Noah

 

Noah — Birth, Name, Tools, and the Flood

Quick Facts

Lineage

Son of Lamech • 10th generation from Adam

Born

Year 1056 from Creation (2704 BCE)

Died

Year 2006 from Creation • Lived 950 years

Sons

Shem • Ham • Japheth (born when Noah was 500)

A Combined Narrative

In the year 1042 from Creation (2718 BCE), in the 55th year of Methuselah’s rule, Seth, Adam’s son, passed away and was buried in Arbel. At that time Methuselah’s son Lamech was 168 years old, and there was a famine in the land.

Thirteen years later (2705 BCE), Lamech married Ashmaa. Methuselah told him that Lamech would have a son whose descendants would populate the world. Methuselah — described as a great sage — warned him not to reveal the child’s true name, because a sorcerer needed a person’s real name to perform witchcraft against him.

Name & Meaning

“This one will comfort us from our work and from the toil of our hands, from the ground which the Lord has cursed.”

A year later, in the year 1056 from Creation (2704 BCE), a son was born to Lamech — the first child born after Adam’s passing. Since Adam’s sin, the earth was cursed and creatures rebelled against mankind. Adam had asked how long the curse would endure; he was told it would be lifted when a child would be born circumcised. This child was indeed born circumcised. Lamech called him Menachem (“comforter”), while his grandfather Methuselah gave him the hidden name Noach (Noah) to shield him from sorcerers.

Tradition adds that Noah was the first born with separated fingers — earlier human hands were not divided into fingers.  Noach  was an albino with white hair. After Noah’s birth, the famine ended and the curse was eased: the earth began to yield produce and animals ceased resisting human beings.

Tools, Farming, and “Rest”

The Sages connect the name Noach with menuchah (rest). Before Noah, people had no proper plows. Noah is credited with inventing the plow, sickle, and hoe to cultivate the land — replacing bare-hand labor. People rejoiced at the improvement and sang; later custom associates especially strong singing with plowing.

Righteousness, the Flood, and the Ark

Noah found favor in God’s eyes and was commanded to build an ark to be saved from the Flood: “For you I have seen as righteous before Me in this generation.” When Noah was 500, he fathered Shem, Ham, and Japheth (Genesis 5:32). The Flood came when he was 600. At the end of the year the ark rested on the mountains of Ararat. Noah and his household left the ark, and God blessed them: “Be fruitful and multiply… swarm upon the earth and multiply in it” (Genesis 9:7), promising never again to destroy all flesh with a flood.

Sacrifices, Meat, and Blood

Noah built an altar and offered sacrifices from the pure animals and birds he had brought into the ark. God permitted humanity to eat meat, but warned against consuming blood.

Vineyard and Vulnerability

Noah was the first to plant a vineyard, but he became intoxicated and his disgrace was exposed (Genesis 9:20). Midrash adds: on that very day he planted, on that very day he drank, and on that very day his shame was revealed.

How the Sages Read “Righteous in His Generations”

Critical Reading

Rabbi Yehudah: “In his generations” implies he was righteous relative to his time — but not compared to the generation of Moses or Samuel.

Praising Reading

Rabbi Nechemiah: If he was righteous in a corrupt generation, all the more so he would have been righteous in a greater one.

Noah and Abraham's lifetimes overlapped by 58 years, in fact נח (Noah) in Hebrew has the numerical value of 58! Noah  is also described as “of little faith” — believing and not fully believing the Flood would come — and only entering the ark when the waters pressed him in. The prophet later mentions Noah together with Job and Daniel as figures whose righteousness rescued their generation (Ezekiel 14:14, 20). Tradition has it that Noah spent the last years of his life in what later became known as Italy.

A Dollar Delivered

A Rebbe Dollar : 20 Years in the Making 💵

A blessing given once… delivered exactly when it was needed.

An American Jew, just before moving to Israel, went to the Lubavitcher Rebbe for a blessing. The Rebbe blessed him and handed him two dollar bills.

"One is for you… and the second is for the taxi driver."

The man was puzzled and took the dollars.

