Noach - Only in Israel

you're listening to the weekly paral podcast with Ari goldwag recorded with hashem's never ending assistance in rap Israel 2023 this week's para is par no and at the very beginning of our para the Torah tells us something there a very famous Rashi on that P and I'd like to explore a little bit the makur the source of Rashi which is the Mish and the continuation of the maish which is lesser known which is really quite beautiful and is a really important lesson for us that we can apply for ourselves says which means these are the events in a life or the The Offspring of Noah Noah was a righteous individual he went with God right and and it says he was righteous in his generation so Rashi tells us well when the Torah says that it was in his generation that he was righteous does that mean that specifically in his generation he was righteous but if he would have been in the later generation he would have been less righteous or would he have been greater if he had lived in a different generation so Rashi tells us that there are two opinions and indeed in the Mish the two opinions are rabuda and Rabia one says that he was great in his times but if he would have been in the times of actually the say specifically and Moshe interesting if he would have been in the generation of Samuel or Moses he wouldn't have been considered such a great person in comparison to them another possibility is the other the other understanding that no he was a great person and if he would have lived around other great people he was all alone he was trying to gain spirituality by himself if he would have have had others around him who were great that he could learn from so Noah would also have been even greater than he was so that's the famous idea which in in and of itself is an important lesson that we have to make sure to surround ourselves with good people to learn from if we want to have spiritual accomplishments to be great to accomplish spiritually to come close to hm we need to be around people and we need to listen to people who aspire to Greatness or who have achieved greatness and learn from them how do we achieve greatness but I'd like to share with you the the continuation of the M which is very very interesting so RAB Huda and RAB who were the ones who argued about would Noah have been greater or lesser in a different generation they also tell us a mush an analogy that helps us to understand the the different ways of looking at Noah and the comparison to people who are later in time specifically abud says that we can compare this to a to a sar as a prince or an officer he had two sons one who was one who was older one who was younger he said to the younger one or to the Lesser one walk with me I want you to come with me I'm going to guide you I'm going to I'm going to walk with you right it says that no went with hasem but he said to the son who was a greater son or the older son he said walk in front of me I want you to Lead Me says the officer the officer recognizes that in a certain way the greater son the older son which represents AR ainu Abraham is on a higher level because perhaps just simply because he has other people with whom to to learn from it's not exactly clear CU it's saying that Noah would be better if he would have had others to learn from but or perhaps we could just say simply AB was just a greater person than Noah or had greater accomplishments he had a better focus than Noah Noah focused on himself he was righteous and and of himself but he didn't pray for his generation or he wasn't able to influence them AB we see was able to influence others we'll discuss that soon you know at length but but abam was a greater person that's true no Noah could have learned from abam if he would have lived in his generation so Hashem or this in the mush the S the the officer says to his greater son he says walk in front of me in the same way in the same way Hashem says where is he says walk next to me he says to walk in front of me the P says in Genesis 17 ver1 walk in front of me and be whole we find that Hashem says to abah to Abraham walk in front of me we'll see more what that means to walk in front of Hashem what does that mean is Abu leading God what does that mean exactly we'll see he didn't have that same level he wasn't didn't have the same spiritual strength as aru perhaps because he lived in that generation in that time but AB was a greater person that's for sure everyone agrees to that so abam hasem told him to walk in front of me no hasem said Walk Beside Me says what is this comparable to it's comparable to the Beloved of a king that he was deep in the M he gives us a different analogy he says that Noah is like like somebody who is falling into the to the to the quicksand and the dirt the King was passing by sees his good friend falling into the quicksand the the the person his friend didn't realize that he was walking into quicksand so the king says to him before you fall into the mud before you fall into the quicksand come here walk over here in this path this is a safer path walk with me says the king that's like Hashem speaking to Noah saying you know you're going to fall on your own walk with me on the good path that's what the verse means when it says that he walked with noem I'm sorry Noah walked with Hashem what is Abraham comparable to very interesting such an interesting musall the the friend of the king looks out from the window and he sees his friend the king he sees he's walking in a dark path he doesn't have any light so the beloved one of the king quickly turns on the light in his room or shines a flashlight from where he is in the in his room from the window so that the the king will be able to see where he's going the king says thank you so much for your help but instead of shining your flashlight for me from the window of your house come down come out of your house and bring your flashlight to the to to outside and and light up in front of me so I can see much better from here this is what hem said to Abraham instead of lighting up for me we'll see see what this means what does it mean that Abraham was lighting up the path for Hashem as it were well Hashem can't see hasem is walking on a dark path he can't see but what it means is that Abraham was being marar AB was involved in kiru he was bringing Jews closer to yish kite to yish kite he was bringing Jews closer to to God to