An Ark of Love

It’s Time to Grow Up 

As little children we think of the world in terms of good and bad, and that is the way we view the Torah as well: In Noach’s generation everybody was evil, lust-ridden, hedonistic, stupid and wicked – and Noach was the only righteous person. We describe the generation of the Mabul (Deluge) to children (and to ourselves as well) as a gang of evil and crazy people, with Noach the good and wise tzaddik, complete with a long white beard. No one is listening to him… 

What’s the problem with that? It is a serious problem.  

Firstly, it isn’t like that. People are not stupid, and they don’t necessarily want to be evil and bad, especially when we’re talking about those early generations whose spiritual level we can’t possibly comprehend. Rather, they certainly had deep ideas and much wisdom but were very mistaken. And so, to understand the deep meaning of the Torah, we must understand the deep difference between Noach and the people of his generation. 

 

Secondly, if everything is black-and-white to us, we won’t be able to learn anything from the Torah for ourselves. Of course, it is bad to be evil, and it is good to be righteous, and if we view the story so simplistically, we won’t be able learn any moral lesson for ourselves from it. 

If we understand the mistakes of that generation, we will be able to identify the same mistakes in our lives and correct them, because the Torah is not just a storybook; rather, it was given to us so that we will find ourselves and everything that happens to us in it, and receive messages relevant to our lives. 

The Torah is Our Story 

And here, Rabbi Nachman and Rabbi Natan come and reveal to us incredible depths. 

Rabbi Nachman reveals to us in his story, “Master of Prayer” (in Book of Stories) that all evil in the world comes from people who are searching desperately for the purpose of the world but make a wrong turn on the way. Why? Because there is a ruach se’ara (stormy wind) that confuses them, so that they develop whole theories and deep and reasoned explanations to justify their wickedness and explain why it is really the purpose of the world. 

Rabbi Natan reveals to us in Likutei Halachot that it is not true that Noach’s generation ignored him. No – they took issue with him. They took a stand against him and thought that he was mistaken and didn’t understand Hashem’s will at all. 

This was the dispute that comes up in every generation regarding the generation’s tzaddik. In other words, during those ten generations from Adam to Noach, people continued to study the holy studies that Adam Harishon had passed on to them. But they didn’t listen to the depth of the daat (understanding) of tzaddikim such as Chanoch, Methuselah and others, and therefore their studies harmed them and turned them into evil people, just as the passuk says, “and sinners will stumble over them”.¹  The holy teachings, learned without the guidance of the tzaddikim, poisoned them and they became evil people. 

When one learns the Torah through the lenses of Rabbeinu and Rabbi Natan, one finds the Torah in our very lives, and then we can see endless pathways and explanations and strengthening messages in the Torah relevant to our reality. 

He Stilled a Storm to a Whisper 

According to Rabbi Nachman, the root of the confusion is the ruach se’ara. In other words, there is the clean, correct, and clear teaching that the tzaddik provides to the generation, and on the other side there is a stormy wind of confusions, which turn the good into bad and the light into darkness in a way that is almost impossible to tell the difference between them. 

In Sippurei Ma’asiyot (Book of Stories), Rabbeinu Hakadosh did not clarify what this stormy wind is. But in Likutei Moharan² he explains at great length that this stormy wind is the great prosecutor, the source of all the accusations and the tests. This accusation is what brought about the state of “the end of all flesh”³, which is really what happened in the Mabul – the complete destruction and annihilation of humanity. 

In our personal avodat Hashem (service of Hashem) there is a stormy wind that is the root of all the accusations against us and the tests that can bring about our downfall, putting us into a state of complete spiritual collapse, “The end of all flesh”. True, Hashem promised that He would not bring another deluge of water upon the world, but the deluge of confusion does not cease, continuing to drench the world from then until today.  

And therefore, it is very important to understand what that stormy wind is, theoretically and practically, so that we can be saved from it and find refuge in the ark of the tzaddikim. Because from then until now, the tzaddikim are still building us a holy ark that one can find refuge in and teach us what Hashem’s true will is. 

