Rabbi Binyamin Yuhanan Parshat Noach 2

no hope the ground is forever cursed if the physical world became blemished therefore in the future the physical world will have to be destroyed originally God created the physical universe and he put Adam in there and Adam was supposed to live forever within the physical world now not anymore it received the curse and now we see h received the curse and we'll see what happens with h later throughout history so we have to be careful not to receive a curse God forbid later later in the Torah there are some transgressions some of that also carry a curse like in U in later when the Jewish people will come to the Mount aval and mount um gim it says that they will have to pronounce a curse on anyone who transgresses certain laws in the Torah and therefore it's also very severe to keep in mind that Adam and K sinned but they were not cursed there was a consequence given to them Yakov was upset at his children but he didn't curse C them he cursed their anger something to work on whereas we have a few instances in the Torah where someone actually got cursed and here it's h and we look at as as bad as we feel for some people and no one is beyond um hope even though a curse was received but individuals from that um race they can still work on them on themselves like Abraham had a servant a slave his name was Eleazar and Eleazar was from from Canan he came from a cursed Nation however he worked on himself he subdued his evil inclination he became the servant of Abraham a righteous servant of Abraham a devoted and responsible servant of Abraham and he learned everything he could from Abraham so much so that he became himself a righteous man and he became so great that he went to gedan Alive which means that even if someone is descendant of H not everything is lost an individual always has hope and an opportunity to improve it's only as a whole nation they cannot now what we learn from this para is that evil comes from people not working on their character when people instead of looking up and saying how can I become more Godlike and divine and emulate God they look down and say what can I do like an animal let me eat more let me mate more more and let me kill more then they bring evil into the world and the lesson for us is that Hashem created the world perfect and it's in our hands to keep it that way and it's in our hands to keep our our El or make ourselves perfect I heard a a wonderful point I don't remember from whom but he said that according to most commentators K and heav were born in gedan on Friday so okay we know that so what we know that Hashem created the world in six days and he worked until the last moment of Friday so much so that to an outside Observer it would look like Hashem worked on Shabbat also so the Torah tells us no he worked until Shabbat came exactly exactly at that moment he stopped to a human being who doesn't have precise instruments to know exactly the switch between one day and another it seems like Hashem bumped into Shabbat working but really he didn't so what's so special about it it means that Friday was a day of creation until the very end of Friday and that means that part of creation was the birth of K and Heaven that means when Adam and undertook the job of creating children they were participating in the creation of the world and that means part of of God's plan for the creation of the world was that people should also participate in God's plan of creating the world it's not like we come and everything's ready and we just use it no when we are born Hashem says I left part of the creation unfinished for you every human being when they are born has to realize that I am born into an unfinished world I have to fix the environment around me I have to fix my family my home and I have to fix myself first and foremost I have to fix my character and I will be participating together with God in creation so something that we need to remember every day what will I do today to make myself better how will I work on my character and it would be a good idea to write down all the character traits that operate within a human being because if you ask an unlearned unthinking person are you good he'll say of course I'm good and how do they Define good I don't kill and I don't steal stealing is questionable killing sometimes is also questionable our sages say for example if you embarrass someone it's like killing him if you cause Financial damage to someone it's like killing because a poor person is considered dead and uh as well as other forms of killing like if you waste someone's time you took away part of their life life if you cause someone to work more and harder whereas you could have helped them and made them finish the same job faster or by doing damage now they have to fix and they spend their their life that's a part of killing by be giving bad advice so there are many forms of killing when not even mentioning abortion or euthanasia so it's not so simple for a person to say I'm good because I don't kill and I don't steal I would say just say most people steal and according to our explanations most people kill as well but that's just two things but how many other things that such a person is not even aware of so we have to open books and copy all the character traits that operate within a human being so that we can at least pay attention to them be aware that yes I have to work on my patience I have to work on my kindness I have to work on my temper on my anger jealousy there are many more than what I mentioned and each one requires years to work on as uh the famous quotation from the the I think it was from Rabbi um Isel salant one of the uh students of the V the he said it's easier to learn the entire um talud it may have been a different person I'm not sure the quotation is cor right but the statement is true it's easier to learn the entire talmud which takes seven and a half years if you do it superficially and if you do it in depth it takes a lifetime it's easier to learn the entire talmud in depth than to change one character trait both in the time that it takes and in the mental and emotional effort that you have to put in to change your character to improve your character and we see that's what the world depends on life on Earth depends on how we change our character as we speak people are hurting each other people are killing each other people are shooting and throwing rockets at others why because of wickedness of their character if they had a better character they would figure out how to achieve the same Purpose with better means more peaceful means it's only because of Gava of arrogance because of jealousy because of uh physical desires because of anger because of uh greediness that is why all the wars happen that is why we have crime even a religious War a Jihad that the Muslims are waging against the entire world is a consequence of their imperfections of character of their blemishes in their character if they would be