Weekly Torah Portion

Lamech gave birth to Noah and prophetically exclaimed: “This one will bring us rest from our work and from the toil of our hands, from the ground which God has cursed” (Genesis 5:29). The word Noah is related to the word “rest.” According to Rashi the rest referred to is from the earth that was cursed at the time of Adam as a result of his eating from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Noah invented the plow which made agricultural work far easier. His birth coincided with Adam’s death and the diminishment of the curse which was in effect throughout his lifetime. These two factors gave people a sense of rest from their unproductive and back breaking work.

Due to his name meaning rest and the respite he brought mankind from their labors, the Zohar connects Noah to Shabbat, the day of rest (Tikunei Zohar 54a). In general in Kabbalah and Chassidut a tzaddik, an exceptionally righteous person, is called “Shabbat,” as his or her state of consciousness even during the week is continually drawing from and connected to Shabbat. Noah in fact is the first person referred to in the Torah as being a tzaddik.

Various Chassidic commentaries explain that the image of Noah and his family in the ark, riding upon the turbulent waves of the flood alludes to the reality of Shabbat. After a week of navigating the sometimes chaotic and unpredictable realities of this world, the Shabbat comes as a refuge and welcome rest from the difficulties of making a living and the common confusions and challenges of everyday life.

Based on the fact that the opening verse of the portion contains Noah’s name twice in succession – “These are the generations of Noah, Noah was a righteous man, perfect in his generations; Noah walked with God” – the Zohar speaks of a higher rest and a lower rest on Shabbat (Zohar Chadash 3; 94a). The Slonimer Rebbe in a number of places in his classic work Netivot Shalom states that if a person keeps all the laws of Shabbat meticulously but does not experience the joy and spirituality of Shabbat he or she will certainly inherit the world-to-come, but in the world-to-come he will be a park bench, meaning that just as his Shabbat observance was static and lacked joy in this world, he will be like an inanimate and static park bench in the future world as well. The lower rest comes with the observance of the prohibitions of Shabbat, whereas the higher rest is attained through the awesome joy, spirituality and peace when connecting to Shabbat in the deepest way.

Another teaching of the Slonimer Rebbe speaks about the three floors of the ark and its symbolism as relates to Shabbat. The upper floor represents man’s thoughts, the middle floor his speech, and the lower floor his actions. One can observe all the laws of Shabbat, but be speaking and thinking things totally not in synch with the spirit of Shabbat. The higher and lower rest of Shabbat is only achieved when a person’s actions, speech and thoughts all reflect the peace and tranquility of the holy Shabbat.

When God tells Noah of the impending world wide flood that will destroy humanity, instead of pleading with God to save his generation or undertaking a major campaign to inform his peers, he instead dutifully begins work on the ark that will save him and his family and a small remnant of animals.

On one hand we all owe Noah a true word of thanks for being righteous enough for God to save at least him, as all humanity traces their lineage back to the family of Noah; yet on the other hand the sages all point out his glaring flaw of not doing enough to save his generation. When asked by the people what he was constructing he answered truthfully: “I am constructing an ark, for God intends to wipe out the world with a flood.” Of coursethose who asked were technically warned, but no one took him seriously and he did nothing to change the decree or get people to change their ways in order to annul the judgement.

After the flood and a year in the ark, the waters began to subside. When Noah finnaly leaves the ark the midrash says he was appalled at the destruction. He cried to God asking Him how could he destroy the world. God responded forcefully by asking Noah why now all of a sudden did he have words of protest. Where were you for a hundred and twenty years when I waitied for you to one time plead for your generation or make one concerted effort to convince the people to change their ways. And now you protest!

After God makes a covenant with Noah and promises never to destroy the world again the Torah relates that Noah planted a vineyard and became drunk from the wine. Noah was in a unique situation, one only shared by Adam and Eve at the very inception of human history – he had an opportunity to start all over again, to create, as it were, a new world. The Zohar understands the significance of Noah’s planting a vineyard as an attempt to rectify the sin of eating from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil which caused Adam and Eve to be exiled from the Garden of Eden.

One of opinions, according to sages, was that the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil was a grape vine. In this scenario wine was part of the corrupting influence in the complicated relationships between the snake, Eve and Adam in which there are many sexual induendos as well, as diwscussed in various midrashim. Thus Noah by planting a vineyard hoped to rectify their sin and begin anew building the world on the right foot.

Yet instead of rectifying their sin he became drunk and according to the midrash was castrated by Canaan, his grandson. The question is what happened to cause him to lose sight of his goal and instead to become drunk and sexually degraded. One possible perspective is derived from the connection between his failure to rectify the sin of Adam and Eve and his subsequent humiliation, and the above account of his discussion with God after he became aware of the flood’s devestation. Only when God pointed out to him his terrible failure as a leader and the possibility that he could have saved the entire world from destruction did Noah become aware of his own responsbility in the debacle.

As a result, his drinking the wine drove him into a deep depression, a drunkeness that lead to disasterous results. The revelation of his own culpability in the destruction of the world, especially after he thought he was being so righteous, must have set off in himself a psychological whirlwind, leading to despair and drunkeness. Instead of rectifying a previous sin and the world with it, his becoming drunk symbolized a deep failure, one whose reverberations are still felt on the most subtle levels of reality. The tragedy of Noah is all the greater due to his enormous potential. Although his righteousness was enough to save a remnant of humanity, it was not enough to rectify the world.