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BEGIN WITH A GRIN

A couple who never got along with any of their neighbors decided to move again.

They asked a real estate agent, “Find us a quiet place with new neighbors who don’t make noise.”

“Will do,” said the agent.

How surprised they were to see that their new apartment bordered on a cemetery!

WHAT’S NEW IN THE WORLD?

Are we trying a repeat of Shimon Peres’ “The New Middle East” concept? Unfortunately, it doesn’t look as though we are going to see a “New Middle East” until Moshiach comes. But the concept of a “new world” took place long ago, as we see in Parshas Noach.

The Medrash (Bereishis Raba 30, 8) says that Noach “saw a new world.” He is not the only one mentioned as someone who saw a “new world” but he is the first. He was followed by Yosef, Moshe, Iyov, Mordechai; Noach paved the way “and opened the channel” for newness in the world.

The question is, what new world did he see? How is it possible to see a new world? First of all, “there is nothing new under the sun,” and second, Noach did not see a new world; at most, he saw a renewed world.

In other words (with the addition of an example from the world of technology), whoever is about to purchase a new smartphone (not that this example sanctions doing so) has two options: 1) buying something brand new, direct from the official supplier with all the tags; 2) buying a refurbished device which others used and it might be missing a thing or two, but it works and is much cheaper. A refurbished device can come from possibly dozens of middlemen companies and customers.

Likewise, a new world, a new creation, something-from-nothing, something that never existed before, can only come from the Creator. A renewed world, has significant changes, including essential ones, and these changes can come about as a result of man’s actions, like in the time of the Flood.

Back to Noach, why do Chazal say that he saw a new world when nothing new was created? The world may have been like new, but it wasn’t new! As Chassidus puts it, the concept “new” applies to creation ex nihilo. The term “renewed” refers to creation out of something. Since nothing new was created ex nihilo in Noach’s time, all that happened was that the world changed from one reality to another and this should not be designated as new!

Chassidus often brings the wording of Chazal (Kesubos 5a), “Greater are the deeds of the righteous than the handiwork of heaven and earth.” At first glance, this seems most surprising. How can one compare the work of the Creator and the work of mankind and even claim that man’s deeds are greater than that of the Creator? It sounds almost heretical, doesn’t it?

In an amazing sicha, the Rebbe sets the record straight. G-d created the world ex nihilo so that the Jewish people, through their service, would change the world and make it into a better place, a “dwelling below.” That means that creating the world ex nihilo was for the purpose of bringing additional newness to the world, a loftier newness, through the service of a Jew. Everyone understands that if the purpose of the first newness is to lead to a second newness, the second newness is far greater than the first. Here too, the creation of the world by G-d, ex nihilo, was solely for the purpose of the second, loftier newness of creating a dwelling down below through the Jews.

It turns out that indeed “the deeds of the righteous are greater” (“and Your nation is all righteous”) – the Jewish people transform the world from a physical entity into a lofty, spiritual entity, “greater than the handiwork of heaven and earth.” G-d created the world only for the purpose of changing and improving it.

Based on this, we can also understand what new world Noach saw. True, Noach didn’t see satellites and spaceships. Nor did he see an APC (armored personnel carrier) or fighter planes. He didn’t even see a smartphone or a computer. What he did see, and he was the first to see it, was hope!

Until Noach, the world did not have hope. There did not exist in the world the ability to change from the given situation; the world was stuck in a low spiritual state, with ever-increasing, nonstop impurity, intolerable forms of human conduct, and nobody could change this! The Flood led the world to a real change, to hope!

GOOD NEWS ABOUT ‘THE FLOOD’

In Chassidus, it explains that the purpose of the Flood was to purify the world which is why it took forty days, similar to the waters of a mikva measuring forty saah. During the Flood, the world was covered with water like the promise of the future Geula, “the earth will be filled with knowledge of G-d like waters cover the sea.” This, and other things, highlight the unique aspect of Noach’s contribution to the world, as the man who brought hope to the existence of man and the world. He brought a general purification in the human spirit and the world around him by paving the way to Avrohom Avinu and then to Moshe Rabeinu and Mattan Torah, down to today!

