Noach
This is in the merit of my grandmother Esther bat Mazal. May she have a speedy and complete recovery.
A note: Comments within double brackets, [[abc]], are notes I write for myself so that when I look back later on the topics I discussed, I see all the sources I looked at and how I understood them. Readers are encouraged to skip them.
Question:
"God said to Noah and his sons with him, 'I Myself am making a covenant with you and with your offspring after you. [It will also include] every living creature that is with you among the birds, the livestock, and all the beasts of the earth with you - all who left the ark, including every animal on earth. I will make My covenant with you, and all life will never be cut short by the waters of a flood. There will never again be a flood to destroy the earth.'
God said, 'This is the sign that I am providing for the covenant between Me, you, and every living creature that is with you, for everlasting generations: I have placed My rainbow in the clouds, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between Me and the earth. When I bring clouds over the earth, the rainbow will be seen among the clouds. I will then recall the covenant that exists between Me, you and every living soul in all flesh. The rainbow will be in the clouds, and I will see it to recall the eternal covenant between God and every living soul in all flesh that is on the earth.'" (Genesis 9:8-16)
What does it mean that G-d needs a reminder and specifically, why do we find this here?
Good Deeds and Being Human
"These are the generations of Noah:
Noah was a righteous man, perfect in his generation. Noah walked with God. Noah fathered three sons: Shem, Ham and Yefeth" (Genesis 6:9-10).
Why does the Torah say "These are the generations of Noah" and then proceed to speak about his righteousness and only afterwards mention his children?
One of Rashi's answers is:
"To teach you that the main generations [progeny] of the righteous are good deeds. — [Mid. Tan. Noah 2]"
This requires investigation.
I. What does it mean that good deeds are progeny?
II. What does it mean that good deeds are our main progeny?
The Maharal, in his commentary on Rashi, the Gur Aryeh, tackles these questions. The Maharal can be hard to understand though I think what follows is an accurate rendition of his ideas. I am especially grateful to a councilor at my Yeshiva (whose nickname is 'messiah' although he will be the first to point out he is a Levy) for helping me.
To answer the first question as to what does it exactly mean that good deeds are progeny, the Maharal points us to Isaiah 3:10: "Tell the righteous man that it is good, for the fruit of their deeds they shall eat." Just as fruit are progeny of a tree, so are good deeds progeny of human beings.
This fits well with the picture painted of the righteous by Tanach:
"Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord; the Lord shall be his trust. For he shall be like a tree planted by the water, and by a rivulet spreads its roots, and will not see when heat comes, and its leaves shall be green, and in the year of drought will not be anxious, neither shall it cease from bearing fruit " (Jeremiah 17:7-8)
"The praises of a man are that he did not follow the counsel of the wicked, neither did he stand in the way of sinners nor sit in the company of scorners. But his desire is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night. He shall be as a tree planted beside rivulets of water, which brings forth its fruit in its season, and its leaves do not wilt; and whatever he does prosper" (Psalms 1:1-3)
[[Nechama Leibowitz has an essay in Torah Insights (I think that is the title) about righteous, trees, and actions and brings more verses. As pointed out by R. Yehoshua Hartman's notes, see also Sota 46a where mitzvos are fruit. See however Avos 3:22.]]
To sum up: just as fruit are progeny of a tree, so are good deeds progeny of human beings.
Now what does it mean that good deeds are our main progeny?
The Maharal says that giving birth to children requires a three-way partnership, a man, a woman, and G-d and that G-d is the main partner. [[R. Hartman points to Niddah 31a]] However, when we ourselves do a good deed, that action was entirely done by us. As our Sages teach "All is in the hands of Heaven except for fear of Heaven" (Brachos 33b) meaning only we determine how we act because we are given free will. Thus, we perform good deeds by ourselves.
[[R. Hartman pointed to Brachos. Of course, from one perspective, even our good deeds are from G-d and the Gemara says we can't overcome our evil inclination without G-d's help. However, these must be some difference between these situations.]]
Why should it be that because we do something alone, without assistance, that this action becomes of prime importance?
I think the answer is that when we act without help, it requires more effort and "according to the effort is the reward" (Avos 5:26).
As the Maharal explains, the Hebrew word for a human is adam which comes from the word adamah meaning ground. For the Maharal, this symbolizes our potential; we are an empty piece of land but through effort, from this fallow field a tree can grow, a tall and beautiful tree yielding wonderful fruit. (Teferes Yisroel chapter 3 cited by R. Hartman) The more effort, the more growth.
Our lives are what we make of them. Lets work hard and become the best we can be.
[[See also Maharal on Avos 3:22 and Juggler and the King, pages 154, and 175-176. Another explanation, maybe even better, might relate not to the effort but the fact that all of the deed came from the one doer.]]
Food for further thought and discussion:
If adamah – earth – also symbolizes physicality and this tree planted on the field represents lives lived in righteousness (possibly even thus representing spirituality), what is the relationship between physicality and good deeds?
