NOAH’S ARK התיבה

The story of the מבול and the Ark is not only written in Torah, but numerous nations, worldwide, have traditions that there was a flood. Not only nations in the Middle East, but even India, China and as far away as Alaska or the ancient inhabitants of Mexico have recorded that the first world was destroyed after 1656 years by rains and lightening until all the land including the highest mountains were submerged 15 amos (approximately 26 foot = 8 metres) in water.

As we know, because it is written in Torah, the measurements of the Ark were 300 amos long, 50 amos wide and 30 amos high. This equals to approximately 500 ft long by 80 ft wide and 50 ft high. (In metres, say 160 by 25 by 16). We also know that the Torah tells us that there were 3 levels in which there were compartments or cages.

We also find that Noach was commanded to take into the Ark a pair of each species of animal, bird and insect and in respect of טהור animals, seven of each.

How the animals were fitted in and, of course, all the stores with which to feed them, is a matter of debate and the midrash gives a number of different opinions. Rashi states, quoting the midrash, that the top floor was for Noach and his family (and I assume to keep the stores). The middle floor was for all the animals etc. and the bottom floor was for the זבל rubbish etc. which accumulated during the course of the year. This is just one opinion in the midrash.

Anybody who has visited a major zoo will understand the comments of the Ramban (ו-יט) where he states that if you bear in mind that there were elephants, hippopotami and other such large animals as well as thousands of insects and hundreds and hundreds of birds, all of which had to be packed into this comparatively small Ark, this must have been through a miracle. He adds, that if it was a miracle, why did Hashem command Noach to make such a large Ark and he comments that one has to try and do as much as possible in a natural manner. He also discounts the theory that the amos quoted in Torah should be in the size of Noach which could have been larger than nowadays, stating that all amos in Torah are the size that we know of, namely around 1 ½ to 2 feet. Say ½ metre approximately.

There is a famous midrash known as Pirkei de R’ Eliezer. This was compiled by one of the leading tanoim Rebbi Eliezer Ben Hyrcanos, Chapter 23 speaks in detail about the Ark and its measurements etc. it also states that there were hundreds of small houses, animal cages, etc. on each floor amounting to 365 in total for each floor. Furthermore, he states that the three floors were used as follows, the animals were on the lowest floor, the birds on the middle floor and the insects and creeping objects as well as the human beings were on the top floor. He does not mention what they did with any debris, זבל, natural wastage etc.

There is a commentary on this midrash by R Dovid Luria (the RaDaL). He quotes the Ramban on Torah regarding the amount of large animals and the amount of food necessary to keep them all alive for a full year, and therefore, the Ramban states, as mentioned above, that there was, therefore, an obvious miracle in respect of the Ark and its inhabitants for the year. The RaDaL comes out with a very interesting idea, namely that there really were not so many animals taken into the Ark, because as he states, numerous animals, birds etc. are really all part of one species but then have sub-divisions of species as well. For example, domestic cats, tigers and lions are all part of the “cat” family. Likewise dogs, wolves and the like are all part of the “lupine” family.

He suggests that one pair only of each species (with the exception of the טהור species) were taken in to the Ark and from these, later on, subspecies developed again after the mabul once they had left the Ark. He brings a proof to this, saying that in the same way as human being have different features, colours, sizes, heights etc. but we all come from one original person, after the mabul, we came from Noach and his children, a similar thing happened as far as the animals etc.

Therefore, he postulates, there were really not so many taken into the Ark all together.

However, he does not dispute the fact that there must have been a miracle in principle. (For the detailed and lengthy discussion please see his commentary at פרק כ''ג , אות י).

