Until 120!- Parshat Noach 2018/ 5779

Insights and Inspirationi

from the

Holy Land
from

Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz

"Your friend in Karmiel"

October 12^th 2018 -Volume 9 Issue 2 3^rd  Cheshvan 5779

Parshat Noach

Until 120

Biz Hindret und tzvantzik- until 120, that’s the Jewish blessing of longevity. Now perhaps a century or even a few decade agos when life expectancy was the 60’s or 70’s and when Social Security was something to hold you off for a few years, then maybe the blessing was more of a  hopeful wish for something miraculous. But welcome to the 21^st century, people are living longer and longer. Septuagenarians are the new yuppies and nonagenarians and centurions are getting lots of nachas from their great great grandchildren.  I should know my,  grandson has two of them. So what do you wish a 119 year old on their birthday, is becoming a real question. Ummm…have a nice day? I saw that there is an old age chain of homes in Israel called Ad Meah V’Esrim- until 120. What happens if someone makes it passed that age, what do they do with them? Or should I not ask.

Perhaps even most humorous. I heard a story from Rabbi Wallerstien who had this dream to open up an adult women’s learning program. Before embarking on is project he went to Reb Aharon Leib Shteinman, the 90 year Bnai Brak sage and the leader of much of world torah Jewry for a blessing. When the Rosh Yeshiva asked him for what ages it was meant to be for, he told him it was meant for women from 20 to 120 years old. Reb Aharon Leib then asked him and what would happen if a 121 year old woman wanted to come. Rabbi Wallerstien was a bit at a loss for words and said of course she would be accepted as well, not exactly sure where the Rabbi was going with this.  Reb Shteinman saw his questioning face and then told him that he needn’t worry, it would never happen. But does Rabbi Wallerstien know why it wouldn’t happen? Rabbi Wallerstien answered hesitantly because he assumed that people don’t live more than 120. The Rosh Yeshiva corrected him and smiled.

“No that’s not true, a person could live as long as Hashem wants him to. The reason it would never happen is because a woman will never tell you her real age!”

So where does this 120 thing come from? What’s it all about and perhaps maybe there is a lesson in it for all of us. This struck me this week in particular, as I was noting the interesting connection in the number of years that it took Noach to build the Ark. Can you guess how long it was? You got it, 120 years. Now I know that we do things slow in Israel. I always marvel and share with my tourists the fact that the Turks built the first Railroad from Yaffo to Jerusalem which was 87 kilometers long and had 176 bridges and none of todays modern technology and heavy lifting machinery and it took 2 and a half years to build. Compare that with the light rail in Jerusalem that runs about 13 kilometers and took 11 years to build. We call that progress. Forget about all the unfinished apartments that you buy “on paper” and hope and pray that it will be finished before they put you in an old age home. There’s a reason they are a lot cheaper. Building schedules are really not Israelis forte. But 120 years just to build a big boat seems like a really long time even for us. Now granted Noah was working on his own, and perhaps one can argue that he wasn’t even Jewish. But he was commanded by Hashem to do this. He was a righteous person. Isn’t there a concept of zerizin makdimin l’mitzvos-trying to fulfill your mitzvah with as much alacrity as possible. ASAP. So why did it take him until 120?

The answer was that his mitzvah wasn’t to complete the Ark it was to build the Ark. The medrash that Rashi notes that Hashem could have saved Noah and his family in many different ways. He didn’t need a lifeboat. The reason Hashem commanded Noach to build the Ark was in order that it would take 120 years was in order that the people of his generation would ask why he was building it and he could warn them of the upcoming flood if they continued in their evil ways. It seems Hashem is a big believer that visual aides are a much more effective way to inspire people then a regular mussar schmooze. But again the question still remains, what’s the significance of the 120? People back then lived for centuries, Noach himself was 600 when the flood took place. Where does 120 come from?

The truth is the number 120 finds itself another time in the Torah when it describes the lifetime of someone else. Someone who if you think about it seems to have a lot of connections with Noach. That person is none other than Moshe whose death we read about just a few weeks ago on Simchat Torah and who it tells us died at 120 years old. Interesting. Moshe dies at 120 and Noach builds the Ark for 120. Let’s look a little deeper, shall we? Moshe perhaps even more interesting gets his strange name, by the daughter of Pharaoh when she pulls him out of the water and calls him Moshe

Shemos (2:10) Ki min hamayim mishisihu- She pulled him from the water.

By the way he wasn’t swimming in the water at the time, he was floating in a little lifeboat- a teiva -an ark, in the words of the Torah, He was placed there by the way to protect him from the death of all of the Jewish babies being thrown into the Nile. And he lives for 120 year. In fact the Talmud asks where do we find an allusion to Moshe in the Torah, you may not believe this but it is in fact in the prelude to the flood.