Have a good Shabbas,
Mordechai
This is in the merit of my grandmother Esther bat Mazal. May she have a speedy and complete recovery.
A note: Comments within double brackets, [[abc]], are notes I write for myself so that when I look back later on the topics I discussed, I see all the sources I looked at and how I understood them. Readers are encouraged to skip them.
Question:
"God said to Noah and his sons with him, 'I Myself am making a covenant with you and with your offspring after you. [It will also include] every living creature that is with you among the birds, the livestock, and all the beasts of the earth with you - all who left the ark, including every animal on earth. I will make My covenant with you, and all life will never be cut short by the waters of a flood. There will never again be a flood to destroy the earth.'
God said, 'This is the sign that I am providing for the covenant between Me, you, and every living creature that is with you, for everlasting generations: I have placed My rainbow in the clouds, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between Me and the earth. When I bring clouds over the earth, the rainbow will be seen among the clouds. I will then recall the covenant that exists between Me, you and every living soul in all flesh. The rainbow will be in the clouds, and I will see it to recall the eternal covenant between God and every living soul in all flesh that is on the earth.'" (Genesis 9:8-16)
What does it mean that G-d needs a reminder and specifically, why do we find this here?
Good Deeds and Being Human
"These are the generations of Noah:
Noah was a righteous man, perfect in his generation. Noah walked with God. Noah fathered three sons: Shem, Ham and Yefeth" (Genesis 6:9-10).
Why does the Torah say "These are the generations of Noah" and then proceed to speak about his righteousness and only afterwards mention his children?
One of Rashi's answers is:
"To teach you that the main generations [progeny] of the righteous are good deeds. — [Mid. Tan. Noah 2]"
This requires investigation.
I. What does it mean that good deeds are progeny?
II. What does it mean that good deeds are our main progeny?
The Maharal, in his commentary on Rashi, the Gur Aryeh, tackles these questions. The Maharal can be hard to understand though I think what follows is an accurate rendition of his ideas. I am especially grateful to a councilor at my Yeshiva (whose nickname is 'messiah' although he will be the first to point out he is a Levy) for helping me.
To answer the first question as to what does it exactly mean that good deeds are progeny, the Maharal points us to Isaiah 3:10: "Tell the righteous man that it is good, for the fruit of their deeds they shall eat." Just as fruit are progeny of a tree, so are good deeds progeny of human beings.
This fits well with the picture painted of the righteous by Tanach:
"Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord; the Lord shall be his trust. For he shall be like a tree planted by the water, and by a rivulet spreads its roots, and will not see when heat comes, and its leaves shall be green, and in the year of drought will not be anxious, neither shall it cease from bearing fruit " (Jeremiah 17:7-8)
"The praises of a man are that he did not follow the counsel of the wicked, neither did he stand in the way of sinners nor sit in the company of scorners. But his desire is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night. He shall be as a tree planted beside rivulets of water, which brings forth its fruit in its season, and its leaves do not wilt; and whatever he does prosper" (Psalms 1:1-3)
[[Nechama Leibowitz has an essay in Torah Insights (I think that is the title) about righteous, trees, and actions and brings more verses. As pointed out by R. Yehoshua Hartman's notes, see also Sota 46a where mitzvos are fruit. See however Avos 3:22.]]
To sum up: just as fruit are progeny of a tree, so are good deeds progeny of human beings.
Now what does it mean that good deeds are our main progeny?
The Maharal says that giving birth to children requires a three-way partnership, a man, a woman, and G-d and that G-d is the main partner. [[R. Hartman points to Niddah 31a]] However, when we ourselves do a good deed, that action was entirely done by us. As our Sages teach "All is in the hands of Heaven except for fear of Heaven" (Brachos 33b) meaning only we determine how we act because we are given free will. Thus, we perform good deeds by ourselves.
[[R. Hartman pointed to Brachos. Of course, from one perspective, even our good deeds are from G-d and the Gemara says we can't overcome our evil inclination without G-d's help. However, these must be some difference between these situations.]]
Why should it be that because we do something alone, without assistance, that this action becomes of prime importance?
I think the answer is that when we act without help, it requires more effort and "according to the effort is the reward" (Avos 5:26).
As the Maharal explains, the Hebrew word for a human is adam which comes from the word adamah meaning ground. For the Maharal, this symbolizes our potential; we are an empty piece of land but through effort, from this fallow field a tree can grow, a tall and beautiful tree yielding wonderful fruit. (Teferes Yisroel chapter 3 cited by R. Hartman) The more effort, the more growth.
Our lives are what we make of them. Lets work hard and become the best we can be.
[[See also Maharal on Avos 3:22 and Juggler and the King, pages 154, and 175-176. Another explanation, maybe even better, might relate not to the effort but the fact that all of the deed came from the one doer.]]
Food for further thought and discussion:
If adamah – earth – also symbolizes physicality and this tree planted on the field represents lives lived in righteousness (possibly even thus representing spirituality), what is the relationship between physicality and good deeds?
Have a good Shabbas,
Mordechai
posted by Mordechai18 at 1:38 AM
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