True, Noach did not see how G-d made the heavens or how exactly He formed the earth. Nor did he see how a plant is made out of nothing, and how a ‘spirit of G-d’ hovered over the waters… but he saw much more than that. He saw a chance for change. He saw a brighter future. He saw a world of possibilities for man and that is far newer than creation ex nihilo.

All that having been said, we can now see how the Torah beginning with the parshiyos of Bereishis and Noach teaches us an important life lesson. Parshas Bereishis is primarily the story of the creation of the world, creation ex nihilo, the work of the Creator. Parshas Noach is mostly about the refinement of the world and man, the creation of something from something, the work of man. Since we already learned that “greater are the deeds of the righteous than the handiwork of heaven and earth,” the novel thing about parshas Noach is far greater than the novelty in parshas Bereishis.

By divine providence, we read parshas Noach this year on Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan. Cheshvan is the first month of man’s service in the world in the new year. (Because, to be honest, in Tishrei we spend more time in shul or with the family than on service and/or the world). On this day, the first day of Cheshvan we get a shot in the arm for the new year by reading parshas Noach.

Parshas Noach teaches us the importance and value of man’s service in the world, how a single person, a Jewish man or woman, can change the world forever! How one Jew can bring hope to all of humanity. How through one deed or word or even one thought, a Jew can bring the Geula!

Later in that farbrengen, the Rebbe cited proofs/points that underscore the importance that needs to be given every single act, and its ability to change the world and bring about a new world.

Most notably, the Baal Shem Tov said to R’ Mordechai ‘HaTzaddik’ (Bayever) that a soul descends to the world and lives seventy, eighty years, in order to do a single favor for a Jew, whether materially or spiritually. That means, one deed, one favor for a Jew, is worth living eighty years!

TO CONCLUDE WITH A STORY

We will end with a story about the importance of one deed, like saying a bracha. The Baal Shem Tov once sent his famous student, R’ Chaim Rappaport to rectify the wayward soul of Moshe ben Shmuel Tzadok. His father, Shmuel Tzadok was a student of the Maharal of Prague but was very opposed to the study of Kabbala which led him to distance himself from the other students of the Maharal.

His son, Moshe, followed his father but in mid-life he went off the derech. After the passing of his Jewish wife, he even married a gentile woman and he lived like a goy in every respect. There is a long story about how a band of hidden tzaddikim, led by Rabbi Eliyahu Baal Shem, brought R’ Moshe back to teshuva.

The following excerpt (LikKutei Dibburim, likut 32) is the end of the story which pertains to our point. “On this trip, another great mission was accomplished, said the Baal Shem Tov to those seated around him. It says in the holy Zohar that the ‘lower waters’ cry out “we want to be before the holy King.” All the wellsprings, ever since the day G-d divided the waters, the lower waters, cry that they want to be before the King, that He should use them for holy matters like washing hands before prayer, immersing for a mitzva, immersion for prayer and Torah, washing hands with a bracha that mentions Hashem’s name, water for drinking when a blessing is said before and after… and this crying of the wellsprings can continue hundreds and even thousands of years until a Jew passes by and washes his hands and recites a blessing or drinks and blesses before and after.

In the forest near Moshe’s estate there is a spring that for 5519 years is crying about why its lot is lesser than that of all springs in that since G-d created it, nobody recited a blessing over its water and nobody used the water for holiness and purity. That day, the spring was saved through him, said the Baal Shem Tov to R’ Chaim. You drank from its water and washed your hands for Mincha. It is a matter of divine providence that every creation has its time of elevation and through whom it will be elevated, and every single soul has its purpose for what and where it needs to work and fix.”

Lots of success going back to work in the new year and good Shabbos!

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