In His Generations: Lofty Heart, Humble Self

1“These are the generations of Noach. Noach was a righteous man, perfect in his generations” [Bereishis 6:9]. Rashi explains: some of our Rabbis expound it to his credit: had he lived in a generation of tzaddikim, he would have been all the more righteous. Others expound it to his discredit: relative to his generation he was righteous, but had he lived in the generation of Avraham, he would not have been considered anything at all. The difficulties are well known. Why would the Torah speak disparagingly of such a tzaddik?

2aMy father and teacher, R' Yechiel of Alexander, zt"l, explained this in his holiness, building on the holy words of the great Rebbe, R' Simcha Bunim of Peshischa, zt"l. Every Jew, Rebbe Bunim taught, must have two modes. The first is what Chazal say (Sanhedrin 37a): “A person is obligated to say, ‘For my sake the world was created.’” The second is the trait of Avraham Avinu: “I am but dust and ashes” [Bereishis 18:27]. When the yetzer hara incites a person to be proud of his good deeds, he must then remember “I am but dust and ashes,” and count all his good deeds as nothing. The other mode, “For my sake the world was created,” is needed when he is close to despair, Heaven forbid, because he knows he is sunk deep in the kelipah, the realm of impurity, Heaven save us. The yetzer hara wants to bring him to sadness, Heaven forbid, and shows him how low he is: what are his Torah and his avodah worth? This is the yetzer hara's way. It saddens a person and brings him low so as to trap him in the net of sin, until he tells himself, “It is hopeless” [cf. Yirmiyahu 2:25]. It reminds him of his sins and his evil deeds and says, “How can you come to serve and pray to your Creator? How can you come to the king's gate in sackcloth [cf. Esther 4:2], and all the more, raise your head and speak before the Supreme King?” In the end he grows so bitter that he no longer believes Hashem will listen to his prayer.

2bThen he must strengthen himself with the holy words of Chazal and say, “For my sake the world was created.” That is: there is still within me “the portion of Yaakov” [cf. Devarim 32:9], a soul that came down from the Source of all life, from the infinite light that has no end and no limit. As long as this thread of life is still in me, it can sprout and revive me completely and make my end good. That is what David HaMelech said (Tehillim 118:13): “You pushed me hard to make me fall, but Hashem helped me.” The yetzer hara cannot topple someone who rejoices in hope of the Rock of his salvation with a single push. But someone who is crushed and sad, despairing without even knowing it, can be thrown down to the depths of the earth and into sadness by the slightest push. And once he has fallen, he lets himself be beaten. That is “You pushed me hard to make me fall”: the yetzer hara first saddens me and brings me low, and then it wants to push me into the pit of destruction. “But Hashem helped me,” in His mercy. In truth, by my corrupt deeds I am not worthy to stand before Him or to come near to holiness any more. Even so, I trust in Hashem and in His salvation, and in His great mercy, which seeks out ways to help His children, “that no one banished be cast away from Him” [Shmuel II 14:14], and that He will not let my foot slip [cf. Tehillim 121:3]. As long as my soul is within me, I am assured that He will still accept my prayer, and His kindness and truth will not abandon me.

2cThat is “For my sake the world was created”: I believe in Hashem's kindness, that He created the whole world for my sake. This is the meaning of the verse (Divrei HaYamim II 17:6), “His heart was lifted up in the ways of Hashem.” In truth, how could the heart of a man “formed from clay” [Iyov 33:6] be lifted up in pride over his deeds before Hashem? Even if he has afflicted himself and is busy with Torah and prayer, if he considers Hashem's greatness and exaltedness, and before Whom he has sinned, he will surely see that all this is not even a drop in the sea. So how could he grow proud and say, “For my sake the world was created”? But the verse says, “in the ways of Hashem.” It is true that this is not because of my lowly self. I trust only in the ways of Hashem, in His abundant mercy and kindness, which have no end and no limit. For “He desires kindness” [Michah 7:18] and “abundantly forgives” [Yeshayahu 55:7]. He will surely pity and have mercy even on someone as low, despised and “shunned by men” [Yeshayahu 53:3] as I am, to “bring my soul out of prison” [Tehillim 142:8]. As befits His great exaltedness, He “gives light to the earth and those who dwell on it with mercy,” and in His mercy He will light up even my dark and low places. “The world is built on kindness” [Tehillim 89:3], and He created it for my sake too. That is “his heart was lifted up in the ways of Hashem”: a person should have pride only in the ways of Hashem, as explained.

