Tonight, we are studying Parashat Noach. As we know, Parashat Noach talks about the Mabul (the flood). HaKadosh Baruch Hu (the Holy One, Blessed be He) destroyed practically the entire world, except for Noach and his family. HaKadosh Baruch Hu basically pressed the reset button on the entire world. The Torah tells us the measurements of the Tevah (ark), which is what I want to speak about tonight.
These were the measurements of the Tevah: its length was 300 Amot (cubits), its width was 50 Amot, and its height was 30 Amot. These were the measurements of the Tevah. Again, 300 long, 50 wide, and 30 Amot high.
The rabbis tell us that these measurements were not just picked out of a hat. They were not coincidental or random numbers. There is a very deep understanding of why these particular numbers were chosen. So I want to first share a Chiddush (novel insight). This will serve as an introduction to understanding exactly where these numbers came from.
First, we know that HaKadosh Baruch Hu has many names. One of the names we know Hashem has, which we use many times, is Havaya (the Tetragrammaton). That's the Yud Keh Vav Keh. What is the gematria (numerical value) of that shem (name)? We know it's 26. The Yud (Hebrew letter yud) and the Heh (Hebrew letter heh), and then the Vav (Hebrew letter vav) and the Heh, give you 26.
We also know the shem of Adnut. Adnut is Aleph (Hebrew letter aleph), Dalet (Hebrew letter dalet), Nun (Hebrew letter nun), Yud. When we begin the Amidah (standing prayer), we say that Hashem's name there is spelled Aleph, Dalet, Nun, Yud. The rabbis tell us that this name symbolizes strict judgment: Din (strict judgment).
So we have the name of Rachamim (mercy, compassion), which is Yud Keh Vav Keh. Then we have the name of din, which is Aleph, Dalet, Nun, Yud. The rabbis tell us something interesting. Again, this is more Kabbalah (Jewish mysticism), so I don't really know much about the Kabbalah aspects of it. But, on a shallow level, there is a way to use Hashem's name that is even more powerful than the shem Yud Keh Vav Keh on its own. Yud Keh Vav Keh is mercy; it's compassion. It's Rachamim. But there's a way to transform that name, Yud Keh Vav Keh, which is Rachamim, into even more powerful Rachamim.
What do you do? The rabbis say you take the Aleph, Dalet, Nun, Yud name and combine it with Yud Keh Vav Keh. Yud Keh Vav Keh is 26. So, what's the gematria of Adnut? Aleph is 1, Dalet is 4, which gives us 5. Nun is 50, which gives us 55. Yud is 10, making 65. So, what's Adnut, which is 65, plus 26? 65 and 26 gives us 91.
That number, 91, is very significant. It is a very powerful number. Let's give a few examples of where we find this number used. First of all, when a person says a Beracha, we answer Amen (so be it). The gematria, the numerical value, of the word Amen is 91. Aleph is 1. Mem (Hebrew letter mem) is 40, which gives us 41. Nun is 50, so 41 and 50 gives you 91. Amen, as we know, is a very powerful word.
The Gemara says that the one who answers Amen is greater than the one who actually made the blessing. Why is that? Perhaps the reason is that the one who made the blessing said the name Yud Keh Vav Keh on its own, and said the name Elokeinu on its own. But the one who answers Amen combined them. He took Yud Keh Vav Keh, which is 26, and combined within it Aleph, Dalet, Nun, Yud, which is the din, turning it into 91.
That is what the rabbis, the Mekubalim (Kabbalists), call Mituk HaDin. Mituk HaDin means you're sweetening up the judgment. To take the Aleph, Dalet, Nun, Yud, which is din, you add Yud Keh Vav Keh to it. Adding them together, 65 plus 26, gives you 91. Now you have a powerful shem, a powerful name: that shem of 91, which has much more Rachamim than Yud Keh Vav Keh on its own.