righteous and they would think every step they make to be gentle to be patient to be good they would find a way like we the Jewish people find a way to be a light to the world to educate people to be patient with them and say come I'll teach you about one God indivisible I will teach you how to serve him instead they come and they say I want to show you who is the boss listen to me or I'll kill you they're not serving God they're serving themselves they're serving their arrogance they're serving their anger they're serving their lust and greed and uh at the end of the world we we'll see that's what our sages say the three major religions are going to come and they're going to do a battle they're going to say let's see who is the true Messenger of God in this world and uh we expect to be victorious why and that is for two reasons because God chose us and because we the Jewish people from Abraham until today are working on our character we are working on ourselves to be better so much so that we believe that I am my character not my mind the mind is flying around it's easy to change one moment you think like this you learn more you think differently the character is what I really am and the character controls the mind if you are kind you will have kind thoughts if you're if you are patient you're going to have different mindset than an angry person an arrogant person impatient person so what controls my decisions my character so when I work on my character I'm actually improving myself not on this planet but I'm improving myself forever and ever what's going to remain after me is not only my thoughts and what I learned but my character is going to stay with me so we better get to it and we better take it seriously and start working on ourselves our character our Essence which will stay with us forever that's an investment the best investment is the investment into yourself like it says at the beginning of this par these are the children of Noah Noah who is The Offspring of Noah Noah himself which means the child The Offspring the product of Noah what did Noah produce in his lifetime not only he saved the entire Humanity not not only he had three sons and many grandsons thousands of descendants millions and billions by now but Noah number one produced himself and that's what we have to do as um the the midash says that we don't have to worry about our children because if they are righteous God will take care of them and if they are wicked then why should I worry about them this is a very easy solution for someone who worries a lot about his children how will they er finish college who will pay for it how will they buy a house can I afford to have another child don't worry about it that's not your concern you just make sure they go on the right path and if they're righteous God will take care of them so what should I worry about I I should worry about myself I have to concentrate on myself not worry about my children and therefore dedicate my life for them no that's called killing yourself for someone who doesn't need it they can take care of themselves so we as parents current or future parents we have to invest in ourselves so that the future Generations will say he was a righteous man not because he had good children but because he himself was good it's important to have good children but if you are good it's almost guaranteed that your children are going to be good why because you'll treat them properly you will be gentle with them respectful towards them you will be a good example for them you will be a role model and they will respect you and follow in your footsteps so by becoming a better human being we are saving the world and we are earning for ourselves not only a good name in this world but we are earning for ourselves eternity because God gave us the soul and the body but in an unfinished State and we have to work on ourselves and by working on our character we actually improving our soul our spiritual Essence is becoming better so the whole flood was like erasing the the the page that many mistakes were made on it you erase it and you write fresh God erased from the earth people and animals Birds plants and insects only the select few were saved in the ark and afterwards they repopulated the world the world we look now is almost the same like the beginning of the para says K ham the whole world is filled with corruption robbery evil and that's the world we are living in now so many societies tried to improve the world and they were not successful and the answer is simple because they try to improve the world when you work on the outside but the core is rotten everything will crumble it's only the Jewish people we are working on our Essence from the young age we teach our children about Good character traits not about how to win a National Scholastic Championship to get the highest score on the math Regent or sat those things are good but they're secondary they are external what we teach our children is what do you do if your animal gour another animal Don't Run Away you have to pay what if you find a lost object don't pocket it and don't just ignore it you have to look for the owner who lost it from young age we teach our children how to be a good human being and that is why we are Eternal so going to the towards the end of this parti we mentioned the three different Natures of um Shem ham and yeed and what ended up with them was that Shem became the progenitor of the the spiritual um culture of humanity Yeet became the progenitor of um Arts and Sciences and ham became the progenitor of other nations that are more into physicality and the the three religions that are monotheistic came from Shem semites the the Jewish people are seites the isites the Muslims are seites and the Christians are seites because they all came from Shem as we explained Shem means focusing on the essence of something and all these people were drawn towards godliness what is it all about why are we alive and they were LED inspired to recognize one God and really these three religions are supposed to work together to achieve the end but unfortunately from their birth from the birth of Christianity it it um became a adversary to the Jewish people and from the birth of Islam it became an adversary to the Jewish people and instead of working hand in hand making the world a better place helping each individual to find their Essence and come close to God they're fighting against each other as as they do right now as we speak may we see the end of this fight and I would say just say that there will come an end to this fight may mashia come May the final realization of God and uh actualization of our own potential come about quickly in our days May the Whole World Unite in the service of God as we say in our prayers on rash yum kipur and uh may we witness peace and uh happiness in in the world thank you for joining sh shabat Shalom May there be peace for the Jewish people and peace in the world thank you have a good night