After this wonderful introduction, let us consider what a servant is. Chazal say, if Hakadosh Baruch Hu wanted us to fulfill 613 Mitzvot, He could have left us in Egypt to be slaves to Pharaoh and fulfill these Mitzvot. So, why did He take us out of there?! It is because had we stayed in Egypt, we couldn’t have been servants of Hashem; we’d have Pharaoh over us! Therefore, He took us out of Egypt, and then we became Bnei Yisrael, with only Hakadosh Baruch Hu over us!
Rabbeinu Bachya says to us: A person who sells himself as a slave, the Torah calls him a עֶבֶד עִבְרִי – i.e., he returns to the same state as they were in Egypt, subjugated to Pharaoh! Consequently, this is not the purpose for which Hakadosh Baruch Hu took us out of Egypt, and that’s the anger of Hakadosh Baruch Hu toward that person who goes back to being like they were in Egypt.
David HaMelech blesses Shlomo before his death (Divrei HaYamim I 28:9): וְאַתָּה שְׁלֹמֹה בְנִי דַּע אֶת אֱלֹהֵי אָבִיךָ וְעָבְדֵהוּ – And you, Shlomo my son, know the G-d of your father and serve Him. “You can go and investigate the reasons for the Mitzvot, but don’t serve Hakadosh Baruch Hu out of thinking you understand these reasons, rather בְּלֵב שָׁלֵם וּבְנֶפֶשׁ חֲפֵצָה – do so with a whole heart and a willing soul!” This was the desire of Noach, who wanted a young son to serve him. Why specifically a “young son”? Ma’archei Lev writes: A son serves his father because he is his father, and the father influences his son because he is his son. However, the strength of this trait applies to a father and a young son. A young child serves his father on the one hand and accepts what his father commands him on the other, with complete nullification. When an older child serves his father, he does so for two purposes – fulfilling the father’s will and fulfilling the Mitzvah of honoring a father. This second purpose is not for the father but for the son. But a young child has only one purpose: fulfilling the father’s will.
After establishing the power of influence gained through servitude as the highest level of closeness between a father and son, we can continue and say that from this, a person should learn the manner of his closeness in serving Hakadosh Baruch Hu. The highest level in serving Hashem is service like a young son. The faces of the Keruvim were the faces of a child because the greatest closeness is that of youth. Just as a child does not ask questions or worry about anything because he is completely nullified to his father’s will, so too Bnei Yisrael must cleave and nullify themselves entirely to Hakadosh Baruch Hu without asking questions or worrying. And just as a young son feels importance in fulfilling his father’s will, so too Bnei Yisrael should feel importance in fulfilling the will of Hakadosh Baruch Hu.
This is what Noach grieved over – that he would have a son to serve him. As stated, he could not derive this lesson regarding serving Hakadosh Baruch Hu from an older son as he could from a young son. Nor could he derive it from a grandson, for a grandson is not connected to his father’s father. Since Cham (ben Noach) took this matter away from him – i.e., the greatest closeness to Hakadosh Baruch Hu – he was cursed measure-for-measure to be at the lowest level, a slave to slaves, entirely under the influence of flesh and blood, and connected to slaves; not a mere connection, but a connection of a slave to slaves, the furthest level from servitude to Hakadosh Baruch Hu.