Storm – That is Evil 

Rabbeinu explains that the stormy wind and the end of all flesh express themselves thus: “And human beings who judge every person unfavorably and are always looking for people’s transgressions, they are of the aspect of ‘the end of all flesh’.”³ Rabbeinu goes on to explain that this urge to search for the bad and to criticize and to tell tales is what causes all evil people to be evil, and that is also what brings upon the world all the dinim and the annihilation. 

Where does this search for only the bad things come from? From people thinking that Hashem, too, searches only for the bad, and not believing the tzaddikim who say that Hashem doesn’t look at the bad at all and sees only the good. Deep down, this comes from the fact that the person thinks that Hashem doesn’t love him, and that Hashem thinks he’s bad and he himself thinks he’s bad. And if Hashem is all good and I am all bad – then I can go on to be completely bad.  

In other words, all the confusion that ruins the world starts from a person not knowing how much Hashem loves him. When a person doesn’t know how much Hashem loves him, he sees only the bad both in himself and in others, and criticizes and criticizes, to the point that he burns the whole world up and ceases to serve Hashem. Instead of coming close to Hashem like his original desire was and to be good – he achieves the exact opposite of that. 

And when a person sees bad in himself, he searches for and looks for and sees evil everywhere. And so, he brings himself and the world to a state of ‘the end of all flesh” and all Torah that he learns becomes poison for him, and that is what ruins the world. 

And Noach Found Favor 

It is precisely on that point that the people of Noach’s generation disagreed with him. Noach was a person of chessed (lovingkindness). He began to discover how much Hashem loves mankind. Until Noach, the curse upon man was severe, and it was Noach who softened the curse and created the plow⁴, and the world became much more comfortable and pleasant.  

By doing that, Noach showed that in spite of the fact that Hashem cursed man – He doesn’t hate him but rather loves him and wants his life to be good and even better, and that is always the goal of the tzaddikim – to do good to others and be a good influence, to show that Hashem is good. And that is why Noach spent an entire year doing chessed with the whole world, which is the tikkun (rectification) of evil – love, giving, chessed. To show that Hashem wants chessed and is rav chessed (has much lovingkindness) and loves all His creatures.  

The truth is that this disagreement starts already with the serpent, who told Chava that Hashem hates her and Adam, as Rashi mentions there⁵, and we wrote about this last year. But here it connects to our point. Rabbeinu said that this stormy wind is in itself the contamination coming from the serpent.  

Saving the Whole Generation! 

And now we well understand that the confusion of Noach’s generation is true and valid for our generation as well. And we have to learn from Noach’s middah (trait), the middah of love and chessed, and to reveal to ourselves and to the whole world how much Hashem loves us and wishes to do good for us – and that exists only in the ark, in other words, only in the study halls of the tzaddikim who teach us that Hashem loves us.  

We see with our own eyes how anyone who is outside of these study halls and leads a life of self-persecution and self-accusation and engages in disputes and baseless hatred – finds himself in a deluge of confusion of the da’at and distances himself completely from avodat Hashem. 

The great chiddush (novel idea) is that when we live the knowledge that Hashem loves us – that is the way not only to save ourselves from the Mabul, but also to look favorably upon all those who are outside the ark, and to know that Hashem loves them as well and wishes that they should be dealt with favorably and that people should pray for them that they should have only good, and have these ideas disseminated among them and reveal to them that Hashem loves them.  

In that way, we will be able to rectify both the fault of the generation of the Mabul and also the fault of Noach himself, who did not pray for his generation. Because when we will see the good in ourselves and in others and know that we are good and that Hashem loves us and sees only good in us and in all creatures – in that way we rid the entire world of the stormy wind and enlarge the tzaddik’s ark and save the entire world, and the complete Geula (Redemption) will come with love and mercy, speedily in our days, Amen. 

Editor’s Notes: 

¹ Hoshea (Hosea) 14:10 

² Likutei Moharan 38:2 

³ Bereishit (Genesis) 6:13 

⁴ Rashi on Bereishit 5:29 and Bereishit Rabbah for Bereishit 9:20 

⁵ Rashi on Bereishit 3:5