Bereshis (6:3) And Hashem said ‘My spirit will not contend anymore about man- Bshagam hu basar- because he is flesh- and his days will be 120.

The Talmud notes that Moshe is the same numerical value as Bshagam- because= 45. Take it a step further and you find that the word bshagam if rearranged actually spells bgeshem- with rain also 45. Also Moshe. The Ari’Zl notes the Zohar as a result of these startling connection that Moshe and Noach in fact shared the same soul. Moshe was in fact meant to be a tikun, a rectification of the 120 years that Noach was not successful in saving the world and in the end only saved himself and his family. Moshe was pulled out of the flooding waters to pull the entire world with him this time around.

We find in the Torah another time that Hashem wanted to destroy us. It was after the sin of the golden calf. Hashem told Moshe who was up in heaven at the time receiving the Torah when Hashem tells Moshe

Shemot (32:10) And now hanicha li- leave me and let my anger burn against them and I will annihilate them and I will make you a great nation.

Isn’t it cool that the words Hashem tells Moshe are hanicha li- leave me- or also be a Noach to me. If you, Moshe, are just like Noach and don’t do the job of getting the people to repent or perhaps even more significantly of praying and achieving mercy from Me, of helping Me find chen- favor and grace (also the same letters as Noach backwards and Noach as well we are told was chosen because he found favor and grace chen in the eyes of Hashem.), then they will be destroyed. It will just be Me and you. Just like it was just Me and Noach.

But Moshe does the job that Noach didn’t. He tells Hashem that it is not an option. He says if You don’t forgive them then micheni- erase me from your book. The word micheini reaaranged spells mei Noach the waters of Noach. I will not be Noach. I will restore Your relationship with them And he prayed. And we survived. We flourished. We were forgiven. Moshe went up for 40 days and 40 nights which correspond to the 40 days and 40 nights the rain of the flood came down and brought us down the Torah again. We received the 2^nd Tablets and we merited to build Hashem His teiva, His ark in this world.

Moshe sinned and was not able to come into the land of Israel when he failed to teach faith to the people by the waters of Meriva. He hit the rock rather than speak to it. Just as Noah banged his nails and failed to inspire and pray for the people. Moshe failed in the final task to teach the Jewish people that they need to pray. They need to not just build their arks but to pray to Hashem for their salvation, for each other’s salvation. Hashem tells Moshe

 Bamidbar (20:12) Because you did not have faith in me to sanctify me before the nation therefore you shall not bring them in to this land I have given to them.

Rashi in our Parsha as well notes that this is the Noah problem as well when he got into the Ark Hashem mipnei mei hamabul- because of the waters of the flood.

Bereishit (7:7) Noach too, was one of those of little faith he believed and didn’t believe as he did not enter in the Ark until the water compelled him to.

What is the challenge of 120 years? The challenge of a lifetime is to have faith and to continue to have faith. To realize that each one of us has the potential to save an entire world. On a more mystical level we are told that the world is meant to last 6000 years. 6000 years are 120 yovels. 120 jubilee years of fifty years when each time the world renews itself. Each yovel the world, everything, goes back to the beginning. Our 120 years are the years that we realize that our life is not just about building our own little ark to survive the tidal waves of life. Rather they are years that we can build a whole new world for Hashem and make Him a home where His presence flows freely amongst all mankind.

When we bless someone to live 120 we are wishing them that Hashem gives them the ability to live this life to its maximum. The years of Moshe. The years that Noach was meant to save a world and that Moshe built a nation that will save it. What happens after 120? We are told that Moshe died on his birthday. He died at 120 but it is also the day he was reborn. He was reborn in each of us. After 120 he started again rebuilding. Rebuilding in each of us. Through each of. We have that spark of Moshe. So after 120, we wish them to have another 120. To start again. So now when you meet your next 119 year old you know what to bless them with. “Nuch a hundred und tzvantzik- another (or noach J) hundred and twenty. May they all be filled with gezunt!

Have a gizinteh Shabbos and vinter,

Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz

  

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RABBI SCHWARTZ’S FAVORITE YIDDISH PROVERB OF THE WEEK

“Dos lebn iz nit mer vi a kholem—ober vek mikh nit oyf”- Life is no more than a dream—but don't wake me up

RABBI SCHWARTZ'S TOUR GUIDE EXAM QUESTION OF THE WEEK

answer below at end of Email

Q.  Ancient synagogues in the Valley of Kinnarot (Bik’at Kinnarot):
A) Hippos (Sussita) and Sussia
B) Ein Nashut and Deir Aziz
C) Khirbet Wadi Hamam (Hurvat Vradim) and Magdala
D) Gamla and Magdala

RABBI SCHWARTZES NOAH COOL VIDEOS OF THE WEEK

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdSxjSP86u4-  What’s Parshat Noach without Aaron Rzels Tzei Min Hateva

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zyc1315KawQ- And of course what it would be without a famous now disgraced jailed comedian who shall remain nameless for the funniest ever classic Noah’s Ark routine. “What’s an ark?”

https://youtu.be/x-S2avWUGzs- Noah’s Ark funny commerical

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCU039VBRws– This is ummmm different Noahs Ark country song whadaya think?

