Learning from Noach’s Failure: Chizuk During Operation Iron Sword from Rabbi Shmuel Goldin

good afternoon again to all um it's a difficult difficult time for all of us um and particularly I always feel when I'm speaking now that uh I feel somewhat inadequate uh some of you and others who may be listening who will be listening have children who are on the front lines um you know uh it's it's hard for me to give to those to to those families who really need it but let's all share and some thoughts what I'd like to do as I did when the first time that we did this I'd like to learn something with you and from what we're learning I believe we will be able to gain a a a degree of for the days ahead I'd like to raise an what would seem to be a an unconnected question and that is why does the Torah include in its record the last chapter of Noah's life why does the Torah talk about the fact that he plants a Vineyard and that he gets drunk and and all that happens why is that important for us to know and why does the Torah include it in a narrative of course everything we believe everything that's in the Torah has a purpose has a meaning I believe we can understand this last chapter this last really tragic chapter of Noah's life if we take a look at a fascinating pattern that emerges earlier in the Torah when Noah and his family go into the Tava the Torah is very specific about how they go [Music] in I had this marked the Torah says [Music] and as the commentaries point out it says Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons wives went into the T and clearly there is a distinction there is a delineation between the men and the women explain this they explain it in a very appropriate way they said while there is destruction occurring in the world while the world is being destroyed with a flood you should not be participating in full family life husbands and wives should not be together they should be separate at this point you should not be enjoying each other's company and in its fullness you should be mourning the loss of life and you should be mourning what's happening outside in the world when the flood ends hashem's directive is very clear Hashem says to Noah and his family leave the exit the ark you and your wife and your sons and their wives with you and again the nuances of the text are are so so critically important the was saying to Noah come back together flood is over it's time to move on it's time to create a new world it's time to resume your family life to propagate the world go out with your wife have your sons go out with their wives as well but what's fascinating is that two sentences later the Torah tells us the following does not listen to's directive and he goes out the way he came in he leaves the Tav separate from his wife and his children the sons are separate as well and this then leads to a pattern that emerges from this moment onward over and over again tries to give no when he speaks to him says to him over and again propagate the world replenish the world build a new world it's time to start and Noah apparently doesn't listen and now now we can come to that last chapter in Noah's life what is it describing it's describing a man who emerges out of aava to total Destruction total devastation and faced with that Devastation he is unable to move on the only thing he can do is point P plant a Vineyard and and drink himself into Oblivion he can't face this challenge he can't face the challenge that he must face at this particular Point together with his family of creating what who wants him to create which is a World After the flood and whenever I read this section I think to myself about our own people particularly I think about and I'm an American born child to American Born parents so this is not part of of my experience but I think of the survivors of the showah who came out to a Devastation equivalent to the devastation that Noah faced when he came out of the table and I think of the tremendous tremendous debt that we owe to that generation to so many of them who were able to not put the past behind them uh They carried it with them it it you couldn't leave it behind it was there I remember there was one particular time we had a a neighbor across the street a woman a widow who used to come to us for the Seder and she was a an she was a survivor of of aits and and other camps and she never really spoke about it until one year we had a at our seder often we had young Russian students from Yesa University would come because I was in charge of of teaching them and at one point she turned to these students and she said a night does not go by where I don't have nightmares of those years she dreams about it every night and yet she had the courage and the tenacity to rebuild her life and to have a family and to have have a child and I think of all of the other survivors who created and and with tremendous strength tremendous strength rebuilt their lives facing the devastation of lost families facing the devastation of lost not only lost parents lost siblings and in many cases lost wives and children and how they find Were Somehow able to pick themselves up and go forward and I contrast that to Noah in my mind and I say that's what the Torah is teaching us Noah is compared to abam over and over again by kazal and ab always emerges higher and one of the reasons he emerges higher I believe is because within his soul and within the soul of the Jew is the ability to not not move past tragedy no not to not to leave it behind not to forget it those those individuals who were so brutally murdered on Simas Torah this year should always be with us they should always be remembered but once the dust settles and basem it should settle quickly and with as little pain as possible and we're facing some very complex challenges ahead but when the dust settles we are a people that will find a way to go on we will carry those memories with us they'll make us stronger we will find a way to go on and that's the that I would share with you today that there will be there will be I don't know when it will be I don't know it will be next week or next month or in in four months I don't know but there will be a day after where we will be able to say we're carrying those we've lost with us but we're moving forward and this by the way is the way r salvic defines the the word which is used in the Torah in very strange ways which we we Define as consolation says consolation is not moving past a loss consolation is not forgetting the loss or or leaving it behind consolation occurs when we recognize a new reality and we are prepared to move on with that reality comes comes after TSH when we say this is the reality of our world and now we've got to change it we've got to build it we've got to somehow move on and there will be a day after and there will be a time of when we are going to be able to move on and rebuild rebuild bu and somehow find a way to live in peace within this country the ezem it should happen it should happen quickly it should happen speedily and our efforts using the the the image of of our own People of Our Own survivors who have survived so much will will give us the strength to move on and the families that lost the strength to move on to rebuild their worlds because that is the stuff that we are made of and that's why we have we're here we're here today because we are surviv not just survivors we're more more than that we're thrivers we find a way to rebuild and to move on and we will we will I'd like to close as we did last time with the recitation of three in this case the three fot that I will recite I ask that you please listen and and and if you have the text good if not then just with me just think of them the first [Music] is [Music] for [Music] for the for the captives [Music] finally a prayer for those who are injured that they should experience a speedy a speedy [Music] recovery [Music] and finally [Music] thank you for joining me should hear out f