Pesacheinu Megadim - Connecting the Beginning and End of Parshas Noach

okay we are going to now begin a new series for the upcoming year we started it actually Arab yam of Ona but I don't know if everyone was available this series is a little different than last year last year we did the series where we connected the para to the time of the year this year what we would like to do is connect the beginning and the end of the paraa that means as follows in our opening sh we brought the imperative that there has to be a connection between the beginning and the end of the par that's based on many ideas there's a a rule by br that has to be the ending has to be similar to the beginning it's a rule by thear tells us that DAV h on the on his beloved chapters of tahim would begin and end in the same way whether with ashre or haleluka and there are many other examples of this point one of them was based on the sa and this week we're we're going to Endeavor to connect the uh beginning and end of par so here it goes um I'm taking you to this week's email and I want to remind everyone you could sign up for our weekly Mar and news um by going to rabid dg.com um and there you could hit the Subscribe button by the way the new safer Zak on is now available uh to order online so if you get our emails you click here you could order the new saak legadel it's available with free shipping also you can find it on our site off um rabid dg.com um and the last uh trip the this is a last call for those who want to join us for um South Africa uh the a few spots left and you could uh still join us okay so we are going to connecting the beginning and the end of now very interesting um the par begins Rashi says what wait a second it's supposed to be saying the children of n so why does it say was we need to hear his children why are we getting biographical information Sashi says well once you mention thead you need to praise him you cannot lose the opportunity to praise if you say the name of a you have to give them a compliment that's the rule otherwise it's like you're undermining the value of Tyra Tyra is the most important commodity in the world if you would mention uh laav an important personality in the world who is Noble you would say something nice about them if you mention the name of a sadic you should praise them but if you look at the very end of the par the last words of the par are says Rashi what do you mean didn't die says Rashi the wrote that ter died even though he didn't die for another 60 years so that people do not criticize and say that is not so that's very similar to how the para began para began with the of thead and the para ends with with the T jumping through hoops to avoid saying something that might be critical of the sadic so this again shows that the opening and closing of the paraa are of similar ideas also the para begins and towards the end of the nanal also draws this comparison between the beginning and the end of the paraa now it's interesting last week we brought the connection between the beginning of the paraa and the end of in terms of bous namely Bim the referring to the mid of humility now we find a similar connection between the beginning and end of with the mid of humility um the the explains the opening of as follows that had a very special and specific M of reached a true level of an and Sh to other people and therefore anyone who the ru of people is pleased with the ru of hasem is pleased with added to that is um a person cannot reach levels of Kad and do CH until and by doing so he will be this is in the opening of the the of was that he was an unov and he was and therefore he was in that Mar he was to be and a and a t and therefore he lived long like R says these are the uh is the offshoot and the product of the mid of anava there's an idea based on the that sometimes if a person leaves this world early his years are added to the unov so to was was given additional years that who is in un of to the because the is together with the the UN is together with the he in any event the way the learns the opening of the para is an explanation of uh's humility well if you look at the end of the para in the he explains that when says Rashi says the N of is a backward n to teach that until Abraham there was of Hashem in the world um he brings to the in the name of the that the is according to like a rolled n which is explained as a reference to the mid of and Sh and in that marem is a person the says the reason why the N is written like this over here is to teach until there was on mankind but when came to the world and he brought theid of humility like he said then the was removed is in the and the to reference the the the N which is a very straight N is a Remis to a simple person who is yashar and and that is what engendered that should uh stop his be it as it may the learns both the opening of and the closing as a Accolade to the opening is the of and the end is of now I want to share with you something amazing I was in um Australia in the end of the summer not so long ago and there was a rabbi who came to meet me his name was Rabbi LaVine and he gave me his manuscript on and he asked for a letter of approbation so he said if you have a chance on the plane maybe uh take a look at it so the good thing is when you're on a flight Australia you actually do have a chance on the plane to do things you wouldn't ordinarily have to do so I went through a very nice chunk of the saer and I wrote little notes on it and I saw the his saer is a very interesting one he explains all the episodes of the Tyra Al peot there's so many commentaries that explain D and remes and he explains that I'll peot and I saw something there that I I was never aware of um and I wrote it down at the time this would be a beautiful connection between the end of the parish and the beginning do you know the story of the haa the dispersion at the end of the par it says and it was when they traveled from the East did you ever pay attention to that they traveled from the East you know what's the relevance that they