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A refreshing and clear review of each Parsha in the Torah presented by Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe
0:03 You're listening to Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe of Torch in Houston, Texas. This is the Parsha Review Podcast.
0:11 Good morning, everybody. Welcome back to the Parsha Review Podcast. It is so wonderful to be here this morning. And thank you all for coming.
0:20 The incredible story of Noah we learn about this week in this week's Parsha. We learn about how Noah... The Torah says, So these are the offspring of Noah. Noah was a righteous man.
0:42 Perfect was he in his generations. With God did Noah walk. So there's so many questions here that need to be addressed. So many things that we need to consider.
0:58 Read this one verse. Now we have an entire portion to look through. And I hope that each one of us take the opportunity to look through and read each portion. You don't have to learn it with all the commentaries.
1:10 You don't have to learn it with any commentaries. Just read the story of the Torah where God is instructing us and guiding us. And there's so much to learn from this. But Rashi here, the great commentator Rashi says the following.
1:23 So if you notice the order of what's being said in this Torah, portion doesn't really make sense. It says first, these are the offspring of Noach, and then it says, oh, by the way, Noach was a righteous and perfect man, right? That's not the offspring of Noach. I mean, you want to talk about the offspring, tell me about his children, his grandchildren, his great-grandchildren, that's the offspring.
1:47 When you're telling me the offspring of Noach and you tell me, oh, by the way, he was a very righteous and pious person, that's not the offspring. Our sages tell us no. The good deeds of a person is their legacy. That's your true legacy.
2:03 Okay? The most rewarded legacy you leave in this world is your good actions, your good deeds. That's your legacy. That's your true legacy.
2:20 Okay. But now Rashi says something very interesting.
2:26 why are we limiting his greatness he was a righteous and perfect man perfect was he in his generations what does that mean in his why are you putting here a limitation to this so rashi says there are some of our sages some say that this was in in in in praise
2:50 That if he was in a generation with other righteous people, he would have been even more righteous. And while other sages see this in a negative light, meaning in his generation, he was righteous. But had he been in the generation of Abraham, he wouldn't have been considered righteous at all. Meaning everything is relative.
3:12 It's relative. Which generation was he in? In his generation. So the question that everybody asks.
3:20 is the Torah itself says that the Torah says that he was a righteous man. So why are we even saying, well, if you would have been in the generation of somebody else, why even get there? The Torah says he was righteous. So now we're going to qualify it.
3:41 We're going to quantify it. Well, had he been in this generation, he would have been great. He would have been in that generation. What's going on over here?
3:49 Our sages tell us, and we're going to elaborate on two parts of this. Number one is our sages teach us that to be a leader of a generation, you need to take responsibility for the generation. To be a leader in a generation, you need to take responsibility for the generation. We see this with Moshe.
4:12 We see this with Moshe. What did Moshe do? Moshe saw the generation, his generation, that his generation was suffering. His generation was dealing with slavery to the pharaohs.
4:27 What did Moshe do? He saw their pain. So what did he do? He went to fight for them.
4:34 He went to go stand up for them. He went to go do something for them. Which... Noach didn't. Noach had 120 years that he was building the ark.
4:47 You'd think you would have a student or two that listened to one of his podcasts that would come back and connect to God and realize that they were going in a wayward direction. Noach didn't have anybody. Who did he bring with him? His three sons and their wives.
5:02 That's it. That's it. Nobody. He couldn't bring anybody on board. What did we see by Abraham?
5:08 What was Abraham doing? He had a tent that was open on all four sides. Anybody at once can come from this direction, that direction, anybody, everybody's welcome. Abraham felt a responsibility for his generation.
5:23 To be a leader, you need to care about your generation. That is the job of a leader. The job of a leader is not to say, oh, I'm going to become a senator or congressman. I'm going to become a president and then they're going to honor me and they're going to bring me my coffee and I'm going to be able to ride on Air Force One and I'm going to be so famous around the world.
5:41 It's about me, me, me. Or is it, I need to get jobs for the people who are hurting. I need to give them dignity so that they get off all of these government benefits, so that they can have a dignity, they can come home, they can feel proud that they earned a living, that they're not going to be online waiting for food stamps, that I can elevate them so that they can get a pay raise.
6:09 The difference of leadership is what our sages are pointing out here. There's a leadership quality that Abraham had that Noach did not have. Who am I to talk about Noach? I can only say what the commentaries bring.
6:24 As an individual, Arya Wolby in 2026 has no right to speak about the greatness of what the Torah calls an Ish Tzadik, a righteous man. But there's something we can learn here that our sages bring to our attention. And that is... to take responsibility for our generation.
