
