He also mentions that as far as food is concerned, it is possible that they had pressed, concentrated, food (דבילה)

Based on his comments, I wonder whether one could dare to suggest the following., We know from the midrash that Hashem told Noach to take these various animals and Noach protested that he would be unable to catch them and bring them into the Ark. This was actually seven days before the doors of the Ark were closed. Because Noach protested, Hashem caused the animals who were to be saved to come themselves to the Ark and Noach only had to lead them in. Would it be too fanciful to suggest that, for example, as far as the large animals, the elephants etc. baby elephants who had recently been born were taken in, one male, one female. They would have, obviously, not taken up such an amount of space and would also have not needed so much food and the same could apply to other large animals etc.

Furthermore, if all the inhabitants of the Ark were fed with only concentrated food, just sufficient to keep them alive, it would not have been a necessity to have very large quantities of supplies. If Noach commenced giving these animals etc. the rations from the first day that they arrived, namely seven days before the doors were closed, the animals could have gradually got acclimatised to their new regime and could possibly have gone out of the Ark during those seven days, carried out their calls of nature outside, so that after seven days, they would have no natural זבל wastages and debris to dispose of once they were inside again for the ensuing year.

True, they may not have put on weight and I would postulate that they might have, very well, lost weight and become very lean. This would tie in perfectly with the posek in Torah וישאר אך נח ואשר אתו בתבהthere remained only Noach and those who were with him in the Ark. The word אך is, as we know from other places a מיועט, namely, something less or reduced. The midrash quoted by Rashi says that the lion attacked Noach and injured him and therefore, the אך refers to Noach. But according to the theory I have just suggested, one could say that the word אך applies to Noach and every other thing that was inside the Ark as they all lost weight and, therefore, אך, מיועט, fits perfectly.

According to this theory, it would be possible, I suppose for all the major species, animals, birds, reptiles, insects etc. to have all been accommodated, with their food, in the Ark. Furthermore, you would, therefore, not need to a compartment for the זבל as I mentioned above.

As far as water is concerned, Noach had a חלון , a window, because he sent out the raven and then the dove from that window. Would it be too much to suggest that he did have some water with him which was taken into the Ark before the door closed. Subsequently, from time to time, whilst the water was pouring down, he collected water into the Ark by opening the window. Although this water may have been very hot as we are told, that Hashem utilised מים רותחין boiling hot water for the מבול, this could, of course, have come in, been collected in a vessel and cooled down over a short period of time. Furthermore, animals on very small rations of food and not moving around would, I suggest, not need large quantities of water especially if the compressed food had moisture in it.

Just to end on a lighter note. We find that after almost a year had elapsed, Noach sent out the dove which returned to him, with an olive leaf it had plucked, in its bill, Rashi comments that this dove was male and brings a number of proofs. Mrs P Lipschitz, during a lecture to Bais Yaakov sem girls suggested that Rashi’s proofs were not really necessary. There is a midrash that this dove flew from Mount Ararat on the Turkish/Russian border to the Har Haziezim in Yerushalayim where there were still some olive trees and picked up the olive leaf. Whoever heard of a female keeping their mouth shut for such a long journey from Yerushalayim to Ararat.

It could only have, therefore, been a male bird.

We really do not know all the details of what happened at the time of the mabul. What we do know is that this is a story with a lesson that has to be visited again and again to ensure that we rise above the depravity and spiritual decline which happened then and which we see unfortunately, daily in our current permissive society.

ל' תשרי

Read More......

SUCCOS פרי החג

Towards the end of the sedra Pinchas, the Torah enumerates all the different sacrifices which are to be brought regularly each day, on Shabbos, and then on the Yomim Tovim. The final parshah concerns the קרבנות of Succos. Many of you will be aware that during the first seven days of Succos, there are, in total, 70 bulls to be sacrificed in descending order, that is, the first day 13, the second day 12 until on the seventh day 7 were sacrificed. Finally on the last day, שמיני עצרת, there was one bull offered.

חז''ל tell us that the 70 were offered for the 70 major nations of the world followed by the one for the Bnei Yisroel.

I believe that an introduction to the Dvar Torah below will help appreciate and clarify it fully.

