Walking with Hashem Versus Walking on One's Own

1“These are the generations of Noach... Noach walked with God” [Bereishis 6:9]. Rashi explains: “But of Avraham it says, ‘before Whom I walked’ [Bereishis 24:40]. Noach needed support to hold him up, but Avraham strengthened himself and walked in his righteousness on his own.” Rashi's words need explaining. Without strength, life, help and assistance from the Creator, a person cannot possibly conquer his yetzer, which entices him and leads him away from serving the Creator. As Chazal say (Sukkah 52b), “Were it not that the Holy One, blessed be He, helps him, he could not overcome it.”

2aOn a simple level, this can be explained with the words of the holy Ba'al Shem Tov on the verse “God of vengeance, Hashem; God of vengeance, appear!” (Tehillim 94:1). He explained it with a parable. A villager rebelled against the king: he struck and stoned a statue of the king. At once the king made him an official, and raised him from rank to rank until he became viceroy. The more good the king did him, the higher he raised him, and the more the man saw of the king's glory, his deeds and his ways, the more anguish this villager felt as he remembered that he had rebelled against such a great and merciful king. Instead of the punishment he deserved, the king kept doing him more good. And the king did this on purpose. Had he put him to death, the pain would have lasted a moment and no more. This way he suffers anguish all his days. The higher he rises, the more he adds anguish to anguish: how could my heart have dared to rebel against his honor? That is “God of vengeance, Hashem”: Hashem's vengeance comes through the attribute of mercy, not like that of a king of flesh and blood. For “God of vengeance, appear!”: the vengeance is that He shows the sinner His greatness. When he sees the King's greatness and remembers that he rebelled against this King, there is no greater anguish than this. So far the Ba'al Shem Tov.

2bThis is also “You were a forgiving God to them, and an avenger of their misdeeds” (Tehillim 99:8). Here the vengeance comes from the attribute of El, the Name of kindness, and nosei, “forgiving,” is read as “raising up”: Hashem lifts the sinner up high, and he sees Hashem's exaltedness. When he remembers against Whom he sinned, there is no greater anguish than this. He cries out to Hashem from the depths of his heart, returns to Hashem and is healed, and “he who confesses and forsakes his sins will be shown mercy” [Mishlei 28:13]. Now, there is a person who serves Hashem through fear, the fear of punishment. Of Noach it says, “Noach walked with Elokim,” the Name of judgment, and Onkelos renders it, “In the fear of Hashem Noach walked”: he served Hashem through fear. Therefore he still needed support to hold him up. In truth, fear never became his own essential trait. But Avraham Avinu's trait, as is known, was chessed, as Chazal say (Bereishis Rabbah 60), “All the chessed came rolling through his hands.” Chessed is love. Avraham served Hashem out of love and kindness. The Creator lifted him up high, and he saw Hashem's exaltedness. As a result he no longer needed support to keep him on the straight path. How could his heart ever dare to rebel against the Creator again? That is what Rashi means by “he strengthened himself in his righteousness”: in his own trait, the trait of kindness and love, and so he walked on his own.

3aPerhaps it can also be explained through the verse in Parshas Bereishis: “He named him Noach, saying, ‘This one will comfort us from our work and from the toil of our hands’” [Bereishis 5:29]. It is known that since the sin of Adam HaRishon, our whole aim and avodah has been to repair and work the ground, freeing it from the curse with which Hashem cursed it, as the holy Torah says, “to work it and to guard it” [Bereishis 2:15]. The repair is to lift the ground up, to draw life into it, and to bring into it true existence and the lasting holiness of Hashem's Name, as it was at the time of Creation. As Chazal say, “In the future, Eretz Yisrael will bring forth fine baked rolls” (Shabbos 30b). This is the inner meaning of the blessings over enjoyment. When a Jew says the proper blessing over something, as Chazal instituted, and says it with concentration of the heart, with deveikus, love and fear of Hashem's Name, he repairs the food and lifts it to the level of Heaven. He raises the holy sparks hidden in it to their lofty, holy source and root, and draws into it strength and life from Above, from the Source of life.

3bSo too someone who works the ground: by later bringing bikkurim, the first fruits, and keeping the mitzvos of leket, shichechah and pe'ah, the gifts left for the poor, he raises and elevates the labor he has done. That is the meaning of “and the work of our hands, establish it” [Tehillim 90:17]: may Hashem establish the work of our hands so that we repair through it, and there will no longer be sorrow in the work of our hands. Before Noach was born, there was no one who could repair and do the work of the ground. When Noach was born, they said, “This one will comfort us from our work and from the toil of our hands”: there will be no more sorrow in the work of our hands, because he will repair and elevate the working of the ground. That is what the Midrash means (brought by Rashi there) when it says that Noach made plowing tools for them. He taught them how to work the ground and elevate it, the service of Hashem through earthly things. And by keeping Shabbos properly and not desecrating it with the thirty-nine forbidden labors, a person repairs the thirty-nine curses with which the ground was cursed. Then he merits an abundance of tal, dew, through the thirty-nine (tal) lights, as the holy Arizal wrote.

3cNoach was a perfect tzaddik, as the holy Torah testified. Even so, he was not yet able to repair the earth and raise it to Heaven as Hashem wishes. Without the power of the Torah, this is extremely hard. As the holy Zohar says (Zohar I:202a), “Nothing breaks the yetzer hara except Torah.” Noach did learn Torah, but the light of the holy Torah did not yet shine in the world, because it was still within the two thousand years of tohu, of chaos. But in the days of Avraham Avinu, when the two thousand years of Torah began, as Chazal say (Avodah Zarah 9a), the light of the sun began to sparkle in the world, the rays of the splendor of the holy Torah. Through the strength, help and assistance of the Torah's holy light, Avraham merited to unite everyone and bring them under the wings of the Shechinah. He made the whole world Hashem's possession, as Chazal say (Sotah 10a–b)¹. He also had strength, help and assistance from the people who served Hashem, for “each man helps his fellow” [Yeshayahu 41:6].

