This week’s Torah portion is the story of Noah and the flood, we also read the word #Hamas twice, “And the earth had become corrupt before G-d, and the earth had become full of HAMAS. and God saw the earth, and behold it was corrupted, for all flesh had corrupted its way on the earth….The end of all flesh has come before Me, for the earth has become full of HAMAS because of them, and behold I am about to destroy them from the earth.” (Genesis 6:11-13)
The entire generation had fallen to the sitra achra and Hashem (God) calls Noah righteous and perfect. Noah built an ark and rain fell for 40 days. Hundreds of days later, after a dove was sent out and returned with an olive branch in its mouth, Noah knew redemption had come and it was time to fully move forward.
This story represents something that everyone faces at one point or another in their lives. How much each of us has to become the hero in our own story, building our own ark, filling ourselves with hope and reaching redemption. It’s up to each of us to strengthen ourselves continually to do so.
It says in Talmud Sanhedrin, “The World Was Created for Me,” and Rambam teaches that we are to see every one of our actions impacting ourselves, our communities, and the world at large. We see this clearly with Noah– had he not been righteous, we would have no world at all. It was his very actions and those of his family, and how he chose, despite everyone else in his generation, to walk with God, that saved creation.
There is a famous Mishnah in Pirkei Avot (Ethics of our Fathers) that reads, “.. in a place where there are no men, strive to be a man.” This is what I take away from the lesson of Noah, whether he was the most righteous in his generation but would not have been in another generation, or he is the most righteous in any generation, I don’t think the distinction is as important as the lesson.
From Pirkei Avot we see the importance of rising above your circumstances to act, inspire, and become the most righteous you can be. It is that act that, as we see, will save you from a flood, not only you, but the future of the world. Because the world was created just for you.
This week’s Torah portion is the story of Noah and the flood, we also read the word #Hamas twice, “And the earth had become corrupt before G-d, and the earth had become full of HAMAS. and God saw the earth, and behold it was corrupted, for all flesh had corrupted its way on the earth….The end of all flesh has come before Me, for the earth has become full of HAMAS because of them, and behold I am about to destroy them from the earth.” (Genesis 6:11-13)
The entire generation had fallen to the sitra achra and Hashem (God) calls Noah righteous and perfect. Noah built an ark and rain fell for 40 days. Hundreds of days later, after a dove was sent out and returned with an olive branch in its mouth, Noah knew redemption had come and it was time to fully move forward.
This story represents something that everyone faces at one point or another in their lives. How much each of us has to become the hero in our own story, building our own ark, filling ourselves with hope and reaching redemption. It’s up to each of us to strengthen ourselves continually to do so.
It says in Talmud Sanhedrin, “The World Was Created for Me,” and Rambam teaches that we are to see every one of our actions impacting ourselves, our communities, and the world at large. We see this clearly with Noah– had he not been righteous, we would have no world at all. It was his very actions and those of his family, and how he chose, despite everyone else in his generation, to walk with God, that saved creation.
There is a famous Mishnah in Pirkei Avot (Ethics of our Fathers) that reads, “.. in a place where there are no men, strive to be a man.” This is what I take away from the lesson of Noah, whether he was the most righteous in his generation but would not have been in another generation, or he is the most righteous in any generation, I don’t think the distinction is as important as the lesson.
From Pirkei Avot we see the importance of rising above your circumstances to act, inspire, and become the most righteous you can be. It is that act that, as we see, will save you from a flood, not only you, but the future of the world. Because the world was created just for you.
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– @ErezSafar 🪬🤍🧿🕊️