Shalom Friends;
Our Parshat HaShevua, Noach is sponsored by Jack and Chana Kaminker and family of Ramat Beit Shemesh who dedicate this vort Lilui Nishmas Jack’s Father Aryeh Shlomo Leib ben Elyaqum. To the Kaminker family, many thanks for your sponsorship and your continued kindnesses.
You can celebrate a Simcha — a birth, a Bar/Bat Mitzvah, a Chassuna or other Simcha event in your life, or commemorate a Yahrtzeit of a loved one, or for whatever other reason by sponsoring a Parshat HaShevua.
Please forward to your relatives and friends and encourage them to sponsor a Parshat HaShevua. And please be in contact with me with any questions, or for further details.
Best Regards,
Moshe Burt
olehchadash@yahoo.com
skype: mark.burt3
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We learn in our Parshat No’ach about both the Mabul (the Great Flood) which Hashem brought to destroy and rebuild the world due to rampant promiscuity and thievery (Hamas); these two terms may actually be redundant in Torah context (i.e. “the Nephilim… and… afterward… the judges would consort with the daughters of man…” (Sefer Breish’t, Perek 6, posuk 4), and the abortive Migdal Bavel (the Tower of Bavel — or babble) which resulted in Hashem bringing about confusion in speech and, ultimately, the dispersion of man over the face of the earth.
Rabbi Shmuel Goldin, in his sefer “Unlocking The Torah Text” asks (page 39):
What societal lesson… is the Torah conveying through the contrasting stories of the generation of the flood and the generation of the Tower of Bavel?
R’ Goldin then provides commentary and citings which provide “a clearer understanding” regarding both of man’s early societal fails, and provides guidance in balancing the needs of the individual with societal needs (ibid, pages 39-41):
While the generation of the flood was, according to tradition, guilty of a multitude of heinous crimes (Talmud Bavli Sanhedrin 108a), the sin that actually sealed the fate of that society was hamas, violent Theft. (Sefer Breish’t, Perek 6, posuk 13)
“Rav Acha asked, ‘What did they steal? A merchant would walk through the marketplace with a container filled with grapes and each passerby would reach… and steal a small amount, less than he could be called to judgement for. (Talmud Yerushalmi Bava Metzia 4:2)
From Rabbinic perspective, the sin of the generation of the flood lay in their mocking of societal norms and laws. Driven by personal greed, each individual steals from his neighbor. He does so in such a way… to escape the reach of the law. [i.e., in our day — “staying below the radar”] By the time the merchant reaches the end of the marketplace, he has no grapes left. No one, however, can be taken to court. Societal rules have been rendered ineffective in the face of personal greed.
The sin of the generation of the Migdal Bavel, in contrast, is more difficult to ascertain…. The Torah does not clearly deliniate the crime of this generation.
Many suggest that the tower was built as a direct attack upon Hashem’s authority. (Talmud Bavli Sanhedrin 109a; Rashi on Sefer Breish’t, Perek 11, posuk 1) Others maintain that the sin of the generation lay in their attempt to stay together in one place as one people instead of populating the world in fulfillment of Hashem’s command. (Rabbeinu Bachya on Sefer Breish’t, Perek 11, posuk 4; Ohr HaChaim on Sefer Breish’t, Perek 11, posuk 1) …Others suggest that the people of the time were simply trying to protect themselves… “remember[ing] the flood of No’ach’s time with fear…. believ[ing] that once every 1656 years, Hashem would again visit destruction upon the world (ibid, page 20, Midrash Rabbah Breish’t 38:6), [fearing] a calamity similar to the flood of No’ach’s era. According to this interpretation, the builders of the tower ignored the moral lessons of the flood. (Midrash Rabbah Breish’t 38:6; Rashi on on Sefer Breish’t, Perek 11, posuk 1)
One Midrashic interpretation is particularly telling… “Seven levels were created to the tower from the East and seven to the West. The bricks were brought up from one direction while the descent was from the other. If a man fell down and died during… construction, no attention was paid to him at all. If one brick fell, however, all would sit down and weep: ‘Woe to us! When will we find another to take its place.'” (Pirkei D’Rabi Eliezer 24)
This Midrash (based on hints in the text which describe the driving force behind creation of the tower as the desire to create a societal name) details a frightening civilization in which communal need takes total precedence over individual value. Those working on the tower of Bavel cared not at all about the lives of their neighbors. All that mattered was the creation of the tower and the society it represented.
