Noach Walked with G-d - Singing the Praises of The Righteous Gentile with Rabbi Aaron Dovid Poston

[Music] midrash welcome home to torah a warm welcome broke hashem we have a big crowd here in the big midrash and we have a few people here on skype world and here we go we're in parchas noah and i'm going to tell you some of the ideas we're going to talk about tonight are very relevant in the contemporary modern world that we live in some obviously this is the torah it's for jews and parties noah many non-jews will be able to uh relate or understand the torah a lot more through some of the ideas we're going to discuss um just to let everyone know once again that we use the kli yakar as the basis for the discussion that we have i'd like people to try their best to learn hebrew to know hebrew to see the words in hebrew so down below in the description box is a link to the original hebrew sources to those who come to the classes or those on the email list i give out additional call you know an additional english source sheet usually it's just the sources spelled out in english but sometimes there's a lot more explanation okay so here we go we are in parshas noah which is chapter 6 verse 9 and genesis and it says like this these are the offspring now this is the translation in art scroll these are the offspring of noah nook was a righteous man perfect in his generations noah walked with god in hebrew we're going to see the word ella these todos these are the togos of noah you put a comma there and then noah is sadiq he's he's a righteous guy and he was either perfect complete he was upstanding in his generation and he walked with god as elokim now rashi i didn't quote the whole rashi here but there in other words it's broken down into several parts but the first two i did so in the english source sheets these are the generations of narc noah was a righteous man it mentions and somebody asked us before and we're going to talk about the connection between partial praise sheet which is prior to noah it mentions here if you go back one verse okay just turn your pages one word one verse in the in the tanakh in verse 8 it says moak found grace in the eyes of hashem you could find this on page one of the english and number three but noah found favor in the eyes of the lord hashem very nice so in the end of breishi that mentions that nach found grace i mean he was a good guy who else is going to find grace in the eyes of god but what does the word ella introduce okay we'll talk about that shortly but right the clear car begins parish rashi rashi explains ho si per bishitha since it mentioned right it's already mentioning torah mentions him it tells of his praise what do we know if you overhear people who are righteous we say zecha let's all right he should be remembered as a blessing and that's based on a verse so when jews hear about someone who passed away or they mentioned somebody who had passed away a long time ago they'll mention these words they said and that is in proverbs chapter 10 verse the mention of a righteous man is for a blessing and god forbid when we hear the name of someone who's not so righteous someone who is actually evil the rest of the verse says but the name of the wicked will rot yerkav shall rot right the shame russian yerkov you'll hear that also people mentioning when they mention certain people's names of people who are truly objectively evil anyway now what does the clear car begin he begins by asking a interesting idea mentioning an idea so one second we mentioned his name back in parashat bray sheet no shouldn't have also told us a little bit more about him his name was also mentioned in the end of brexit mentioned a much you should have mentioned a lot more well wait a second ella ephesian and marcon how does our verse begin the whole chapter of partial snow begins with ella todos noc what does the word ella mean it could mean but it can be these truth is it doesn't have a vowel we'll talk about that in a second so leficia marcon ella told those you know we're told we're told in brexit rabbi an interesting idea whenever we hear the word ella in the sukim the coma comes at the rishoni for some reason is like excludes it puts whatever was said before in not a not a good light puzzle you heard that word before puzzle so it's if it had a vove it would be like a vault it's and these and therefore there's a connection but if it's just ella without the vove it's whatever was before was before and is no longer pertinent and now we're going on with the new story okay now i actually copied down here in the in number four the midrash rabbit in breishit 33. and it's mentioned by the name of rabbi yabahu who says the komakumshnemar ayla but if you have the ela is actually most if allah rishonim okay and he brings an example el paso is he's explaining to a certain extent you know why it doesn't have the vow it's the ella without the love and puzzle whatever was before because of the generation of the flood is no longer in fact the gomorrah sanhedrin says they should have no share in the world to come so whatever came before whoever lived before has no share in the world to come meaning the the generation of the flood all those who died in the flood finished gone and now noah he's righteous and we're going to talk about the word todos in two different ways todos can mean generations or progeny but it can also mean drum roll please who are my drummers everybody together because this is going to be key it means masim tovim masim tovin and now let's look at the second part of rashi when it says