Nachal novea; makor chochma -
A flowing river; the source of wisdom (Mish. 18:4)

Parshas Noach

(Genesis 6:9-11:32)

"And Hashem looked upon the earth, and behold it was corrupt, for all the flesh had corrupted its way upon the earth." Bereshis 6:12

Why did the rudimentary beginning of ritual slaughter, shechita, start with Noach and not with Adam? Before the sin of Adam, all the creatures of the world were created as holy, even animals. There were no evil forces in existence before Adam's sin to influence man or animal toward evil. Therefore, it was not necessary for man to eat meat to rectify and spiritually elevate the animals, for they were already in a state of spiritual perfection and did not need to be eaten by man to be spiritually elevated. Since the animal soul today is on a low level, the way an animal can attain spiritual growth is to have man eat that animal. When a man eats an animal, the nourishment that he derives from eating the animal gives him the vitality and energy he needs to perform Hashem's commandments. The animal becomes elevated by providing nourishment for that person to perform a mitzvah. Only in this manner can an animal attain spiritual elevation. Not only is the animal spiritually elevated, but everything that the animal consumed for its own physical survival is elevated including the leaves, grass, water, and the earth and sun that nourished the plants that the animal ate. In this way all of creation is elevated spiritually by man’s eating animals. The combining of earthly elements for spiritual elevation by man reflects the fact that all of creation is a unity and has one source, Hashem.

Similarly, every mitzvah performed by a person’s offspring is credited to the parents of the child who performed the mitzvah, as well as to all that child's ancestors going back to Adam. Why is this so? Just as in the above mentioned case, anyone or anything which participates in having contributed to the performance of a mitzvah also gets a share of the reward and is spiritually elevated as a result. If it wasn't for child's ancestors going back to Adam/Chava, who were responsible for producing that child, the mitzvah could not have been done. Therefore, hundreds of people have a share in the reward for a single mitzvah. It is thus very important to train our children in the proper path to observe the Torah. For every mitzvah our children, grandchildren, and all our future descendants perform is credited to our account, and we will be rewarded for our descendant's actions.

Animals were in need of rectification after they became spiritually blemished through Adam's sin and by the fact that Adam gave the forbidden fruit to the animals to eat. Why wasn't Adam given permission immediately after his sin to eat meat to effect a rectification of the animals? Why did Hashem wait until Noach's time to allow meat to be eaten in order to rectify the animals? The reason is that the rebuilding of the world spiritually didn't take place until after Noach and all the animals left the ark. Before leaving the ark, all flesh, including animals, had corrupted their mating habits and therefore rectification of the world wasn't possible until the situation was corrected after the flood.

The fish, however, didn't corrupt their mating habits, "for all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth,"(Bereshis 6:12). This implies that only upon the earth were the creatures corrupt, so the fish, who were in the water, remained pure. Therefore the elevation of fish does not require ritual slaughtering, as were not corrupt during the generation of the flood. However, fish still need rectification from the spiritual damage done to them by Adam's sin, though their blemish is not as serious as that of the land. To be able to eat a kosher land animal, one most ritually slaughter that animal. By slaughtering a permissible animal, we are asserting, through the medium of the slaughtering knife, the word of Hashem, who commanded that an animal to be eaten must be ritually slaughtered. This causes the evil forces that are attached to the animal to be subdued, so the animal comes one step closer to being permitted to be eaten.

Since the animals "upon the earth" corrupted their mating habits, it is the dirt of this world--whom all land creatures are dependent upon for their survival--that influences them and people to sin. Therefore, fish, who live in water---which is one step more detached from the physicality of this world--were not influenced to sin like the land animals. They live in the water which itself has the power to purify.

"Make for yourself an ark--taiva (Bereshis 6:14)

It is a miraculous feat that we are able to condense the enormous light and awesome power contained in the letters of the Torah on paper. Hashem, in His tremendous love for Israel, enabled these letters containing such awesome power--which literally can create worlds--to be miraculously contained and condensed on paper. This tremendous feat is synonymous with the miracles of Krias Yam Suf (the parting of the Reed Sea) and of the creation of dry land. During Krias Yam Suf the waters of the Read Sea gathered together in one place to create a pathway of escape through dry land. When Hashem created dry land during the 7 days of creation all the waters that covered the entire world gathered to one place to produce dry land, just as by the incident of Krias Yam Suf. The verse states, "Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together to one place and let the dry land appear" (Bereshis 1:9). Hashem performed the same exact miracle with the condensing the power of the letters of the Torah to one small area on the pages of holy books so the world could tolerate their tremendous power. The Torah at its spiritual source comes from the same place as the spiritual source of the great oceans. The Talmud compares Torah to water because the spiritual source of water and Torah come from the same place. "For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of Hashem (knowing the Torah) as the waters cover the sea" (Isaiah 11:9).