The ultimate punishments inflicted by Hashem upon each of these generations perfectly fit their crimes. The generation of No’ach, which was marked by individual greed an corruption, could only be addressed through total destruction. None of the individuals, other than No’ach and his family, could remain. When it came to the builders of the Tower of Bavel, however, the problem was with the society, not the individuals. In this case, only the society is destroyed.
In each era, man struggles to strike a balance between two opposing forces, the needs of the individual and the needs of the community. Each of these forces, by definition, impinges upon the other…. A society must, of necessity, place limits upon personal freedoms (one cannot, to cite the well-known example, scream fire in a crowded theatre with impunity [immune from punishment]). On the other hand, a society must limit the restrictions it places upon its citizens in order to allow for individual freedom of expression and action.
The particular balance that a society creates between these two forces [individual vs societal] determines the very nature of the society itself.
In the context of defining the nature of any given society, R’ Goldin notes (ibid, page 41):
The difference between Communist Russia [before its fall] and the United States lay in the vastly different ways these two societies chose to strike this very balance.
As this author observes, we seem to have lost control of both the individual and societal forces; i.e. mass shooting whether defined as lone terrorism or as a deranged individual mass shooting in schools, entertainment venues, the head of a US president hung in effigy by a so-called “comedienne” and more, as well as an evolvement through recent decades toward globalist society which, upon this author’s reflection, seems to bear an increasingly striking resemblance to Tower of Bavel Society. Further, it appears, to this author, that the two forces described just above seem to be working in concert, both in contemporary Israel and the rest of the world, toward attempting the destruction of the fragile balance between the needs of the individual and those of the society in which he lives.
R’ Goldin concludes (ibid, page 41):
In the aftermath of the failures of both generations of the flood ad dispersion, a new society emerges: one that will successfully create a delicate balance between the needs of the community and the needs of the individual. The society, the Jewish nation guided by its Torah, is therefore destined to endure across the ages.
May all who subscribe to these Parshat vorts live in happiness and good health to at least a full 120 years.
May we, the B’nei Yisrael be zocha that our brethren — the refugee families from Gush Katif be permanently settled and be made totally whole — be totally restituted for all that was stolen from them and that the twice expelled families of Amona be restored to their rebuilt homes, at government expense; both due to alt-leftist-agendized, supreme court legalized Yassamnik gunpoint. May our dear brother Jonathan Pollard be liberated and truly free — only upon his return home to Israel, and that the MIAs be liberated alive and returned to us in ways befitting Al Kiddush Hashem, as should the remains of the two chayalim from the Gaza War of four years ago. May we have the courage and strength to stand up and physically prevent the possibility of Chas V’Challila any future eviction of Jews from their homes and prevent Chas V’Challila the handing of Jewish land over to anyone, let alone to enemies sworn to Israel’s and Judaism’s destruction and eradication. May we fulfill Hashem’s blueprint of B’nai Yisrael as a Unique people — an Am Segula, not to be reckoned with as with “the nations” and may we be zocha to see the Moshiach, the Ge’ula Shlaima, as Dov Shurin sings; “Ki Karov Yom Hashem Al’Kol HaGoyim”, the Ultimate Redemption, bimhayrah b’yamainu — speedily, in our time”, — Achshav, Chik Chuk, Miyad, Etmol!!!
Chodesh Tov and Good Shabbos!
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Moshe Burt is an Oleh, writer and commentator on news and events in Eretz Yisrael. He is the founder and director of The Sefer Torah Recycling Network and lives in Ramat Beit Shemesh.
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