In addition to the letters and words written in a Sefer Torah which are, of course, as given to Moshe by Hashem, there was also given to him as תורה של בעל פה the vocalisation of each word being by way of חולם, קמץ, פתח etc. This is not written into the Sefer Torah by there is a mesoirah as to exactly how to pronounce each word. This, of course, is printed in the Chumashim.

In addition, there is a mesoirah concerning the notes (trop), known as טעמי המקרא. These טעמי המקרא, roughly translated as reasons or interpretations of the verse, consist of a number of notes sung each in a different way. Again, this has come down to us as a mesoirah, a tradition.

There are high notes, the greatest of which being the שלשלת and there are a number of other high notes such as פזר, תלישא גדולה etc.

This is what we hear by the Baal Koreh read in tune every Shabbos and whenever a Sefer Torah is taken out and read in public.

These notes are not there haphazardly but have a definite purpose and not for nothing are they called טעמי המקרא. They help us to understand and give interpretations, albeit sometimes rather hidden, which enable us to understand better or give us fresh insights into the meaning of actual words in Torah.

If one looks carefully at the whole of the sedra Pinchas, which I believe is the second longest sedra at 168 verses, there is no פזר until the instruction concerning the sacrifices, קרבנות, to be brought on the second day of Succos. We find the words as followsומנחתם (their meal offering) ונסכיהם (their wine offerings) לפרים (for the bulls). On the middle word ונסכיהם there is a פזר, this is followed by לפרים with a תלישא גדולה on it. Both of these are known as very “high” notes in other words, ones to which great emphasis applies.

If we then proceed to the third day we find the same טעמי המקרא and strangely enough, the fourth, the fifth, the sixth and the seventh day again, we have the same phenomenon of an ordinary note, a מונח, under the word ומנחתם but a פזר above the ונסכיהם and a תלישא גדולה above the word לפרים.

To add to this unusual phenomenon, if we go back to the first day of Succos, there is no פזר or תלישא גדולה at all when the sacrifices for the first day are mentioned, nor is there a פזר or תלישא גדולה on שמיני עצרת, which follows immediately on after the seventh day.

As I mentioned above these are known as טעמי המקרא, that is to give us an interpretation of the verses.

I would like to suggest that the reason why these particular טעמי המקרא, trop, are used is connected with a Halacha which we find concerning Yom Tov. There is a mitzvah of simcha on Yom Tov and especially on Succos where it is mentioned by the Torah twice specifically, at the end of Parshas ראה. The רמב''ם paskens אין שמחה אלא בבשר ויין . The way to fulfil the mitzvah of simcha is with meat and wine.

We find that people are always excited about an impending Yom Tov and when the first day arrives, especially of Succos, the excitement is great. However, by the second day and third, etc. this gradually subsides. What I am suggesting is that in order to ensure that the simcha is kept at a high level the Torah is hinting that one should eat and drink and therefore, be merry and in order to emphasise this, on the word ונסכיהם which is the wine libations, a פזר is intoned. On לפרים that is the best type of meat, one has a תלישא גדולה. פזר translates as to spread out or spend, in other words, spend money on the wine and, for meat, תלישא גדולה, exert great effort to obtain this and eat it. This is, therefore, emphasised from the second day to the seventh day inclusive.

When it comes to the last day, שמיני עצרת, the Gomora tells us that this was a רגל בפני עצמו, a Yom Tov for itself. Therefore, inherently, the simcha is there for the day itself and, of course, this is the day of Simchas Torah in Eretz Yisroel and leads into Simchas Torah for the rest of the Diaspora. There is, therefore, no need to create extra simcha by the consumption of wine and meat.

In respect of the word ומנחתם, which refers to the flour which was also brought at the same time with every sacrifice, there is no need for a “high” note because that did not add to the simcha. However, it is noteworthy to mention that if one takes all the measurements, עשרוניםof סלת, fine flour, which had to be brought during the whole of סוכות and שמיני עצרת, in respect of all the various קרבנות and add them together, they come to 348 esronim in total. This is the exact gemmatria of the word שמח.

