Dedicated in memory of Rachel Leah bat R' Chaim Tzvi
Volume 2 Number 28
Parshat Noach: Four Heavenly Gifts
Based on a Naaleh.com shiur by Rabbi Herschel Reichman
Rav Acha taught that Hashem desired to
give the Dor Hamabul four gifts; Torah,
yissurim, korbanot, and tefila. They rejected
these gifts and they were destroyed. The
Dor Hamabul did not even keep the seven
Noachide laws. What did Hashem mean by
wanting to give this generation the entire
Torah?
The Shem Mishmuel explains that the
original soul of Adam and Chava contained
all the souls of the people who would ever
live. This universal soul was meant to
produce future generations pure of spirit
just like Adam. However, after the sin of the
eitz hadaat, a mixture of good and evil was
introduced into the world. Hashem intended
life to be pure, good, and simple. He did not
want life to be rife with conflicting tempta-
tions, which it became after the sin. Our
mission on this world is to return to the
original state of Adam and Chava by
purging, or at least subduing, the evil within
our souls. This process of rectification is
accomplished through the four gifts.
Hashem placed great souls with a tremen-
dous capacity for goodness in the genera-
tion of the Flood. They could have reached
the level of Adam before the sin had they so
chosen. However, since they declined the
good, evil overwhelmed them to such an
extent that Hashem needed to destroy
them.
Hashem saved Noach and built mankind
Parshat Noach: Expanding The Essence
Based on a Naaleh.com shiur by Mrs. Shira Smiles
Parshat Noach begins, “Noach was
righteous in his generation.” Rashi offers
two differing interpretations on this verse.
One view maintains that Noach was a
tzaddik and had he lived in a more
righteous generation he would’ve been an
even greater tzaddik. The second view
maintains that in comparison with his
wicked contemporaries, Noach was a
tzaddik. Had he lived in the time of
Avraham, however, he would have been
insignificant. This Rashi seems puzzling
and needs elucidation.
The Divrei Yisrael explains that the word
“b’dorotav” is in plural form to teach us that
the generation of Noach had conflicting
opinions about him. Some individuals held
him to be a tzaddik while the general
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anew in another attempt to see if humanity
would choose correctly. He gave the next
generation, the Dor Haflaga, a powerful
ability to build. The entire civilized world
united in a major construction project.
However, instead of using it for good, they
utilized it for wickedness and Hashem
dispersed them.
Avraham recognized Hashem, saved the
world from another possible destruction,
and started the Jewish nation. Hashem
intended to experiment with this small group
to see if it could purge itself of evil and
choose good. Then it would become a light
unto the other nations who would follow its
example. Indeed, the avot attained
greatness, but the strife between Yosef and
the tribes aroused Hashem’s wrath again.
The merits of our Avot precluded our destruc-
tion and instead Hashem exiled the Jewish
people to the smelting pot of Egypt so that
the evil that had grown within them would be
replaced by goodness. According to the Ari,
the souls of the Dor Hamabul, the Dor
Haflaga, and the Dor Mitzrayim were all the
same souls. Each time, Hashem thought
they would accept the Torah, but after failing
to choose good their souls were recycled.
The Dor Mitzrayim finally received the Torah
at Sinai and the Jewish nation was born.
Chassidut teaches that the human soul
consists of four levels, guf, the biological
soul; nefesh, the emotional soul; sechel, the
intellectual soul; and tzelem Elokim, the
populace viewed him as insignificant. Rav
Dessler offers a different explanation.
Noach was a tzaddik. He reached the
tremendous level of utilizing his entire being
to serve Hashem. This defines the level of a
righteous person, namely, one who
completes his allotted task on this earth.
However, there are levels above this. A
tzaddik can add to his portion. In this
respect, Noach is compared unfavorably to
Avraham. Avraham personified chesed. He
revealed the glory of Hashem in such a
