"

Parashat Noach

Cheshvan 4 5776

October 17, 2015

Vol. 25 No. 5

family, friends, and selves, and to be fully present, listening not just
with our ears but with our eyes as well.
by Rabbi Scott Friedman
Shabbat is not just a day of physical rest. On Shabbat, we must
rest from all of our distractions. If we do so, we will begin to hear
In Parashat Noach, Hashem instructs Noach to build a boat to and see things which we were previously too busy to realize.
protect himself from the coming flood which will wipe out the Hashem is everywhere and we can find Him in everything, but we
world. Ramban explains that Noach's world had become filled first need to know to look for Him. A story about the Kotzker
with corruption to the point that theft was commonplace and there Rebbe illustrates this point. A student once traveled a long distance
was no order. He clarifies (BeReishit 6:13) that specifically stealing to learn with the Kotzker. Upon his arrival, he met with the Rebbe
is so bad because common sense alone should dictate that stealing and related to him how far he had come to learn. The Kotzker
is wrong and creates a chaotic environment.
asked, "What did you come to find?" "I came to find Hashem," he
Our world is fast paced. We are constantly busy and we feel answered. "How foolish," the Kotzker said, "Hashem is
that we must keep up with the world and juggle all of our everywhere. You didn't have to travel here to find Him. Once you
responsibilities. Often the responsibilities and distractions remove find Him yourself, you'll see Him everywhere."
us from even more crucial and essential priorities. Rav Ron
On Shabbat, we should merit to truly rest and be protected
Yitzchak Eisenmann tells a story in his book, The Elephant in the from the world, to connect with Hashem, and to connect to all the
Room, of a meeting he had scheduled that he felt was very beauty around us. In this beautiful and meaningful manner, let us
important for the wellbeing of a certain couple. The woman called heed the crucial lessons of Noach and his ark.
Rav Eisenmann a few hours before the appointment to ask if she
could bring her child because the babysitter had canceled. The Rav
agreed, although he was disappointed and concerned that the
by Binyamin Jachter (17)
couple might be distracted. The meeting went very well and the
Ravs advice was well received without any interruptions from the
In Parashat Noach, two generations are destroyed: the
beautifully behaved child. After the meeting, the mother suggested
generation of the flood and the generation of Migdal Bavel. The
to her daughter that she ask the Rav a question from the Parashah
one link between the two generations is Noach and his family.
that she had raised earlier. The girl walked over to the Ravs desk
Effectively, Noach was the sole seed of the second generation and
and stood silently. Her mother encouraged her to ask the Rav her
the last, sacred remnant of the first generation.
question. The girl responded that the Rav was not listening. The
After the flood begins, Noach and his family enter the Teivah
Rav, who was cleaning off his desk, told her that he was in fact
in the order of Noach UVanav VeIshto UNeshei Vanav, Noach, and
listening. The mother said, Ask, the Rav is listening. The young
his sons, and his wife, and the wives of his sons (BeReishit 7:7).
girl responded, No mommy, the Rav is listening with his ears but
Here, Noach and his sons are split from their wives. Later in
not with his eyes.
Parashat Noach, however, Hashem is ready to start the world anew
The Slonimer Rebbe cites a passage from the Zohar which tells
and tells Noach, Tzei Min HaTeivah Atah VeIshtecha UVanecha
us that just as the Teivah protected Noach from the raging storm
UNeshei Vanecha Itach, Leave from the Ark; you, and your wife,
outside, Shabbat is "protection" from the world around us. Shabbat
and your sons, and the wives of your sons (8:16). The former
is a great gift from Hashem. The world continues to move around
Pasuk separates the men from their wives, whereas the latter Pasuk
us, but on Shabbat we rest, just like Noach rested on the boat from
connects the husbands and their wives. When Noach leaves the
the corruption around him and like the young girl in Rav
Teivah, the Torah reverts back to the method of the first Pasuk, as
Eisenmanns story required the Rav to rest from his work in order
it states, VaYeitzei Noach UVanav VeIshto UNeshei Vanav Ito, And
to achieve proper focus. We on Shabbat show our trust that
Noach went out, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons wives
Hashem runs the world and that we can abstain from the rush of
(8:18).
weekly activities. We learn to listen to our spouses, children,
Rashi commends the order in which Noach and his family
enter the Teivah. Rashi states that during a time of sadness, a man
Kol Torah is a community wide publication which relies on the
should not be with his wife (7:7 ad. loc s.v. Noach UVanav). After
generous donations of our friends and family in the community
the Mabul, Hashem blesses Noachs family and commands it to
for its continuous existence. To sponsor an issue in memory of
regroup so that the world can grow anew: VaYevarech Elokim Et
a loved one, a joyous occasion, or a Refuah Sheleimah, please
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And Hashem blessed Noach and his sons; and He said to them be