Just as is impossible to traverse the sea without a sea-compass and chart, so too does man require the "map" of Torah to guide us through the treacherous course of the sea of wisdom, which is synonymous with water. Philosophers who try to analyze the profundities of life, generally get lost in their own thoughts and ideas and go around in circles and don't come to any clear conclusions. They become lost in the sea of wisdom without any guide to direct them to the right conclusions. Rabbi Nachman warned very strongly to stay away from philosophy, since it can lead a person to getting lost in his own ideas and can even drive him away from his faith, chas va shalom. "All that come to her (philosophical analysis to solve the world's problems without the Torah as a guide) will never return (they will be hopelessly confused and lost in their own thoughts) and they will not reach the paths of life getting close to Hashem)" (Mishlay 2:19). We see many examples of this in the world today. There are philosophies to support immorality, being gay, abortion, etc. Even Hitler (ymach shemo) used his philosophies to Justify wiping-out six million Jews. From these examples we clearly see that philosophizing without the proper guide through the sea of wisdom can lead to destruction.

When Hashem showed Israel the path through the Red Sea, not only did they not drown, but they merited to understand such deep concepts at the parting of the sea that it says that "even a (lowly) maid-servant saw at Krias Yam Suf what (the great prophet) Yehskail ben Buz, didn't see (in his vision of the Divine Chariot)" (Michilta Bashalach). This extremely unique revelation at Yam Suf occurred because when the physical sea parted this caused the spiritual waters of the Torah to be split open as well. This then enabled very deep concepts of Torah to be condensed into a digestible form for human understanding. Just as the physical sea contracted to create a path for the Jews to pass through, so too did the spiritual sea of the wisdom of the Torah contract and enable the Jews to comprehend such deep concepts. Isaiah writes (12:3), "and all shall draw water (wisdom) with gladness out of the springs of salvation (the salvation at Krias Yam Suf). The Holy Zohar comments on this verse that "during the first redemption (from Egypt) they (the Jews) had the sea split for them, and by the final redemption (by Moshiach) the sea of the Torah will part through the medium of a scribal pen for them." We see from the Zohar that the pen which writes words of Torah on paper is synonymous with the parting of the Red Sea, which guides us to salvation. Through the printing of Torah books, the pen will guide us through the dangerous sea of wisdom in our troubled times of the final exile to salvation, just as the Jews passed through the Red Sea to safety.

We can now see why Hashem punished the generation of the flood with a deluge of water. The sin of the Dor HaMabul (Generation of the Flood) was that they tried to create their own rules and society using their own rationalizations to the exclusion of the commandments of Hashem, which would have guided them through the complications of life. They had already spiritually and morally drowned through living by the rules of their corrupt society, which was based on their own philosophizing in the sea of wisdom. Their moral and philosophical corruption prevented the waters of wisdom that they drew to themselves and to the world from being contracted into the letters of the Torah. This resulted in a overwhelming spiritual deluge of wisdom, which manifested itself in a physical deluge of water.

Now we can understand why both the ark of Noach and the basket of Moshe are referred to by the word "taiva," which also means "word" in Hebrew. The physical taivot of Noach and Moshe actually drew their spiritual power from the letters and words ("taivot") of the Torah to protect both Noach and Moshe from the deluge of water caused by the intellectual corruption of the generations of the flood and of Egypt. The intellectual corruption at Egypt caused the Egyptians to drown in the Red Sea. Noach and Moshe were protected from the water due to their commitment to adhering to the ways of Hashem, the Torah. Even though the Torah wasn’t given at the time of Noach or when Moshe was an infant, the Torah was the instrument by which the world was created and sustained. In the time of the flood, that generation was expected to keep the seven laws of Noach, which was and is the guide for the behavior of the world at large, which prevents them from drowning in their own philosophies. Moshe was destined to receive the Torah, which indicates he had the ability to travel the sea of wisdom. Both Noach and Moshe followed the guidelines established by Hashem to traverse the sea of wisdom. This was accomplished through the physical taiva (ark) and the spiritual taiva (words of Torah). Noach was only able to save himself and his immediate family through the taiva (words of Torah) to ensure the physical human survival of the world. However, Moshe saved all of Israel and gave over his taiva (the words of the entire Torah) to Israel for every generation until the end of time to ensure the survival of every Jew that would ever be born.

"And the dove came in to him at the time of the evening: and an olive-leaf was in her mouth; so Noach knew that the waters were abated and off the earth"(Bereshis 8:11).

The olive-leaf contained in the dove's mouth alludes to the concept of Chanukah, when the candles of olive oil are lit on the menorah. Then "Noach knew that the waters were abated." The physical lights of the Chanukah candles draw down to this world the divine light of truth, which enlightens the world and brings people to realize that Hashem is running the world. This was the rectification of the damage done by the generation of the flood who sinned with their eyes to commit sexual sins and disregarded Hashem. Therefore, through the lights of the Chanukah candles we enlighten our mind's eye to realize Hashem runs the world, even below ten tefachim. We then come to realize that Hashem is everywhere and His laws must be obeyed. The symbol of the olive-leaf represents the light of Hashem conducting the events of the world, which Noach's generation ignored. When Noach saw this sign, he knew the damage caused by the sins of his generation were healed and forgiven, "and the waters were abated," because the light of truth was restored to the world and would be forever reminded of its responsibility to follow in the ways of Hashem, through the lights of the menorah Amen.

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