Twenty Years… in a Wallet

When he landed in Israel, he considered giving the dollar to the driver who took his family from the airport to the absorption center. But the driver was frantic and impatient, and the man felt intuitively that this wasn’t the “one.”

Years turned into decades and for twenty years, that dollar remained in his wallet.

The Taxi Ride That Changed Everything

Recently, this same man—now a long-time Israeli resident—took a taxi in the center of the country. He noticed the driver wasn’t wearing a kippah, but there was a Book of Psalms on the dashboard and a picture of the Rebbe tucked near the gearshift.

They began to talk. The driver shared that over the last few months, he had been exploring his roots and returning to Torah through a local Chabad center. Suddenly, the passenger remembered the dollar. He realized this was the moment.

"Take this… This is a dollar the Rebbe gave me to give to the taxi driver.”

“Let’s See Him Send You a Dollar Today!”

The driver slammed on the brakes. The taxi screeched to a halt. He turned to the stunned passenger, his voice trembling with emotion:

“Do you have any idea what you just did?” Ever since I started this journey back to my faith, it’s been very hard for my wife. She doesn’t understand it at all.

This morning, she was so upset she yelled at me:

“What is all this nonsense? What are these strange beliefs? The Rebbe has been gone for years! Do you really think it’s logical that he would send you a dollar for a blessing? Let’s see him send you a dollar today!”

The passenger sat in silence, finally understanding exactly which “taxi driver” the Rebbe had in mind… twenty years before.

The Takeaway

The Rebbe’s vision transcends time and space. A small act of kindness or a blessing given today might be the miracle someone else is praying for decades from now.

You can still receive the Rebbe’s blessing today—just keep your heart open.

The Names

Geulah – Va’eira

Sunday, 22 Tevet – 11 Jan

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The parshah opens with the verse,

“G-d (Elokim) spoke to Moshe and He said to him: I am G-d (Havayah).”

This is puzzling. How can Elokim say that He is Havayah?

Moshe intended to correct the sin of Adam and to bring the world to the state of ge’ulah. In the era of redemption, our Sages tell us, the G-dliness of  the name Havayah (transcendent)  will be integrated within the tzaddikim to the point that the tzaddikim will then be called Havayah.

Since G-d was not ready to bring the world to that state during Moshe’s lifetime, Elokim spoke to Moshe, meaning that only the name Elokim (G-d as manifested in nature) was fully integrated within the tzaddikim at that time. G-d said, “I am Havayah” — I alone will be called by this Divine name at present.

Only when Moshiach arrives will the tzaddikim be associated with Havayah.

Source: Ginzei Yosef

Posted with ❤️ for Geulah learning

A Sefer and a Smicha

 

The Pinui Atzmot HaMet addresses the issue of  Jewish burial grounds and a young Rabbi Menachem Schneerson revealed his brilliance overnight.

The author of the book was Rav Yechiel Yaakov Weinberg, the author of Seridei Eish. It was ritten in Berlin around 1928 and addresses the question of what happens when modern governments decide that Jewish cemeteries are standing in the way of “progress.”

Germany in the interwar period was rapidly urbanizing, and Jewish burial grounds were increasingly threatened by municipal decrees and development plans. Rav Weinberg was asked to confront the almost unthinkable: Under what circumstances, if any, may Jewish remains be exhumed and relocated? His analysis begins where it must: the fundamental prohibition against disturbing the dead, rooted in nivul hamet — the degradation of the deceased — and charadat hadin, the unsettling of the soul’s repose. Even after the body has decomposed and only bones remain, Rav Weinberg marshals earlier authorities, including the Shevut Yaakov, to argue that the prohibition remains in force. Skeletal remains are not halachically “neutral debris.”

A classic Seridei Eish balance: uncompromising fidelity to halacha, paired with a sober recognition of the world as it actually exists.

Yet Rav Weinberg was never a posek who lived in a vacuum. A product of the great Lithuanian tradition and fully conversant with the realities of modern Europe, he carefully delineates circumstances under which relocation may be permitted — cases of pressing public necessity, or when leaving the graves undisturbed would likely lead to outright desecration by secular authorities.

