Parshas Noach
3 Cheshvan 5769
November 1, 2008

Daf Yomi: Kiddushin 24

Guest Author:
Rabbi Chaim Frazer

Associate Member, Young Israel Council of Rabbis

 

 

Dedicated to my beloved grandson, Noach Gidon ben Ari Shlomo.

 

 

Each word, even each letter, in the Torah carries weighty significance.

 

“Ay-ley toldot Noach:  Noach ish tzaddik tamim haya b'dorotav.  Et HaElokim, hithalekh Noach.”  These are the generations of Noach.  Noach was a whole-hearted man in his times. With G-d, Noach walked.

 

The key word is “Toldot,” which appears only thirteen times in Tanach, twelve times in Chumash and once in Nach.  In Bereishit 2: 4, it references Shamayyim v'Aretz, and is spelled with two vavs, (fully maleh.)  In Bereshit 5:1, “Zeh Sefer Toldot Adam,” this is the Book of the Generations of Adam [HaRishon].  And “Toldot” here has only the first vav (chaser).  “Toldot” refers to a new era in creation, either the initial creation (fully maleh), or a subchapter (chaser).

 

Indeed, with one exception, every incidence of “Toldot” in  the Torah, besides Bereishit 2: 4, has the second vav missing, and that exception has both vavs missing (Toldot Yishmael).

 

When do we find another “Toldot” with both vavs?  Only in the genealogy of David HaMelech given at the end of Megillat Rut, the genealogy of Melech HaMoshiach, whose mission is to complete the purpose of creation.

 

In Parashat Noach, we find four occurrences of “Toldot:” Noach, the Sons of Noach, Shem, and Terach.  What was special about these eras?  And why do we not have “Toldot Avram” (or Avraham)?

 

A second key word, “et,” furnishes a clue.  A seemingly meaningless grammatical particle, it also has the secondary meaning of “with.” As such, it can have a different meaning from “im,” which also means “with.”

 

Following the distinction elucidated by the Malbim at the beginning of Parashat Bilaam, “im” indicates a relationship of peers, of equals.  “Et,” however indicates a relationship to his superior:  “et HaElokim” means “subordinate to HaElokim.”

 

The relationship between HaShem and Adam and Chava was based on commandments. One positive commandment, to work and guard the Garden, and one negative commandment, not to eat from the Tree of Good and Evil, which they transgressed.

 

Noach, on the other hand, walked “et HaElokim,” subordinating himself to G-d and faithfully fulfilling every detail that G-d commanded him.  His obedience to commandments was a tikkun for the failure of Adam and Chava, and constituted the basis on which he and his family survived the Flood and joined with HaShem in re-creating the world.

 

How did this happen?

 

The Written Torah reveals nothing of daily life in the Ark.  But the Oral Torah fills that gap, and Midrash Socher Tov (Parasha 37) reveals to us how life in the Ark transformed Noach and Shem.  As quoted and discussed by Rav Chaim Friedlander zt”l (Siftei Chaim, Middot V'Avodat HaShem I, pages 277-278), the Ark was a laboratory of chessed, a kindness that demands close and sensitive awareness of what a person lacks, so as to meet that need.  Here, Noach and his family, especially Shem, discovered how to become sources of chessed through meticulously following G-d's instructions in caring for the animals in the Ark.  Shem tells how each animal had to be fed, fed the precise food that it preferred, and fed on the precise schedule that it preferred.

 

And it wasn't an easy task.  Often the animals, many of whom were wild, thrashed and lunged at their feeders - sometimes striking them and injuring them. But Noach, Shem, and the rest of the family persisted in their obedience, learned how to make chessed the basis of their relationship with the animals, and exemplified the crucial phrase from Tehillim: “Olam Chessed Yibaneh” (Tehillim 89:3) the world will be built - in this case recreated - through chessed.

 

The next step was for Noach and his sons to build a relationship with HaShem, one based on both parties binding themselves to chessed.  This is a brit, a total and conditional personal commitment, one which survives the nonfeasance - even the betrayal - of one of the covenantal parties.  Looking at Bereishit 9:8-17, we see HaShem's insistence on building this new relationship as a permanent institution.

 

Returning to our theme, Toldot Noach leads to the un-creation and re-creation of the world on the basis of chessed, resulting in an eternal brit between HaShem and humanity.  Toldot Bnai Noach proclaims the mission of Noach's descendants to disperse all over the earth, inhabit it, and build it up.  In this context, as one of the sons of Toldot Bnai Noach, all of Shem's family branches are listed in his genealogy.

 

But in Toldot Shem itself, only one son per generation appears from Shem to Terach.  The only notable event in each generation is the birth of a son, and the length of the father's life.  Things change with Terach. Three sons are born. Terach names his sons, indicating a conscious sense of transmitting an inherited mission, two of the sons (Nahor and Haran) have their own descendants, and two of them (Avram and Nahor) explicitly take named wives, allowing the status of women as wives and mothers at the center of family life to emerge. The family becomes a domestic society.

 

Shem was Noach's chief assistant on the Ark, his principal aide in chessed, and from Shem to Terach we simply have chessed's transmission, moving from one generation to another, searching for someone to be a partner with HaShem, whose foundational middah is chessed.  With Terach, that mission to become a full partner with HaShem, and not just a hidden tzaddik, re-awakens, and that re-awakening merits Terach the mention of his “Toldot.”

 

Avram, later Avraham, in turn will inherit that mission, and build chessed into the foundation of HaShem's special people, with whom relationships of brit will be perfected.  All nations will come to be blessed through Avraham, and all of Terach's descendants will enter into the family of Avraham's descendants - Nahor's through Rivka, Rachel, and Leah, and Haran's ultimately through Rut and Naama.

 

Noach makes a tikkun for Adam HaRishon's lack of obedience, and begins the movement to chessed as the foundation of human society and mankind's relationship with HaShem.  Shem transmits it in the midst of a hostile environment, and Terach re-awakens it. Avram then builds on his father's incomplete achievement, and through his own descendants brings it to perfection.

 

Looking at genealogical charts (Artscroll Stone Chumach, page 53), we see that Noach, Shem, and all of their named descendants in Toldot Shem lived to see the birth and parts of the life of Avram, their completion. And looking at the genealogy at the end of Megillat Rut (4:18-22), we see “Toldot Peretz” with two vavs, the completion of Creation itself, with Rut initiating the reunion of Haran's descendants (to be completed by Naama) with Avraham's.  All of Terach's branches re-unite in the formation of Melech David, Melech HaMoshiach, and that is the completion of “Toldot Terach.”

 

Shabbat Shalom.

 

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