Hey everyone,
I was studying this week's parasha, and I came across something that I found very interesting, I would like to share it with you.
During the times of Adam and Eve, before the Mabul (Flood), all people in the world were vegetarians. No one ate any meat. They never had to wait 6 hours before eating anything. They wouldn't even eat fish. (I can't imagine a life without eating fish. Who doesn't eat fish? I really don't like fish, btw.) Hashem told Adam that he can eat from every tree in the world, except for one tree, the forbidden tree. But the bottom line is that he was only allowed to eat trees and herbs -- he was not allowed to meat.
When Noah came off the Tevah (Ark, aka his gigantic sailboat), Hashem told him that he is allowed to eat meat from now on. He no longer has to be a vegetarian. He can eat meat. And fish! Yay!
I always knew this. But this year, when I was learning this again, I asked myself, Why? The whole world was getting destroyed. Noah goes on a boat. He's saved. OK. Now it's time to start fresh. What's one of the first things Hashem tells Noah? Go eat meat. What's going on here? Why is it that Noah and his children no longer have to be vegetarians.
The Ohr HaChaim gives three answers. I will tell you all the answers. But its really one of the answers that I really, REALLY loved.
(1) Adam and Eve were not allowed to eat meat because we didn't want them to kill all the animals in the world. Hashem was "scared" (so to speak) that man would kill and rid the world of animals. So they weren't allowed to eat the animals. After the Flood, Hashem promised that he will never again destroy the whole world with a Flood -- both man and animal. Since Hashem promised that animals will ALWAYS exist from now on and he will never bring another flood to the world, it is NOW safe to eat meat.
(2) The people, and even the animals of that time had become very corrupt and very very wicked. Hashem really wanted to destroy the ENTIRE world. From beggining to end. Destroy everyone. Everything. Start fresh with a new Adam and Eve. The only thing is that Noah was a tzadik. Noah was a really very good man. So Hashem said to Himself, "I can't destroy the entire world! Noah deserves to live." Therefore, the entire world was save BECAUSE of Noah. If not for Noah, all the animals would be killed. The only reason why some of the animals were saved and were brought on the Tevah was because of Noah. So, to an extent, Noah owned the entire world. It all belonged to him becuase it all existed becuase of him. Therefore, since he now owns all the animals, Hashem said, you are allowed to eat them. They're yours. Do as you wish. Eat away!
This next answer (number 3) is awesome. I really love it and I will explain why.
(3) What was Noah doing on the Tevah? What could he have done? What do you think he was doing? Sipping on a pina collada? From every specie of every animal that ever existed, there were either two pairs of every nonkosher animal or seven pairs of every kosher animal. Let's think about this for a second. There were at least 4 animals from every single species, and there were up to 14 animals for some species. Four lions. Four tigers. Four bears. (This is the place for the Wizard of Oz joke). Four panthers. Fourteen cows. Fourteen deer. Fourteen pigeons. Fourteens turkeys. If you think about it, this is the largest zoo ever! In all of history. EVER! And guess who was the zoo-keeper? It was Noah! Noah didn't sleep for one entire year (he was in the Tevah for over a year). All he did was feed animals. He couldn't sleep becuase different animals had different eating schedules and as soon as he finished feeding the crocodiles, he had to go feed the horses. And as soon as he left the giraffes, he had to feed the monkeys, and then the donkeys, and then the bumble bees, etc etc. He never slept. Never. Never ever. So after a whole year of serving the animals, Hashem says to Noah, as a reward, I will now allow you to eat the animals. You worked so so hard taking care of the animals, so I will acknowledge that and let you eat meat from now on. It's a reward, resulting form your hard work and constant toiling.
Why do I love this answer. Think about what's going on. Hashem has a rule. What's His rule? Men are not allowed to eat animals. Finished. This is Hashem's rule. And really, that's the way it should be forever. But Hashem deals with us in a loving and beautiful way. Hashem sees that Noah spent ONE ENTIRE YEAR focusing on these animals. He didn't care about himself. He just kept on giving and giving from himself and giving away his life for the animals. Hashem acknowledges and recognizes our efforts. Hashem said, " I am going to CHANGE my rules! I'm going to CHANGE my Torah. Why? Because you worked hard for something." And it wasn't even a religious thing! It's not like he was learning Torah all day, so Hashem said, "Good Boy! He's a treat! Go eat cow!" He wasn't even doinbg something religious. But what he did was give over his life to something else. When you give over your life for a larger purpose, Hashem knows that it is unbelievably difficult, and He will not let that go unrewarded. He will take care of you. Understand this point. If not for Noah working so hard, NO ONE IN THE ENTIRE WORLD would be eating meat today. Just carrots and maybe lettuce. That's it! But the whole world can now eat meat just becuase Noah worked hard at something.
Life's tough. There are a lot of stuff that we have a hard time dealing with. Hashem decrees something on us, and we think that there's no way out. We're stuck. We have to live with these problems forever. We think that Hashem made a rule and that's the way it will be, and there's nothing we can do about it. Fact: This could not be any further from the truth. Hashem is more flexible than any of us can ever imagine. Hashem makes changes. Hashem makes things easier for us. Hashem gives us huge rewards. Hashem wants us to live easy and enjoyable lives. But the enjoyable life comes with one condition: You can't sit around and not give life 100%. Noah has a job to do. He had to take care of the animals. He did a phenomenal job. He gave his 100%. He didn't even sleep. We also have jobs and roles in life. (What are those jobs and roles? That's a whole different question. But once we know what those jobs and roles in this world are,) We have an obligation to give our 100%. We have to give it our all. We have to give ourselves up for the larger purpose. And once we do that, Hashem will just start giving you the blessings that we want (namely, meat).
Shabbat Shalom! And sorry if I got confusing in the middle. I'm not sure if I made sense, and I'm too lazy to go over the whole email...Talk about giving 100%.
Love you all. Bye Bye!
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