מה הייתה הטעות הגדולה של נח שאסור לנו לעשות? | הרב אלישע וולפסון

My friends and teachers, Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan, Parshat Noach. What a privilege! Blessed be His name. Ah, we have something in the parsha. There is a Zohar here that we strengthen ourselves with every year. It is written like this: Rabbi opened, "And the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma and said: I will never again curse the ground because of man," The power of offering sacrifices. When Noah came out of the ark, he opened his eyes and saw that the whole world was destroyed. He began to weep over the world, great sorrow. He entered the ark—there was a world, trees, houses, people; he exits—there is nothing, all is destroyed. He said, Noah says to the Holy One, blessed be He: Master of the Universe, if it is because of man's sins or because of fools, will You destroy Your world? Why did You create them? Or, or did You come to destroy? Or, oh, oh, did You come to destroy? Or , my Lord, why destroy? He argued before the Holy One, blessed be He: You created man, "for the inclination of man's heart is evil from his youth," every inclination of his heart's thoughts. " >> Only evil all day long"—one of the most painful and shocking verses. But, uh, the Holy One, blessed be He, created in man a good inclination and an evil inclination, and the evil is strong. And Noah says to the Holy One, blessed be He, You must decide. If You create the world because of fools, because of the wicked, then don't create the wicked. You allow it, and then supposedly weep over it. It is as if Noah here is not having a grievance with the Holy One, blessed be He, no? I don't understand the story: what, if this world doesn't suit You, then don't create this world; if it does suit You, then create it, accept it as it is, or don't create man, or don't destroy the world. These ascend, and he stood and prayed before Him, and that aroma ascended before the Holy One, blessed be He, and was pleasing to Him. This is very interesting, because even though it seems like he is complaining, he does it through prayer and through the offering of sacrifices, and it ascended as a pleasant spirit to the Holy One, blessed be He. Interesting. >> Rabbi said, three aromas ascended before Him. The aroma of his offering, the aroma of his prayer, and the aroma of his deeds. And there was no aroma in the world since creation like that aroma. And therefore He commanded and said: "Be careful to offer Me at its appointed time," meaning the aroma that Noah offered before Me, be careful to offer Me, an aroma of offering, prayer, and fixing deeds, yes, meaning when we come to offer sacrifices before the Holy One, blessed be He, then the sacrifice comes, of course, together with prayer; it is the practical expression of prayer and it comes from a place of repentance, yes, of fixing one's deeds. So these are three aromas that ascend before the Holy One, blessed be He. The aroma of repentance, of fixing deeds, the aroma of prayer, and the aroma of the sacrifice. And this is what the Holy One, blessed be He, commands us. "Be careful to offer Me at its appointed time." He says, he says, continuing here. Ah, I am skipping a little. Ah, the Sages taught : What did the Holy One, blessed be He, answer Noah? Noah came, he asked good questions. What does the Holy One, blessed be He, answer? When he went out of the Ark and saw the whole world destroyed and began to weep over it, he said: Master of the Universe, You are called Merciful, You should have had mercy on Your creatures! Yes, it reminds one of the prayers of Moses our teacher: The Merciful and Gracious God, abounding in kindness and truth, and what was our situation in Egypt? True. Meaning, Moses our teacher also reasoned with the Holy One, blessed be He, but out of humility, out of a cry, out of a request. And. The Holy One, blessed be He, answered him—pay attention, my teachers and rabbis— this answer brings up the idea that He did accept. What did the Holy One, blessed be He, say to him? Still...ah, that’s it. The Holy One, blessed be He, showed that...that not the world, that He would not destroy the world. The Zohar, true, true. >> So apparently, He did accept. >> True. >> So what is being asked? If He accepted that He would not destroy the world, He accepted that side. >> Ah, yes, but then you are saying that it’s as if the Holy One, blessed be He, made a mistake and is now backtracking, according to how you explain it. But look at what is written , the Holy One, blessed be He, answered him: You foolish shepherd, here you say this? Foolish shepherd, frightening and astonishing! Now you say this? Now you come to me with complaints, and not at the time that I told you in a clear language? As it is written: Make yourself an ark of gopher wood, and I am bringing the flood to destroy all flesh, and I say to Noah, come into the ark, for you I have found righteous in this generation, all that I told you. Why does the Master of the Universe, the Master of the Universe says to Noah : Now you remember to cry? Now you remember to pray? Now you remember to cry out and say that I am called Merciful? After all, why did I say it? I told you and I told you: Go prepare an ark, a thing that will take a very long time, and enter, and the rains, how much time did I delay? For what? So that you would have mercy on the world? All that I delayed, it was not to save you; I can save you in a second, why do I need you to build? 