Noach: Whisper of the Waves

Dear friends, welcome to this week's virtual dasha. This week we have the incredible paras and the par no matter how many times you read the story and of course we know the story but it's still overwhelming tragic and dare I say profoundly sad just last week we start in the beginning creates a new world a new universe he creates kava with literally the entire world at their fingertips but kava unfortunately make them mistaken with that that paves the way for the general unraveling of the spiritual fabric of mankind in heaven. And then generation after generation, mankind's slips into a spiritual decay, an abyss of spiritual decay until we finally come to the sixth para who says, he says, I've had enough. Kates, it's enough. We have to start over again. Commands to build the ark, save the remnants of the animal kingdom, and Noah essentially becomes the second Adam. Noah once again becomes the father of humanity. But what I want to point out is something really fascinating which is the Torah's preoccupation with water. Even if we go back to last week's para Torah says Torah is painting a picture. The land, not the land, the universe was astonishingly empty. But yet the spirit of God was hovering over the water. Then we fast forward to this week's par. Hashem says, "I have to destroy the world. I have to start over again." And what does choose to do that with water? Now it's important to understand dear friends who could have restarted the world with anything. He could have snapped his divine fingers, willed this world into oblivion and just started new. He could have brought fire. He could have brought wind. He could have had the earth open up and swallow up everyone and everything like happened generations later by Korak and his followers. Baraku constantly and consistently draws upon water. Water was here at the beginning of time and it's water that is used to restart creation again. And then as we make our way through the humish, we continue to see the dominance of water. There is no there is no purity without water. A mikvah has to have water. Water Rabves explains so beautifully is the primordial substance of creation. Water was the first thing that was here. Water was the beginning of the world. Water is what restarted the world. And again when a person is tummy when a person is ritually impure for whatever the reason water is a necessity in order to leave the state of impurity in order to transform into a state of purity there is no tr there is no spiritual transformation from impurity to purity without the medium of water. So from the beginning of time to this very day one can make the argument that perhaps water is the most important substance that we have in our religion. So what is this connection between Yiddish kite and water? What what is this importance? Again just to emphasize this even when the Torah goes out of say to tell us that the universe was astonishingly empty. So Torah says but there was water why the preoccupation with water why what's the importance of water? What's the message of the water? This is a beautiful the 51b and actually the topic of the is the topic of the beautiful celebration that would take place in the courtyard of like the says do not whoever did not see the joy of the which literally was the drawing of the water the pouring of the water over the over the altar has never experienced joy in his life and the then goes on and makes an amazing statement In the says, "Whoever did not see the temple when it was built has never seen a beautiful structure." The Gimra says, "What are we referring to?" In other words, there was a first temple, a second temple. So the Gimar says this was actually the refurbishing of the second temple that was done by Herod by Hordos. Cordis we know his story from an overwhelming story. He was a Hasmonian slave was a slave to the Kashman led a slave rebel killed out virtually the entire Kashai family and assumes the throne himself of the Gimar says that Hordos Herod built he or he refurbished the Biktosh in the most beautiful and spectacular way. Now granted he did that out of a profound sense of guilt because he wiped out virtually all Jewish leadership but that's just a detail. At the end of the day, Herod Hordos created such a magnificent structure in the second TA era. The Gimar says what was so beautiful about it. But my mind what I don't understand what was so unique. Obviously something which was beautiful. But to say you've never seen a beautiful building if you haven't seen the building of Herod. If you haven't seen the temple that Herod built or that Herod refurbished, what is that referring to? So the Gimra says as follows. So the gimar says interestingly enough it was marble. The outside was marble was it green and white marble or blue and white marble but it was this mixture of blue green white marble. So the something very interesting one row of marble would protrude and one row of marble was recessed. Why? Now presumably Herod did this so that the plaster you know whatever is holding the different layers of stones together or marbles together could make them so therefore one was recessed one extended so tells an incredible story Herod decided Herod said you know what it's not beautiful I want to make it even more beautiful I'm going to do I'm going to overlay the entire exterior of the temple with gold imagine this Herod wanted to make a beautiful structure that makes mish even more beautiful I'm going to outlay the outlay the entire external area with gold said no shafer leave it alone as it is because this is beautiful this is beautiful why and the says it's actually another says because when you look when you come down the come up the mountain look at the bash it looks like the waves of the sea now dear friends imagine this for just a moment you had blue marble, white marble, or white marble and green marble. And one row protruded, one row was recessed. It looked like the ocean. It looked like the waves of the ocean, the beautiful color scheme. And the recess protruding rows looked like the beautiful waves of the ocean. So the rabbi said to Herod, "Leave it alone. Gold is beautiful. The gold is magnificent. But it's even more beautiful for the walls of the Bikto for the exter external facade of the Bikto to look like to look like the waves of the ocean. Beautiful wanted the BTO to look like the water like the like the waves of the ocean says something so beautiful. The Reb quotes the Pik from where says this is in Pas 89 verse 10. The says so literally translated you rule over the pride of the sea. Meaning the sea is very powerful. The ocean is very powerful rules over the pride of the sea when it raises its waves. Now the way most of them explain that phrase means you humble them like the ocean right the waves gain momentum and the waves look so powerful and then what happens brings down the waves so as powerful as the sea is that asserts his superiority even over the greatest forces of says something so beautiful he says no there's a simple yes you rule