Parshas Noach 5786
The Gerrer Rebbe, Rav Avraham Mordechai Alter, also known as the “Imrei Emes” managed to escape Europe and emigrate to Eretz Yisrael in 1940. When the Holocaust finally ended, the Rebbe confirmed that but one of his grandchildren, Reb Noach Yaskovitz, had survived. When grandfather and grandson were finally reunited after the war in Yerushalayim, the Rebbe embraced him with great vigor, holding his grandson tight and repeating again and again, “Vayishaer ach Noach! Vayishaer ach Noach! “And only Noach was left….”(Bereishis, 7:23)
In the midst of their intense reunion, the loving Zeidy looked into his grandson’s eyes: “Why do you think Hashem saved Noach? Because he would rebuild the world. We, too, survived in order to rebuild!”
Throughout Parshas Noach, the great flood is referred to time and again as the Mabul. Yet in referencing the flood many generations later, the navi Yeshaya—in a section read as haftarah for Parshas Noach—refers to the event as “מי נח, The Waters of Noach.” (Yeshaya 54:9)
After leading a moral life in the face of a wayward society around him, building a massive ark by hand, and tending to the needs of the myriad animals protected inside, what did Noach do to deserve such an unfortunate byline, being forever linked by the navi with the tragic waters that inundated the world and washed out nearly all of humanity?
In the very first pasuk of the parsha, Noach’s name is mentioned no fewer than three times and the Rosh offers an intriguing explanation as to why. He suggests that the reference is to three people throughout history who saw their environs settled, destroyed, and then resettled. The first is, of course, Noach himself. The second is Daniel, who saw the Bais Hamikdash, saw it destroyed, and saw it rebuilt. The third is Iyov, who witnessed his own home go from a state of tranquility to utter ruination, and then reestablished once more.
“Noach” is a symbol not only for a world ruined, but of a world rebuilt.
Perhaps this is the distinction between the description of the Flood in the parsha itself and the description offered generations later by Yeshaya. The term “Mabul” connotes destruction, which is exactly the way the waters were experienced as the inundated the earth.
Yet when the destruction had subsided, there was an opportunity to rebuild. For the only people left on earth to create a covenant with Hashem. To offer korbanos. To turn the ark outward, imbuing the new world with the kindness, care, and sensitivity previously shown to the animals. For Shem to launch a yeshivah that would train all who would enter its portals in the ways of monotheism and morality.
It would take time—years, even millennia—for the opportunities offered by rebooting the world to become fully realized. But when they did, it could be traced back to Noach. Recognizing that all that was ultimately achieved was attributed to him and the new spirit he breathed into the world reborn around him.
To call the waters Mei Noach is not to disparage Noach, to lay the blame of the destruction at this feet, but to credit him with the fulfillment of the promise contained within those very waters. Generations after the flood, they can be called by Noach’s name because of the hindsight that the intervening years provide that attribute to Noach all that had been accomplished since the world was destroyed.
Were the waters that inundated the earth devastating, or were they constructive? The answer is “Yes”.
It is always this way. A fire is sometimes precisely what is needed to give the forest a chance for new life and vitality. And it is often a crisis or even a tragedy of some variety or another that clears the landscape in a manner that permits growth far greater than what could have been achieved if life simply continued to bounce along without incident.
No one would ever choose pain, let alone tragedy. Yet we don’t have to. They come upon us at times whether we’re ready or not, whether we want them or not. The question is only how we’ll react to them. Will we see only the devastating impact of a Mabul? Or identify the opportunity to rebuild and to flourish that characterized the Mei Noach?
It can help to put ourselves in the shoes of Yeshaya haNavi, someone viewing the events with the advantage of hindsight, already aware of how it all turned out. What story will I want to be told years from now? What recollections do I hope will be shared generations in the future? And what response do I need to choose today in order for that to be so? Do I want my great-grandchildren to tell stories of the Mabul that ruined me? Or the Mei Noach that became the opportunity I seized to become a builder?
The Imrei Emes would never have opted into the pain and suffering visited upon him by the Holocaust. But it was never his decision to make. What was his decision was how he would react to that tragedy, the Mabul that inundated his life and the world around him. And as he held his grandson, he insisted that they not waste their time wallowing in pain or self-pity, but that they commit themselves to rebuilding the world. Just as Noach had done before them.