Did you know? Noach

Blue rainbows!? 

The parsha tells us that Hashem brought the first rainbow to the world after the flood. He did this as a sign of his promise to never destroy the world through another mabul. Rav Yonason Einbshitz ztz’l taught that the rainbow Hashem put in the sky then was not the same as the regular rainbow that we’re familiar with. That type of rainbow, which has many colors, is what naturally happens when the sun shines over water. But the rainbow that shows Hashem’s promise is made entirely out of t’cheles. It was a fully blue rainbow!

One language for all.

It’s brought down in the Moshav Zekeinim that before the dor ha’flaga, everyone spoke only lashon hakodesh. And it wasn’t just the people. The animals and the birds also spoke in lashon hakodesh! It was only after Hashem dispersed that generation that the birds started chirping, the dogs started barking, and so on.

The self-closing door!

After telling us that Noach brought all the animals into the teivah, the pasuk continues and says “vayisgor hashem ba’ado, Hashem closed the door for Noach.” The Chizkuni (one of the meforshim on chumash) says that it works as follows: Noach had to just leave the door open. He didn’t know all the species of animal that were in the world, so he had no way of knowing when the animals had finished coming into the teivah. Hashem, therefore, made a miracle of sorts, that when all the species of animals had successfuly made it onto the teivah, the door just closed by itself.”

Story

There was a certain Rav who had studied under the great Maggid of Mezritch. After his children were all married and out of the house, he decided that he wanted to move to Eretz Yisroel. However, he didn’t tell the Maggid about his plan, being afraid that he would object and talk him out of the idea.

Together with his wife, he boarded a boat headed for Constantinople. The city wasn’t one where Yidden would generally be, and when this Rov got there, he started feeling very lonely. This feeling led to him second guessing his decision. He started thinking about all the wonderful things he had back home — his friends, his community, all the familiar faces. He also thought about his job and salary, and how hard it would be to make a living in Eretz Yisroel. He probably wouldn’t have much time to learn anymore.

As he was lost in thought, he bumped into a Yid, and they started up a conversation. He was pleasantly surprised to hear that this Yid was also a talmid of the Maggid. In fact, he had spent the previous Shabbos with the Maggid and wanted to share some words of Torah he had just heard from him.

The Maggid quoted the pasuk from Parshas Noach (B’reishis 11:31): “And Terach took Avram his son, and Lot the son of Haran, his son’s son, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, the wife of Avram his son, and they went out together from Ur Kasdim to go to the land of Canaan, and they came as far as Charan and settled there.”

The Maggid asked as follows: “The verse says they were on their way to Canaan. So why did they stop early and stay in Charan? Also, Avraham had already left to go to Canaan, so why did Hashem now tell him to go there? And thirdly, why did Avraham decide to go to Canaan anyway? Back home, he had so many talmidim who he was bringing closer to Hashem. Who knows if he would have been able to continue doing that in Canaan?”

The Maggid answered: “Terach” is a remez to the yetzer hora. The yetzer hora saw how Avraham was bringing so many Yidden close to Hashem and couldn’t stand it. Therefore, he told Avraham to go to Canaan. But really, once had left his hometown, the yetzer hora was fine settling for Avraham living in Charan, as he couldn’t continue helping Yidden there either. This is why Hashem then told him to go all the way to Canaan, as if to say, “up until now it was the yetzer hora pushing you, but now, I am telling you to go there, and you will have hatzlacha!”

The Rav heard this and understood that the Rebbe had sent him direct chizuk, and that he should continue on his journey and he would be successful!