Waters of Sustenance, Waters of Destruction

The world is complex; rarely, if at all, are matters strictly black and white. So when we read the stories from the Torah, if they seem black and white, the Torah is inviting us to dig a little deeper.

A simple reading of the flood story could lead to a simple conclusion: Noach was good, and the rest of the world was evil. God decided to destroy the evil and start over with the good. Let’s take this invitation to look at the story from a different perspective.

The Chasidic Master Rav Zadok HaCohen from Lublin quotes a fascinating Zohar: “At the time of the flood they were fitting to receive the Torah.” In other words, just as the Nation of Israel was fitting to receive the Torah at Mt. Sinai, the world at the time of Noach was fitting to receive the Torah.

But the Torah tells us that the world was despicable in the eyes of God, filled with theft and illicit sexual behavior. These were the people fitting to receive the Torah, God’s most precious gift to the world?

Rav Zadok explains that a moment of revelation is a time of tremendous opportunity; there is possibility for glorious triumph, or bitter failure. It’s all a question of how one directs the raw energy.

The generation of the flood lived in a time of revelation. There was raw energy waiting to be harnessed; the direction to which that revelation would unfold was in their hands.

As the rain started to fall, their fate was not sealed. The initial drops could have been the rain of sustenance, not flood waters. The Torah, as symbolized by water, could have provided existence to the world, as we are taught that the Torah sustains existence, and is the purpose for existence.

However, we are also taught that if it were not for the Torah, the heavens and the Earth would cease to exist. The destructive nature of the world was not open to receiving the Torah. So the waters that could have sustained the world instead destroyed it.

Not always do we harness the power of the moment of revelation. But Rav Zadok assures us that the fall is a preparation for the next big moment of potential. The failure of the generation of the flood laid the foundation for Avraham. He brought a different consciousness to the world, which ultimately resulted in the giving of the Torah.

When Righteousness Just isn’t Enough

As we again start reading from the beginning of the Torah, the first question that greets us is one that Rashi quotes from the midrash in the name of Rebbi Yitzhak: Why didn’t the Torah begin with the sanctification of the new moon, which is the giving of the first mitzvah?

In other words, Rebbi Yitzhak wants to steer us away from an improper assumption: Don’t think that the Torah is only a book of laws. To put it in terms we can understand today, Hashem did not give us a Shulcan Aruch (Code of Jewish Law) on Mt Sinai. The stories—even those void of halachic content-- in the Book of Genesis are an essential aspect of the Torah. The question is why?

Rebbi Yitzhak gives an important answer, but I’d like to present a different approach, that of Rav Naftali Tvzi Yehuda Berlin, known as the Netziv, the great and last head of the Volozhin Yeshiva.

In his introduction to Genesis, he explains why this first book of the Torah is known as Sefer HaYashar, or the Book of the Upright. Its name comes from the forefathers Avraham, Yitzhak, and Yaakov, who not only were pious and rigorous in their service of God, but were also men of tremendous character.

They lived amongst immoral people and idol worshipers; still they interacted with their neighbors and cared for their well-being. Avraham, known for his trait of loving-kindness, despised the lifestyle in Sodom, yet he repeatedly argued on behalf of the Sodomites before God.

This is a valuable lesson that we learn from the stories of our forefathers. Beyond piety and awe of God, one’s compassionate relationship with the world around him, especially the non-Jewish world, is the type of righteousness that God desires. It is this behavior that maintains the world, consistent with the theme in the creation story that all humanity is made in God’s image.

Sukkot and Simchat Torah-Feel the Love

Since the beginning of Elul our spiritual energies have been focused on teshuva; we have been working to paint a vision of the people who we want to be, and pinpoint the blocks that are keeping us from reaching that goal.

But the moment after Yom Kippur everything changes. Our slate is wiped clean with Hashem. Now is the time to feel the love.

One of our great Chasidic Torah giants, Rav Yehuda Aryeh Lev, known as the Sfat Emet, explains that the sukkah symbolizes the chupah, or wedding canopy. The Torah writes (Vayikra 22:33), “I am Hashem, the one who sanctifies you, the one who brought you out of Egypt…” The Hebrew word for sanctify, m’kadesh, is the same word for the union between a bride and a groom. The imagery teaches about the unique relationship that the Jewish people share with Hashem.

This process reaches its pinnacle on Simchat Torah. Throughout the seven days of Sukkot, a total of 70 cattle offerings are prescribed by the Torah. These 70 sacrifices symbolize Sukkot’s relations with the 70 primordial nations; it is a time when the entire world comes to Hashem’s house of prayer to give praise.

But on the eighth day, the Sfat Emet teaches, using the imagery of the midrash, we come out from the House of Prayer into the House of Study. We leave the sukkkah, the holiday for all the nations, and enter the House of Study, the private celebration between Israel and God, another aspect of the distinctive relationship that we have with Hashem, this time through His Torah.

Confronting mistakes and inadequacies during Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur can leave one feeling far from Hashem; but Sukkot and Simchat Torah are the times to reconnect to Hashem’s love. It is a time to feel a deep sense of closeness with our Creator unlike any other time in the year, a true “time of our joy,” as we call it in our prayers.