120 years to build an ark? What, can I not shorten the processes? I did all this so that you would beg for mercy on the world, that you would pray for them, that you would cry out, that you would care for everyone, that you would scream: Master of the Universe, this is how You destroy the world? You are saving me, but what about them? You created them, do You not have a way to heal their hearts, to forgive, to pardon? >> And that is what the Holy One, blessed be He, expected from Noah, but he did not understand it. And once you heard that you would be saved in the ark, the moment you heard you would be saved, the plight of the world did not enter your heart; yes, the suffering of the world did not enter your heart. And in the ark you were saved, and now that you saw the world destroyed, you opened your mouth with prayers and supplications—now you remember? After you were saved and everyone else perished, now you remember to cry and pray? Amazing, amazing, very terrifying . Yes, there is here, I think, a very, very precious foundation in the service of God. The Holy One, blessed be He, hides His face so that we might sweeten it. There is, I've mentioned this a few times, a teaching from Rav Tzadok. According to the Gemara, it says, a person should always pray before a trouble arises, if I remember correctly . So it says: What does that mean, how does a person know? How does a person know if there is trouble? It has likely already arrived. What is the novelty in what the Sages said, that a person should always pray early? The simple meaning is that a person should always pray, even if everything is good, pray. Yes, it is written that Rabbi Yochanan always prayed for his livelihood; you should also always pray to be healthy, do not rely on your current situation. That is the simple meaning. Rav Tzadok says, essentially the Sages are signaling to us: if you suddenly feel some fear, a sudden fear, some worry about the children arises in your heart , some fear—it is actually a gift from the Holy One, Blessed be He, for you to pray. >> To pray about it so that you sweeten it , yes. Rabbis, many righteous people always...Have all sorts of people coming to them...Those who see more... Of the harsh decrees that are in it... >> So, many times there are all sorts of people with various insights, right or wrong, who see and dream that something is about to happen, something is about to happen, and they go to the rabbis: " Rabbi, what should we do?" The Holy One , Blessed be He, if He brought you some fear, whether in the form of a dream, or in the form of an imagination, or in any form whatsoever, it is not so that you will frighten everyone, wow! It is so that you will pray, so that you will sweeten the judgments, so that you will sweeten the judgment from its root. And this is what the Holy One, Blessed be He, is essentially telling Noah here. He tells us, He tells us, after all, Noah could say to the Holy One, Blessed be He, what does that mean? If You decided to destroy the world, who am I to interfere with You? If the people here have filled the earth with robbery , until it was decreed, their judgment was sealed because of the theft and the violence, what does it mean that I should pray for them? What, how did I act? I am Noah, a righteous, blameless man. I understand why You are saving me . They, that I should pray for them? It is against Your will. That is one way to think. But it is not true. No. The Holy One, Blessed be He, wants the well-being of His creatures. The Holy One, Blessed be He, wants us to pray, certainly for all of the people of Israel, for the whole world. The Holy One, Blessed be He, will not act in the world with strict judgment, but with mercy. With great mercy. And then, after the Holy One, Blessed be He, tells Noah this, since he understood this, he offered sacrifices to Him, as it is written: "And he took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar." Yes, meaning that the service of the sacrifices came from the understanding that the Holy One, Blessed be He, wants the correction of the world, wants repentance. Yes, Noah was a righteous man, but the Holy One, Blessed be He, wants repentance. When you see something spoiled, you don't destroy it but rather fix it, and that is the power of prayer, of the sacrifices, and of repentance. And that is likely what Noah didn't understand: the power of repentance, the power of correction. Actually, the Zohar Chadash continues here, saying: Rabbi Yochanan said, come and see the difference between the righteous who were with Israel later and Noah. Noah did not defend his generation nor pray for it like Abraham. Understand? The Holy One, blessed be He, said to Abraham: their cry is great. And he said, yes, if we compare this to what the Zohar says here about Abraham, we see how he reacts differently than Noah. Yes, Sodom, Sodom and Gomorrah, God forbid, immediately he goes there