Rabbi David Zahtz | Noach 5787

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── Shiur Outline ──
(0:07) The Rainbow as God's Covenant Sign
(1:30) Chizkiyahu’s Era: Torah Everywhere
(3:17) The Sword at the Beit Midrash
(5:09) Joshua’s War and the Valley of Torah

AI-Generated Summary (AI can be inaccurate. Check important information):

In analyzing the generation of King Chizkiyahu—which required no rainbow because of its exceptional righteousness—the shiur addresses why the king planted a sword outside the study hall to compel the nation to study Torah ahead of the threat from Sancheriv. Drawing on the Netziv, the speaker explains that Chizkiyahu was arming the people with their ultimate weapon, demonstrating that the voice of Torah study provides absolute divine protection against external enemies. Throughout Jewish history, military defense is never detached from spiritual dedication, embodying the ideal of safra veseifa, the necessary union of the book and the sword. Ultimately, engaging deeply in Torah study directly empowers and shields the soldiers who are actively fighting on the physical battlefront.

1. Generations without a rainbow — Rashi notes that the word dorot is written chaser because generations with complete tzaddikim are so righteous that they never require the sign of the keshet.
2. Chizkiyahu's sword — King Chizkiyahu placed a sword at the entrance of the beit midrash, declaring that anyone who failed to engage in Torah study deserved to be pierced by it.
3. Defeating Sancheriv — The Gemara teaches that the yoke of Sancheriv was shattered solely because of the oil burned for Torah study in the batei midrash and batei knesiot.
4. The ultimate weapon — The Netziv explains that Chizkiyahu enforced intense study because Torah serves as our sword, completely safeguarding the Jewish people against powerful invaders like Sancheriv.
5. The voice of Ya'akov — A Midrash notes that Bil'am HaRasha admitted enemies cannot harm the Jewish nation when the sound of tinokot shel beit rabban learning Torah resonates from the study halls.
6. Torah during battle — Even while actively waging war, Yehoshua immersed himself in umkah shel Torah, demonstrating that Jewish military leadership remains anchored in deep Torah knowledge.
7. Combining book and sword — Jewish warfare unites the book and the blade, as soldiers carry sefarim directly to the chazit to draw essential spiritual protection and koach from Torah study.

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Good שבת everyone.

In this week's פרשה,

we're introduced to the קשת.

We're introduced to the rainbow.

What does the פסוק tell us about the rainbow?

והקמותי את בריתי אתכם ולא יכרת כל בשר עוד ממי המבול ולא יהיה עוד

מבול לשחת הארץ,

הקדוש ברוך הוא is not going to destroy the world.

And the way we know that is because of the קשת,

because of the rainbow.

And then the פסוק then says ויאמר אלקים זאת אות הברית,

this is it,

this is the sign,

אשר אני נתן ביני וביניכם ובין כל נפש חיה אשר אתכם לדרת עולם,

for all of eternity.

This is the sign for all of eternity that I will not destroy the

world.

רש״י on this פסוק sees there's there's there's something interesting.

לדרת עולם.

דורות is actually written חסר.

It's written למ״ד דל״ת רי״ש תי״ו.

Where are all the וs?

And רש״י tells us it's written חסר because there are going to be דורות,

there are going to be generations with צדיקים גמורים that we don't need any

קשת.

They'll never be seeing a קשת,

because the world won't need to be thought,

there's never a consideration to destroy the world.

One of those is during the times of חזקיהו.

During the time of חזקיהו,

תורה was rampant.

תורה was learnt.

The the גמרא in סנהדרין on דף צ״ד even tells us to quote,

אמר רבי יצחק נפחא חובל עול של סנחריב מפני שמנו של חזקיהו שהיה דולק

בבתי כנסיות ובבתי מדרשות.

How did the עול,

how was the עול of סנחריב destroyed?

Because of the oil of חזקיהו.

What oil of חזקיהו?

The oil that existed in the lights of the בית כנסת and the בתי

מדרשות,

of the בתי מדרש and the בתי כנסיות that were always lit.

Why?

Because the גמרא says,

what did he do?

נעץ חרב על פתח בית המדרש,

he put down a sword,

he put it right in front of the entrance to the בית מדרש and

he said,

כל מי שאינו עוסק בתורה ידקר בחרב.

Anyone who doesn't learn תורה should be stabbed by this sword.

And ברוך ה׳,

from that moment forward in that generation,

מדן עד באר שבע,

everyone,

everyone was holding,

everyone knew.

Such a He's able to do that?

Kind of crazy.

He put a sword in front of the בית מדרש?

Put a sword in front of the בית מדרש to threaten in order for

them to learn תורה?

Why would he do that?

And also,

what's the idea of putting the sword there?

The נצי״ב asks the question.

The נצי״ב says,

how could he possibly have done that?

לגזור כזאת,

to make a גזירה like this?

And he answers,

he's showing the power of what תורה is.

Just like we know סנחריב went around and he destroyed nation upon nation and

city upon city upon city,

even in ארץ ישראל until ירושלים,

עמדות היו רגלינו בשעריך ירושלם.

ירושלים he didn't get to.

Not at first,

because why?

ירושלים was כולו תורה.

Was כולו תורה.

תורה stood to protect us.

Nobody could handle,

no one could destroy that.

Even more than that,

the מדרש tells us that the non-Jews went over to בלעם הרשע and said,

"We want to marry the Jews." What'd he say?

"Go to the בתי מדרש.

If you hear תינוקות של בית רבן learning תורה,

you can't,

because הקל קול יעקב והידים ידי עשו.

הקל קול יעקב,

when that's ringing,

we have no כח,

we can't.

But if there's no one learning תורה,

then you have a shot." Why did חזקיהו המלך feel it necessary to make

sure that everyone learned תורה?

Because he was arming every single person.

We were about to encounter סנחריב,

and in order to combat סנחריב,

we need to learn.

The תורה is our sword.

But let's speak truthful.

Throughout all of our history,

the sword is always combined with learning.

יהושע,

the פסוק tells us that when יהושע went out to war,

what does the פסוק tell us?

The פסוק says that he was וילן,

right?

What does the פסוק say?

וילן יהושע בלילה ההוא בתוך העמק.

Why בתוך העמק?

Why in the valley?

עומקה של תורה.

Our leaders,

even in battle,

are our תורה scholars.

תורה is always surrounding us even in war.

It's one of the most beautiful things that I think חזקיהו was trying to

show us.

The greatest value to to all of our efforts in any war still needs

to be done with תורה.

What an unbelievable thing to think about.

ברוך השם to have the זכות of being involved in ישיבה where ספרא וסיפא

is exactly what we have,

the people who learn and those people who dedicate themselves to take the ספרים

with them to the bases,

to take the ספרים with them to the חזית,

to the war front.

That's the Jewish army.

That's the army that we're proud of.

We don't separate ourselves from תורה and the battle.

We combine them.

And בעזרת השם,

we should continue learning תורה,

start a beautiful זמן,

a beautiful חורף זמן,

a longer זמן with a leap year,

an עיבור שנה,

but בעזרת השם,

we should continue and continue taking advantage to give כח to our forces,

to give כח to the Jewish people,

to be able to combat all of the battles that we have around the

world.

Have a beautiful שבת.