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Parshat Noach
2003
True Prayer and the Destruction of the World
God said to Noah: The end of all flesh has come before me ... make an ark (tayvah) of gofer wood ... and this is how you shall make it ... A window (tzohar) you shall make for the ark ... with lower, second and third levels shall you make it (Berashit 6:13-16).
The following is the comment of Rabbi Israel Ba'al Shem Tov, the founder of Chasidut (born 18 Elul 5748/1697) from his teachings about prayer:
"A window you shall make for the ark (tayvah)." The word ark (teyvah) also means "word." When the Torah says, "make a window for the ark" it means, make a window, bring light to the "words" which leave your mouth. "Lower, second and third levels," this refers to the concept that every word has three parts: universe, soul and Godliness. The lower level is the universe level which emerges from the word, the second level is the level of soul, and the third is that of Godliness. "This is how you shall make it" refers (not only to the ark but) to the words that emanate from your mouth, that they should be with this consciousness (kavanah), that every word has universes, souls and Godlines.
~ Ba'al Shem Tov al Ha'torah, Amud Hatifilah, Noach 17
Your Ba'al Shem Tov Navigator
Why does the Ba'al Shem Tov transpose a passage in the Torah which is clearly about Noah building an ark into one about speech and prayer?
Do you think words can really be so deep and powerful?
A Word
The question is often asked about Noah: Was he really a righteous man compared to Abraham, or only righteous compared to the terrible people surrounding him (see Rashi Gen. 6:9)? Indeed, Noah is the man who never speaks and Abraham is the man known for speaking up. When God tells Abraham that He is going to destroy the cities of Sodom and Amorah, Abraham speaks up in their defense. But when God tells Noah that He is going to destroy the world, Noah is silent. It is precisely here, in the portion of Noah, that we must learn instruction for how to speak up, how to pray, and the power of words. Only in us speaking and praying with true depth, not just seeing prayer as a reading of words, but as the intense meditative Godly process can we create a tikun, a fixing, for the sin of Noah, the sin of silent obedience.
Prepared by Rabbi Hyim Shafner, campus rabbi, St. Louis Hillel at Washington University.
Learn More
Additional commentaries and text studies on Parshat Noach at MyJewishLearning.com.
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