another explanation this is on page one the first source why the names of the children are not mentioned immediately following these are the generations of noah just look at again at the verse these the offer these are the offspring of noah noah was a righteous man we're talking about him his prison his character he was perfect in his generations noc walked with god and then it begins in the next verse noah begot three sons shame kham and yafis shouldn't have said right away these are the todos of noah and then mentioned his three sons but it doesn't it mentions his character so this is consistent with rashi for why the names the children are mentioned immediately these are generations of to teach you what does it mean the eaker todos what are the prime generations or future of a person it's of the the it's good deeds of the righteous it's the good deeds you understand so there are people who unfortunately i'll say the words unfortunately whatever i don't know if that's true but who don't have children who never had a chance for whatever reason and you know what they're remembered for good their deeds you don't leave this world only with children in fact there's no even guarantee that your children will be so righteous as you but your your deeds what you do in this world is going to make i'm going to say a hell of a difference and there's a no pun int there's obviously a pun intended there and we'll talk about that okay back into the clear car so if that's true that the word ella is coming to pasal at the rushoni to let's say exclude or you know think negatively of whatever came before it's teaching you now we're going to translate this as generations for the time being that all the previous generations they're not called progeny in other words that whole generation of the flood their generations are not really called any kind of future there's no future for them their memory was wiped out in the marble in the flood value are you and it's as if they never were forgotten forever but these meaning the progeny of noah negra toledos those progeny will exist they will have sustenance and continuity alkane lamar tov tom therefore it's required of us to give a good reason lam and nisharu eluyote mizulatam why these are let's say continue on remain more than any others and the answer is because noah was in east sadiq he was righteous he was a righteous man and perfect therefore went all of his descendants i'm going to just add the word the possibility of eternal life the kola toledo sakhod meme whereas all the previous generations meaning the one the degeneration that was prior to this right they told at the time of the flood dear own olam but they are actually towards um they're going towards a disgrace and shame and i'm going to add the word forever because that is a concept that we'll see there's a certain verse that gives this idea and you'll find that in daniel chapter 12 verse 2. so i'm going to read it for you it says like this and may you know i'm sorry i didn't copy i didn't put onto the sheet but in daniel 12 2 it says and many who sleep in the dust of the earth will awaken we're talking about the resurrection of the dead these then there's a there's two groups these for eternal life and those for disgrace and eternal abundance and the hebrew is beautiful virabhi miyashney admos afar yakitsu right there are many that are sleeping in the dust of the earth they will get up those who are going towards eternal life the eli is and those for eternal shame okay explanation within rashi remember rashi himself gave two explanations one was whenever you mention a person you mentioned their praise and the other explanation was that it's referring to good deeds so david shapiro that other explanation that rashi said was what to teach you what lila medra to teach you todo saying how we have to live with this idea incorporate this into our i you know when i started learning with this group in washington um i'm sure they'll remember we thought and this is going back many years we thought maybe we'll make a bumper sticker and it's going to say all deeds matter and then all of a sudden you know there was a blm movement this movement that movement anyway but really we should make a movement all deeds matter right so here we have it the prime progeny the prime future of a person should be his the righteous people is there might seem to them they're positive actions elah what did we say the word aila meant it came to la mae stam todosav to actually exclude what we normally think of as physical progeny right children and grandchildren what is it teaching that the real prime future i mean i'm talking about the world to come as well right but the real uh legacy that might be a good word to use is your shame told is your good name that you make for yourself to your character the niskars khan now why is it mentioned here specifically why do we need to know that leficia kavash hashem miyano you know that i think someone else mentioned this before we start that noah did not have children until he was 500 years old now most people those days had children in their hundreds okay not when they were 20 18 19 20 but really when they were young in their hundreds but noah but noah had children when he was uh 500 that's what the pasik tells us right so what does it mean it means that hashem himself was the one who suppressed his ability to have children i think the word maya no is related to his well his office you know we're the source of uh you know the sources okay we get it so hashem suppressed that now i heard two reasons why