Feature Tidbit As the Good Book says... Recognize the line? It's from Fiddler on the Roof. I was looking for a title for this piece to be some line from Fiddler. This one, hopefully, is a good choice, because the ideas about to be expressed are based on teachings that I hope can be attributed to some of our good books. I hope the point is based in Jewish Tradition. I think it is... We are "into" Fiddler because of a specific exchange between one of the town's people and the rabbi. When things have reached a really bad state of affairs, and the Jews of Anatevka are being forcibly expelled, someone asks the rabbi about Mashiach. Rabbi, he says, wouldn't this be a good time for the Mashiach to come? The rabbi answers: We'll have to wait for himself somewhere else. The same question has been asked many different times in many, many situations. And so it is being asked in our own time and in our current situation here in Israel. The topic of Mashiach has come up quite often lately, when people are feeling helpless and unable to take back control of what goes on daily in our lives. When we saw Kever Yosef HaTzadik being dismantled and desecrated, and the government and army seemed powerless to do anything about it, thoughts of Mashiach came to people's minds. It happens because people view the Mashiach or Messianic times as being better than what we have now and had had throughout our history. That attitude is linked to the feeling of not being able to significantly improve our situation. Mashiach, then is viewed as G-d's way of fulfilling His promises to our ancestors by putting an end p.24 Hasidic Wisdom from the book by Simcha Raz (Elkins/Elkins) The third quote in last week's Hasidic Wisdom box was incorrectly attributed. It was said by Rabbi Simcha Bunam of Pshis'cha Raindrops Keep Falling... IY"H A point to ponder. The same can also be said about our referring to G-d as King. Special emphasis on Yamim Nora'im. But we constantly call G-d King. And the Sh'ma fits the pattern as well. Dramatic Sh'ma on Yom Kippur. Regular Sh"ma twice or thrice a day. Our challenge is to make the everyday stuff special and fresh too. Life Begins and ends at Forty The Torah tells us that the rains of the MABUL lasted for 40 days and 40 nights, and during that time "all that had the breath of life in it died". Towards the end of the Flood, the number 40 appears again in the account of the Flood. After the Teiva settled on Mt. Ararat, No'ach waited 40 days and then opened the windowand sent out the raven and then the dove three times. There is something significant about the number 40. The Maharal of Prague and others elaborate on the significance of numbers. 40 is the number of days for life to form and develop in the womb - an embryo becomes a fetus 40 days after conception. There are halachic ramifications in the distinction between the early embryo and the 40 day old life. In Parshat No'ach, in contrast,40 is the number of days during which life was destroyed rather than created. 40 is the number of days that the Jewish national life was formed (Moshe's time on Mt. Sinai); an additional 40 days was spent on Har Sinai "recreating" the Nation after the disastrous "sin of the Golden Calf". The 40 days of spying out the Land, were matched by the 40 years of wandering, during which the "generation ofthe Wilderness" died out. 40 represents the notion of complete life - in both a positive and negative sense. A mikve contains a minimum of 40 measures of water (suggesting that less than the complete 40 cannot bring about the change from impurity to purity); punishment (and the purging of the soul thereby) is accomplished by 40 (in this case, up to but not including) lashes of makot; definition of creative activity vis-a-vis thebuilding of the Mishkan and Shabbat prohibitions is in 40 (less 1) categories. 40 years is the period assigned to the acquisition of wisdom and understanding, according to Pirkei Avot. 40 is most definitely a meaningful number. The destruction of life on Earth (with the exception of those in the Teiva and the fishes under it) was total. The timing for the whole Mabul was one complete (solar) year. That too, represents completeness. That the destruction was not instantaneous (as it could have been), teachesus the value of life. And, as mentioned above, it takes time to form life too. When a person sins, he is given the special 40 day period from Rosh Chodesh Elul to Yom Kippur to rebuild his life. Goliath taunted the People of Israel for 40 days. The Navi records a 40 year period of desolation in Mitzrayim, as punishment for its misdeeds. Eliyahu HaNavi also spent 40 days and 40 nights on the mountain. Not only are we given 40 days to repent, but that was the amount of time that Ninveh was given to avert its destruction.The embalming process takes 40 days. Wine takes 40 days to become eligible for the Altar. The mishna says that if 40 days pass (during the rainy season) without rain, it means drought, and prayers and fasting are immediately activated. The number 40 occurs several times in the dimensions of the Beit HaMikdash. The list goes on. Even the letter MEM = 40 has the flavor of completeness. Notice that MEM has two forms. A 40 that is not quite closed, and another that is complete. The word MEM is spelled with both
MEMs. Why not start the Torah with Lech Lecha? The first Rashi of the Torah asks why the Torah didn't start with the first command to the People of Israel in Sh'mot 12. The answer given is well-known. Perhaps this is another answer - We, the Jewish People, currently make up about a third of a percent of the world's population. That means that more than five billion people are Bnei Noach. They do not have to hear the Shofar or separate milk and meat, they don't wear Tzitzit and they can wear Shaatnes if they so choose..But they do have many restrictions which are based on the Seven Noahide Laws. And by telling us about Noach and those who came out of the Ark with him, the Torah is also making us aware of the other 99 and two thirds percent. We are forbidden to "put a stumbling block before the blind". This is the prohibition of leading someone astray and/or abetting another in the commission of a sin. Our Sages teach us that this mitzva applies regardless of whether the "other person" is a Jew or non-Jew. For this reason, some authorities write that we mustlearn what is expected of a non-Jew - we must know the "Seven Noahide Laws". Aside from this technical reason, we should know what G-d demands of every human being, so that we can properly relate to the non-Jew and perform our role as "a light unto the nations". The seven mitzvot consist of six prohibitions - Idolatry, Blasphemy, Murder, Incest & Adultery, Theft, and Limb (meat) from a Living Animal; and one broad positive commandment, known as Dinim, the requirement to set up a system of laws and codes for the proper functioning of a society. Most of these mitzvot include severaldifferent commandments, and can be seen more accurately as categories of mitzva. Theft, for example, includes at least 16 different mitzvot from our list of 613. Additionally, there are other mitzvot that we consider to be incumbent upon non-Jews and others still that "they have accepted upon themselves". (There are manydisputes among our authorities as to what is and what is not in these categories.) Possible examples: False oaths, cross- breeding of animals, sacrifices, prayer, procreation, honoring parents, and others. Our fellow humans have serious obligations to G-d. Different from ours (but often similar), not as extensive as ours,but not trivial by any standards. The practices of a non-Jew and his motivation for following a particular course of conduct, have an impact upon us all. We should know more about the Ben No'ach, how we should relate to him, what we should and what we should not expect. Another point. We are not Jews instead of being human beings. We are Jews in addition to being human. Our membership in Klal Yisrael does not cancel our membership in the human race. This is also why Parshat No'ach should speak to us. [The Noach Homepage]
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