The Ark of Shabbat

Did Noach Cause Migdal Bavel?

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fruitful and multiply and fill the land (9:1). In his Unlocking
the Torah Text, Rav Shmuel Goldin explains that Noach
refused to return to his wife because he was in shock from
the trauma of the worlds destruction. He was unable to
accept that the world had changed. Due to this shock and
trauma, Noach planted a vineyard and got drunk to escape
his problems.
After the generation of the Mabul is completely
destroyed, the next generation builds Migdal Bavel.
Although the Pesukim blame the generation of the flood for
stealing, the Pesukim do not articulate what was wrong
with the generation which built Migdal Bavel. According to
Rabbeinu Bachya (11:4), the generation of Migdal Bavel
sinned by failing to fulfill the commandment to be fruitful
and multiply and fill the land. Instead of growing and
spreading, the entire generation decided to focus on a single
tower.
Noach and his sons were wary of fulfilling the
commandment to be fruitful and multiply and fill the
land. They understood the possible downside of
continuing the human race. Throughout the generations,
Noachs descendants feared propagating the world. Noach
witnessed Hashem destroy nearly all of mankind and
realized that there was a tremendous downside to mankind
spreading out too thin.
The generation of Midgal Bavel was plagued by the fear
that Noach had preached to them. This fear caused the
people to desire a close community in which nobody could
be harmed, despite the fact that this went against Hashems
commandment.
Belief in Hashem makes us stronger and braver. The
more we listen to what Hashem commands us, the stronger
we are when facing our enemies.

