Parashat Noah - Selected Excerpts from the Sources

“Noah was a righteous man,”

Rabash. Article 4 (1990) What It Means that the Generations of the Righteous are Good Deeds, in the Work

“Noah was a righteous man,” which is called “These are the generations of Noah,” meaning the good deeds, which are the generations of the righteous. The verse “Noah was a righteous man” means that he was rewarded with good deeds. That is, during the act, he felt that his actions were truly good, and felt contentment while performing his actions and felt the good that is in them. Because the acts are good, he was rewarded with the delight and pleasure clothed in the performance of Mitzvot.

2. Rabash. Assorted Notes. Article 342. “Noah Was a Righteous Man”

“Noah was a righteous man.” Even Ezra interprets “righteous” in good deeds, “whole” in his heart, “in his generations,” some condemn and some praise. In generations of wicked ones, when the thoughts of the generation are that it is not worthwhile to work in order to bestow, the body sometimes praises, meaning that his view is with his contemporaries. And sometimes, it condemns what his contemporaries say.

At that time, he has the choice to do good deeds, meaning that he can overcome through actions. However, man has no control over his heart, to be able to change the feeling in the heart, if the heart feels what his contemporaries tell it, and the heart takes after the majority.

For this reason, there is no other choice but to overcome through actions, perform acts of bestowal, and ask the Creator to give him another heart, as it is written, “Purify our hearts.” However, in the argument, he cannot succeed. When he becomes righteous in terms of the practice, he is rewarded and becomes whole in his heart, as Even Ezra said.

3. Rabash. Assorted Notes. Article 342. “Noah Was a Righteous Man”

“Noah walked with God,” meaning that when the Creator is revealed to a person, when he begins to feel the existence of the Creator, he has no choice but to annul as a candle before a torch. At that time, he is unimpressed by what he hears from his contemporaries because they all annul before the light of the Creator.

According to the above, it follows that “whole” comes after he overcomes in practice. At that time, his wholeness comes to complement all the flaws he had before. This is as Baal HaSulam said, “Tamim [whole] has the letters of Tav-Mayim [Tav-water], which is only on one who knows how to deceive himself and sees the truth as his eyes see it, yet still accepts everything in wholeness.” This is called “faith above reason.”

4. Rabash. Article 5 (1991) “What Is, “The Good Deeds of the Righteous Are the Generations,” in the Work?

“Noah was a righteous man, complete in his generations,” that there should be praise here, as well as condemnation, and both are true. In other words, if it is written, “in his generations,” in plural form, it means that the generation divided into several intervals. Hence, there are many generations. This is possible when during the work he had ups and downs; hence, they divided into several generations.

It follows that the time of descent is considered a condemnation, as he says in the Sulam [Ladder commentary on The Zohar], that sometimes we come to a state of “pondering the beginning.” There is no worse condemnation than this. It follows that condemnations pertain to the descents. Also, there are praises, meaning the time of ascents. It is praise because then he has connection with the Kedusha [holiness].

“Complete” means that all the generations have become wholeness, which is called “complete.” In other words, he has been rewarded with the end of correction, meaning that they have completed the correction of the vessels of reception to receive in order to bestow. It follows that the proliferation of generations, where there were intervals in between, meaning descents, have been corrected and he became complete in his generation. This is the meaning of condemning and praising, and both are true, and both become one matter, called “complete in his generations.”

5. Rabash. Article 4 (1985) These Are the Generations of Noah

The vessels of bestowal are called, “God walked with Noah,” meaning that in a place of vessels of bestowal, it was possible to walk in holiness, meaning vessels of bestowal that relate to the Creator, which are vessels of bestowal. This is called, “Noah needed assistance to support him,” since the upper one gives the vessels of bestowal, which is regarded as Noah needing assistance to support him.

This means that the upper one awakens him to work, called “awakening from above,” as it is written in The Study of the Ten Sefirot (part 9, p 735, item 6, and in Ohr Pnimi): “However, in the beginning, in the first time, the MAN that were not by ZON in AVI went up, and then the ZON were made of those MAN. After ZON were established, they raised MAN a second time. Once he has the vessels of bestowal, which he acquired through awakening from above, which is called, ‘Noah needed assistance to support him,’ which comes from the upper one, and this was the degree of Noah.”

6. RABASH, Article No. 5 (1991), What Is, “The Good Deeds of the Righteous Are the Generations,” in the Work?

“These are the generations [offspring] of Noah; Noah was a righteous man.” Why does it not mention the names of the sons, Shem, Ham, and Yaphet, but rather “These are the generations [offspring] of Noah; Noah was a righteous man”? It is to teach you that the offspring of the righteous are primarily good deeds.

We should understand if saying that the offspring of the righteous are good deeds, is this information for other people to know or is it something that the righteous themselves should know? It is known that in the work, we learn everything within one person. It follows that the rest of the people having to know that the offspring of the righteous are good deeds is also in the same body. That is, the righteous himself should know that his offspring should be good deeds.