6:48 Not only to worry about myself, me and myself, me and my family will serve God, not worried about anybody else. I just got to make sure that I know a leader worries about their generation. A leader is concerned to ensure that every single person in the generation has the opportunity to grow, that every person in the generation has the opportunity to live a better life. That's a leader.
7:14 Noah was lacking in this area. And this is why some of the sages said, had he been in a generation where there were other people who were concerned for their generation, he wouldn't be considered to be as righteous. Okay, so that's very, very clear, very understandable. But now I want to share with you something I saw this morning that really blew me away.
7:38 And this is from Rabbi Schwab. Rabbi Shimon Schwab brings, on this, On the next Pesach where it talks about that Noah comes with his sons, his wife, and his son's wives with him into the ark because of the waters of the flood. So what's happening here?
8:00 Commentaries explain. Rashi comments that Noah was among the small believers. Why? He entered the ark when? Only when the waters of the flood flew him in to the ark.
8:23 That's when he went in, right? He was forced to do so because the floodwaters had begun to drown him. And basically it pushed him into the ark, closed the door of the ark, and then it started ascending on top, floating on top of the water. And that's how he got in.
8:38 Meaning he didn't really have so much emunah. He didn't have, it says, he was lacking, he was a little bit short on his emunah. Among the small believers, says Rashi. How is it possible that Noah, who is described as a perfectly righteous person, who had fulfilled all that Hashem commanded him regarding the construction of the ark, that he was among the small believers?
9:08 I mean, imagine 120 years, people come and ask you, Nancy, people come and ask you, so what are you doing here? And you're like, oh, I'm building an ark. Why are you building an ark? Because God said that the generation is evil and he's going to bring a flood.
9:22 And 120 years, he doesn't stop. 120 years, he's getting that cedar wood. He's getting all of that and carving it and building it and constructing this massive, massive ark. And he continues, what are you saying he's a non-believer?
9:38 He's of the small believers. What do you mean a small believer? To be sure, Noah believed God's foretelling of the Mabel, of the flood, and harbored no doubts about its impending arrival. However, Emunah is much more than a belief in Hashem's promises.
9:58 Emunah is a creative force. Rav Schwab says over here, he continues, he says, emunah is the power to actualize the manifestation of that promise and to bring it into reality. Emunah means you believe in it until it becomes. Emunah is related to the word in the Megillah called, he raised Hadassah, talking about Mordechai.
10:28 What does it mean, omen? Emunah is cognate to the word omein, which describes the caregiver who strives to bring out the child's full potential, to raise him up into a reality, meaning emunah comes from the shoresh, from the root of you're bringing it, you're manifesting it. Every single person has potential.
10:59 As a parent, our job is to bring out their potential, not to just raise them as fine human beings, to bring out their full character, to bring out their full potential, to give them the guidelines, to give them the parameters within which they can shine. They can bring their uniqueness to the world. That's what Mordechai did. That's why he's called, he brought Esther, who's called Hadassah, later changed into Esther,
11:29 her essence changed he brought out her potential emuno means bringing a concept into reality Okay, now let's apply this to Noach. To illustrate this, the Gemara says that one who denies the resurrection of the dead will not share in the resurrection of the dead. He will not be part of it.
11:52 In other words, a person who does not believe in the resurrection of the dead will not experience this event. It's not a punishment. of the non-believer, but rather it's a consequence. This is the reality.
12:07 You didn't believe in it. You didn't bring it to life. If one does not believe in the resurrection of the dead, then the resurrection of the dead does not exist for him. In order for the resurrection to be a reality for a person, he must employ the force of Emunah in it.
12:25 It is the person's belief that actually causes the promise to materialize for him. Imagine what this is. If a person says, you know why I don't buy the lottery ticket?
12:39 Do you know why I don't apply for that job? Because they're never going to hire me anyway. I'm never going to win the ticket. I'm never going to win anyway, so why should I?
12:48 You're right. You're never going to win with that attitude. With that attitude, you will never win it because you're not bringing it to life. Now, I'm not recommending that people buy a lottery ticket, but
13:00 I am recommending that people apply for that
13:02 job. Oh, why would they choose me? And we all know people who have that attitude about everything. Oh, I'll never reach out to that person because he's so busy, he'll never want to talk to me.
13:13 Well, you're right. He doesn't want to talk to you because he doesn't want to talk to someone who doesn't reach out. You know what they say? They say a question you don't ask is 100% going to be a no.
13:26 But a question that you do ask is only 50%. You already removed 50% of the no just by asking. Well, I'll ask them, you know, they're going out of town. Can I borrow their car?
