2 years ago

Life In Noach’s Ark – A Blueprint For Redemption

BEGIN WITH A GRIN
The modern version of the Mabul story:
G-d asks Noach to build a teiva. Six month later, G-d sees that there’s nothing in Noach’s yard except for grass and
some overturned rows of greenery.
“Noach! I’m starting the flood – where is the teiva?”
“Well,” says Noach in consternation, “I’m still trying to get a building permit. My neighbor claims that I broke some
laws of the local community board and I had to go to the Permit Office of the construction department to work out
the details with them. Then, the Transportation Ministry demanded that I obtain a license for this new type of vehicle
before I start building it. At the same time, the municipality fined me because they will have to move some electric
poles so that the teiva reaches the sea. I told them, the sea will come to me but they refused to listen to me.
“Getting the wood to build the teiva was no less exhausting. It turns out that there’s a law against cutting down trees
in the country so that endangered owls will be protected. I tried to convince the environmental groups that I need the
wood in order to save the owls, but it didn’t help. When I began collecting animals, I started getting threats from
wildlife societies who claimed that I intended on imprisoning animals under cruel conditions in small compartments.
Now, I need 834 different permits and licenses in order to collect a pair of each type of animal.
“I tried hiring foreign workers to help me and my sons build the teiva but the government insisted that I had to hire
all my workers through accredited employment agencies. At the same time, they also froze all of my assets because,
according to senior government people, there is fear that I will leave the country illegally with endangered species.
Forgive me, G-d, but it will take me another 100 years to finish building the teiva and getting it ready to sail.”
Suddenly, the rain stopped, the sky cleared, the sun began to shine and a rainbow could be seen. Noach looked
upward in wonder and asked, “Master of the universe, You’re not going to destroy the world?”
“No,” says G-d. “Your government is already doing that instead of Me.”
LIFE LESSONS FROM WILDLIFE
Parshas Noach is regarded as an exceedingly negative parsha. There’s the flooding of the world in the time of Enosh,
the Mabul, the destruction of the world and humanity and the dispersal of nations through the Tower of Bavel. Not
very positive events. This is a period of history that we’d rather forget.
The state of the world and of humankind in those generations does not seem to have been very encouraging. “The
inclination of man’s heart is evil from his youth.” We keep finding chaos, idol worship, immorality and theft,
shameful behaviors that make us think that truly, “ the advantage of man over animal is nothing.”
Is there anything positive in this parsha? Is there something Geula-related lurking? Are there any fundamental
insights which we can implement in our daily lives in order to bring our individual (and thereby, the collective)
Geula?
The Tzemach Tzedek goes on at some length in his discourses explaining the inner connection between life in the
time of the Mabul and life in the era of the Geula. Some might ask, “What life in the time of the Mabul are we
talking about, when it says, ‘the end of all flesh has come before Me,’ and G-d annihilated all of humanity along with
all creatures? What sort of life is the Tzemach Tzedek talking about?”

The truth is that the Tzemach Tzedek is talking about life within Noach’s teiva. Those animals, birds and creeping
creatures along with Noach’s family, got a taste of Olam Haba within the teiva. We know that wild animals like lions
lived in peace in the teiva with animals like sheep and goats. This is reminiscent of the prophecies of the Geula
(Yeshaya 11:6), “and the wolf will live with the lamb, and the leopard with the kid will crouch.” Furthermore, those
wild animals lived in peace even with people. Except for one incident (mentioned in Rashi), there was no instance of
an animal attacking a member of Noach’s family. It was utter peace for an entire year, even within the cramped
quarters of the teiva. (Imagine all the animals of the world, at least two of each kind, packed into a space the size of
a soccer field, for a year. Impressive, no?)
The Tzemach Tzedek even brings support for what he says from the verse in Koheles (3:15), “That which was is
already [done], and that which is [destined] to be, already was, ” All events which will take place in the Geula, are a
reenactment of an earlier era of history. The world peace that will prevail in the animal world in the Geula is a
reenactment of life in Noach’s teiva, but it won’t be for just one year; it will be forever.
So, we’ve found something positive and Geula-related about Noach’s teiva, but what can we take from that for daily
life? What lesson is there for us?
The Tzemach Tzedek explains that the change in the behavior of animals in the Geula is sourced in their way of
thinking, and this change is something we can adopt now, in a minor way, at least. The verse in Yeshaya quoted
earlier, goes on to explain (in verse 9) the change in the world with the words, “They will neither harm nor destroy
on all of My holy mountain, because the the earth will be filled with knowledge of G-d.” The change in behavior is
rooted in a change in consciousness, a change in understanding. Why is a lion predatory? Why does a leopard
destroy? Why is a fox wily? Because they lack higher consciousness (daas)!
What does that mean? “The reason that they harm other living creatures, is because of the rage that makes him
impossible to tolerate… and he has no daas to recognize that he is a living creature like himself, and whoever has
deiah (higher-level consciousness) has compassion!”
Chassidus has a lot to say about the sefira of daas (which, by the way, is the sefira associated with the Tzemach
Tzedek). Daas is not just information, it’s not just knowledge. Daas is not about getting a hundred on a test. Daas is
to feel, to connect, to sense the other and to get outside of my own existence. This is daas and animals don’t have it.
True, for now, when the lion looks at a lamb, it doesn’t see a fellow living creature; it sees lunch, because it has no
daas and it does not feel nor relate.
LIVING LIFE MINDFULLY
In Chassidus, Noach’s teiva represents the world of mochin (intellect) and not just any mochin but expansive
mochin. Everyone knows (feels) that when speaking to someone with a broad mind, he can relate to every event or
person with respect because “there is no person who doesn’t have his time and there is no thing which doesn’t have
its place.” But sometimes, we don’t have a place, in our head! We lack daas. We don’t have the expansive mochin to
see how the other can and needs to exist within the framework of our own existence.
If you were to give a lion a bit of expansive mochin, it would have the trait of compassion and would be able to
tolerate a lamb, goat, zebra and wildebeest. That is precisely what happened with the wild animals when they
entered the teiva, and this is precisely what will happen in the world in the future Geula. G-d will give daas to us all,
even to animals; real daas which includes feelings and relating to another. We will stop being angry, stop getting
irritated, stop looking at others as our “lunch.” We will see how the other is deserving of respect, deserving to exist,
deserving to live. Both humans and animals!
But that’s not all. The world of daas is only the first stage in Noach’s teiva, and it’s only the first stage in the Geula.
The prophet Yeshaya continues with another Geula prophecy, “A lion, like cattle, will eat hay.” That the lion won’t
eat the cattle, we’ve already said, but why will the lion eat hay like cattle? That goes against its nature and why
would a lion turn into a cow or ox?