interestingly enough first of all imagine if he had like a haredi family you know 10 12 15 kids how is he going to fill the ark he might have to build more than one ark capisce so and there's another idea look the more children you have there's no guarantee we said that already so who says they would all been righteous and it wouldn't have been such a nice thing to see some of his own children not coming to the ark so if they were all righteous they come into the ark maybe he needs a few more arcs right and uh if they weren't all righteous it would be pretty painful to watch some of your own children perish okay so what is it coming to teach us like this that your masim told him okay i i got i got lost second we said that it's mentioned here in that he was that he suppressed that hashem suppressed his ability to have offspring physical offspring below holiday bonnie mobano so you wouldn't have that many children maybe that actually pained noah couldn't it paint anybody right if you didn't have children that would be a something to be a little bit sad about right that you lived your whole life but okay you'll get over it um this is why it tells us in isaiah 56 5. we'll look it up in a second what appeased or consoled noah when he didn't have children that at least he made a good name for himself he was righteous right and that's better do you hear this having a good name having good deeds is actually better than banim ubbanot and i want to look at isaiah 56 5 i don't think i don't think i put it on the sheet so let's look it up here isaiah 56 5 goes like this it says and i actually want to read three four and five but i'll tell you when we get to the fifth verse let not the foreigner who has joined himself to hashem speak saying hashem will utterly separate me from his people and let not the barren ones say behold i am a shriveled tree so if this is talking about people who convert to judaism many i shouldn't say many but but it is true many do convert later in life and they don't have they don't merit to have jewish children but some may not have children at all thus said hashem to the barren ones who observe my sabbaths and choose what i desire and grasp my covenant tightly here we are on verse five in my house and within my walls i give them a place of honor and renown so even if you are a convert doesn't have to be referring only to converts here we're talking about anybody who's barren okay so in my house within my walls i give them a place of honor and renown which is better than sons and daughters eternal renown will i give each one which will never be terminated understand okay that the unbelievable high level that someone has who converts who may even have had children but they're no longer your children look biologically your children you always have a relationship and there is a level of peru or on noah level but it's not the same as having jewish children but don't fret don't worry the the what you did through this elevation process of becoming from a non-jew to a jew is unbelievable isaiah describes it right here and it's through the ma sim told him okay want to make sure that's clear during the short break we heard from uh stephen from australia which wow it's three o'clock in the morning can you imagine having such clear mind to have such a question the question he asked is that he heard that some of the souls of the time before noah they who died in the flood perhaps they come later on and involve themselves in let's say bodies other bodies three reincarnation or become jews the truth is this is what i heard that there were righteous people between the time of adam and noah and collectively we're all really one soul the one soul of adam is actually the jewish nation and therefore those who didn't fully live a righteous life but we're righteous enough to be reincarnated do end up having another chance at life and perhaps even to convert and be jewish so without going into too much spooky stuff in the kabbalah that's ultimately what all of life is about the kitsur hashem loves us he loves the world for those who make the right choices he gives opportunities right that are beyond limit and ultimately these souls are the jewish people or become the jewish people okay and for those who want to remain bene no it means that you're part of the system you are supporting the jewish nation you buy into the revelation at mount sinai and you are counted as we will see that those people will be resurrected we're going to see it shortly so let's go into the next paragraph where it says right now was a righteous man and wholehearted in his generation perfect in his generation since that generation of the flood they destroyed and committed abominable acts what which ones the three cardinal sins basically although now we're not going to talk about murder we know the three cardinal sins are what idolatry adultery and murder he's going to list three severe sins and murder is not on this list a vote of zara gigliorius and gezel now the cleocard didn't just make this up he's taking it from a madrish majestraba al kane hikdem lomar that's why the torah itself puts forward this idea that noah hayes it's like an introduction to the idea but um that that noah himself was guarded he was careful not to violate idol worship uh adultery and ghazal ghazal's thievery so thievery is not on the murder is not on the list but we're going to deal with it when the torah told us that he was righteous that means he didn't steal he didn't steal from others when it says that he was perfect in his generation that means that he kept