13:39 Well, if you don't ask, 100% no. But if you do ask, it's only 50%. The Torah states, It's an amazing verse that the Torah tells us with regard to the seventh year, to the sabbatical year. What does it say in the verse? The verse in Leviticus 25 says as follows.
14:15 year you're going to ask behold we will not sow and not gather our crops i will ordain my blessing for you in the sixth year and it will yield a sufficient crop For the three-year period, for the sixth year, for the seventh year, and then the first year of the new seven years, of the new crop.
14:36 The great Hasidic leader, the Noam and Elimelech, comments on these p'sukim, on these verses, that if a person does not sincerely trust that Hashem will provide for him during the Shemitah year, he, as it were, weakens Hashem's power to perform miracles for him. Hashem, as it were, must then issue a special command to nature to produce the food in abundance. As it says, I will command my blessing.
15:10 If, however, one's faith would have been firm and one wouldn't have asked what will i eat in the seventh year then hashem will not have needed to make a special bracha a special blessing to the land the land naturally will have produced that which the owner trusted in hashem would bring about and he had promised to do So we see here that the reliance on that emunah, when I have faith in something, when I truly believe in something, I'm bringing it to reality.
15:45 I'm manifesting it and I'm making it happen. Yeah, you know how you're going to make it happen? You're going to faith it till you make it. We mentioned this earlier this week.
15:56 You're going to faith it till you make it. When you have emunah in something, you're going to bring it to reality. So let's bring this back to Noah. When our sages say that Noah was of the small believers, they mean that Noah did not wish to activate his emunah regarding the coming of the flood.
16:17 He didn't wish to be a partner to the devastation of the world. He was hoping that if he wouldn't intensify his efforts in emunah, he could possibly delay the flood. The meaning. If he didn't have Emunah in it, it wouldn't happen.
16:39 He didn't want it to happen. Meaning it was intentional that he didn't have Emunah. Because he wanted to save his generation and perhaps prevent it altogether. However, our sages criticized Noah for this.
16:52 Why? Because Noah should have employed his full efforts in the area of Emunah regarding the flood. As the prophet Joshua told Chizkiyahu, what have you to do with the secrets of the all-merciful? Why is it your business how God runs his world? You have to do what you do.
17:11 and not worry about God's plan. Don't try to change what God does in his world. Don't try to reorganize God's structure of this world. You should have done what you were commanded, and let the Holy One, blessed be He, do that which He pleases Him.
17:30 So what we see here, says Rav Schwab, and he brings from the normally melech such beautiful words. that our responsibility, our gift in life, is the ability to have a munah. That means that we have the power to create our reality. When we manifest our existence, the world around us, we're able to bring it to great heights.
17:58 We're able to do unbelievable things. Oh, I'm never going to ask that person for that job. I'm never going to ask them if they could change their mind. They already said what they said, finished.
18:09 If you firmly believe it, you're going to change your reality. The whole world around you changes. And Noah should have employed that. The meaning.
18:21 There's something so delicate here in our lives that's our own belief in whether or not something could or could not happen. We limit ourselves. We say, no, that, that, I can never get there. I can never do that.
18:36 I can never accomplish that. Me write a book, I can't, who am I to write a book? Right? So we're limiting, you're right, you're limiting yourself, you're not going to be able to do it. But if you believe, and some people say, oh, they're crazy, they'll never be able to do that.
18:53 And they go ahead and they do it. They talked about, you know, my favorite example in this generation is Elon Musk. My favorite example about doing the impossible, where they said, oh, you can never have reusable rockets. You can never have a rechargeable car that'll be marketable.
19:16 Well, he proved us wrong in both areas. They said the same thing about the semi-truck, the semi-trailer, that he can never have one of those trucks be an electric Tesla truck.
19:27 And he
19:27 proved it wrong again. Not because he's trying to prove something, but there's a different way in which people see things. And people, the great visionaries of the modern world today, like Howard Schultz, right? If you listen to what he says about how he was able to envision that you'll have a coffee shop, that Starbucks at every corner.
19:53 And people said, that's nonsense. That's
19:55 crazy. Nobody wants to drink coffee.
19:56 You'll always have the naysayers. You'll always have the people who will say it'll never happen. It can never work out. It can never be done.
20:03 And then you have the crazy people who say, well, I believe in it and therefore it will be. I'm going to do everything I can to try to manifest it. And with the blessing of Hashem, we can accomplish great things. Because when we believe in it,
20:21 firmly, with a full heart, Hashem says, give it to them. Let them have it. Let them reap the rewards of that emunah. And we see also the example that Rav Shav brings here about the responsibility of parenting to bring your child's potential.
