Noach's Fear, Avraham's Love, and Trust

1a“These are the generations of Noach... in his generations” [Bereishis 6:9]. Rashi explains: some of our Rabbis expound it to his praise, and some to his discredit: in his own generation he was a tzaddik, but had he lived in the generation of Avraham Avinu, he would not have been considered anything. The difficulties are well known: why would the Torah speak disparagingly of such a tzaddik? [We have already discussed this above.] Perhaps we can add an explanation based on Onkelos, who renders “Noach walked with God” as “In the fear of Hashem Noach walked.” Noach feared Hashem with a wholehearted fear, the higher fear, the awe of Hashem Himself. This fits Rashi's words in Parshas Shoftim on the verse “You shall be wholehearted [tamim] with Hashem your God” [Devarim 18:13]: “Do not inquire into the future.” That is, do not be afraid out of dread of what your sins will bring, of punishment. Such fear is fear of the future, and it is called the lower fear. But pure fear, the higher fear, is fear of the very essence of Hashem's Name, “because He is great and rules over all worlds” [Zohar, Introduction 11b], surrounding all worlds and filling all worlds. Such fear is fear of the present, and it stands before a person's eyes always.

1bOf Noach it says, “a righteous man, tamim”: he did not inquire into the future, which is the lower fear. He had only the pure fear of Hashem, the awe of His exaltedness, and he imparted fear of Heaven to his generation. But Avraham Avinu took hold of the attribute of love. He loved Hashem with a great and fierce love, a love without end, as the verse testifies about him: “Avraham, who loves Me” (Yeshayahu 41:8). In his great kindness and love for Hashem, he gave his life and all he had to teach the people of his generation the way of Hashem with wisdom and moral guidance. As it says, “For I have known him, so that he will command his children and his household after him” [Bereishis 18:19]. He made the glory of Hashem's Name known in the world, and the abundance of His goodness and kindness, that His good way is only to do good to His creatures. He did this to bring them under the wings of the Shechinah, in the sense of “and His right hand embraces me” [Shir HaShirim 2:6], a holy drawing near. As [the holy Zohar] says, “Fortunate is the one whom the King draws near with His right hand.”

1cThis is the meaning of the verse (Tehillim 118:15–16): “The sound of joyous song and salvation is in the tents of the righteous: Hashem's right hand does valiantly. Hashem's right hand is exalted; Hashem's right hand does valiantly.” The main sound of gladness, song and salvation in the tents of the righteous comes from “Hashem's right hand does valiantly,” and as is known, the right hand stands for kindness and love. That is, it comes from Hashem's kindness being revealed and made known in the world, and the “great love” and “eternal love” with which Hashem our God has loved us. In His great compassion He draws us near to His service, as in “and His right hand embraces me.” That is what Rashi means: “had he lived in the generation of Avraham Avinu, he would not have been considered anything.” His fear would not have counted for anything then, for that generation stood on a far higher level, since Avraham taught them the way of love of Hashem, at the higher level, and brought them under the wings of the Shechinah.

2The Midrash Rabbah (cf. Bereishis Rabbah 32)¹ says on “Come into the Ark” [Bereishis 7:1]: “‘You will destroy the speakers of falsehood’ [Tehillim 5:7]: they were falsehood, and their speech was falsehood. ‘But I’: as they did, so I did. Only, I trusted in Your kindness, for You took pity on me and said, ‘Come into the Ark.’” This Midrash needs explaining [see above, maamar 3].

3aPerhaps we can add an explanation based on Chazal's saying (Niddah 30b): “Even if the whole world tells you that you are a tzaddik, be in your own eyes like a wicked man.” But what is a person to do if Hashem tells him he is a tzaddik, as Hashem told Noach, “For it is you I have seen righteous before Me” [Bereishis 7:1]? In his great submission and humble righteousness, Noach thought that what Hashem told him, “It is you I have seen righteous before Me,” applied only “before Me.” This is as the Rebbe, R' Baruch of Mezhibuzh, zt"l, explained the verse “Yet a little while, and there is no wicked one; you will contemplate his place, and he is not” (Tehillim 37:10). Even if a soul sins, there is still a small place in the person that no wickedness touches. It is the innermost point in the depths of the heart, clean and free of every stain and blemish. David HaMelech was pleading: Master of the world, “contemplate his place,” that place, and you will see that “he is not”: there is no wickedness, sin or iniquity there. So far his words.

3bThe word hisbonanta, “you will contemplate,” comes from binah, understanding, and binah is the source of teshuvah, as in “his heart will understand, and he will return” [Yeshayahu 6:10]. This point revives, restores and lifts up the Jewish soul, and from it are “the sources of life” [Mishlei 4:23]. The sparks and embers of the “flame of God” [Shir HaShirim 8:6] have not yet gone out. When a person blows on them, they catch fire, until the blaze bursts into flame and his heart and soul burn for Hashem. So Noach thought that Hashem considered him a tzaddik because, in His great mercy, He sees into the innermost part of his heart, as in “I, Hashem, search the heart and test the kidneys” (Yirmiyahu 17:10). There, where “no thought can grasp Him at all” [Tikkunei Zohar], there is only “I, Hashem,” and “evil does not dwell with You” [Tehillim 5:5]: sin does not touch it there. That is why Hashem told him, “It is you I have seen righteous before Me,” precisely “before Me.” “But I myself,” Noach thought, “truly know how low I am. This point has not yet done anything in me. It has not yet woken my soul from its sleep, much less set my soul on fire for the service of Hashem.”