The Young Scholar in Berlin

What elevates this modest booklet to near-mythic status, however, is who studied it — and how. At the time, a young Rabbi Menachem Schneerson was also in Berlin. Long before he became the Lubavitcher Rebbe, he was already demonstrating a prodigious command of Torah. Rav Weinberg would ultimately grant him semicha, alongside a separate ordination from the Rogatchover Gaon, forging a record of rabbinic breadth few towering figures of twentieth-century Torah life could match.

A detail that matters

According to a well-known account, Rabbi Schneerson initially sought semicha for practical reasons: access to Berlin’s vast academic libraries. Rav Weinberg agreed in principle — but insisted that the young scholar undergo the same rigorous examinations as any other student.

Rabbi Schneerson pressed for a faster route. Rav Weinberg refused.

Then the young man’s son proposed that Rav Weinberg select any volume from his library, which he would master overnight and be tested on the following day. As one later observer noted, this was not merely confidence — it bordered on the unbelievable. Only someone already fluent in the entire sweep of responsa literature could even contemplate such a feat. Rav Weinberg, perhaps intrigued by the challenge, handed him Pinui Atzmot HaMet. This was no easy text — its mastery demands familiarity with obscure laws of burial, ritual impurity, and halachic precedents rarely reviewed even by seasoned scholars.

The next day, Rav Weinberg examined him and was stunned. The young R. Schneerson not only knew the contents of the booklet, but expounded on it with insight and precision. On the spot, Rav Weinberg granted him rabbinical ordination.

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Sometimes, a sefer tells you more than its subject matter. This one captures a moment when halacha confronted modernity head-on — and when greatness quietly revealed itself, overnight, in a Berlin study hall.

Happy New Year

 

The holy Apter Rav would bless at the beginning of the new year according to the Gentile calendar: “A good year to all the people of Israel.”

He explained this practice based on the verse, “Hashem will count in the register of nations.” When the nations mark their new year, that moment itself becomes a spiritually opportune time—capable of bringing about salvation  for the people of Israel.

The nations’ New Year represents a time of judgment. Since the spiritual vitality and influence of the nations ultimately derive from Israel, this period becomes especially suited for favorable decrees to be issued upon the Jewish people.

Moreover, this principle works in reverse as well. When the Holy One, blessed be He, observes the revelry of the nations during their holiday and contrasts it with the reverence and self-discipline of the Jews on Rosh Hashanah, even harsh decrees—Heaven forbid—can be transformed into blessings.

It is further emphasized that even matters which were not successfully rectified on Rosh Hashanah itself can be effected on this day. The contrast between the conduct of the nations and that of Israel has the power to overturn negative decrees and convert them into good.

— Netai Gavriel

Naftali and Future Fruit

When Jacob blessed Naftali, he described him as “a swift gazelle” (49:21). The Midrash reads this as an allusion to the Valley of Gennesar within Naftali’s portion—an area where produce matures with striking speed. This unusual fertility is linked to a powerful spiritual radiance flowing from the realm of Atzilus (God's Essence) which intensifies the earth’s natural capacity to bring forth growth.

The teaching points beyond the present, hinting to the Future Messianic Era described by the Midrash—when trees will yield fruit on a daily basis . In a similar spirit, the prophet Amos depicts breathtaking abundance: “Behold, days are coming,” says G-d, “when the plowman will catch up to the reaper, and the one treading grapes will catch up to the sower of seed” (9:13).

This accelerated productivity will be driven by an exceptionally intense Divine revelation, one that will fully unite with the physical world.

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Source: Ohr HaTorah 

Redemption Now

Parshas Vayechi — A Closed Portion

Parshas Vayechi is considered a closed portion because in the sefer torah, the space preceding each Torah portion is missing from this parshah. The Sages explain that this absence reflects G-d's preventing  Yaakov's from revealing the time of the redemption to his sons before his passing.  Another teaching of our Sages  states that the coming of the redemption depends upon the Jewish people's return to G-d. If so, then the final redemption does not have a true date. Rather, we have the power to bring the redemption at any time, on any date.

— Minchah Belulah