2dThis is also “Guard my soul, for I am a chassid” (Tehillim 86:2): telling myself “I am a chassid” is itself what guards my soul from listening to the yetzer's counsel, as explained. And this is “a righteous man, perfect in his generations”: Noach lifted his heart in the ways of Hashem and said, “For my sake the world was created.” But that was only his conduct in his generations, which were wicked. Had he lived in the generation of Avraham Avinu, among tzaddikim, he would surely have walked in the mode of “I am but dust and ashes,” and in his own eyes he would not have counted as anything at all. [Up to here, the holy words of my father and teacher, zt"l, explained more fully.]

3aIt is also possible to explain this with the holy words of the Rebbe of Lublin, zt"l, on the verse “Do not stray [lo sasuru] after your heart and after your eyes” [Bamidbar 15:39]. Lo sasuru, he said, is related to Chazal's term hattaras kesher, untying a knot. Even if you have stumbled, Heaven forbid, in these sins, immorality and heresy, do not untie your bond with Hashem, and do not abandon your avodah. Instead, do teshuvah, confess and regret with a strong heart, until you are crushed, and knock on the doors of mercy. Then the name “tzaddik” will not be lost from such a person, since he has done everything he can with all his strength. So far his words. That is: even when a person takes to heart his bitter state and all his ways, that “from the sole of his foot to his head there is nothing sound in him” [Yeshayahu 1:6], and that he has damaged his soul with bitter sin, let him not tell himself, Heaven forbid, that it is hopeless, as if he were cut off from the land of the living and severed from Hashem's portion. Rather, his counsel is emunah. He should believe with simple, complete faith, even in a time of darkness, as in “and Your faithfulness in the nights” [Tehillim 92:3]. The essence of emunah is at the time of Maariv, the evening, when the mind is not pure, clear and bright. Chazal hinted at this (Berachos 12a): “Truth and faith in the evening.” Through the strength of his faith he merits “to declare Your kindness in the morning” [Tehillim 92:3]: light will shine for him like the morning light.

3bLet him believe in the great mercy of the Father, Who has no limit. In His great greatness He lowers Himself and “extends His right hand to receive those who return.” He seeks out ways “that no one banished be cast away from Him,” so that not a single spark of Israel will be lost, and He will lift us up from the dunghills of our poverty [cf. Tehillim 113:7]. Through this emunah he repairs and purifies what is “dead” in him. He draws the life of holiness into the places that until now were dead, where the holy life from Above, from “the Source of living waters” [Yirmiyahu 2:13], had been cut off, as written in Sha'arei Kedushah (Gate 1); see there. As the verse says, “The tzaddik lives by his faith” (Chavakuk 2:4). And as the Rebbe of Lublin said, a believer is called a tzaddik at the moment he believes. A person may have sinned, Heaven forbid, and damaged himself through the sin, so that he is called the opposite of a tzaddik. Yet through his strong faith he does teshuvah for this sin. He believes that Hashem pardons and forgives everyone and rejects no creature's prayer. Through this he is called a tzaddik at that very moment: “by his faith he lives.”

3cThat is what Rashi means: “Some expound it to his discredit and some expound it to his credit.” In truth, both expound it in his favor and give a reason for praise. The view that expounds it to his credit is straightforward: had he lived in the generation of Avraham Avinu, he would have been even more righteous, “with greater eminence” [Bereishis 49:3]. And the view that expounds it “to his discredit” means that the main praise the Torah testified about him is that he was nothing in his own eyes. He thought: “In this generation, where Hashem sees their evil deeds, I am considered a tzaddik compared to them. But in a generation of tzaddikim, my righteous deeds and my faith would count for nothing. Certainly not beside the righteousness and faith of Avraham, the first of the believers, as the holy Torah says, ‘And he believed in Hashem’ [Bereishis 15:6], and ‘Eisan, the mighty one, recognized Your faithfulness,’ for he was a complete believer, perfect in every way. Were I, too, among the strong and complete believers, I could have drawn life to all the people of my generation, so that they would not perish in the Flood. In the same way Avraham Avinu, through his strong faith, drew holy life from the root of life to the souls of Israel and brought them under the wings of the Shechinah.”