3dThat is what Rashi means: “Noach needed support to hold him up.” Someone who walks in the dark needs help and support to hold him up, so that his foot does not slip on a stumbling stone, and he needs a guide, so that he does not go down crooked paths. But Avraham no longer needed support to hold him up, for he walked “in the light of the King's face, which is life” [Mishlei 16:15], in the light of the holy Torah. The Torah's light shines for every Jewish soul in every darkness: “A light shines in the darkness for the upright” [Tehillim 112:4]. As it says, “For a mitzvah is a lamp, and Torah is light” (Mishlei 6:23), and “In Your light we see light” [Tehillim 36:10]. The Torah leads and guides a person on the middle path, which is the straight path. For it is known that the Written Torah and the Oral Torah correspond to Malchus and Tiferes, and Tiferes is the middle line, the blend of love and fear. So Avraham no longer needed support from anyone to hold him up.

4aThis is what Rashi means by “he strengthened himself in his righteousness on his own.” Noach, though he was the tzaddik of his generation, was a tzaddik only for himself. He did not try to make even his enemies be at peace with him [cf. Mishlei 16:7], bringing their souls to wholeness in the fear of Hashem. As the holy Torah says in this parshah, “Noach, the man of the earth, began [vayachel]” [Bereishis 9:20], and Rashi explains “man of the earth” as “master of the earth.” Even though he was master of the earth, “vayachel Noach”: as Chazal say, he made himself chullin, profane. But Avraham Avinu, the first of the believers, was not satisfied with being whole himself in his ways and deeds. He brought even his enemies to be at peace with him. He imparted to the people of his generation faith in Hashem and in His oneness. He gave himself over out of his great love for Hashem, and made known throughout the world how precious His Name is: that He is One and Unique, brings into being all that exists, is the Cause of all causes and the Source of all being, and “there is no place empty of Him” [Tikkunei Zohar 57].

4bAs the holy Torah says, “and the souls they made in Charan” [Bereishis 12:5]: he brought converts under the wings of the Shechinah. Chazal learn from this verse (Sanhedrin 99b), “Whoever teaches Torah to his fellow's son [is considered by Scripture as if he had made him].” He taught them “the way in which they should walk and the deed they should do” [Shemos 18:20]. As Chazal say (Avodah Zarah 14b), “We have a tradition that Avraham Avinu's tractate on idolatry had four hundred chapters.” The four hundred chapters allude, as is known, to the four hundred worlds of longing for Hashem. He planted the service of Hashem in their hearts so deeply that he removed from them every physical desire for the vanities of this world. Those desires became despised and repulsive in their eyes, and they forgot them entirely. All their yearning and their heart's desire was only for “the courtyards of Hashem,” and “their heart and flesh sang out to the living God” [Tehillim 84:3], to the eternal world. As a result, Avraham had help and support from these souls to strengthen himself in his righteousness and to rise from level to level. That is Rashi's precise wording, “strengthened himself in his righteousness”: because “he performed Hashem's righteousness and His judgments with Israel” [Devarim 33:21], bringing them under the wings of the Shechinah. But Noach was alone in his generation.

5aThis explains the Shabbos zemer [Kol Mekadesh Shevi'i]: “Draw out Your kindness to those who know You”: to people who want to connect with You and with all of Israel. “Knowing” means connection, as in “And Adam knew [Chavah]” [Bereishis 4:1]. “O jealous and avenging God”: this speaks both of people who serve Hashem through kindness, the attribute of El, for whom, as explained above, the “vengeance” is that Hashem shows them His greatness and they see the greatness of the King; and of people who serve Hashem through fear, who are afraid that punishment may come upon them. That is “jealous and avenging.” For their good will to be lifted up, they set themselves aside within all of Israel, so that through the whole community their will may be fulfilled, just as holy Shabbos lifts up the six workdays. That is the next line, “Those who guard the seventh day, to uphold ‘Remember’ and ‘Guard.’” As is known, “Remember” and “Guard” are the six workdays together with holy Shabbos. The workdays and Shabbos are like body and soul. Just as the soul gives life to the whole body, holy Shabbos draws down life and imparts it to the six workdays. As it says, “On the seventh day He rested and was refreshed [vayinafash]” [Shemos 31:17]: Shabbos is the soul of the workdays.

5bThe holy Ohr HaChaim writes this [see above, Parshas Bereishis, maamar 2], and he explains in the same way the Midrash (Bereishis Rabbah 10:9) where Geniva and the Rabbis compare it to a king who made a wedding canopy, painted it and adorned it. What was it missing? A bride to enter it. Just as the bride brings the light of abundant joy to the seven days of feasting that follow, so does holy Shabbos. That is “Gladden them with a complete building”: a soul together with a body is a complete building. “With the light of Your face make them shine”: shine and give light to those whose hearts are darkened, with the light of Your face, which is the light of the Torah, so that they do not grow distant from You. Master of the world, save them, so that they do not grow distant from You! “With the light of Your face make them shine”: darkness is absence, and light is revelation. Through light, everything has true existence. “With the light of Your face make them shine,” and so instill in them existence and life.