spirituality right he was the first he was the first Jew he was the beginning of the of the story of the Jewish people right so he was involved in shining the light of God into the world right and he was involved in as it were giving God a place to walk in this world because when we speak of spiritual ideas when we learn Torah when we look for hashem's will we look for God's Ron in this world what it is that he wants us to do so we are shining a light we're giving God a place to be as it were in this world we're shining a light for Hashem and that's what Abraham did but Abraham did it from the side he did it from a window what does that mean he wasn't yet in Earth Israel in the land of Israel he was doing kiru so to speak in he was bringing people close to God outside of Israel and while that's a very nice thing while it's a beautiful thing but hasem says says I don't want you to do I don't want you to shine my light the spiritual light from the window from the side I want you to come here where I am right as thefor explain God as it were is most present his eye is most present there's the most in Israel so if you want to teach people about God and you want to have a you want to give them a spiritual life you want to give them spiritual tools to access me do it in the place that I'm going to be able to walk the most Hashem says come out of the the side room come out of shining the light through the window and step in front of me bring that light right in front of me which is in where do we see we have other other places where we see this as well but where do we see says the medish that that the land of Israel is called in front of Hashem Hashem wants abam to walk in front of him it means he wants him to shine the light of God in the land of Israel where do we see that because when yobu gave yos when Jacob gave Joseph the blessing so he prefaced the blessing and spoke about the God that walked that my parents Abraham and Abraham and Isaac they walked in front of Hashem and what is the end of the PK the PK refers to is so where were they lived in the land of Israel they lived in the land of Israel they performed formed y lived his entire life in the land of Israel but from the time he was 75 and he followed the directive of he lived in the land of Israel and from then on from then on he stayed in the land of Israel I'll point out we've been in Israel now the Jewish people has returned to the land of Israel as a Sovereign Nation for 75 years this is this is a great turning point in time we have reached the the time where Abu at the age of 75 returns to the land of Israel this is the time my friends be that as it may what do we see we see that there's something special about AR the land of Israel that is completely different from where Abraham was doing his job before and there's one more Point here and I'd like to to share it as well and I know we're speaking now we kind of we're we're in pares Noah and Noah is all about Noah and his experiences and it's all about the fact that he was saved he alone was saved but it's important to contrast him as we do at the very beginning of the par as Rashi tells us and as the mes does here at the very beginning of the par it's important to contrast him with with Abraham and understand that it's true he was saved but he alone was saved AB ainu was the one who was shining light out he was shining not just for himself he wasn't just alone Walking with God alone as Noah was but Abu Abraham who the foundation of the Jewish people who is who established the the genetic makeup the DNA of who the Jewish people is we are a light unto the Nations we have a great AR we have a great responsibility to shine our light out to show the world what does it look like to serve God what does it look like to come close to God and where do we do it from where do we do it from we do it from AR Israel from the land of Israel we'll speak about that more in a moment but let's see the final point in the in explaining what does it mean that Hashem walks in that Abraham is to walk in front of God so one explanation is as we've said that it means to come into Israel to do kiru to to bring people closer spiritually to God in the land of Israel but here's another point of what it means to walk in front of God and again this is in contrast to Noah did not walk in front of God but walked beside God what is the what is the elevated Advantage what is what is what is it that defines Abu Abraham as opposed to Noah what does it mean that he walks in front of God it's like a a Shepherd a Shepherd has his whole flock walking in front of him the shepherd is observing the entire flock from behind so according to when Hashem says to I want you to walk in front of me what he means to say is I'm going to have special I'm going to have special Divine Providence that I'm going to place upon you I'm going to give to you you're going to walk in front of me I'm always going to be behind you I'm always going to be watching you and this is beautiful it has to do with sorry I don't remember the P by heart right now I'm losing it the the eyes of hem are constantly on the land of Israel from the beginning of the year to the end of the year Hashem was expressing that in in his statement to to go to Israel to go to the land of Israel and to walk in front of him I will always look over you I will always watch over you says a bigger he says an amazing thing it's like a prince you have a prince and you have the elders the the great advisers of the king or the Great uh Bodyguards of the king they're walking in front of the prince and they are making sure that the prince is protected more than that says the a the the the elders who go in front of the prince not everybody recognizes the prince right in those days in olden times they didn't have uh newspapers they didn't have pictures and nobody knew what the prince looked like so the elders the the great wise people the wise men of the king perhaps they were they went out amongst the in the Kingdom they were more well known they would go in front of the prince and they would announce the prince is coming the prince is coming in the same way the is andov they in conscious to Noah who was unable to do this didn't announce in the world he didn't bring others close to God AB is and yov walked in front of Hashem this means that they announced that the that the prince that the king is coming here comes the king all