7. RABASH, Assorted Notes No. 343, "Gopher Wood"

The flood means “evil water.” When the “Who” question comes to a person, which is Pharaoh’s question, “Who is the Lord that I should obey His voice?” and also the wicked one’s question, “What is this work for you?” The Mayim [water], which is the flood, is made of those two—the Mi [Who] and the Ma [What]. By this, the whole world that a person has in Kedusha [holiness] was obliterated.

The advice for this is to go into the ark, for the Teiva [ark] has the letters of Bait [home] (as it is written in the Sulam [Ladder commentary on The Zohar]), since “home” means wisdom, as it is written, “In wisdom shall a house be built.” The opposite of “home” is an “ark,” which is Hassadim [mercies], which is faith above reason, as in “for he desires mercy.”

8. RABASH, Article No. 4 (1989), "What Is a Flood of Water in the Work?"

We must know what is “a flood of water” in the work. This flood was the saboteur who “obliterated every living thing.” It is known that when a person begins to work in the work of bestowal, the body complains, “What is this work for you?” “What point is there in it, that you do not want to work for your own benefit? since you must see that you will enjoy life, and bestowing means that you will not work for yourself. What benefit will you derive from working to delight the Creator by observing His Torah and Mitzvot [commandments/good deeds], which He has commanded us through Moses? Will He reward you for your work, that you labor in Torah and Mitzvot?”

“To this, you tell me that you want to work without reward. How is it possible to understand such a thing as working for no reward? It makes no sense! Our inherent nature is a desire to receive delight and pleasure, and if we exert in something, it must be that we are receiving delight and pleasure in return for our efforts. Thus, it is against our nature!” This is called the “What” argument.

9. RABASH, Article No. 4 (1989), "What Is a Flood of Water in the Work?"

The salvation of the ark from the flood in the work means that there is the matter of above reason. This is regarded as wanting to walk with his eyes shut, meaning that although reason and the senses do not understand what our sages tell us, they assume upon them faith in the sages and say that we must take upon ourselves faith in the sages, as it is written, “And they believed in the Lord and in His servant, Moses.” Without faith, nothing can be achieved in spirituality.

This discernment is called Bina, which is covered Hassadim and is called “desiring mercy.” This means that he does not want to understand anything, and says about everything that it is certainly God’s Hesed [grace/mercy] that He does with him. Although he does not see the Hassadim [plural of Hesed] that the Creator does with him and with the entire world, he still believes that the Creator leads His world with private Providence of benevolence, as it is written, “And all believe that He is good to all, the good who does good to the bad and to the good.

10. RABASH, Article No. 4 (1989), "What Is a Flood of Water in the Work?"

One who walks into the ark, which is Bina, a vessel of bestowal, the Sitra Achra does not see them. That is, they have no common language making it possible to understand what the Sitra Achra argues against the work.

When a person walks on the path of bestowal, which is regarded as above reason, faith, until the point of faith the Sitra Achra can argue with a person. But as soon as a person has entered the ark of faith, above reason, the Sitra Achra remains standing by the gate of faith and cannot continue.

11. RABASH, Article No. 4 (1989), "What Is a Flood of Water in the Work?"

The opposite of Kedusha is called “waters of quarreling,” since they extended upon themselves that which they should not have extended, called “waters of quarreling,” and were defiled in it. This means that the opposite of Kedusha raised the left line over the right line, meaning said the exact opposite of Kedusha.

The path of Kedusha is that we need the “within reason,” which resists what the “above reason” says. The reason why they need to use and engage in the left line is not that they want to walk in the left line and listen to it. On the contrary, they need to use and engage with the reason so as to have room to go above reason.

12. RABASH, Article No. 4 (1991), "What Is, “The Saboteur Was in the Flood, and Was Putting to Death,” in the Work?"

Baal HaSulam asked what is the difference between the saboteur putting to death or the flood putting to death. He said that the flood caused corporeal suffering, and the saboteur causes spiritual suffering. In other words, within the corporeal suffering there is a saboteur who kills a person’s spirituality, meaning that the torments of the body bring him foreign thoughts until these thoughts sabotage and kill the spirituality.

We should interpret his words. The flood and the rain are called “revealed,” meaning that which is visible to our eyes, that the saboteur was killing the people. That is, what a person thinks, that if the will to receive had what it demands, meaning knowledge and not faith, if it could understand everything about His guidance, as the will to receive requires, he would serve the Creator properly. However, this is not so, and as a result, because it is difficult for a person to suffer, he moves away from the Life of Lives and wants the Creator to impart upon him only pleasures. This is why he moves away.

13. RABASH, Assorted Notes No. 345, "And the Lord Saw"

After the flood, when man saw that those who do not walk on the path of truth die in the waters of the flood, called “evil water,” as in “Who is the Lord that I should obey His voice?” which is Pharaoh’s question, and the question of the wicked one, “What is this work for you?” then we see that there is an evil inclination. But before we see that we can die in the flood, we do not see any evil.

It follows that we say that what the Creator says pertains to man, that now he sees that the Creator is looking at him. Thus, among people who want to walk on the path of truth, this is not called “strike every living thing.” Rather, this is regarded as being shown the truth. Hence, a person attains that this is not regarded as a curse, but the opposite.

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