3dAs it says, “The tzaddik lives by his faith”: through the strength of his faith he draws down life. And this is “and only [ach] Noach remained” [Bereishis 7:23]. In his submissiveness and humble righteousness, Noach thought that he alone was left in the world because of his own smallness, for as Chazal say, ach and rak, “only,” signify lessening. Because his power of faith was small, he thought, he could not draw down holy life and awakening to the people of his generation, so that they would leave their evil ways and return to Hashem, Who would have mercy on them, “and to our God, for He will abundantly forgive” [Yeshayahu 55:7]. That is what Noach thought. And that is the main praise the holy Torah testified about him: “a righteous man, perfect in his generations.” Noach thought that he was a tzaddik only relative to the people of his generation.

4aIn truth, the matter is as the Avodas Yisroel explains on Rashi's words, “Noach was one of those small in faith” [Rashi on Bereishis 7:7]. It is the way of tzaddikim to sweeten harsh judgments and to plead for mercy and Hashem's favor for His creatures. Even when it seems to a tzaddik that Hashem is issuing a decree, he increases his prayer and his holy thoughts until he draws mercy down to the world. The Idra Rabba says on “The secret of Hashem is with those who fear Him” [Tehillim 25:14]: “Until they agree, judgments do not come down upon the world.” So Noach the tzaddik, since he wanted to cancel the decree of the Flood and strengthen the forces of kindness, did not let the thought take hold in his heart that “the king's word has gone out” [Esther 7:8] and could not be changed. Instead, he strengthened himself in his thoughts and said, “Hashem will turn and relent” [cf. Yonah 3:9], and His mercy will prevail over His other attributes [cf. Berachos 7a]. That is why they called him “one of those small in faith”: he “believed and did not believe.” He did not want to believe in the decree, so as not to agree to the judgments.

4bNow someone who has bitachon must first have emunah, as the Ramban writes in Sefer HaEmunah VehaBitachon. It is known that truth and faith are one. As the holy Zohar says (Ra'aya Mehemna, Zohar III:230), “He is truth and She is faith,” and the Ibn Ezra writes that emes, truth, derives from emunah, faith. Noach the tzaddik was a man of truth, as the holy Torah calls him, “a righteous man, perfect [tamim].” Tam means truth, as it says, “Yaakov was a wholesome [tam] man” (Bereishis 25:27); see Rashi there. As is known, Yaakov's trait was truth: “You will grant truth to Yaakov” [Michah 7:20]. And as Chazal say (Avodah Zarah 6a), an animal missing a limb is forbidden to the descendants of Noach, learned from the words “with you” [Bereishis 6:19]: animals like you, whole. It is known that falsehood is absence and truth is true existence. Had Noach been one of those who speak falsehood, he would have lacked everything, in the realm of absence, as explained. But through words of truth and faith he trusted in Hashem and in His salvation. By the power of bitachon he sweetened everything, “to preserve a remnant in the land” [Bereishis 45:7].

4cBut Noach's generation badly damaged the trait of truth and faith. As Chazal say (Bereishis Rabbah 32), “They were falsehood, and their speech was falsehood.” Because they were far from truth and faith, which are one, they also damaged the trait of bitachon, as it says, “and the earth was filled with robbery” [Bereishis 6:11]. Their decree was sealed only because of robbery. A person who trusts in Hashem knows that since Hashem gave him life, He will surely not abandon him. He will provide his livelihood, for He feeds and sustains everything “from the horns of the wild oxen to the eggs of lice” [Shabbos 107b], and “no one can touch what is prepared for his fellow” [Yoma 38b]. Someone who believes this will not rob, and will not want to grow rich on what is not his. But they did not trust in Hashem, so they robbed and plundered, as we wrote above on “and the earth was corrupt before God” [see above, maamar 3]. But someone who trusts in Hashem's goodness, that it is His way to do good to His creatures, especially to the seed of Israel, His treasured people, and that He accepts the prayer of every mouth, “kindness will surround him” [Tehillim 32:10]. Hashem surrounds and encircles him with good kindness from the Source of mercy, which has no end and cannot be fathomed.