doubts; therefore, he refrained from entering the ark until he was

forced to do so by the water.
How can one say that Noach had weak faith in Hashem? He
slaved for 120 years to build the ark (Rashi 6:14 ad. loc Aseih Lecha
Teivat) and was ridiculed immensely for listening to God (Rashi
7:13 ad. loc BeEtzem HaYom HaZeh). How is it possible that Noach
put such an effort into building the ark if he had any lack of
Emunah in Hashem or doubted that the flood would happen?
Another person who supposedly lacked in Emunah was
Sarah. When Sarah heard that she would give birth to a son at the
age of ninety, she laughed. According to Rashi (18:12 ad. loc s.v.
BeKirbah), Sarah was rebuked because she did not show true faith
when she laughed at what the messengers told Avraham. How is
it possible that our matriarch Sarah lacked Emunah in Hashem?
After all, she spent her life praying for a child, which suggests that
she believed that Hashem could grant her a child!
The Chafetz Chaim points out that just as Noach and Sarah
lacked in some degree of Emunah, so too, many Jews will lack in
Emunah when Mashiach, the dream of every Jew, arrives. Many
people recite daily Rambams 13 Principles of Faith. One of
Rambams principles is, I believe with complete trust in the
coming of Mashiach, and even though he lingers, nevertheless I
await his arrival every day. When a devoted, good-hearted Jew
will find out about the arrival of Mashiach and discover that his
dream has been fulfilled, there may be a part of him that will be in
disbelief. Even one who recites Ani Maamin daily may find it
difficult to accept the reality of Mashiachs arrival.
This type of person both believes and doesnt believe. But how
can one person have such contrasting beliefs at the same time? The
answer is that there are multiple components to each and every
person; a person can be stronger in certain aspects of belief than in
others. An analogy for this is a person who is trying to get a driver's
license. He may score highly on the written exam, yet fail the actual
driving test. A person may know the material and state his belief,
but when the real test comes and he is forced to prove his belief, he
falters and possibly fails.
by Aharon Nissel (18)
This is what the Torah is warning us against by telling us about
Noach's hesitance to enter the ark. We cannot have gaps in faith.
In Parashat Noach, Noach is commanded by Hashem
We dont know exactly when the anticipated test will arrive, but
to build an ark to protect himself and his family from the
we must always be prepared for it. We must continue to develop
oncoming massive flood (BeReishit 6:14). Noach responds
ourselves and our beliefs through our Tefillah, our Talmud Torah,
by working tirelessly to build the ark according to the strict
and our actions, in order to prepare ourselves for the coming of
guidelines given by Hashem (6:22). After Noach is
Mashiach.
commanded to bring the animals along with him onto the
Teivah, the Pesukim relate the following: VaYaas Noach
KeChol Asher Tzivahu Hashem. VeNoach Ben Sheish Meiot
Shanah VeHaMabul Hayah Mayim Al HaAretz VaYavo Noach
UVanav VeIshto UNeshei Vanav Ito El HaTeivah Mipenei Mei
by Rabbi Chaim Jachter
HaMabul, And Noach did all that Hashem had
commanded him. And Noach was six hundred years old,
In our past two issues, we have sought to identify the miracles
and the waters from the flood were upon the earth. And
which Hashem performed to aid the establishment of the State of
Noach went in and his sons and his wife and his sons wives
Israel. We continue to analyze these miracles in this issue.
with him into the ark because of the waters of the flood
(7:5-7). Rashi (ad. loc s.v. Mipenei Mei HaMabul) comments Our Enemies Foolish Mistakes
that Noach had weak faith in Hashem while he had some
Another way we can detect Hashems subtle involvement is
degree of faith that the flood would come, he had some when our enemies act in an inexplicably foolish manner. Arab

Emunah Sheleimah

Miracles of the Establishment of the State of

Israel Part Three

behavior regarding the UN Partition vote undoubtedly satisfies

this description. Benny Morris (1948 p. 40) writes that Arab
leaders came to the [United Nations] assembly cocky and
disorganized and remained so until the bitter end. Morris (ad. loc
p.42) further records:
The AHC (Arab High Command; the leaders of the
Palestinian Arab community) announced its intention to
boycott UNSCOP and failed completely to prepare for its
visit1. The AHC charged that UNSCOP was pro-Zionist2 and
accompanied
the
committees
deliberations
with
uncompromising radio broadcasts (all of Palestine must be
Arab). Opposition figures were warned that they would pay
with their lives if they spoke to UNSCOP.
The Arabs [of Palestine] displayed sourness, suspicion or
aggressiveness [to UNSCOP]. Everywhere the Arabs refused
to answer the committees questions In the Arab village of
Rama the inhabitants evacuated the village and UNSCOP was
greeted by a delegation of children who cursed them. The
committee was impressed by the cleanliness and development
in the Jewish areas and conversely, by the dirt and
backwardness of the Arab villages and towns. They were
particularly horrified at the common sight of child labor and
exploitation in Arab factories and workshops3.

Events that Defy Normal Probability

A third means of detecting Gods subtle involvement
in an event is when events occur that dramatically defy
normal expectations. The very fact that the UN voted to
create a Jewish State was a striking defiance of
expectations.
Benny Morris (p. 37 and p. 40) writes that the Arabs
were not averse to the [Palestine] problem going before
the United Nations, where they anticipated a favorable
outcome. With five member states and a handful of
reflexive Islamic and third world supporters, they
expected an easy victory. Zionist leadership, by contrast,
was wary (p.38) and quite concerned with the United
Nations voting on the outcome of Eretz Yisrael in which a
two-thirds majority of the fifty seven UN members was
needed to establish a Jewish State.
The Jews had every reason to be worried, as many of
the UN member states were not initially strongly in favor
of establishing a Jewish state. Benny Morris writes (p.5354):
The Zionists faced a major challenge in the twentymember Latin American bloc, the United Nations
largest, where the anti-Zionist influences of the
Catholic Church the Vatican opposed partition and
Jewish statehood and local Arab and German
communities were strong, and where anti-American
feeling, which affected attitudes to Zionism, was
widespread.