pure from adultery hainu haya gador merayot did you know that he was born circumcised yes noah was noiled mahul vahoya he was careful in terms of sexual he was guarded in terms of sexual relations and what about the words noah walked with god that teaches us that he he did not turn to other gods okay that he walked with god and he was not doing anything that would be considered idol worship a vow it came to the door hamabu the duramabu means the generation of the flood parts who get there they transgressed literally parts together means they broke the fence they broke through to the other side in these in relation to these transgressions it says in 611 chapter 6 verse 11 the tishaches elohim now the word elohim is not the word necessarily for god by the way elohim does not always mean god so now you know right if you go to exodus chapter 22 verse 7. i don't have that on the sheets either but this is dealing in partisans mishpatim right when you're dealing with going before the judges the word for judges elohim so you can look it up exodus 22 verse 7. so here it says now the earth had become corrupt before what we thought is hashem before god that's not the word god being used but the word elohim as in judges hainu this is how we understand it doesn't mean it can't mean god either but in this case it means what they were doing besides stealing million dollar or 100 they were also stealing a lot of what they call pennies something that was not considered a crime and i mentioned the beginning this is going to deal with very contemporary issues i'm not sure of the law but apparently in california if someone goes into a store and steals less than 950 dollars it could be i don't know it's the only thing i heard it could be that they won't be arrested certainly nothing comes out they won't stand in front of a judge basically right there's no crime that has been committed so we have we're approaching some really tough turbulent times right okay maybe it's only true in california i don't think it's true anywhere else in the world but um we have to pray for our our fellow human beings things are going off the deep end right so this is the idea that the dianium themselves wouldn't judge them because anything less this is what they were doing they were stealing less than whatever was acceptable now i want you to know in judaism when a jew steals less than a chevron we're talking about about a nickel or a dime like a few cents that he's still held in heaven responsible for the theft but also the judge it's called petty crime they're not going to deal with you know a few cents that's according to jewish law apparently according to non-jewish law meaning that even less than asheville has the same penalty as stealing a million dollars so for those who out there who want to know more about the laws of billing north take this seriously learn the laws of gesell of stealing don't even borrow a pen without asking okay because the little ink which is obviously less than a chevapruta it's worth not even know if it's worth a penny but it's worth something and therefore it's a crime anyway shane motseem the judges would not be able to judge these cases but guess what the judges themselves were witnesses to these crimes they saw it happening all around them the ainle yeah they had no power to prevent to save these people from their own tears from their own pain of the victims the victims came crying and there was nothing they could do and that's why it says lyftney hello came before as we translated originally as before god but now we understand before the judges themselves lift nehem amish actually in front of the judges themselves with baseball it's for this very reason hamas that the earth was full of hamas does anybody know what hamas stands for in modern in not modern hebrew in modern israeli lexicon that's correct it's the terror group in gaza we did not name them hamas hamas means violently criminal or criminally violent i'm not sure i'm not an expert in language what comes first but it's it's both criminally violent and they have a very long name in arabic which i cannot pronounce okay but the acronym for that long name is hamas that's like the plo palestinian liberation organization right it's an acronym plo so too mem is an acronym for their name that they decided that's what they were worthy of and there's no coincidence now this is really really interesting because we're going to talk about the first psalm the first of the tehillim that king david himself authored this apparently the madrid on tehillim explains these i'm going to say five six verses there's six verses all together but we're going to deal with i'm pretty sure i outlined them here we're not going to deal with them all verses 1 4 5 and 6. if you look on page 3 and it says like this right ashrae haish the praises of man i'm just quoting from the clerical who's basically quoting from the medrush [Music] the word is the man the praises of man is referring to noah for sure okay what did the verse say that he did not follow the counts of the wicked very nice then the fifth verse al khan loyakumarushayan bamishpat therefore the wicked shall not stand up in judgment remember i mentioned they're wiped out they don't even get judged they're not even going to be judged they were judged and wiped out gone now the question the the the um the measure itself asked where is there any reference that you could hear an inference that this is talking about the generation of the flood veneers go back to verse 4 it says not so the wicked but they are like chaff that the