As a matter of fact, when we pray for Parnassah (livelihood), when we pray to Hashem, we say, “Poteach et yadecha, umasbia lechol chai ratzon” (You open Your hand and satisfy every living thing with favor). If you look in some Sidurim (prayer books), they'll tell you to pay attention to the abbreviations of these three words, “Poteach et yadecha.” What's the first letter of Poteach? Peh (Hebrew letter peh). The first letters of et and yadecha are Aleph and Yud. Peh, Aleph, Yud. Add that up: 80 plus 1 plus 10 gives you 91. Why is that name there? Because when a person asks for Parnassah, he really needs the great Rachamim of HaKadosh Baruch Hu. The best, most powerful name to use to ask Hashem for Parnassah is 91. So, when we say “Poteach et yadecha” and open our hands to ask Hashem for Parnassah, we hint to the 91, the powerful shem of Rachamim, for HaKadosh Baruch Hu to grant us and shower us with blessing and Parnassah.
So that's the way we take the name of HaKadosh Baruch Hu and make it powerful. However, the rabbis tell us that there is another way of making Hashem's name powerful, but this time not by adding 26 to 65, not by adding Yud Keh Vav Keh to Aleph, Dalet, Nun, Yud, but by multiplying them by one another.
Let's try to imagine that we're writing Yud Keh Vav Keh on top, and under it we're writing four letters: Aleph, Dalet, Nun, Yud. Let's multiply the letters up and down. Start with the Yud. What's under the Yud? The Aleph. So, 10 times 1 is 10. Then what's the second letter after the Yud? Heh. What's the second letter of the name Aleph, Dalet, Nun, Yud? It's Dalet. So, Heh times Dalet: 5 times 4 is 20. What did I tell you before, that we had a 10? So, 10 plus 20 is 30. That's the 30 Amot of the height of the Tevah. Got it? That's the 10 plus 20, so 30 Amot of height.
Then we have the third letter of Yud Keh Vav Keh. What's the third letter? That's Vav, which is 6. What's the third letter of Aleph, Dalet, Nun? That's 50. Vav, which is 6, times Nun, which is 50, gives you 300. That's the length of the Tevah. Then we have the last letter of Yud Keh Vav Keh, which is Heh, or 5. Aleph, Dalet, Nun, Yud ends with a Yud, which is 10. Five times 10 is 50. That gives us the 50 Amot width of the Tevah. So, you see that the measurements the Torah gives us for the Tevah are basically based on the name Yud Keh Vav Keh multiplied by Aleph, Dalet, Nun, Yud. That gives you 30, 300, and 50.
As we see, the measurements of the Tevah are very significant in reflecting the power of the Tevah, what it contained within it, and its holiness. So the question is this: What makes the Tevah so holy, with these measurements and these configurations? All the configurations we just brought up are based on holy things: Yud Keh Vav Keh and Adnut, and multiplying them. They involve tremendous Rachamim. Why does the Tevah have all this?
Again, the rabbis tell us that the Tevah was a place of ultimate chesed (kindness). What were Noach and his children busy with that entire year? They were there for a year—actually, a year plus another 11 days. What were they doing there the whole time? They were feeding the animals all day. Each animal had its own diet, its own food, its own item that it ate. You can imagine how many types of animals, creatures, birds, and whatever else Noach had to be busy feeding. He was involved in chesed throughout the entire time.
Why was that needed? Why was that necessary? The Pasuk (verse) says, “Olam chesed yibaneh.” Hashem creates this world through chesed. The world is based on chesed. The world is fueled by chesed. Hashem wanted to reset the world. Hashem wanted to destroy the world, but on the other hand, He wanted to keep Noach there with his children. In order to keep them there, Borei Olam (Creator of the world) had to make the Tevah full of chesed, because that's the fuel that keeps the world running.
You understand? Right now, Borei Olam is busy destroying the world, but Hashem had to keep a little aspect of it. In order to keep that little aspect of it, we need the fuel. It needs the fuel the world usually needs. But now the world is being destroyed, and we have to save this Tevah and whoever was in it. So how are you going to save them? You're going to have to fuel it with chesed. That's why Noach and his children were constantly involved in chesed in the Tevah: that was the fuel needed to keep them alive, to keep them in existence.
As the Pasuk says, “Olam chesed yibaneh.” HaKadosh Baruch Hu creates the world, fuels it, gives it energy, and gives it continuous existence, and that is based on—it's only done through—the chesed that a person does. Now I think we understand what makes the Tevah so powerful. The reason the Tevah had these measurements, based on the names of Hashem and the ultimate mercy of HaKadosh Baruch Hu, with numbers being compounded and multiplied by one another, is that they reflect the chesed taking place in the Tevah.