Let us all enjoy ourselves with simcha on Succos, זמן שמחתנו.

ח' תשרי תשס''ט

Read More......

SUCCOS פרי עץ הדר

The only mitzvah in Torah where we are told to perform the mitzvah with “הדר” with special beauty, is in the case of taking the esrog on the first day of Succos. The Torah says ולקחתם לכם ביום הראשון פרי עץ הדר and you should take for yourselves on the first day a fruit of the tree “hadar”. The mitzvah is on every Jewish male and is only for the first day.

In the Bais Hamikdosh, one had to perform the mitzvah for the whole week of Succos and nowadays as a remembrance of that, we take the esrog and the lulov, the four Minim, the whole week (except for Shabbos). Much has been written about the significance of taking this particular fruit and why it should be hadar. A thought that has occurred to me which I have not seen mentioned anywhere, is as follows.

On Yom Kippur every year, every practising Jew becomes like a new creation, something like the creation of the world originally.

In the same way as after the original creation of the world, on 6th day, אדם הראשון, Adam, was created, so also the first day of Succos is the 6th day from Yom Kippur.

אדם הראשון was commanded ומעץ הדעת לא תאכל ממנו from the tree of knowledge you should not eat. He unfortunately transgressed this by eating the fruit which Chava gave him.

The Gomora discusses which fruit grew on that tree, and one of the Tannoim states that it was an esrog. Furthermore, the Ramban in Parshas Emor says that we accept this as being the Halacha. Accordingly, I think that we can understand why we are commanded to take this particular fruit on the first day of Succos.

When אדם הראשון ate from the עץ הדעת the whole original creation was spoiled. We take the esrog on the first day of Succos, which is the 15th day of Tishrei and the 6th day after Yom Kippur, a sort of anniversary for אדם הראשון. By virtue of us not eating the פרי עץ הדר on that day but keeping a mitzvah which Hashem commanded us, we, in some way, help to rectify that which was spoiled originally. That is the reason why it must be hadar, the most beautiful of the fruits because obviously, when Hashem created fruits originally in the world, they were all הדר. We are told by חז''ל as well that originally all fruits and the trees on which they grew had the same taste if one ate them, but this changed, except in the case of an esrog. טעם עצו ופריו שוים.

With this idea one can also understand a famous חז''ל on the words ולקחתם לכם ביום הראשון you should take for yourselves on the first day (of Succos). חז''ל comment ראשון לחשבון עונות the first to the reckoning of sins. Normally this is translated as meaning that after Yom Kippur, because people are so busy organising the mitzvos of Succos, there is no time to sin, whereas on the first day of Succos one can already settle down, catch one’s breath and unfortunately perhaps not do the right thing and, therefore Hashem commences counting and looking into matters.

According to the idea I mentioned above, however, it refers back to the time that Odom הראשון and Chava had sinned and means that we, ourselves, by taking the פרי עץ הדר are helping to rectify that first day where there were the original עונות, being the sins of Odom and Chava.

One could also find an allusion to the Gomora that says that הדר means fruit that, דר, dwells on the tree from year to year, because an esrog is unique in being the fruit that once it has grown to normal size does not fall off or rot, it can continue for another two or three years in fact without being spoiled, it just grows bigger.

This again would be relevant to what has been stated above, namely that this all refers back to what happened years ago.

ז'' תשרי תשס''ט

Read More......

YOM KIPPUR אור זרוע לצדיק ולישרי לב שמחה

At the beginning of the holiest day of our year, our custom is to take out the Siphrei Torah and whilst these are being taken round the bimah, the Chazzan intones the verse from Tehillim אור זרוע לצדיק ולישרי לב שמחה and this is repeated by the whole congregation with great fervour. The only explanation that I have found for this custom is brought in the name of the Arizal and is very esoteric.

The heads of the community also state at the same time that with the agreement of ה' and the whole community אנו מתירים להתפלל עם העברינים, namely that we allow in to pray with us even people who have sinned grievously.