wind drives away so the words here are lo kane roshoim kim kamots what does it mean locate not so meaning the difference in noah and the others say him they were not proper they weren't honest nor were they truthful in their actions trust me when i say this those who are not truthful and trustworthy in their actions propping their actions they will pay hashem will take care of them you so you keep the faith don't worry what's going on in the world around you okay there's a time to protest this is time to speak up and people have to do it but just know in the end they will experience their downfall why lethe remove they used their trickery and they stole little by little by little commotes like chaff chaff is worth how much certainly less than a chevapruta certainly less than a penny i mean you have to pay people to get rid of it it's garbage [Music] this is obviously less than uh i shared to the fenugreek which the ruach which the wind drives away right that's how you get rid of it you throw up the grains and the wind takes away we'll call the chaff hashem this was referring to those wicked judges right because obviously judges should have this the spirit of god and they misused it right and i want to say this about our our leaders right whether they be the politicians or the so-called religious leaders whoever they might be if they're not doing the program right right they're going to be wiped away they're not even going to they're not even going to see judgment they're going to be wiped out as the verse says there's for the wicked shall not stand in judgment okay meaning they didn't have the ability to stand in judgment remember the to a certain extent certain judges had no ability and they weren't really guilty those who weren't guilty um they um they they weren't obligated to judge cases for less than a severe proof and i want to mention again that's not true by the non-jews by the non-jews they are obligated but when society makes a decision that 950 dollars is nothing well don't be surprised when all the um supermarkets or whatever these uh stores decide to leave the state where are you going to force them to stay there i could see already you know like you had a you know in in russia and in china you have state stores right so too i can see a solution for for california is to have a communist government i mean this is the way they're going right that's they're going to be the solution that's what they're going to propose as a solution obviously that's not the best solution but right that's when the russia that's the evil person you know what they say they want to stand with all the righteous and you know what they want to say i'm righteous right what is that a chameleon right a hypocrite they get dressed up like they're all righteous everyone's so righteous right and ani right this evil person says i'm i'm righteous too right i believe in progress i believe in equity they think they're saying equality and they can't get the whole word out so they say the word equity which doesn't mean anything even similar to equality right they sound like they're so righteous right progress progress is a good thing right um that's what it says in verse 5. go back to verse 5 therefore the wicked shall not stand up in judgment that's the first part but wait to hear the second part nor shall the sinners in the in the congregation of the righteous in other words there's no place for them in truth that they're so brazen right they're so brazen to say kamoni kamoja i am just like you vim alimu rashayim nehabrios but what they do is they try to hide their evil in front of other people but you know what hashem knows hashem knows everything russia he knows he knows the heart of every man which we'll see shortly but he's the one who knows and it says in verse 6 for the lord knows the way of the righteous but the way the wicked shall perish okay so know that everything will the great equalizer right every the real equalizer everything will be taken care of now we still have two paragraphs left the last paragraph we will read even though it's really talking about what he's going to talk about later but anyway it says the yara lukemus are its vehicle right in verse 12 that god saw the earth and it had become corrupted okay now this is referring to avodahzar vodazara is idol worship shinroa built hashem levado this is only this is something that only god can see it's only god can know right if someone steals something okay you see it missing you can have cameras you can have witnesses but when it comes to idol worship it's in the heart it's in the heart and who knows the heart of every man only hashem knows the heart fira ekara balaith when we talk about kfira khira is heresy the prime location for that is in the heart um that's why in ezekiel chapter 14 verse 5. it says in order to take hold of the people of the house of israel in their heart it's talking about their heart who have drawn away from me with their idols all of them so basically in hebrew write lamont post as basis rabbali bomb ashano's room they a lie they turned away from god where in their hearts only god would know i mean obviously then they can come out see when we say all deeds matter that's true in respect to deeds but either worship real you know that's a very strange word because it's english let's just say avodah czar strange worship strange worship meaning this is something that can plague take place in a heart without even any physical manifestations of idols okay so we've read the verse believe the prime place of faith and belief is in the heart