Rabbis weigh-in on Noach's alcohol abuse

but what led Noah to this substance abuse what  was the root cause of this problem the world has   gone Haywire there is immorality Galore it's at  a point where God says I need to start over we're   going to reboot he's going to save Noah and  his family and that's it Noah builds the ark   and Noah is cooped up on this Ark for an entire  year Noah is finally instructed to leave the ark   when this flood subsides and what is the first  thing that Noah does he plants a Vineyard and he   creates wine he drinks he gets drunk he gets very  drunk he passes out naked in his tent his son sees   him and engages in immoral Behavior with Noah  why did he go for the alcohol what was going on commentary in the Torah from the 13th century  points out that the Torah is telling us this   because this is important it's fundamental we  have to understand the dangers but what led   Noah to this substance abuse what was the cause  of this what was the root cause of this problem   various commentaries approach this from different  angles for example the says that he was planting   a Vineyard because he wanted to do he wanted to  do wine libation as they would later in the base   of mikas many many years later he wanted to  perform a service to God and His mistake was   he took a sip from the wine prior to performing  the service he got carried away and it was just   it was too much that was the root cause of from  the perspective of the in which case he probably   should have prioritized the service and save the  drink for later and maybe things would have turned   out better but maybe he shouldn't have been so  lustful with the wine maybe he should have been   a little bit more patient and focused that's  theer's approach kakar has a little bit more   of a a spiritual approach basing on various  midashim that the Satan possessed Noah and   abducted him the Satan is the Heavenly prosecutor  essentially the Yara and he basically got tempted   to do something he really shouldn't have done  and almost fell into the same trap that Adam   and Eve had fallen into because Adam and Eve  ate from the forbidden fruit that was lust that   drove them and no fell into that same trap in  fact there is an opinion of the talo that the   forbidden fruit that Adam and Eve had partook  from was grapes and that they made wine Noah   fell into this same exact Trap God restarts and  reboots the world from a previous mistake and   it's like H the same exact cycle the zoer has a  different explanation the Zer says that he was   actually trying to rectify the mistake that Adam  and Eve had made Adam and Eve had engaged in the   forbidden fruit and developed self-consciousness  self-awareness a deep sense of self-awareness   a harmful sense of selfawareness to the point  that it ended up leading to intense immorality   that God had to start over from literally 10  Generations later so Noah said how would I get   drunk how about I escape self-awareness I escape  self-consciousness and I could be passed out naked   on the floor just like Adam and Eve were prior  to that that sin to from the Tree of knowledge   this is the perspective that the Zohar examines  the story from what I found interesting was the   perspective that Rashi had in approaching this  problem because Rashi doesn't actually approach   the problem Rashi just tells us the solution  if you look at the at the verse itself it says Noah the man of the field had and he  planted a Vineyard and Rashi says well why   does it say and he began why doesn't it just  tell us he planted a Vineyard why he began to   plant a Vineyard the word v is a variation on  the word of profane he made himself profane how   did he make himself profane Rashi doesn't tell  us the root cause doesn't tell us what happened   in Noah's life that led to his alcohol substance  abuse doesn't tell us that he was dealing with   trauma he doesn't tell us that he was cooped up  on a boat for an entire year with animals and no   one else but his family and maybe he needed to  relax a little bit didn't tell he didn't tell   us the root cause of the issue he tells us the  cause of the potential solution what should have done he should have first engaged in planting  something else planting something more productive   he could have planted olives he could have  planted wheat he could have planted figs he   could have planted something that is used to  eat that he can actually sustain himself and   his children with and instead he planted something  used to fulfill lust but again Rashi doesn't tell   us the root cause he tells us what he should  have done keyw instead what he should have done   instead was planted something more productive  when we are examining how to deal with issues   in this case it was substance abuse this is more  broadly applicable to any issue we often look for   the cause of the issue let's ruminate and explore  and discuss the problem and pick apart the problem   and try to get to the bottom of it and there  may be place for that the other commentaries   do take that approach but from rashi's world  view well what should you have done instead   let's focus on that what could could we do better  let's focus on that instead of getting stuck in   what we're doing wrong let's focus on what we can  do right that's my story and I'm sticking to it