RABBI SCHWARTZ'S “LOMDUS” CONNECTION OF THE WEEK

(New column this year- we have covered Pshat with Rashi, Midrash, Gematriaot, Haftoras- this year we take the next step analyzing the Parsha and exercising our brains with a bit of yeshiva lomduss, so get your thumb ready to twirl as we share with you a little bit of yeshiva style quick genius dissecting and thinking as we explore the Torah this year with the eyes of lomdus)

Parshat Noach – So for 120 years Noach is building this Ark. Did he have any help or was it just him building it? So there is midrash that suggests that Shem the son of Noach helped him build this. But wouldn’t it have been more practical to get more people to help him build it.? Maybe he would have finished the job faster?

So the Rogatchover Gaon suggests that perhaps it would be forbidden for anyone to help Noach build the Ark. The mitzva was for him to build it. Asey Lecha- you shall make the Ark. The mitzva was mandated that Noach himself should build it. Now although there are other mitzvos that one can appoint an agent to perform the mitzva for him. It is questionable if a non-Jew can be an agent or not for you in this particular scenario. Certainly when it comes to a mitzva that a non-Jew is not obligated in He can’t serve as your agent to do it for you. Just as he can’t lead services in your synagogue. But over here perhaps it is different? Can you guess why?

The Rogotchover Gaon suggests that there are two aspects of a mitzva. Sometimes the Torah is concerned with the act and the result is irrelevant and sometimes the act is irrelevant it is the result that counts. For example there is a mitzva for a father to circumcise their son. On the one hand the mitzva is for the result the son should be circumcised. If it is just a result oriented mitzva then you can appoint someone to do it for you. Yet there is another aspect to the mitzva. The Torah wants the father to circumcise the son. It is the act of circumcision that is what counts. If that is the case a agent can’t fulfil that for him.

So what is the mitzva of the building of the Ark. If it is to have an Ark then, hey, anyone can help him. Perhaps even a non-Jew as a non-Jew can appoint a Non-Jew to fulfil a mitzva that he is obligated in. As their mitzvos are result oriented. The idea is to carry out the will of the Almighty. If on the other hand the building of the Ark is because Hashem wanted Noach to build it. In fact the Lubavitcher Rebbe suggests that this might be the case as the Midrashim suggest that the function of the building was for people to inquire why he is doing it and he would get them to repent. If that was the case then no help would be permitted. 

There might be conflicting Midrashim on this topic, yet this concept and examination of what each mitzva is really about, the action or the result plays out in many areas in halacha. And that is real lomdus!

RABBI SCHWARTZ'S ERA’S AND THEIR PLACES AND PEOPLE IN ISRAEL OF THE WEEK

Death of Miriam and hitting the Rock- 1272 BC – The sister of Moshe dies in the last year of the Midbar. With her death the Jewish people undergo a water crisis, which Moshe solves by hitting the rock, which ultimately leads to his not being able to come into the land. The Torah tells us that this took  place in Kadesh which is seemingly on the other side of the Jordan River in Jordan. I’ve seen some suggest it is in the area of Petra.  Our sages do tell us though that the Rock/ well of Miriam rolled its way into the Kinneret when the Jews came to the land. That was is why, tour guides suggest, there are all types of undercurrent pulls that plague the Kinneret. As well there are quite a few places in Israel where I like to point out water that seemingly looks like it flows out of a rock. Whether it is in a small way like in Tel Dan or Ein Gedi or Ayit falls in the Golan it’s cool to see a small rock with water seemingly coming right out of it as it sits on top of a spring.

Now it is interesting that as opposed to the deaths of Aharon and Moshe which the Jewish people mourned it doesn’t seem to say Miriam was mourned.  Our sages picked up on that and suggest that the water crisis that came in the wake of her death was precisely as a result of that indifference. Now there is a tradition that goes back hundreds of years that the grave site of Miriam is in Tiverya, in an area called the Kivrey Imahot- the burial ground of the Matriarchs, Elisheva the wife of Aharon and Tzippora the wife of Moshe being the oldest traditions there with Miriam and some place Bilha and Zilpa and even Batsheva the wife of King David there as well. I certainly can’t argue with tradition. It’s bad for business 😊. But the Torah tells us she was buried in Kadesh. But perhaps they felt bad after the water crisis leaving here there in Jordan so she was brought to Israel. Who knows? The point of graves is of course to connect with the souls of the departed and their inspiration and that is where Jews connected.