3cThat is what the Midrash means: “But I: as they did, so I did.” From my own side I have nothing at all. “Only, I trusted in Your kindness.” I trust in “Hashem's kindnesses, for they have not ended” [Eichah 3:22]; “I will trust and not be afraid” [Yeshayahu 12:2], for “whoever trusts in Hashem, kindness surrounds him” [Tehillim 32:10]. As Chazal say, “Even a wicked man who trusts in Hashem, kindness surrounds him” (Vayikra Rabbah 16; Eichah Rabbah 4). And that is what Hashem meant by “It is you I have seen righteous,” as in the verse “The righteous one lives by his faith” (Chavakuk 2:4). Noach believed in the Life of all worlds and in His immense kindness, and so he trusted in Hashem and in His salvation with strong, firm trust. A person cannot have bitachon before he has emunah, nor can his trust endure without it, because a person trusts only someone he believes is able to fulfill his request, as the Ramban writes in Sefer HaEmunah VehaBitachon (chapter 1). Bitachon is a branch of emunah, and emunah is the root, and there can be no branch without a root. In Noach, emunah and bitachon were bound together, and “Hashem guards the faithful” [Tehillim 31:24].

3dBut Noach's generation “were falsehood, and their speech was falsehood.” With their lying tongues they distanced themselves from the Creator, the source of truth, as it says, “Hashem God is truth” (Yirmiyahu 10:10). They imagined they were righteous and upright in their deeds, as though they had “done Hashem's righteousness” [cf. Devarim 33:21]. So they trusted in their own deeds and not in Hashem and His salvation. That is “the earth was corrupt before God [lifnei ha'Elokim]” [Bereishis 6:11]: it was corrupt in the Name of trust, made of the letters that come before those of Elokim, as we wrote at length above (maamar 3). But of Noach it says, “Noach walked with God”: he sweetened the Name Elokim through the letters that come before it. That is, Noach walked in trust in Hashem, and so he sweetened all the harsh judgments. From him sprang “a name and a remnant” on the earth [cf. Shmuel II 14:7], and the strength of Israel endures forever. For “whoever trusts in Hashem, kindness surrounds him”: kindness encircles him on every side, so that no evil can rule over him, Heaven forbid.

4aBitachon is a source of strength for the Jewish soul, as the verse says, “Whoever trusts in Hashem will be kept safe” (Mishlei 29:25). It is a healing remedy for the Jewish soul. A person may know that “from the sole of his foot to his head there is nothing sound in him” [Yeshayahu 1:6], and that he is soiled and filthy with every kind of filth. How can he come “to the King's gate in sackcloth” [cf. Esther 4:2]? Even so, he should strengthen himself and trust in our Father in Heaven, Who lives and endures, for “His greatness is unsearchable” [Tehillim 145:3]. Then it will be counted before Hashem as if he had fulfilled the mitzvah with complete understanding and with all its proper intentions, and as if he had made all the unifications above as they should be made. That is “Trust in Hashem and do good” (Tehillim 37:3). “Good” is the Name of da'as, understanding, whose numerical value equals tov, “good,” as is known. That is: someone who trusts in Hashem, and keeps and does the mitzvos because they are the Creator's decree, even though he does not know their meaning, is considered as if he had done the mitzvah with great understanding and made all the unifications as they should be made.

4bThis is “to declare Your kindness in the morning, and Your faithfulness in the nights” (Tehillim 92:3). Through his strong faith in a time of darkness, when the light of understanding has grown dark for him and he “has no brightness” [Yeshayahu 50:10], so that from his own side he has nothing at all, but he believes with complete, wholehearted faith and trusts in Hashem and His salvation with strong, firm trust, he merits “to declare Your kindness in the morning.” He draws down the light of understanding, his eyes are opened to see, and light shines “like the light of morning” [Shmuel II 23:4]. The deeper a person is in the darkness of understanding and the depths of the earth, the more he needs to strengthen himself with complete faith. As the verse says (Tehillim 37:3), “Dwell in the land and cherish faithfulness [re'eh emunah].” Whoever dwells more in the land, sunk in earthliness, needs all the more to join and cleave to emunah. “Let my soul be like dust to all; open my heart to Your Torah.” Through this he draws down all ten sefiros², for emunah is a drawing down, as in “he was a nurturer [omen]” [Esther 2:7], as is known.

5From this every person should see that his counsel is emunah, to bring healing and cure to his downcast spirit and broken heart. If he takes to heart how very low he stands, let him believe and trust in Hashem's abundant kindness and in our Father in Heaven, Who lives and endures. Then he will merit complete teshuvah, and will sweeten all the harsh judgments resting on him into mercy and kindness.