Torah Thoughts on Parshas Noach by Rabbi Yehuda Garsek
"וְזֶה אֲשֶׁר תַּעֲשֶׂה אֹתָהּ שְׁלשׁ מֵאוֹת אַמָה אֹרֶךְ הַתֵּבָה חֲמִשִׁים אַמָה רָחְבָּהּ וּשְׁלשִׁים אַמָה קוֹמָתָהּ" בְּרֵאשִׁית ו':ט''ו
“And this is how you should make it: three hundred cubits the length of the ark, fifty cubits its width, and thirty cubits its height.” Bereshis 6:15
נִסִים וְנִפְלָאוֹת – miracles and wonders! That is what we see and hopefully feel on a daily basis.
Hashem commands Noach to build an ark, then tells him “and this is how you should make it.” After that introductory pasuk, Hashem gives Noach detailed instructions regarding the materials and dimensions of the ark. Then, in Pesukim 18-22, Hashem tells Noach to bring to the ark two of every species of every animal, bird, reptile, insect, etc., and seven of each animal that was "tahor".
Rabbeinu Bachya asks a compelling question. Why does Hashem want Noach to make a very large boat? Hashem could have saved Noach and his family by putting them and the animals in a “safe place”. For instance, Eretz Yisrael was not included in the flood. The great sage tells us that the whole story is a miracle. Do we actually think that the ark is large enough to contain the unbelievable number of two of everything on Earth? Of course not! That is a tremendous wonder by itself.
Rabbeinu Bachya explains that each and every miracle throughout the TaNaCh has what we refer to as “Tevah of the Nes”, something that we would term “natural”. Each and every miraculous event that we have contains a “natural” ingredient. Examples of this are the many lopsided military victories which Bnei Yisrael fought against the odds. Great armies came against Am Yisrael, yet, with Hashem’s hand interceding, we were victorious.
History proves that though the greatest nations, with their own cultures and beliefs, tried to destroy us, they no longer exist. Egyptians, Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Crusaders, Communists, Nazis – they are all gone. Yet we still face others who want our destruction.
Perhaps Rabbeinu Bachya is teaching us that every miracle and wonder not only contains a part of nature within it, but that nature itself is a miracle. These “natural” phenomena test the emunah and bitachon of many. Unfortunately, there are Jews who cannot accept the overt miracles that we witness, not only in Biblical times, but today as well. Whether it is the Esser Makkos, Krias Yam Suf, forty years in the desert, or our very existence as an eternal people of Hashem, they cannot see it as miraculous. And the fact that in contemporary times we have witnessed the founding of the State of Israel and her many challenges throughout her years can only be explained through Hashem’s constant providence.
Rabbeinu Bachya emphasizes that throughout history, HaKadosh Baruch Hu has demonstrated His presence in every age and era – and that is "tevah", that is what is natural! Tevah in reality is the nissim and niflaos, the miracles and wonders we experience every day. When one of the more secular leaders of modern-day Israel was asked: “Do you believe in miracles?”, he answered for all of Klal Yisrael when he said: “We don’t believe in miracles. We depend on miracles.”
Rabbi Yehuda (Edward) Garsek is a musmach of Beis HaMidrash LaTorah (1972). He served as Rabbi of Congregation Etz Chaim in Toledo, Ohio for 37 years (1975-2012). He then moved to Chicago where he learned in the Choshen Mishpat Kollel for 8 years, while also teaching Jewish History in FYHS for several years. The Garseks presently live in Yerushalayim.
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