RABBI SCHWARTZ’S LIFE JOKES  OF THE WEEK

Yankel goes to the doctor and says, "Doc, I would like to live a long life. What should I do?"

 "I think that is a wise decision," the doctor replies. "Let's see, do you smoke?"

"Oh.. Half a pack a day."

"Starting NOW, no more smoking." Yankel agrees.

 The doctor then asks, "Do you drink?"

"Oh, well Doc, not much, just a bit of wine with my meals, and a beer or two every once in a while."

"Starting now, you drink only water. No exceptions." Yankel is a bit upset, but also agrees.

The doctor asks, "How do you eat?"

"Oh, well, you know, Doc, normal stuff."

"Starting now you are going on a very strict diet. You are going to eat only raw vegetables, with no dressing, and non-fat cottage cheese."

Yankel is now really worried. "Doc, is all this really necessary?" "Do you want to live long?" "Yes."

 Yankel is appalled. "Doc... Are you sure I'm going to live longer this way?"

"I have no idea, but however long you live, I assure you is going to seem like an eternity! 

Berel was at the bar, just looking at his drink. He stays like that for a half hour. Then a big trouble making truck driver steps next to him, takes the drink from the guy, & just drinks it all down. Berel just breaks down and starts crying. The truck driver says, "Come on man, I was just joking. Here, I'll buy you another drink. I just can't stand to see a man cry.

 "No, it's not that," the man replies, wiping his tears, "This day is the worst of my life. First, I oversleep & I go in late to my office. My outraged boss fires me. When I leave the building to go to my car, I find out it was stolen. The police say they can do nothing. I get a cab to go home, & when I get out, I remember I left my wallet. The cab driver just drives away. I go inside my house where I find that the water main busted and it flooded the house. I leave my home, come to this bar, & just when I was thinking about putting an end to my life, you show up & drink my poison."

Bernie was unfortunate to be hit by a 10 ton crane and landed up in hospital in intensive care. His best friend Morris came to visit him. Bernie struggles to tell Morris, “My wife Sadie visits me three times a day. She’s so good to me. Every day, she reads next to me at the bedside.” 

“What does she read?” 

“My life insurance policy.” 

Old Chaim is dying. His entire mishpocha is sitting around his bed, subdued and not knowing what else they can do. 
They ask him, “Chaim, maybe we can fulfil your last wish?” 
“Yes... I'd like ... a cup of tea ... with two teaspoons ... of sugar.” 
“Why?” they ask him. 
“I’ve had a long life... and all of that time... when I drank tea in my own house... I used one spoon of sugar... When I had tea... in someone else's house... I put three spoons of sugar in my cup... But really... really... all my life... I loved tea... with two spoonfuls of sugar.” .

Little Sam was out shopping with his mother, something he didn’t like very much. But when they passed a toy store, Sam came to life. He saw a new toy in the window that he didn’t have but wanted. Sam begged, pleaded and nagged but to no avail. He got so rude that his mother firmly said, "I’m very sorry Sam, but we didn’t come out to buy you a toy."
Sam angrily said, "I’ve never met a woman as mean as you."
Holding his hand gently, she replied, "Sam, darling, one day you'll get married and then you will ... you really will, I promise you."

Benny was fed up with being bossed around by his wife Leah so he went to see a psychiatrist. The psychiatrist told him that he was too much of a mild-mannered man and needed to build up his self-esteem. So he lent Benny a book on assertiveness. Benny started to read the book on the train and by the time he got home, he had finished the book.
Benny strode manfully into the house, walked over to Leah, pointed his finger at her and said, "From now onwards you must get it into your head that I and not you make all the decisions in this house. Tonight, I want you to prepare me my favorite meal and I expect a special mouth-watering dessert afterward. Then, after dinner, you're going to run me a hot bath so I can relax. And when I step out of the bath, guess who's going to dress me and comb my hair?"
"Abrahamson, the funeral director, that’s who." replied Leah

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Answer is C–  I decided this year to keep score to see how well I would do on theses newer exams. I got this one correct this week as well. Let’s see how I do the rest of the year. This one was an educated guess. A and D I knowcked out right away. Sussia is by the southern Hevron hills far away and just thrown in to confuse you because it sounds like Sussita probably. Gamla is way up on the mountains of the Golan Heights also not in the valley. I’ve never been do Deir Aziz or Natush. But I know that Magdala right outside of Gamla has one of the oldest shuls dating back to 2^nd Temple and Wadi Hamam I wasn’t sure about. I knew that it was certainly in the Kinneret Valley but the shul is kind of up Mt. Arbel not mamash in the valley. But I went with it and was correct. The Aziz and Natush sites are both in the Golan by the way. So the score is Schwartz 2 for 2!