Rav Yisroel Apelbaum Shlita – Parshas Noach

 Rav Yisroel Apelbaum Shlita – Parshas Noach

all credit goes to the Rosh Yeshiva and Yeshiva Tiferes Chaim

This week's Parsha starts off:

 "אלה תולדת נח נח איש צדיק תמים היה בדרתיו". 

The word "תמים" means to be straightforward, to be simple and to have basic אמונה. In the beginning of the פרשה, the תורה calls נח a "צדיק" and ״תמים״, and when ה׳ told נח to go into the תיבה, Hashem told Him to go inside "כי אתך ראיתי צדיק לפני בדור הזה". Why does the תורה change from calling נח a "צדיק תמים" to only calling Him a "צדיק"?  

The מהריל דיסקין explains that in the beginning of the פרשה, the תורה describes נח throughout His entire lifetime which included 2 different generations with 2 different types of יצר הרע, the דור המבול and the דור הפלגה which they built a tower to שמים and they attempted to destroy Hashem ר״ל.  The דור המבול was filled with the יצר הרע of זנות. For this generation, the תורה refers to נח as a "צדיק" since a צדיק is the מידה needed to  fight the יצר הרע of זנות as we see יוסף was called יוסף הצדיק since He fought the יצר הרע of זנות by אשת פוטיפר and נח was the ״צדיק״ of His דור since He fought the יצר הרע of זנות and it was in that זכות that he was saved from the מבול. In the דור הפלגה, the יצר הרע was bad השקפות, and דעות רעות and it was because of those corrupt השקפות that they decided to build a tower to battle ה׳. For this generation, נח used the כח of אמונה, of being תמים, straightforward with אמונת ה׳ to fight the יצר הרע of the דעות רעות of that דור.  

In the beginning of the פרשה, the תורה describes נח as a‎ "צדיק תמים"‎ referring to His entire lifetime where He was a צדיק in the דור המבול and a תמים in the דור הפלגה. When He went into the תיבה, Hashem was telling נח that it was in the זכות of Him being a צדיק and fighting the יצר הרע of זנות that He is getting saved from the מבול. He was called a תמים in the דור הפלגה because He used His מידה of תמים ‎and אמונה to fight the‎ יצר הרע‎ of that דור.  

From here we learn that a person must become multi tasked‎ in his עבודת ה׳. In each generation, the יצר הרע dresses up in a different costume. A person must arm himself with different types of "ammunition" to withstand the יצר הרע whether with using the כח of "צדיק", "תמים", or by learning different types of מוסר ספרים since the‎ יצר