supreme way that he extended his portion to
embrace the portion of all the people in the
world for ten generations. Rav Dessler adds
that it is a disgrace to the honor of Hashem
on a certain level not to achieve more. A
tzaddik must constantly reach higher and
spiritual soul, which combines all four
aspects. The four gifts correspond to these
four levels. Torah is sechel, an intellectual
entity, yissurim relate to the guf, korbanot,
an emotional experience, refer to the
nefesh, and tefila is tzelem Elokim.
Tefila comes from the root word Naftali,
meaning connection. Prayer is a means of
binding our spiritual selves with Hashem. It
serves as a unifying process, by subduing
our biological and emotional drives in
service of Hashem. Every part of our being
is involved in prayer. Our bodies sway, our
souls sing in rapture, and our minds contem-
plate the greatness of the Almighty.
The Dor Hamabul rejected these four gifts.
They sinned with their sechel by worship-
ping idols, they corrupted their nefesh with
promiscuity, they destroyed their guf by
spilling innocent blood, and they violated
other people’s tzelem Elokim with chamas.
Hashem implanted tremendous potential for
greatness within the Dor Hamabul.
However, because they rejected the good,
evil inevitably rushed in. There is no room
for mediocrity in Judaism. When Hashem
grants a person opportunity, he must choose
good, otherwise evil will overwhelm him. Let
us tap into our latent powers, rise and meet
our challenges, and accomplish what we are
meant to do on this world, so that we can
eventually reach the pure state of Adam
before the sin.
use his additional powers to glorify
Hashem’s name.
We too must go beyond ourselves. We must
take our passion and enthusiasm for
Hashem and ignite a spark in others. If our
only ambition is to perfect ourselves, we are
limited. This was the difference between
Noach and Avraham.
In fact, Noach did not even pray to Hashem
to save his generation. Why not?
Rav Schwab answers that Noach was
influenced by the self interest of the society
around him. However, instead of pursuing
material pleasure he focused on attaining
personal spiritual pleasure. That is why, in
Avraham’s generation, where Avraham’s
essence was expansion, Noach would’ve
been insignificant. Continued on next page..
1
 Parshat Noach: Expanding The Essence
Based on a Naaleh.com shiur by Mrs. Shira Smiles
Continued From Page 1
Rav Miller explains Noach’s conduct as an pray for the others.
expression of his tzidkut. Noach personified In contrast, Avraham mastered the perfect
din, strict judgement. He could not daven balance between individuality and responsi-
for his generation at the level they were at. bility to the community. First he developed
In this he differed from Avraham, whose himself and then he went out to influence
kindness and mercy drove him to beseech others. When Lot and Yishmael proved to
Hashem to save sin-ridden Sedom. be a negative influence, he mustered the
Rav Baer in Maasei Rokeach offers a courage to send them away. However, he
different explanation. Noach’s inability to still maintained a level of responsibility for
affect others stemmed from his humility. He them. In the same sense we too must
was afraid that he would not be able to assume the mission of bringing our lost
withstand negative influences, so he brethren back to Torah, separate ourselves
separated from his generation rather than from negativity when necessary, yet still
to be influenced by them. He did not think maintain accountability. Noach in his ark
much of himself and therefore he did not was cut off from the rest of the world. Our job
is to be like Avraham’s tent, open on all
sides, to draw our brethren closer to
Hashem.
Reish Lakish says, “Believe in your inherent
greatness and aim for higher levels.” Rav
Yochanan counters, “Realize you are
nothing and that you have a long way to go.”
We need to juggle a balance of both views in
our lives. Rav Tatz writes that life is about
growth, self development and influencing
others. It is maintaining the equilibrium of
being an ‘everything’ and a ‘nothing’. May
we merit reaching this level of self perfection
and ignite spiritual passion within others.