and then we understand sardarco when it talked about these these words that the um the words are for the destr it was like corrupted all the flesh of its way think about in hebrew you wouldn't really understand this in english but basically arias this is talking about adultery when i shouldn't even use adultery let's call it sexual immorality sexual impropriety okay it doesn't just refer to a married woman being with another man because that's adultery so i should let me rephrase let's not say adultery let's say sexual immorality why shinikra darko it's called it's way right derek eretz even the word derek eric is many places that actually translated as proper conduct sexually and we go to michele that's proverbs chapter 30 verse 19 and it says over there it's number 13. right the way the eagle in the heavens the way of a serpent on a rock the way the ship in the heart of the sea and the way of a man with a young woman meaning darko the way is the proper way right god created adam and eve not adam and steve right um so and and so in hebrew it says the der gever ba alma the way of a man with a woman okay okay so we know we're talking about gilead riots we're talking about sexual immorality and according to khazal in also rabbi khatubo also the sin of we'll just say in wasting of seed obviously wasting a sieve can come in more ways than one okay and that's why it says al-haares right god saw the earth and behold it was corrupt right and we said that he that the corruption had all its way upon the earth all flesh had corrupted its way upon the earth so now we're going to talk about al-haaretz it's really not just talking about the earth but more specifically to earth's shroud to a certain extent but right now we're talking about the earth in uh in the story in genesis chapter 38 verse 9 with tamar and obviously yehuda later on but this is the story of onan and tamar where the two brothers had married tamar one after the other and were and died and it says over there that um they wasted the seat on the ground let's just see if you want to go to it it's in genesis 30 verse 9. here we go verse 9. but onan knew the seed would not be his so it was that whenever he would consort with his brother's wife he would let it go to waste on the ground so as not to provide offspring for his brother what he did was evil in the eyes of hashem and he and caused him to die also because the other brother um heir did the same thing right he also died may not be clear why he died but now it is clear when onan dies what took place that they did not they did not allow the seat to go in its proper place okay now this last paragraph is basically as i mentioned he's going to talk about what he's going to talk about interesting right but it's also educational and it says right i'm going to clarify more shortly the torah sadiq this whole description of noah being righteous and perfect in a verse so in chapter seven right we're in chapter six but in chapter seven it's going to say for for it is you i have seen is righteous before me and what it says in verse 13 over here the name god is saying i'm going to destroy the earth as well behold the earth has become corrupt the you know the earth needed to go through a purification process it's like one big mikvah okay for those who understand what a mikv was about that the earth became totally flooded and the water came from below as well as from above and it was purified eretz israel did not need purification and therefore because it's the holy land it was the flood did not reach the land of israel according to as far as i know all the midrashim but anyway why was the earth destroyed meaning the other parts because the earth itself became ruined became corrupt in moses is going to discuss this later not great most which describe right many of the sexual sins so in leviticus 18 25 the verse over there i believe this is on yeah number 16 on the source sheet it says over there and the land became defiled i visited its sin upon it and the land vomited out its inhabitants okay the titma are its the f code right i heard recently somebody was very upset with the land of israel and said i'm leaving i had a laugh because i said to myself little does that person know that the land is vomiting the person else but anyway um i just thought to mention that because this passage is brought up here um the land itself wants to remain holy and pure and it's alive and is affected by what we do what we do the land and that's what he says right here he says no davar is biased is affected has what to say the land has a personality the land is alive and the land has what to say and sometimes has the last word right and this is why we're in the shemitah year right interestingly enough that after god forbid not keeping x amount of shmitot right the land itself needs to what just let life fallow no there's this being spit out from the land as part of the purification process i want to leave that now i want people to study study on your own go review it look into other meforship listen to other v you know recordings of other rabbis i want to wish everybody an uplifting year right we're just going to start this week coming up right praying for rain really praying so we're mentioning the praises of god that he's the one who brings the rain but we're going to start requesting for rain and bizrat hashem we should all have a chilly wet winter coming up really healthy everyone should remain healthy mizrat hashem and wishing everyone everyone a great job is and a great life and we'll see you next week [Music] is [Music]