Snippets From Rav Itche Meir Morgenstern on Parshas Noach

 The Chronicles of Noach

“You are the ones who have been shown,

so that you will know [that Hashem is G-d, there is none beside Him.]”3

This phrase

alludes to the holy days of Tishrei we have so recently celebrated and the beginning of

Cheshvan when we begin to feel that the Tishrei experience has gifted us with a new

path of spiritual understanding. This is how we have “been shown, so that we know that

Hashem is G-d.”

The outcome or toladah [the opening phrase of the parshah is, “These are the

chronicles/toldos/outcomes...”] of this new understanding is a new level of avodah. This

new outlook is an aspect of  [the name Noach is repeated in the opening verse].

As the Midrash explains: Noach / tranquility for the elyonim [literally, those who dwell

on high], and Noach for the tachtonim [literally, those who dwell in the lower worlds].4

This signifies an aspect of holy tranquility where one doesn’t lose track of his avodas

1

This lesson was first delivered at the third meal of Shabbos.

2 Bereishis 6:9-10

3 Devarim 4:35

4 Bereishis Rabbah Parshah 30

D’ei Chochmah L’Nafshechah Parshas Noach

Hashem whether he is experiencing a spiritual ascent (elyonim) or descent (tachtonim.)

“A righteous, faultless man.” It is to this aspect specifically that Rav Moshe

Isserles

alludes in the beginning of Shulchan Aruch: “‘I place Hashem before me

always’...this is the level of the righteous who walk before G-d...

The Vilna Gaon

comments that the source for this is in our parshah: -  - "—

“Noach walked with G-d.” He concludes: —“This is the sum

total of the great levels of the righteous.”

Until a person attains the level of, “you have been shown, so that you will

know,” he has no menuchah, inner peace or tranquility, since he is still in a state of

dichotomy and flux: “Sometimes pure, sometimes defiled. At times kosher, at others

unfit.”

This indicates that he sometimes he ascends [meaning, he maintains a positive

attitude which is the most important element of succeeding in avodas Hashem], and at

other times he is descends [or falls into a negative, depressed, angry, or rebellious state

which causes him to give up on his high spiritual ideals]. Only through the deep

understanding received during Tishrei and actualized during Cheshvan can one attain

[this dual] aspect of Noach so that one never falls [from his hope that Hashem will still

enable him to achieve his lofty spiritual goals] no mater what spiritual descent he is

experiencing, G-d forbid. Snippets From Rav Itche Meir Morgenstern on Parshas Noach