Harmonizing Torah and Science

Based on a Naaleh.com shiur by Rebbetzin Tziporah Heller
If you are a Torah Jew contemplating a career
in the sciences, there are three ideas to keep
in mind. Truth is essential reality, not reality
plus an agenda or will. A person who is tahor
is genuinely human with nothing impure
inside of him to impede his soul. This divine
aspect is what differentiates us from the
animal kingdom. The opposite of tahara is
tuma which is defined as a blockage. Sin
creates a mechitza, a barrier, which blocks us
from accessing holiness.
The Ramak explains that every limb and
organ requires veins and arteries to feed it
blood. If there is a blockage, the limb or organ
will die. Similarly, spiritual blockages cause
our spiritual selves to die. Because we place
such great value on tahara we try to prevent
ourselves and our children from being
exposed to an environment where lack of
tahara, spiritual integrity, and truth is normal.
You may ask, “Why be so intimidated, why
not just stand up for the truth?” The Rambam
writes that people are naturally influenced by
their environment on two levels. They want to
feel accepted in the culture they live in and
they want their friends to approve of them.
Inevitably, they tend to adapt their beliefs and
opinions. Therefore, we are unapologetic
about demanding tahara. If you haven’t heard
it all before you don’t have a protective armor
built up to defend yourself. It’s normal to not
quite know what to do with yourself. Do not be
ashamed of this. It’s a reflection of your
tahara, of not being calloused and damaged.
The second thing to keep in mind is that the
Torah warns us, “Do not stray after your eyes
and heart.” The heart refers to heresy and the
eyes to desire. This tells us that people will
naturally stray after their heart and turn to
heresy. The difference between a tzaddik and
a rasha is that a tzaddik’s mind controls his
heart while a rasha’s heart controls his mind.
People are drawn to heresy to conveniently
justify patterns of behavior.
The third thing to consider is authority. Just
because the professor has letters after his
name does not mean that he has the full and
final picture. Science is continually evolving.
Something we thought factual today can turn
out not to be so tomorrow. We can see a part
of the picture in the present, while more of the
picture continuously reveals itself. You have to
learn to examine what is true and what is not.
The closer something is to observable
physical reality, the more likely it is to be true,
rather than something that requires many
assumptions along the way. In every possible
dating system no one tries to answer one
basic question: “How did something come
from nothing?” The focus of science is
certainly not the mystery of life. It’s easy,
especially when there is an agenda, to see
absolute reality when there are only question
marks. The important thing is to figure out
where factuality begins and ends and where
supposition takes over. This is tricky because
a hypothesis can turn out to be true but many
times it is not.
Judaism has never been afraid of science.
Science is the picture of reality as we know it.
There’s nothing wrong with taking a snapshot.
There is something wrong with saying that the
snapshot is everything. The same holds true
with liberal theories. Identifying a problem
doesn’t mean knowing the solution. Judaism
isn’t intimidated by questions. It is afraid of the
haphazard tendency to create solutions that
solve nothing.
If you will be studying the sciences, learn to
master the art of “birur,” taking what is holy
and good and rejecting what is evil. May
Hashem guide our steps and help us maintain
our inner purity and sechel hayashar (straight
thinking).

Achieving Balance: Class #9

Excerpted from Rebbetzin Tziporah Heller’s Question and Answer series on Naaleh.com
Question: in a sense, interrupting the flow of your be a way to positively influence others.
What is the most ideal way for a woman relationship with Hashem. A woman needs Women were given bina yeteira in order to
to use her strength of expression? to learn to use her desire to express herself build. Indeed, the word bina, which is the
in a way that involves restraint and self source of a women’s ability to understand
Answer:
discipline. and her need to be understood, is related to
If you find yourself constantly talking about the verb boneh, to build, which is what this
The purposeful and deep need for women to
your life you are running the risk of losing strength is meant to do.
speak is meant to make other people feel
contact with your inner self. If you only feel
understood. It is a great and meaningful gift.
validated by talking to other people you are,
Expressing your thoughts and feelings can

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