and says several things to the Holy One, blessed be He, asking if He could find 10 righteous people there, to forgive the whole generation for their sake, and Abraham thought there were ten in the city, if they ate and drank, his sons, his daughters, and his sons-in-law. And therefore he didn't pray anymore because he thought it wouldn't help, meaning it won't help. But essentially we see here the essence of the difference between Abraham our forefather, who cared about the repair of the world and cared about the creatures (even the wicked, who through the righteous would succeed in being repaired), and he came and prayed; Moses came and defended the entire generation. To Moses, Israel sinned, they strayed from the way that I commanded them. What could Moses our teacher have said? "I brought them out of Egypt, they are going, I am going to learn Torah, I don't eat, I don't drink for them—they are worshiping idols!"" Come on, Master of the Universe, wipe them out!" Heaven forbid, Moses. Our teacher, "And Moses beseeched"(with a pleading eye), "from Your book which You have written"—Amazing, astonishing! Yes, here it says it here, uh, a, what? "And he beseeched"—it teaches that he prayed until he was in agony. Our teacher, Moses did not let the Holy One, blessed be He, rest until he gave his soul for them from this world and from the world, the world to come, as it is written... "erase me from Your book which You have written." Rabbi Yosef said, "Who showed us Moses? " He said it before him: Yes, all the righteous defended their generation and did not let the attribute of justice rule over them. That is the virtue of the righteous, not that they say how bad the generation is and how everyone is messed up, no, heaven forbid, quite the opposite. " >> Mcheini"(erase me) are the letters of " Mi Noah"(who is Noah). >> Oh, beautiful. "Mcheini" is "Mi Noah"? Beautiful. Uh, and Noah, the Holy One, blessed be He, waited and spoke many things there, he should have asked for mercy for them, but he did not pay attention and did not ask for mercy for them, and he built the ark, and the whole world was lost. Oh, Well, there is now a bit of finding merit here: why did Noah not ask for mercy? He thought that even he himself would not be saved . Oh, Therefore he did not ask for mercy, he said in his heart: "If only I am saved, how could I pray for others?" Oh, but look at what we mentioned just now, it explains further: Rabbi Elazar said, every person should pray for mercy for the world before the Holy One , blessed be He, unlike what is said about Noah, the Holy One, blessed be He , wants them to learn mercy and merit and ask for mercy for His children. From where do we know this? Where do we learn this from? Beyond what we already mentioned about Gideon son of Joash, who was not a righteous father and not a righteous son, he did not grow up in a family of a righteous man. And because he spoke favorably about Israel , what is written about him? And he said to him: "My lord, go in this might of yours."" >> And save Israel from the hand of Midian ." What is "in this might of yours"? What was Gideon's special power? The goodness you spoke about my children will be your great strength to save them from the hand of Midian. The merit of speaking favorably—yes, Chazal say that this was right after the Passover Seder; he spoke in their defense. He said: "Master of the Universe, either way?""If our ancestors were righteous, then save us from Midian by the merit of our ancestors.""And if they were not righteous, then just as You performed signs and wonders for them even though they were not righteous, do the same signs and wonders for us." Meaning, Gideon’s perspective was a positive one, a perspective pleasing to the Holy One, blessed be He, to bless Israel. Bless the people of Israel, save the people of Israel; because of this, even though he was not simply from a house of...but "go in this might of yours"— that you defended my children, this will be your power to save the people of Israel from the hand of Midian. So this is essentially the immense virtue of speaking in defense of others, and of the rectification brought by the sacrifices. Chazal say here...we see, we learn from here the immense virtue of the sacrificial service, so that you see the sacrificial service, and now understand why, yes, the common thought is that the sacrificial service belongs to the time of redemption, but it is actually, as it were, the opposite. When are sacrifices needed? When the world needs to be redeemed from sins, when there is a reality where people sin, fall, and there is a concealment of the Divine face, then the power of the sacrifices is to atone, cleanse, purify, refine, sanctify, and awaken great mercy in heaven and on earth. So that we may merit, God willing, a redemption in mercy; may God grant us, with His help, to offer a sweet aroma, to offer a sweet aroma to the Holy One, blessed be He, also through the rectification of our deeds, through prayer, and through actual sacrifices. Merit, with God's help, to a complete redemption in mercy, to speak in defense of the people of Israel for a complete redemption, and may this be His will, and let us say Amen, Amen.