In his memoir, one UNSCOP member wrote that there is

nothing more extreme than meeting all the representatives of the
Arab world in one group...when each one tries to show that he is
more extreme than the other.
Finally, Benny Morris records (p. 62):

As late as November 25, 1947 (four days before the

critical vote), six Latin American countries abstained,
In general, until the last three days before the vote, Arab Paraguay absented itself, and Cuba voted against the
diplomats and their governments refused to believe that Partition Plan in the UNSCOP committee vote.
partition would gain a two-thirds majority and made no
Regarding Western Europe, Benny Morris writes that
concerted effort to mobilize votes. The old foreign office hand it was not in the bag. France was not readily in favor
Harold Beeley tried to orchestrate a last minute postponement due to its traditional alliance with Britain and its
and compromise. But the AHC declined to consider any commitment to the sixteen million Muslims under its rule
concessions after replacing their more moderate spokesmen in North Africa. Frances vote was vital as it would impact
with hardliners.
Belgium, Denmark, Holland4 and Luxembourg.
The four countries in the British Commonwealth,
All in all, the Arab leadership acted in an astonishingly foolish Australia, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa, were
manner that served only to strengthen the case for the creation of not in the bag either. For example, New Zealands UN
a Jewish State in part of Palestine and to highlight the justice in deputy head of delegation, J.S. Reid, was strongly antiestablishing the State of Israel.
Zionist. These four countries almost voted in line with
Great Britain which was hardly in favor of creating a
Jewish State.
1

By contrast, the Jewish leadership in Eretz Yisrael presented UNSCOP

with, in addition to tours and extensive interviews, no less than thirty-two
tons of written depositions (Morris, 1948, p.42).

It is stunning that the Arab leadership did not at least try to hide
child labor from UNSCOP and instruct local Arabs to clean their
communities in preparation for the UNSCOP visit.

In reality, UNSCOP membership consisted of representatives from three

Muslim or partly Muslim states (Iran, India and Yugoslavia) and two
countries from the British Commonwealth, which usually supported the
British agenda, which in this case was not in favor of creating a Jewish
State; these countries were Canada and Australia (1948, p. 40).

Holland had to consider the millions of Muslims in its colony of

Indonesia.

China was particularly difficult to convince due to its

population of twenty million Muslims.
Finally, the United States was not strongly in favor of the
partition until seventy-two hours before the vote.
Taken all together, the Zionist leadership correctly assessed
that it did not have the votes for a Jewish state. And yet, the UN
voted on November 29, 1947, in favor of partitioning Palestine into
two states. The United States and France voted for the
establishment of a Jewish State as did the four Commonwealth
countries. Shockingly, thirteen Latin American countries voted for
a Jewish state and only one (Cuba) voted against it. The five Soviet
bloc states voted in favor of the Partition Plan, which was
extremely shocking (for reasons explained in last weeks essay).
China shifted from outright rejection to benevolent neutrality5, and
in the end it abstained. Liberia, Haiti and the Philippines voted in
favor of the Partition Plan, even though they were teetering until
the last moment. In the end, Belgium, Denmark, Holland and
Luxembourg all voted in favor as well. Yugoslavia abstained
despite its large Muslim population, Argentina abstained despite
the many Nazis that took refuge in that country and its large Arab
population, and Ethiopia abstained, which was a happy surprise
in light of its high percentage of Muslims.
More Evidence of Divine Manipulation
Benny Morris (p. 61) cites a leading Arab leader who correctly
noted that the partition would never had been approved had the
vote been conducted in secret as demanded by the Arab states.
With Gods help, this demand was not accepted by UN leaders.
Moreover, it is reasonable to argue that the divine hand
ensured that the UN vote take place in New York (Lake Success to
be exact, just outside of Queens, which had and still has an
extraordinarily large Jewish community) and not San Francisco
(the location of the beginning of the UN) or Geneva (the
headquarters of the League of Nations). Benny Morris explains:

Just as the many and varied circumstances that had to work in

order for Esthers brilliant plan to save the Jews leads us to
attribute her success to divine intervention, so too, the fact that so
many countries were persuaded to vote in favor of a Jewish State
must be a result of Hashems understated manipulation of events.
Conclusion
The United Nations was tilted against Zionism and Israel even
in its early stages. The staunch anti-Israel stance of the United
Nations during the 1956 Suez War demonstrates that anti-Zionism
was prevalent throughout this organization even in its early years.
Benny Morris writes (p. 403) that the United Nations cramped the
Israel Defense Forces style and curtailed its battlefield successes in
a series of cease-fires and truce resolutions beginning in Israels
1948 War of Independence. Morris notes that all UN interventions
after June of 1948 clearly and strongly favored the Arabs.
Despite its anti-Israel inclination, the United Nations voted to
establish a Jewish State. Perfect timing, unwise Arab behavior, and
the convincing of dozens of countries to vote for a Jewish state (or
at least abstain) were indispensable for this shocking vote to
happen. Was it simply coincidence and human effort that brought
about this result? The reasonable conclusion is that Hashem was
tilting the United Nations to act in a manner contrary to its normal
behavior. No single individual or country has ever had that much
good fortune or talented behavior. The reasonable way to view the
establishment of the State of Israel is as a miracle Baruch SheAsa
Nissim BiZeman HaZeh, Blessed is [God] who made miracles at
this time.
We will IYH continue our discussion of the establishment of
the State of Israel in the following issue.
Editors-in-Chief: Hillel Koslowe, Yehuda Koslowe
Executive Editor: Yosef Kagedan
Publication Editors: Moshe Davis, Tani Greengart,
Binyamin Jachter

Business Managers: Zev Jarashow, Yehoshua Segal, Yosef

Delegates with no firm instructions from their governments

were no doubt influenced by the prevalent atmosphere in New
York and Flushing Meadow, where the media broadcast that
an enemy of partition was an enemy of the American people...
[At Flushing Meadow the] almost exclusively Zionist
audienceapplauded declarations of support for Zionism.
They hissed Arab speakers. They created the atmosphere of a
football match, with the Arabs as the away team6.

Segal

Publishing Managers: Ezra Finkelstein, Eitan Leff

Staff: Shmuel Bak, Eli Englard, Avi Finkelstein, Zack
Greenberg, Shlomo Kroopnick, Aryeh Lejtman, Zach
Lent, Meir Lightman, Avi Roth, David Rothchild

Rabbinic Advisor: Rabbi Chaim Jachter

Questions, comments? Contact us at:

Kol Torah
c/o Torah Academy of Bergen County
1600 Queen Anne Road
Teaneck, NJ 07666
Phone: (201) 837-7696
koltorah@koltorah.org

One could argue that the success of the UN Partition vote was
a happy coincidence or a result of massive and wide Zionist
lobbying of each UN member which it stood a chance to convince.
However, too much had to work out properly to attribute the
success exclusively to Zionist efforts.

To subscribe to Kol Torah via email, message webmaster@koltorah.org

This publication contains Torah matter and should be treated accordingly.

getting China not to vote no on the partition of Palestine to

produce a Jewish homeland.

Rabbi Marvin Tokayer, an expert on Jewish life in the Far East, relates:
The closest friend, adviser, and bodyguard of the first president
of China, Sun Yat-sen, was Morris Abraham Cohen, who was
called Two-Gun Cohen. He was an unbelievable person. He
saved Sun Yat-sens life several times and was instrumental in

It is stunning that UN officials did not insist on moving the vote to a more
neutral venue.