traveled from the East so this morning I saw Rashi says uh something that I've seen this Rashi many times but now that I saw other explanations this Rashi stood out more what does it mean they traveled from the East they were living in the East like it says they were in harm so they traveled from that's what it means and they needed a bigger spot to house everyone that's how Rashi learns however theb learns differently m is not mikam is harat arat was in the East when n came out of the T where did he come where did he land in Turkey harat so he traveled from har Ararat they traveled the generation of dispersion traveled from har Ararat why does the T mention that the generation of the dispersion moved away from har Ararat who cares that I know that was long ago we know that got out of Thea it could have said when he got out of the T that no got out of the T that landed on har arat why does the Torah emphasize that they traveled away from har arat as an introduction to the story of the Dara the answer is what was standing on har Ararat probably the Tava so when they used to wake up in the morning and they would open up their window what do you think they saw glaring at them out of the window the Tava maybe the full Tava maybe fragments of the T and the explains even further they didn't like looking at the T because you know what the Tava reminded them of it reminded them that if they don't act correctly God could destroy the world and save the good guys that lesson of of reward and punishment that if God is not pleased with the behavior of man the ream has punishment and he has the ability to save those who act properly they didn't like that message so as an introduction to the story of the generation of dispersion it says they made sure to move as far away from the T as they possibly could oh now that they don't have the T glaring them in the face and reminding them of now they could rebel against God that's the introduction I never realized this you know what's in the East what's on the Tava there's archaeological there evidence of fragments of the Tava that are found on the says that the valley of Shar is west of harat that's where the T was everybody knew uh that the movement of the travel of Dara to shinar was east to west why does the tar mention that because they said we don't want God cuz when they lived in harat they saw the Tava they saw the fragments they REM remembered how and his children were saved and they reminded and they were able to reain in a bit a lateral little bit their Tyas so it's not only they were looking for greener pastures by going to Babel they also were looking to run away from Hashem there were looking to run away from God this is the meaning of now um another idea but so so this really is a connection between the beginning of the story the beginning of the par and the end the beginning of the par speaks about the generation of the Mel and hashem's uh punishment that he sent to them and theh that he saved n and and at the end of the para we see the the great wisdom of building the T because the building of the Tava was not only this is very important the building of the T was not only for the generation of the flood as Rashi explains that for 120 years they would ask n what are you doing what are you doing what are you doing and would say if you don't improve God's going to bring a flood if you don't improve God's going to a flood Not only was that was there a toas for that generation but the Tava landing on har arat was a reminder for generations to come so you see the that the way he decided to destroy the world he first of all he waited 120 years and even more than that after the flood was finished that Tava continued to serve as a testimony to mankind to keep them in check Okay now what's interesting is there are other contrasts between the beginning of the story and the end of the story Rashi brings that when God went down to see the tower um that the BHA Adam made Rashi says what do you mean BHA Adam they weren't the children of donkeys or camels it means they were following in the ways of Adam Harish who denied the that hasem gave to him and and they denied the TOA that Hashem saved them from the Mable so the end of the story is really a demonstration of the the sin of the of the flood being compounded in a sense in other words this is not a random story this story is has to be understood in the context of the opening of the paraa the opening of the paraa is God destroyed the world he saved some people let's see at the end of the paraa how the survivors of of this uh flood fa okay um also at the end of the para it says that God dispersed them and they don't have a share in the world to come and ra and Rashi points out who was worse the darel or the DAR the darel never tried to attack God the Dara did and yet the darel was destroyed and the Dara was not and the reason is because the darab had contention and strife among them themselves and that God did not tolerate as opposed to Dara that a certain unity and that God was willing to tolerate so really these two episodes are being contrasted and they're being contrasted specifically by their placement in the beginning of the paraa and at the end of the para okay so these are some ideas uh one more um one more idea you know Rashi in the beginning of the par brings that walked by him only with God and Rashi says but Abraham walked ahead of God meaning Noah needed support Abraham walked in his service of hem on his on um on his own so my friend R Danel Weinstein said that contrast we also see at the very end of the paraa where Haron was standing on the side waiting to see well what would happen to Abraham If Abraham is thrown in the fire I'll be on his side if he's not thrown in the if he's not saved then I'm on n's side but Abraham didn't need anybody to support him Abraham didn't say well I'm not sure what side I'm on let me see what my friends are doing no Abraham walked with God on his own without any support so again that's another contrast between the beginning of the parha and the end of the that is on