Dear Friends;

I hope that you’ll enjoy the following Parsha summary followed by a Dvar Torah;

” Parasha in a Nutshell ”

Parshat Noah begins by describing Noah’s righteousness, compared with the wickedness of his generation. As a result of Mankind’s evil, Hashem brings a flood to destroy every living creature, sparing only Noah, his family, and at least one pair of every animal species, who live in an ark during the lengthy flood. When the waters declined, almost a year after the rains first began, Noah sends out a raven and a dove so as to determine whether the land has dried sufficiently so that they can leave the ark to resettle the earth once again. Hashem promises that He will never again destroy all of Mankind by means of a flood, and He designates the rainbow as a sign for that eternal covenant.

Noah plants a vineyard, drinks from its produce, and becomes drunk. In his intoxicated state, he shamefully uncovers himself in his tent. While his son Cham dealt with his father inappropriately, Noah’s other two sons, Shem and Yefet, cover their father in a respectful manner. Once sober, Noah responds by blessing Shem and Yefet, and by cursing Cham and his son Canaan.

Generations pass and the world is repopulated. The people attempt to wage war against Hashem by building the Tower of Babel, and Hashem responds by mixing up their languages and dispersing them across the planet.

The Torah portion concludes on an encouraging note with Abraham’s birth and his marriage to Sarah.

” Dvar Torah ”

At the beginning of the Parsha, the Torah says: ” Noah was a righteous man, perfect in his generation…..”. So, the obvious question that comes to mind is why does the Torah mention “in his generation”, when it talks about Noah’s righteousness? Well, there are two schools of thoughts. Some Chachamim praise the greatness of Noah’s righteousness, since it is very hard to stay righteous when you are surrounded with corrupt and evil people all around you. They say, He would have been even more righteous, if he would have lived in some other times. While others criticize him, for his righteousness is only apparent when is compared with his own generation. If he would have been compared to Avraham, for example, he would have never reached his level of righteousness.

With all being said, still Noah is the only person in the entire Torah to be given the title of “righteous” by Hashem himself. But the Chachamim say, despite Noah’s righteousness, he still didn’t have the zechut (merit) of becoming the forefather of the Jewish nation. Our family tree starts from Avraham and not from Noah. The Torah could have easily traced back Avraham to Noah and added him to the list of our forefathers, but decided not to. But why? What was he lacking, that stopped him from joining the Jewish nation?

I read a very interesting explanation given by Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks. He says that after the flood, Hashem tells Noah to get out of the Ark and fill up the earth once again — to grow and multiply. But once Noah got out of the Ark, he looked back at all the destructions. Overwhelmed by grief, he found refuge in wine. Instead of starting to build his future, he built himself a vineyard! He started his life as the most righteous person on the face of the earth, yet he ended his days drunk and shameful in front of his children. And that was his mistake; he looked back instead of looking at the future. This is why he couldn’t join the Jewish nation, because Judaism is a religion of the future. We build our future first, before we mend the past!

We can see this idea in the Jews throughout the history. The most obvious example are the Holocaust survivors. After the Holocaust, Jews didn’t sit paralysed by grief over the loss of their loved ones. They immediately started to build their future, above all, the land and state of Israel. What’s fascinating is that many of the Holocaust survivors did not speak about those years in concentration camps, even to their spouses or their children, sometimes for as long as forty or fifty years. Only when they had secured the future did they allow themselves to look back at the past. Only when they had built a life did they permit themselves to remember death.

Yes my friends, Judaism is a religion of the future! We are always thinking about building for our future and that’s the secret to our success. The land of Israel prospers continuously, because the Jews in Israel are always thinking about building for their future. Why do you think that the Palestinians never prosper and most of them live in poverty and under pressure?! Because they keep looking at the past instead of concentrating on their future. They don’t care to build their future; their only thoughts are about killing and destruction!

The Mashadi community has always been a great believer of the future too. When our fathers left Iran, they did not sit back and grieve for what they’ve left behind, but rather, they immediately started to build the future for their family and their children, and today we are enjoying the fruits of their labor. Even our leaders today, they all have a vision for the future. They see the needs of the community in many more years to come, and they act on it accordingly. May G-d bless them all.

So my friends, remember that it’s a great blessing to be a Jew and to have a vision for the future, a characteristic which unfortunately was missing in Noah who was only righteous compared to his generation!

Shabbat Shalom & Regards;

Martin