Where do you find the ultimate compassion of HaKadosh Baruch Hu, the ultimate Rachamim? In a place where there is ultimate chesed. Noach and his children were involved in great chesed. Because of that, the numbers of the Tevah reflected what was taking place inside it. There was ultimate chesed, great chesed that Noach was doing. So, too, the measurements of the Tevah had great compassion, great mercy within them.
What do we learn from here? We learn that when a person is involved in chesed, he becomes involved in the chesed and, I should say, becomes surrounded by the ultimate chesed of HaKadosh Baruch Hu. Borei Olam protects him all around with that same Yud Keh Vav Keh multiplied with all the Rachamim. So you see the greatness of chesed. You see where being involved in chesed takes a person.
As a matter of fact, in the upcoming parashiyot, we're going to learn about Avraham Avinu's chesed. Avraham Avinu did tremendous chesed. As we know, Avraham was a master of chesed. How did Avraham Avinu get involved in chesed? The rabbis tell us that Avraham Avinu was 58 years old when Noach passed away. The Ibn Ezra says that Noach was Noach years, and that Avraham was Noach years old when Noach passed away. So Avraham was 58 years old when Noach passed away.
The rabbis tell us, and the Midrash says, that Avraham Avinu met one of Noach's children. He met Shem. Avraham Avinu asked him, “Shem, explain to me: How did you exist in the Tevah? What did you do there all the time?” Shem said, “We were involved in chesed. We were feeding the animals, the birds, the reptiles, all the creatures. We were so busy with it.”
Avraham Avinu learned from that conversation to look at the power of chesed. He understood that if chesed was what was needed to save Noach and his children when the world was going through a universal destruction, then, wow, look at chesed, look at the power of chesed. Therefore, Avraham Avinu dedicated his life to the mitzvah (commandment) of chesed because, perhaps, he learned from that conversation the great power of chesed.
It's important to keep in mind that chesed really starts at home. That's where chesed begins. It doesn't end there, but that's where it begins. Sometimes a person is an expert at doing chesed with the entire world and community, with everyone he knows. But when it comes to his family, his wife, and his children, he's always absent. He's not really involved; he's always missing in action, MIA. He's busy with a million things, but he'll help anyone in the world. He'll answer any phone call he gets. He'll go in the middle of the night to help another person. But if his wife or children need his help, he's lax.
The rabbis tell us that this reflects that the person is not really a Baal chesed (person of kindness). A person who truly is a Baal chesed gives chesed to the ones who need him most, and that is his family. If a person only knows how to do chesed outside the home, but doesn't fulfill it within the walls of his home, he's just looking for recognition. He likes people to know that he's a doer, a giver, that he'll give you the shirt off his back. He has a good name; he built a reputation for himself. But what he does in his home—there are no plaques for that. You understand? If his wife or children need something, there are no plaques. That means he's not really a true Baal chesed. He's looking for kavod (honor), recognition, and acknowledgement.
How do you see if a person really is a Baal chesed? You see how he is in the circles of his home: around his children, siblings, and parents, and with his wife and family. That's what really reflects whether a person is truly a Baal chesed.
When the Torah talks about Avraham Avinu trying to find a wife for his son Yitzhak, do you know how many pesukim (verses) the Torah dedicates to that in Parashat Chayei Sarah? The Torah dedicates so many pesukim to Avraham Avinu trying to find a wife for his son Yitzhak. Why is the Torah doing that? Why is it repetitive? The pesukim are so repetitive there.
I once saw a rabbi say that the Torah is making a big deal of Avraham Avinu trying to marry off his son. He's doing chesed with his child, with his son. You might think that's not chesed; you might think he's just fulfilling his obligations. But that's not the case.
They tell a story about a rabbi—a person learning in kollel (Torah study program). He was sitting and learning in kollel. In the middle of the afternoon studies, he closed his Gemara and was about to leave. The Rosh Kollel, the head of the kollel over there, saw him and motioned to him, asking, “Where are you going?” The man said, “I have to help my wife. She's not feeling so well, and I want to take my son to the doctor.”
