Parshat Noach
By: Rabbi Moshe Goodman, Kollel Ohr Shlomo, Hebron
בס”ד
לשכנו תדרשו
Inviting the Holy Presence in Our Holy Land
Noah was a Righteous Man
“Blessed are You Hashem the Support and Trust of the righteous.”
Just as Hashem supports the righteous we are also commanded to support/involve ourselves with the righteous, as an act of cleaving to the righteous, which is an act of cleaving to the Holy Presence, as the Torah commands, “to Him you shall cleave,” interpreted by our Sages to mean that one should cleave to the Godly righteous. Also, just as Hashem is the Trust of the righteous we are also meant to have trust and faith in the righteous us the messengers of God. Another word for trust “mivtach”, is “tikva”. As we illustrated in our Yom Kippur issue, the Ramhal explains that the word tikva is connected to the word “kav,” a Divine Line emanating from Above to which one cleaves and draws one’s confidence. In regard to the righteous, there is an additional meaning to this “Divine Line of Confidence.” Although our trust and confidence are ultimately in God, the truly righteous are capable of strengthening this connection in a very real way, as continuing the Divine Line, through their Godly ways, to our world and thereby sustaining our world – “a righteous (person) is the foundation of the world.”
As such we may more deeply understand one of our Sages’ interpretations on the Torah’s description of Noach’s “righteousness in his generation” as referring to Noah’s righteous level in comparison to his generation. This teaching directs us to remember that even though there may be a spiritual leader in our generation that would be comparatively “dwarfed” in a different generation, that does not mean that we should not seek to cleave to such a righteous person in our generation, as this person continues the “Divine Line” into our generation and lives in a an imminent way that we may “grasp” and experience in our lives. Nevertheless, we should remember that connection to the righteous is not something solely linked to the living righteous, and we can still connect, in certain ways, to the utmost righteous throughout the ages. Of course, one of the most important ways of doing this is by cleaving to the prototypes of all the righteous, our righteous Patriarchs and Matriarchs, by cleaving to Hebron, for this City is our Divine Line to the “Eternal Righteous One” Who has gracefully provided us righteous beings since antiquity, instilling us with a constant “Line” of hope and confidence everlasting.
Rabbi Aharon Hayim was born in Hebron in 5390 (1630). He wrote a sefer called “Korban Aharon, and he also served as a judge in Hebron’s beit din. He was sent as an emissary on behalf of Hebron in the years between 5435-5443 (1675-83).
________________________________________________________________
Real Stories from the Holy Land #284
“One night I dreamt that a sefer that I lost about seven months ago was returned to me. That very same day I was contacted that this sefer was found.” Y.G
Comments, questions, and/or stories, email [email protected]