Noshe

Hello peoples,

Good news and bad news. Good news first. I started writing these emails exactly one year ago, Parashat Noah of last year. So I'm happy that I could be sharing Divrei Torah for a year now. Bad news is that today's D'var Torah is going to be a short one. Well, maybe that's also good news because it will be clearer.

In tenth grade, my Rebbi, Rabbi Chesir, shared an unbelievable D'var Torah with us. He drew a connection, a symmetry, between Noah and Moshe Rabbeinu. This is all based on my memory from four years ago, but I'll share what I remember.

Our Sages are critical of Noah, claiming that he didn't care enough about his generation. When Hashem told Noah that he wants to destroy the world, he started building the ark in preparation for the flood. Why didn't he pray for the generation? Why didn't he argue with Hashem?

When the Jews sinned by serving the Golden Calf, Hashem told Moshe that he wanted to annihilate the Jewish nation and start fresh with Moshe. Moshe would be the starting point, everyone would come from him. But Moshe refused. In fact, Moshe responded, if you want to destroy the Jews, "Erase my name from Your Torah." I don't want to be a part of the Torah if you are going to kill the Jews. Moshe put himself on the line for them. This act was an act of a leader. This is what Noah was supposed to do. He should have prayed and inspired them to change.
The week's Haftarah refers to the waters of the flood as "מי נח" - "the waters of Noah." Whereas in the Torah, the rain was just referred to as the "waters of the flood," the Navi in the Haftarah calls it Noah's waters. Those very letters - "מי נח" are the same letters in the word "מחני" - "Erase me." That's the word Moshe uses when he prayed for the Jews. He said that Hashem should erase Moshe's name from the Torah if He decides to destroy the Jewish nation. Moshe fixed where Noah went wrong.

Another similarity is that both Moshe and Noah were in arks. Noah was in the huge ark. Moshe was in the ark the his placed him in and left him on the Nile River. That's a cute one.

A third similarity is something that I thought of myself, but I'm sure someone else said it, too. When Hashem sees that the people of Noah's time are sinning, He decides that He will give the 120 years to do teshuva - to repent. During those 120 years, Noah was supposed to change them, but he didn't. Moshe Rabbeinu lived 120 years, to make up for the 120 where Noah went wrong.

A fourth similarity: At the beginning of the parasha, it says, "Noah walked with G-d." At the end of his life, the Torah refers to him as "a man of the ground," in a derogatory way.On the contrary, Moshe was first referred to as "an Egyptian man," which has a negative connotation. At the end of his life, he was referred to as "The man of G-d." Once again, Moshe fixed where Noah went wrong.

There is a fifth connection, but it's very long. I may decide to supplement this email afterwards.

One question that we must ask is, Why are we so against Noah? Why do we love bashing him? After all, Hashem decided that he was the only worthy one to be saved! Why do we love painting such a negative picture about him?

The answer is simple. The Rabbis weren't bored. They didn't decide to create a bad guy to make the story more interesting. When we view him in a negative light, it is only for us - for us to learn. Noah should have been more mindful of the people of his generation. He shouldn't have only thought about himself. That is an extremely important lesson for us to learn. And if it means speaking negatively about a Torah character to learn this important lesson, then that's what our Sages will do.

May we all learn this lesson that we must worry about our friends just as much as ourselves.

I once read a very interesting piece by Rabbi Frand. He said that a 25% yield in an investment is greater that a 500% yield. You must be thinking, "What? That doesn't make sense! If I put in $100 and I receive 25%, that's $25. 500% is $500. Of course 500% is more." However, if you get a 25% yield from $10,000, that's definitely more than 500% of $100. Rabbi Frand explains, if you only invest in yourself your entire life, you make become 5 times the person you used to be. You may be 500% better than you were before. But if you invest time into 10,000 different people, even if you come out with only affecting them 25% each, it will still be a lot better.

May this year be a year of thinking about other's. The second we can start thinking about others before ourselves is the second in which we learn to become great people, like Moshe Rabbeinu.

Shabbat Shalom!

Adam Sabzevari