The Rosh Kollel asked him, “Do you know where you're going? Do you know what you're going to do?” He said, “Yeah, I've done this in the past. I take him to the doctor and wait in the office.” The Rosh Kollel said, “No, but do you know where you're going? What are you going to do now? Do you understand what you're going to do?” The man said, “Well, what's there to understand? I'm taking my son to the doctor.”
The Rosh Kollel said, “That's not what I mean to ask you. Do you understand what mitzvah you are doing?” He told him, “You are doing the mitzvah of chesed.” The man said, “Ah, I'm obligated to do so. It's my responsibility. It's my son; I have to take him. It's my daughter; I have to take her.” It's true. That doesn't mean it's not chesed.
When a person is involved in chesed at home, sometimes the Yetzer Hara (evil inclination) makes you feel, “That's not chesed. I have to do what I have to do. I have to help him with his homework. I have to go shopping for my wife. I have to take out the garbage, whatever I have to do.” That's not true. Maybe you have to do it, but that doesn't take away the chesed element just because it's something you have to do. On the contrary, a person who fulfills the mitzvah of chesed at home is truly fulfilling chesed.
Chesed begins at home. That's where a person has to strengthen his character and be involved in chesed, not just outside the home. Of course, it's a mitzvah for a person to extend his chesed outside the home. But that's not where it starts, and that's not where it ends. It starts in the home, and then a person extends it outside the house as well. A person has to make sure that chesed is fulfilled in the home.
And when a person does that—and this is the Chiddush I'm trying to lead to—he turns his home into a Tevah of Noach. The Tevah of Noach was a place that had within it the most powerful names of HaKadosh Baruch Hu. It had the name Yud Keh Vav Keh multiplied by Aleph, Dalet, Nun, Yud. Not 91. It didn't have Yud Keh Vav Keh plus Aleph, Dalet, Nun, Yud. It didn't have 26 plus 65. It had Aleph, Dalet, Nun, Yud times Yud Keh Vav Keh. That's the name. That's the 300, the 50, and the 30 that we spoke about.
That means any structure where chesed is happening inside it becomes a holy structure. It has the presence of HaKadosh Baruch Hu. It has the protection of HaKadosh Baruch Hu. So, to make his home a protected home, a holy place that has within it the presence of the Shechinah (Divine Presence) and the protection of HaKadosh Baruch Hu, a person has to make it like the Tevah of Noach. It has to be a home full of chesed, a home that is constantly full of chesed. A home that has chesed within it is zoche (merits) to have the mercy and compassion of HaKadosh Baruch Hu.
I think this is an important lesson for us to learn from this parasha, Parashat Noach. What made the Tevah so powerful, merciful, and compassionate, with all the numbers it had, was that it was a structure with the fulfillment of chesed inside it. When a person fulfills chesed at home, with his children and spouse—and his spouse, obviously, does chesed with her children and her husband, and so on and so forth—that brings about the ultimate mercy of HaKadosh Baruch Hu. It brings about the ultimate compassion and Rachamim of Borei Olam.
Be'ezrat Hashem (with God's help), we should be zoche that HaKadosh Baruch Hu helps and guides us to always do chesed. There's nothing greater than doing chesed. Chesed is a trademark of Am Yisrael (the people of Israel). It's what makes us who we are. We come from the DNA of Avraham Avinu, who dedicated his life to chesed, and Be'ezrat Hashem, we're going to learn about that in the upcoming parashiyot. As it says, “Titen emet leYaakov, chesed leAvraham” (Grant truth to Jacob, kindness to Abraham). Avraham Avinu dedicated his entire life to chesed, and this is who we come from.
Just as Avraham dedicated his life to chesed, Borei Olam blessed him with everything. It says, Hashem blessed Avraham Avinu with everything. Why? Because his entire life was dedicated to chesed. So HaKadosh Baruch Hu showered him with the ultimate mercy, with the ultimate compassion. Hashem blessed him with everything.
Be'ezrat Hashem, we should be zoche that our homes are filled with chesed, and that it is fulfilled within us, our homes, and our families. “Va'Adonai Berach et Avraham Bakol” (Hashem blessed Avraham Avinu with everything). Hashem should bless us with all the blessings, with all the berachot (blessings), for us, our family, our community, and the entire Am Yisrael.