| Noach Part 2 Perek 7 Posuk 7 “and Noach came and his sons and his wife and the wives of his sons with him into the ark” After 120 years of building the ark the only people that Noach was able to bring with him was his immediate family. The reason was Noach himself didn’t believe what he said. In spite of all the zionist talk from all the American Jewish leaders, only 102,000 Jews have made aliya from the United States If the Aipac and Rosh Yeshivot would really believe in the importance of Israel they should be here in Israel. And if they would be here how would they influence Jews to come here? During the Vietnam War many young teenagers decided they wanted to find spirituality so they went to India and researched Buddhism. Why didn’t they research Buddhism in England or America? Because there were no Gurus to be found in America. So too if the leaders would come to Israel and someone would want to learn about Judaism they would have to come to Israel. Perek 7 Posuk 7 “into the ark because of the flood waters” Rashi here says Noach was small in his belief because he needed the waters before coming into the ark. All Jewish people say that Israel is important and that meshiach is coming, but how many actually believe this to be true? Again let us turn to the very first Rashi in the torah that the first 25% of the torah is only to tell us G-d wants us in Israel. How many of us actually listen to this when we say we are religious and do G-ds will? Isn’t it a sign of G-d showing his will that Hertzl a man that urged the conversion of all the Jews to Christianity came up with the idea to create a Jewish state? Isn't it a sign of G-d showing his will that the first Zionist Congress the vast majority of whom hated the torah refusing to accept Uganda in place of Israel? And what about the war of independence fought with Davidkas? And the 6 day war and Entebbe mission? And why did the Arabs give up in the Yom Kippur war when they had us if not for G-d wanting us to stay in Israel? The amount of miracles G-d has done for us can only show us that G-d will continue to protect us if only we would do what G-d wants. Perek 8 Posuk 9 “and did not find the pigeon resting place for her foot”. Rashi says that the pigeon not finding a resting place was a prophecy for us. If the pigeon had found a resting place then we could have also found a resting place outside of Israel. But since the pigeon did not succeed so too we will have to return. Whether we want to or not In Ezekiel Perek 20 it says "what you want will never be to be to be like the nations of the world. With fury I will send you out." Now one can choose where to live and take their personnel belongings. A word to the wise should be sufficient. Perek 9 Posuk 20 and 21 “And Noach began man of the earth and he planted a vineyard. And he drank from the wine and was drunk.” Rav Nachman from the old city in Jerusalem gives a novel interpretation on this as to why Rashi compares Avrohom to Noach and says that Avrohom was greater. (See Perek 6 Posuk 9.) Rav Nachman suggests that Avrohom when faced with a trial, be it leave your homeland to come to Israel, or bring your son as a sacrifice as so many fathers do to their sons in Tzahal did not fall psychologically to pieces. Noach however loved the land and when he was challenged he went to get drunk because he could not cope. Rav Nachman says that all of us that are religious and living in Israel are like Avrohom who face our tests from G-d and keep going. All those however that are not religious and live outside G-ds beloved garden are like Noach. It is interesting to note that Noach is considered the stereotypical non-Jew and Avrohom is considered the founder of the Jewish people. The gemorrah says in Ketubot page 110 that anyone outside Israel is as if he has no G-d and anyone that is in Israel is as if he has a G-d. Perek 11 Posuk 7 “Come let us go down” Rashi here says two comments on these words. The first is that G-d in spite of knowing everything still took advice because of His humility. Before one decides on his or her own that they are more valuable to the Jewish people outside of G-ds beloved garden, they are strongly encouraged to ask a Rav that specializes in torah law regarding G-ds beloved garden. There is an expression that G-d cannot stay in the same world as an arrogant person. Anyone that thinks that he or she is so important to the world that he or she cannot stay in the same garden as G-d, is bringing on him or herself their own punishment. Perek 11 Posuk 7 “Come let us go down” The second comment of Rashi is that G-d punished the people of the tower of Babel with poetic justice. They said let us build and G-d said let us descend. Anyone that says the people are not such great Tsaddikeem in Israel otherwise known as G-ds beloved garden is asking to be judged also as not such a great tsaddik. There is a story that in the early days of the state of Israel the Jews of Morocco wanted to come. The problem is in those days the country was under the firm control of the antireligious movement. The Jews from Morocco were however religious. The question was therefore posed to Rav Herzog what is better to remain in Morocco and not be tempted to be religious or to come to Israel and be tempted. Rav Herzog decided that it was better to be in G-ds beloved garden. Perek 11 Posuk 7 “And confuse there their language that they will not hear a man the speech of his friend” While the people of the flood were killed the people of the tower of Babel simply had their languages changed. The Rabbis say the reason is because everyone worked together in the time of the tower of Babel. When David Ben-Gurion first prime minister of Israel was setting up the army he said “even if there will not be a need of Tzahal we still need it so that everyone will get together." Should one be afraid that the army is not Shabbat observant or not kosher one should be aware that Ben-Gurion was not torah observant and wanted the army to be not bound by the laws of the torah. However the rabbis approached him and convinced him to make the Israeli army bound by the laws of the torah. As a result every kitchen has to be kosher and Shabbat is the day of rest even for boot camp inductees Unfortunately in spite of everything all too many "orthodox" Jews say it is not good enough for me. The result is a higher percentage of the Druze population are willing to defend G-ds beloved garden than the Israeli Jewish population who are the rightful owners. This thereby causes the tremendous amounts of non torah observance self fulfilling judgement on Tzahal that is used to justify the torah communities draft avoidance n the first place. Again as Rav Kook would say, If you do not like the situation come and change it. To give an example of how society can change with enough pressure hardly anyone kept the mitzvah of shmittah in the early days of the State of Israel. Rav Nachman from the old city in Jerusalem says how people used to look at him like he was crazy when he would tell the shop keepers he wanted to buy a kilo of some produce without it being weighed precisely. Today the laws of shmittah are commonly kept by many people. |