I would like to suggest an explanation for using the verse אור זרוע לצדיק ולישרי לב שמחה, A light is sown for the righteous one and the upright of heart have joy.

There is a Sefer written approximately 700 years ago by R’ Yitzchok of Vienna, one of the Rishonim, known as אור זרוע. He writes in his introduction that he named his sefer אור זרוע in commemoration of a dream that he had concerning R’ Akiva. The famous R’ Akiva’s name is spelt differently in the Gomora Bavli from the Gomora Yerushalmi. The Bavli spelling is עקיבא. The Yerushalmi spelling is עקיבה. His dream was that the name is encoded in the verse אור זרוע לצדיק ולישרי לב שמחה. By taking the last letters אור זרוע לצדיק ולישרי לב שמחה (ר'עקיבה) you will then find that the last letter of the verse is a ה and this will be the last letter of עקיבה spelt with a ה. To commemorate this dream he therefore called his sefer אור זרוע.

He comments, How praiseworthy are you R’ Akiva that Dovid Hamelech in his prophecy already referred to you in Tehillim. Furthermore, how praiseworthy are you that ה' showed Moshe Rabbenu that you would explain the tagim, the little crowns on top of letters in the Sefer Torah, to the amazement of Moshe Rabbenu.

Many of us are aware of the history of R’ Akiva who for the first 40 years of his life was an Am Haaretz to the extent that he himself stated later that he had hated the Talmedei Chochomim.

He then, with the backing of his wife, commenced learning Torah at the age of 40 and for the next 40 years he studied Torah under the leading Rabbis of the time. He became the leading Rabbi himself for a further 40 years and passed away at the age of 120. I say passed away, but as the Gomora tells us at the end of Brochos, he was tortured and finally killed by the Romans with the posek שמע ישראל on his lips. A צדיק who died על קידוש ה'. The highest imaginable level. However, it is not so well know that this took place just at the onset of Yom Kippur, Kol Nidrei night.

R’ Akiva was the prime example of a Jewish person who had started off as a grievous sinner and changed completely not only to become a Talmid Chochum but eventually the greatest Rabbinical leader of his generation.

I think that it is, therefore, very fitting that the verse אור זרוע לצדיק ולישרי לב שמחה is utilised at the opening of our tefillos and at the same time as we are מתיר to pray with the avayomim, those who have sinned grievously. Even they can improve just the same as R’ Akiva improved so dramatically.

It is also noteworthy mentioning the similarities between Moshe Rabbenu and R’ Akiva. Moshe Rabbenu came down on Yom Kippur for the third time after having brought down the second luchos having by then been in heaven for a total of 120 days.

Moshe Rabbenu himself lived exactly 120 years. Furthermore, his life was divided into three parts, the first one where he lived in the palace of Pharoh, which you could compare with the first 40 years of R’ Akiva’s life. Moshe Rabbenu then went to Midian and the famous burning bush. These were years of growing in לימוד and עבודת הבורא learning about and growing in stature in the service of Hashem.

His final 40 years were as the leader, the spiritual leader, of the whole of the Bnei Yisroel.

Finally, one other comparison, that is that we find a Gomora in חגיגה י''ב which says that four great Rabbi נכנסו לפרדס, they attempted to plumb the depths of the esoteric part of Torah. The Gomorra says that only R’ Akiva went through the process without any harm. The word פרדס adds up to 344. משה adds up to 345. This is to indicate to us that despite the fact that R’ Akiva was so great and that he could even expound on every letter and תג the crowns of each letter to the extent that this amazed Moshe Rabbenu, nevertheless, Moshe Rabbenu was that little bit higher even than R’ Akiva.

Moshe Rabbenu himself received the Torah from Hashem as Hashem told Aharon and Miriam פה אל פה אדבר בו ומראה ולא בחידות. That level was never reached by any person before or after.

ג' תשרי תשס''ט

Read More......