stand for the king is understanding that Hashem is the the shepherd watching over his sheep so the p is really saying that we need God's honor we need God to help us according to Lish it comes out that God needs us that God needs isob God needs the Jewish people to shine his light into the world and I would say clearly both of these points are true both of these points are true that we need Hashem to watch over us and God needs us to shine his light into the world so it's a tremendous a tremendous responsibility that each and every one of us has to to be a representative of God in the world to walk in front of Hashem to to to bring God's light into the world to announce the king to the world but it's also what comes alongside it is that if that who a person chooses to be then the person also has a special protection has a special Divine Providence that he places upon that individual because of the fact that this person is shining God's light into the world and now I'd like to bring it back to the point of Isel because this is obviously why I'm I'm you know this is what I talk about this is my this is what I see in the Mish the Mish is telling us that if you want to know what it looks like clearly if you want to know what it looks like to to serve Hashem there's two ways first is Noah's way and AR's way Noah is concerned spiritually only about himself or or possibly we could say you know we can be done that no didn't have the spiritual fortitude or power that Anu had he was only able to fortify himself spiritually but he wasn't able to teach it to others he wasn't successful that wasn't his talent Abraham has a much greater talent and his talent is to share with others to spread the light everywhere that's Point number one and point number two is that where does Hashem want us to be where is the cure of most effective most important where do we see that his Divine Providence is most clearly demonstrated it's in the land of Israel it's here in Israel that we're most effective our Mitzvah are most powerful the the our sages tell us whoever lives outside of Israel it's considered as if they don't have a they don't have a god what does that mean doesn't mean forbid they don't believe in God it means that our mitzah have a different efficacy they take effect in a different way in outside of Israel as opposed to inside of Israel when we are in our land our mits are more powerful our our our spiritual strivings are more effective Hashem wants not to do kiru to to turn people on to him to connect the the people in Aram to to God he wants him to come to Israel to to affect to affect the people in Israel to do what's right and of course to the to the extent that there is a spiritual power that we accomplish in Israel unlike outside of Israel the the counterforce for that is going to be greater as well that's why it's in Israel that we see today the greatest spiritual battle which is a battle over y a battle over the land itself because it has to do with it's a spiritual battle for the Arabs are are desperately trying to stop the Jewish people from returning to our land from returning to the Holy Mountain of Hashem from rebuilding our BAS mikash desperately they don't want us to take back our power our spiritual power our spiritual relationship with Hashem but this is the place to do it and this is the place that we have to do it this is the place that we need to return to Hashem says to it's not enough to do MIT and to be spiritual in outside of the land of Israel it's not enough to be there you need to come here to the land of Israel you need to come to the place where it's the most effective you can't be spiritually effective until you're you're doing the T and the Mitzvah the Commandments are being fulfilled in the land in the land of Israel that's what it means walk in front of me and we find often refers to not just Isel but even more so to Jerusalem to the harab to to mikdash the Jewish people what what are we what are we going for what's our where's our future our future is in Israel where what is our future our future is in y what is our future our future isik rebuilding the bik I had to tell you that I saw right now I'm learning and there's a whole discussion about a certain takana a certain G that has to do with reminding of reminding us of B mikdash the way it was in the temple but not just that we have a certain Tak that we do because when the B will be rebuilt if it's it's built under a certain circumstance it will create a certain issue and we we make a certain because of that I'm not going to get into the details of it it's it's a little bit complicated but rash writes rash writes that the in in this in this context rash writes that even though Rashi says that the BD is going to come down from heaven that's only in the hav of the G the G in the Mas holds that indeed like the rambam says the Jewish people we will build the bik it's not going to come down from heaven and there are many there are many other sources for the fact that we're supposed to build it says we are supposed to build the temple that's where we're headed that's where we are supposed to be headed that's where Hashem is leading us it's not enough to be alone floating out in the in the world surrounded by the nations of the world or by this Waters the Waters of Destruction like a Noah the ter is telling us the magish is telling us we have to come back to Isel we have to have the right Focus we have to be focused on in we're supposed to rejoice front of hem that's the B that's the temple that's where we're headed and it's so important to know what is our Focus what is our goal what is our long-term goal that hey it might be even soon it might be so soon sooner than we even imagine I want to bless you and I ask you to bless me sh should help us to recognize the incredible power the incredible importance of not keeping the spirituality to ourselves like a Noah but rather to share it with others to be a light to others should help us to understand that the light is not as powerful outside of Israel as it is inside of Israel should help us to recognize that where are we headed we're headed to Israel we're headed to Y we're headed to thank you so much for listening have a wonderful shabas this podcast was made possible through the gracious donations of listeners like you for more podcasts like this please visit www.ar gold wag.com or search on iTunes Ari goldwag