over the sea but when the sea Sea raises its waves. You praise the sea. Why does praise the sea? Because if you ever stand at the ocean to love looking at the ocean, you look at the ocean and what do you see? You see the waves gain incredible momentum and then it gets bigger, right? You see it in the distance and it's gaining momentum bigger, bigger, bigger, bigger. And just when it looks like it can't get any bigger, what happens? It comes crashing down. That massive wave comes crashing down. And then what happens? You're standing by the beach and what occurs? A little bit of surf, a little bit of sudsy surf come and washes over your toes. That wave which was so big, that wave which was so powerful has now been reduced to innocuous surf to nothing. To nothing. But says, "What does the ocean do? As soon as the wave comes crashing down, what does it do? It pulls the water back out and it starts all over again. It pulls the water back out and it starts all over again. When the sea raises its waves, Hashem, you praise the ocean because the ocean has the coak to pick itself back up and start again. And then what'll happen? It gathers more momentum. Another beautiful wave comes and then it crashes down. And then what does the ocean do? It gathers back the water. It pulls it back out. And you can feel it. You stand. You stand at the shore. You stand at the surf. And then as soon as the wave crashes and comes to the shore, what happens? The current pulls it back out. And this process starts over and over and over and over again. And excuse me, when you see the waves love when you see the ocean raise its waves, you praise admires most in this universe is the ability to start again. is the ability to come crashing down and then pull yourself back up and start again. And you might crash down again. You might keep on crashing down, but that's okay. That's okay. The avod in life is to pull the pieces back together and to start again. This is the power of the water. So understand, Herod wanted to go ahead and coat the entire exterior of the basikdash in gold. Can you imagine any institution, a donor comes along and says, "I'd love to cover the entire facade of your building, of your sh, of your yeshiva, of your organization with gold." Who's going to say no to that? Who's going to say no to that? But yet the rabbi said, "No, thank you. Thank you, Herod. Thank you. We appreciate the offer, but we need the B should look like the ocean." Why? Because we need it to be that when holy Jews are making the pilgrimage to the holiest sight of the world, to the holiest sight, not just for humanity. We need them to see the ocean. We need them to see the waves because we need them to be reminded that the aod the most important thing in life is to know that even when you come crashing down, pull yourself back together and get back up. That is the avod of the Jew. That is the avod of the Yid. That is the most important thing in all our life. And the B mikdash which is the place where we came to for spiritual inspiration. The B mikdash was the place where we came to not just to serve. You could dive in anywhere. Why did you why did a Jew come to the B mikdash? Because the B mikdash taught you how to live. You looked at a coin and you said, "Ah, that's what a yid that's what a Jew looks like." And you looked at the building and you said, "Oh, that's what life looks like." Because life is an ocean. Life is a body of water. Life is waves. And the waves gather momentum like we all do in life. And then inevitably at times we come crashing down. And the whole avold of life is what do you do in the moment that your wave comes crashing down. Do you just flatline and remain as si surf by the shoreline or do you pull yourself back together and rise back up again? And it was so important that the Jew see the waves of the ocean in the walls of the B mikdash that the rabbis politely declined Herod's offer to coat the exterior walls with gold. And now we understand the centrality of water. The first thing the Torah ever mentions, there's nothing in the world, but what is there? There's water. There's water. Says, you know what it's all about? It's all about crashing down and it's accepting and understanding that everyone crashes every just like every wave crashes, every person crashes. But just like the waves have the innate to pull themselves back up and rise up again, we have to find that same kak as well. And when mankind refuses to fix its mistakes, how does go ahead and course correct? How does he restart the world? With water. almost telling mankind, guys, it's okay if you make mistakes. It's okay if you really make bad mistakes. It's okay if you make horrible mistakes. But I just ask one thing. When your personalistic wave comes crashing down, gather yourself back up and and start again. But when humanity as a whole crashes down and refuses to get back up says, "There's nothing for me to work with." So how does he start over? He starts over once again with the water. Everything comes back to the water. A person is tummy. Right? Tuma could occur from so many different circumstances. Sometimes circumstances visited upon us. But on a deeper level, what tuma represents is there's something lacking. There's some absence inside of me. So where do I need to go? I need to go to the water. I need to fully immerse myself. Remember again for an immersion to be effective, there can't be any there can't be any interposition between my body and the water. I need to envelop myself in that water to remind myself I need to get back up and start again. This is the message of the water. This is a centrality of the water. This was the message of the bameikash with its green and white and blue marble recessed in protruding rows of stone that Kazal did not want to recote with gold because we need the B mikdash to look like the waves of an ocean. And dear, this is the message for us. It's still the beginning of a new year. It's only precious Noah and there's so much ahead of us and there's and beautiful blessings and beautiful accomplishments but also crashes and also failures and also falling down and is telling us I started the world the first time with water. I started the world the second time with water. The ban mikdash looks like the waves. You could only become tar if you go into the water. Why? Because water is the essence of life. Not that just that water sustains biological life, but water sustains spiritual life as well. The secret of success lies in the water. The secret of success lies in the waves. And if we could find the same k of the ocean, then we could be so successful in life. The mightiest of waves comes crashing down but then finds the kohak to gather its disparit pieces and start again. And we have to find that same kohak in our lives as well. when we come crashing down to gather up the pieces, to gather up the shards, to gather up all of the different things that have scattered everywhere in life, gather them together and rise up again. Wishing everyone a good night of Shabas and a beautiful Shabas Kesh.