20:42 I give a parenting class every week. Last night we had another session, another class with all of these wonderful young parents. And the problem I find, and I'm going to mention this, God willing, in the next class I do with them, is they get very technical about... Small things.
21:01 I lose my patience with my child, and I keep on getting angry at my child, and they keep on dealing with small little things. Instead of looking at the big picture of you have the greatest gift in the world, a child that you are responsible for, for a limited amount of time. We don't have today, happy birthday to my oldest son. He's 24 years old today.
21:24 And what a special gift that we have for a very short period of time. that we can influence our children. It's a very short period of time. We don't have forever to raise our children.
21:40 It's like when you plant that tree, you have a limited influence in how strong the foundation is going to be, how strong those roots are going to be. And if you don't make sure that it's straight and you put it in crookedly, it's going to grow crookedly. And if you're not going to give it the best soil, For nourishment, it might die. It might wither and die.
22:06 We are that for our children. Our responsibility is to bring out the best in our children. To have always moments of joy and happiness. You know, I get these magnificent bursts of joy every day when my children send me a picture or a video of them with their children, with my grandchildren.
22:28 And to me, I hope and I pray that those lovable, joyful moments are constant. Not that only on camera we're going to send, you know, Saba and Bobby just a quick little snippet of them laughing. But the rest of the day they're crying and unhappy. No, no, no. I want it to be the whole day.
22:53 Because children who are happy are children who are healthy. And that's what we want to raise. That we can create an environment in our home
23:03 that is
23:04 wholesome for
23:05 our children to bring out
23:06 their potential. To not be worried, uh-oh, is daddy angry? I just need to hide. Or mommy, I remember we've had people come to our home.
23:15 Like what's going on? Not only children, some were adults married. They're like, my wife is in a crazy mood. I'm out of the house.
23:21 I can't be there now. I can't. Then they'd come to my house. I'm like, what's going on?
23:26 You don't have a wife and children at home, right? At some point, right? We would tell them that. They're like, no, no, no. My wife is in, she's in a crazy mode right now and I need to be out of the house.
23:38 Be there with her. Maybe she's facing a challenge. Our children are the same. And our children who run away from their home, that means it's not good for them.
23:48 We want to create an environment for our family, for our children, for our spouse, each one respectively, that is wholesome for them, that is good for them. that is going to bring out their full potential, that gives them a place of comfort, that gives them a place of encouragement, that gives them resilience, that gives them the ability to go out and face the world.
24:13 My dear friends, we need to learn to be like Noah in some areas and to be like Abraham in other areas and to be like Moses in other areas and to take that. And I believe, possibly, we can learn from this that each one of us is a Noah. We're both, we have unbelievable aspects of greatness, but sometimes we limit our greatness.
24:38 Sometimes we don't believe that we can accomplish as much as we actually can. Go out there and get him. My dear friends, have a magnificent Shabbos. Thank you so much.
24:50 No, no, so solitude is being grounded. Meaning solitude is not a constant state. We mentioned it on Monday. Solitude means I take some time for myself that is uninterrupted, just me and Hashem.
25:09 That's crucial. By the way, if you ask leaders, they will tell you that the most important time to be a leader is when they're alone. Yes, they need to be working in the Senate. They need to be working in the House.
25:26 They need to be working in the White House. They need to be doing all of... Yeah, it's very important. But if you don't have time just you yourself, you're going to go crazy.
25:36 A person needs to spend time just alone. Now, that's not all... Again, we were talking about an hour a week. One hour a week.
25:45 But let's do 10 minutes a week. 10 minutes. Yeah, so definitely it's important, but it's not our whole lives. And you don't find that people who were really great, that that's what they did, that they just isolated.
26:03 Isolation is not a Jewish quality. On the contrary. We get involved with the people. We get involved with the generation.
26:14 Moshe was among the people. He saw what was going on. He wasn't looking from up there. Which, by the way, was a Balak and Bilam thing.
26:23 They were looking from the top of the mountain. We are elevated. You guys are down there. Which is metaphoric to how they envisioned themselves.
26:31 We're untouchable. And that's a big problem. That's not Jewish leadership. Jewish leadership, you need to be among the people.
26:41 When you're untouchable, yeah, that's not a Jewish thing. All right. That's a great question.
26:48 You've been listening to Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe on a podcast produced by Torch, the Torah Outreach Resource Center of Houston. Please help sponsor an episode so we can continue to produce more quality Jewish content for our listeners around the globe. Please visit torchweb.org to donate and partner with us on this incredible endeavor.