Cooling Off

Parshas Noach

Noach is described as a righteous man, perfect (“tamim”) in his generation – and that he walked, “es ha’Elokim,” with G-d.

Avraham, on the other hand, is described as one who was also perfect, but who walked “lefonai,” ahead of G-d (Bereishis 17:1).

Noach’s relationship with G-d was a contractual one. He viewed G-d as “Elokim,” the G-d of justice. Justice demands that a good deed be rewarded in one’s lifetime and a bad deed be punished in one’s lifetime. If that chain of cause and effect is broken and reward and punishment are a thing of the future in the world to come, then it loses relevance to one’s life and one is free to do what one wants.

Avraham’s relationship with G-d was based on faith and trust. He viewed G-d as Hashem, eternal. He wasn’t looking for personal reward. He was looking to better the world. If reward came, whether in his lifetime or in the world to come, that was a bonus, not a condition. Avraham gave G-d credit. He was prepared to invest in his belief in G-d and wait indefinitely for the returns on his investment.

This description in verse 9 of Noach’s relationship with G-d is prefaced by the words, “These are the ‘toldos’ of Noach.” The word toldos means offspring (37:2). So, we would expect the Torah to immediately mention in verse 9 the names of Noach’s children – Shem, Cham and Yofes – just like it did with Yaakov (“These are the offspring of Yaakov, Joseph” (37:2)). Instead, the Torah tells us in verse 9 that Noach’s offspring were his qualities of being righteous, perfect and walking with G-d. Only in verse 10 does the Torah tell us the names of Noach’s children. Why the interruption?

Rashi (to 6:9 and 5:32) explains that because Noach was infertile for the first 500 years of his life and therefore only had three children, it was his good deeds that lived on after him that augmented his legacy.

But there is also another explanation.

When the Torah finally introduces us to Noach’s children in verse 10, it repeats the word “es” from “es ha’Elokim” that it used before in verse 9. We are now told that Noach fathered three children – “es Shem,” “es Cham” and “v’es Yofes” – rather than just Shem, Cham and Yofes. By repeating the word es, the Torah is telling us two things. First, all of Noach’s three children were influenced by their father’s way of life, but each interpreted it differently. Second, each was an individual in his own right with his own lifestyle.

Shem adhered to his father’s philosophy of es ha’Elokim. He, like his father, also expected immediate reward in his lifetime. But he refined his father’s philosophy. For Shem, life itself was compensation enough for one’s good deeds and he did not complain if he received nothing more. Shem understood what the verse in Eicha (3:39) teaches us, “Man, why do you complain? You are alive!” The gift of life is all we need. We will cope with the rest.

Yofes also followed in his father’s footsteps, but for him the paramount value was not goodness, but beauty. Things were good in life only if they were beautiful. If they were not, they were not good and were not worthy of his attention.

Cham, like his father, also made the calculation that good deeds only pay if they are rewarded in one’s life time. However, his arithmetic came out with a different result. Bad deeds, the ones that G-d forbade, paid more because they were more instantly gratifying than good deeds.

In this sense the three children inherited the characteristics of their father, but each interpreted them in their own way. That is why the Torah first had to tell us in verse 9 about Noach’s qualities before introducing us to his children in verse 10.

“The earth was corrupt before G-d and the earth was filled with violence” (Bereishis 6:11.). Rashi explains that the word “corrupt” refers to the sins of sexual immorality and idolatry, whereas the word “violence” refers to robbery. One might think that sexual immorality and idolatry are only sins perpetrated towards G-d, lifnei Hashem, and not towards man. If a sexual forbidden relationship is entered into consensually, who does it hurt? Only G-d! And if one worships idols, who does that hurt? Only G-d! But that is not true. These acts lead to robbery and even worse, they can lead to murder. If G-d is not constantly present in our minds, we will misbehave not only towards Him but also towards our fellow men. When Elimelech castigated Avraham for deceiving him into believing that Sarah was his sister, Avraham defended himself by saying: “I realized that the one thing missing here is the fear of G-d. I could be killed because of my wife.”

When the flood finally came, it wiped out all the “Yekum,” the existence on the face of the earth.

Whenever the word “yekum” is used in the Torah, it refers to wealth, which allows a person to stand on his own two feet (Rashi to Devarim 11:6). It was Korach’s wealth that gave him the audacity to challenge Moshe and it is that same wealth that can lead people astray into believing that they have enough money in the bank to dispense with G-d and to boast that “it is my own strength and personal power that brought me all this prosperity” (Devarim 8:17). It is only when nature is prompted by G-d to take over and wash away all of that ephemeral wealth and independence that man realizes, once again, that there by the grace of G-d go I.

The rainbow that G-d suspended in the sky is to remind Him of His promise never to engulf the world in another flood. It is a symbol of restraint. Its seven colors begin with red which symbolizes sin. The red of sin which faces the heavens reminds G-d to count to seven before He reacts. If He does so, His anger would cool off from red hot to orange, to yellow and all the way down to white. There should be some distance placed between our sin and G-d’s reaction, to give us time to repent and to give G-d time to cool His anger. During this time, He should convert His anger into mercy for his creatures. The rainbow is like an inverted bow aimed at the heavens, reminding G-d that if He shoots in haste, He too will “suffer,” so to speak, because when his people hurt, He hurts with them, as it says, G-d feels our pain (Tehillim 91:15).

These highlights from the Parsha shiur of Haga’on Harav Dovid Feinstein, zt”l, are presented by Raphael Grunfeld, a partner in the Wall Street law firm of Carter Ledyard & Milburn LLP., who received semichah in Yoreh Yoreh from Mesivtha Tifereth Jerusalem of America and in Yadin Yadin from Rav Dovid Feinstein, and who attended his weekly parshah shiur for twenty years.