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Three Stories of the Ark: Repairing Every Level

The ark had three stories: Rashi says the upper for people, the middle for dwelling, the lower for refuse. Why should the Torah tell us how the ark was divided, and why is “you shall make it” said right beside the “third”? What could a floor of refuse teach?

Name a tzaddik: tap for who he wasTitle a sefer

Bereishis 6:16

צֹהַר תַּעֲשֶׂה לַתֵּבָה וְאֶל־אַמָּה תְּכַלֶנָּה מִלְמַעְלָה וּפֶתַח הַתֵּבָה בְּצִדָּהּ תָּשִׂים תַּחְתִּיִּם שְׁנִיִּם וּשְׁלִשִׁים תַּעֲשֶׂהָ

Make a light for the ark, and finish it to a cubit above; set the door of the ark in its side; lower, second and third stories you shall make it.

19Another reading, of the ark's light and its three stories. “Make a tzohar for the ark”: through the words, the teivos, of the Torah he learns, the tzaddik turns tzarah (צרה), trouble, over into tzohar (צהר), light, the same letters turned around. “Lower, second and third stories you shall make it” hints at three kinds of people: the completely righteous, the completely wicked, and those in between, the beinonim. “Lower” hints at the wicked, and this fits 's words, that the lowest story was “for refuse”:¹ the wicked busy themselves with repulsive things, refuse, which is to say transgressions. “Second” was “for dwelling”: these are the beinonim, who are busy with their dwelling in this world and its physical pleasures, though they commit no transgressions. “Third,” the upper story, was “for people”: this is the complete tzaddik, who walks constantly in the upper worlds. The complete tzaddik must repair them all through his holy deeds, and that is why ta'aseh, “you shall make it,” comes right after “third”: you, the tzaddik, shall make them and repair them.

בְּעִנְיָן אַחֵר. "צֹהַר תַּעֲשֶׂה לַתֵּיבָה", פֵּירוּשׁ שֶׁהַצַּדִּיק ע"י תֵּיבוֹת הַתּוֹרָה שֶׁלּוֹמֵד בָּהּ הוּא מְהַפֵּךְ הַ'צָּרָה' לְ'צֹהַר', "תַּחְתִּיִּם שְׁנִיִּים וּשְׁלִישִׁים תַּעֲשֶׂהָ", בְּדֶרֶךְ רֶמֶז לִשְׁלֹשָׁה מִינֵי בְּנֵי אָדָם, צַדִּיקִים גְּמוּרִים וּרְשָׁעִים גְּמוּרִים וּבֵינוֹנִים, "תַּחְתִּים", רֶמֶז לָרְשָׁעִים, וְזֶהוּ שֶׁכָּתַב רש"י ז"ל 'לְזֶבֶל', שֶׁהֵם עוֹסְקִים בִּדְבָרִים הַמְּאוּסִים לְזֶבֶל הֵמָּה הָעֲבֵירוֹת, "שְׁנִיִּים" לְמָדוֹר, הֵמָּה הַבֵּינוֹנִים הָעוֹסְקִים בְּמָדוֹר העוה"ז וְתַעֲנוּגִים הַגַּשְׁמִיִּים, אעפ"י שֶׁאֵין עוֹשִׂין עֲבֵירוֹת, "שְׁלִישִׁים" הָעֶלְיוֹנִים לָאָדָם, הוּא הַצַּדִּיק הַגָּמוּר הַהוֹלֵךְ תָּמִיד בְּעוֹלָמוֹת הָעֶלְיוֹנִים, וְהַצַּדִּיק גָּמוּר הוּא צָרִיךְ לְתַקֵּן כּוּלָּם בְּמַעֲשָׂיו הַקְּדוֹשִׁים, וְלָכֵן כָּתוּב אֵצֶל שְׁלִישִׁים "תַּעֲשֶׂה", פֵּירוּשׁ אַתָּה הַצַּדִּיק תַּעֲשֶׂה וּתְתַקְּנֵם.

Rashi on Bereishis 6:16: “three stories one above another: the upper for people, the middle for dwelling, the lower for refuse.” ↩

In shortThrough the words of Torah the tzaddik turns trouble into light; the ark's three stories are the wicked, the beinonim and the tzaddik, who must repair them all.

20The verse also hints at each person himself. In his youth he is busy with low and repulsive things, and in the middle of his years with the affairs of this world. He must see to it that he repairs it all, at least in the “third,” the end of his years, so that his soul will not be gathered with sinners.²

גַּם רֶמֶז אֶל הָאָדָם בְּעַצְמוֹ, שֶׁבְּנַעֲרוּתוֹ הוּא עוֹסֵק בִּדְבָרִים שְׁפָלִים וּמְאוּסִים, וְאֶמְצַע שָׁנָיו הוּא עוֹסֵק בְּעִנְיְנֵי עוה"ז, צָרִיךְ לִרְאוֹת לְתַקֵּן הַכֹּל עכ"פ בַּשְּׁלִישִׁים, הֵמָּה סוֹף שָׁנָיו, לְבַל יֵאָסֵף עִם חֲטָאִים נַפְשׁוֹ.

The phrase is from Tehillim 26:9: “Do not gather my soul with sinners.” ↩

In shortThe three stories are also the stages of one life: youth spent on low things, the middle years on worldly affairs, and the last years to repair it all.

The maamar as a whole

In another reading of the ark, R’ Elimelech starts from its light: through the words, the teivos, of the Torah he learns, the tzaddik turns tzarah, trouble, into tzohar, light. Then he reads Rashi’s three stories as three kinds of people: the wicked, busy with refuse, which is sin; the beinonim, busy with their dwelling in this world and its pleasures though they do not sin; and the complete tzaddik, who walks in the upper worlds. The tzaddik must repair them all, which is why “you shall make it” stands beside “third.” The same stories are the stages of one life: youth spent on low things, the middle years on worldly affairs, and the last years, in which a person must repair it all, so that his soul is not gathered with sinners.

Takeaway

The ark's three stories are three kinds of people and also three stages of a single life. Whatever our youth and middle years were spent on, R' Elimelech holds out the last third as the time to repair it all, and through the words of Torah even trouble can be turned into light.

Learn this in the merit of Rebbe Elimelech of Lizhensk. His yahrzeit and life ›

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