Here, the Tzemach Tzedek explains, is a deeper level of the Geula. The lion ate hay in Noach’s teiva too, and the
leopard ate grass, because in Noach’s teiva there was a lofty G-dly revelation that included not only the sefira of
daas but also the sefira of chochma, chochma ila’a (supernal wisdom).
In Chassidus, it’s explained that chochma represents that which is beyond concrete grasp, that which is not
understood and not explained; lofty levels of G-dliness that effectuate absolute bittul within a person, utter bittul
that goes beyond reason. This is hinted at in the word “chochma” itself: koach-ma, the ability to ask and feel the
“ma,” the utter bittul that is beyond human grasp. True bittul leads to change. True bittul leads to a change in
reality. When you are battul, you can turn in an instant into something that you were never able to be previously!
This is precisely what happened to the lion and leopard in the teiva. The revelation of the sefira of chochma
effectuated a bittul that transformed their very existence, that made them into eaters of hay and grass like cattle,
bittul that leads to unity, because when we are battul, we can unite and integrate with the other. We can eat what
he eats and drink what he drinks because the earlier categories of existence which separated between us in the past,
are gone!
This is also hinted at in the words of the prophet. “Because the earth will be filled with knowledge of G-d like waters
cover the sea.” Not only will the earth be full of daas, but daas and chochma will fill all of existence like the ocean
waters cover the seabed. Like the bottom of the ocean is utterly battul to the point of non-existence; we don’t see it
or sense it, so too, the existence of the world in the future will be covered with deiah and G-dly chochma which will
cause the nullification of the existing parameters of existence and a core transformation within our very beings, a
change that will lead to the ultimate unity between us and the Creator and between people!
These two stages, deiah and chochma, tolerance for another and unity with another, need to exist (on a micro level)
today already. We, Chabad Chassidim, who represent daas and chochma, need to increase the daas within ourselves
and the broader environment. Daas which means compassion, daas which means feeling for another, daas which
has the ability to be tolerant of those who are different than us and accept even those who don’t agree with us. And
chochma which signifies bittul, bittul to G-dly truth, bittul to the Rebbe, and bittul which leads to unity with the
Creator and other Jews.
TO CONCLUDE WITH A STORY
We will end with a story which conveys our ability to transcend our own self-centered existences even now.
The Alter Rebbe once said, “What I wrote in Tanya, ‘to learn from Yosef and his brothers,’ the intent is like Sender
ben Zalman from Shklov.”
R’ Sender was very rich and donated a lot of money to tzedaka. One of his competitors informed on him, saying he
was involved in smuggling goods. As a result, R’ Sender lost his money and became very poor.
After some time, he recovered and regained his wealth. The informer became very sick. Surprisingly, R’ Sender went
to visit him and all marveled at this. After the visit, they found an envelope under the pillow that was full of money,
400 silver rubles. R’ Sender had generously put the money there, thus repaying evil with good.
When R’ Sender died, the Alter Rebbe went to console his father, R’ Zalman, in Shklov. He said, “Why are you
worried about your son? He is already in Gan Eden.”
He added, “Your Sender shamed me. When I went to the supernal chambers, I saw him in a very lofty chamber. I
asked him, ‘How did you manage to get here?’ Sender said, ‘Rebbe, Rebbe, you are asking me this question?! It says,
‘Tzedaka teromeim goy’(acts of kindness and compassion elevate a person beyond his natural capacities, as
explained in the beginning of the Alter Rebbe’s Torah Or).”