31 Oct Parshas Noah; Evil in the World and Hamas in The Torah
Parshas Noah; Evil in the World and Hamas in The Torah
Inspired by the teachings of Rav Yitzchak Ginsburgh and Rabbi Moshe Genuth
We learn that G-d in His Infinite Wisdom created the Torah. And He looked into the Torah and created the universe. He then incorporated the malachim (angels) to decide if the Torah, a conduit of G-d’s Infinite Wisdom should go to the angels or to Man.
The angels Uza and Azael were most rebellious when G-d decided that the Torah should go to Man rather than the angels. Uza and Azael protested that Man would just end up ruining creation. But Hashem in His Infinite Wisdom understood that the angels lacked free will and that Man , with free will man may sin, but that man with his free will will then have the ability to repair the world to a state better than before his sin. With Man , Torah and Creation would be a living thing. Not so with the angels. Angels (malachim) have no free will, they are ‘deterministic’ and therefore limited in their function.
The two angels, Uza and Azael due to their rebellious ways toward G-d were than cast from the heavens to live ‘like’ men on earth. They were the Nephilim (from ‘nephal’. fall), giants aka fallen angels resembling Man with a beastly nature inferior to Man. They robbed, lusted and were sexually immoral with ‘the daughters of Man’.
Their behavior created ‘deficient spiritual offspring’ (for generations) and the immorality of the generation that led to the Waters of Noah (the Flood). Uza and Azael are the archetypes of the two goats of Azazel (scapegoats from the Satan) we use in the ceremony on Yom Kippur.
The’ missions’ of the goats were chosen by lottery. One goat was sent to the desert (wilderness) to ‘Azezal’ ;the place of the precipice where the he-goat was pushed off/fell from the precipice to carry away the potential of a ‘sin of unknown consciousness ‘ (sins unknown). The other goat became an actual sacrifice ‘for the sins we know’.
A fascinating insight comes from a gematria of the verse; “the deeds [rectification of mitzvot] of Uza and Azael“= 613 as it alludes to the rectification of the entire Torah and all 613 mitzvot. The ceremony of Azazel is part of a remedy for negating negative or evil consequences of transgressions.
The versus of the Nephallim (giants) of Uza and Azael (the fallen angels) are found in Bereishis, Chapter 06 . Rashi writes: They were so called because they “fell” [ {Hebrew Ref} ] and caused the downfall 337 [ {Hebrew Ref} ] of the world. 338 In Hebrew it means giants.
Bereishis Chpt 6
Verse 1: It came to be when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, that daughters were born to them.
Verse 2: The sons of the rulers saw that the daughters of man were fair and they took for themselves wives from whomever they chose
Verse 3: Ad-noy said, “My spirit will not continue to judge man forever, since he is nothing but flesh. His days shall be a hundred and twenty years.”
Verse 4: There were giants on the earth in those days, and also later, when the sons of the rulers came to the daughters of man and they bore children to them. These were the mightiest ones who ever existed. [They were] men of renown.
Maftir-
Verse 5: Ad-noy saw that man’s wickedness had increased on the earth, and that every inclination of his heart was only for evil, all day long.
Verse 6: Ad-noy was comforted that He had made man on the earth, and He grieved in His heart.
Verse 7: Ad-noy said, “I will obliterate mankind which I have created from the face of the earth, from man to beast, to the creeping things and to the birds of heaven, for I regret that I made them.”
Verse 8: But Noach found favor in the eyes of Ad-noy.
We are all experiencing some degree of angst in dealing with the pervasive forces of evil today; Anti Semitism, terrorism, shootings, violence, addictions, spiritual, mental, emotional and physical illness et al. As a result we may be consciously or unconsciously living with fear and doubt that removes us from our focus; our mission of doing good… Tikun Olam.
As we approach the arrival of Mashiach, may he come now, we are experiencing a powerful flow of G-d’s Goodness… His chesed. However this paradoxically gives cause to the rise of the forces of evil ‘who’s job’ is to push back and thwart the forces of Goodness. The clashing of these forces gives rise to destruction and deficiency unless we rise up to utilize and actualize the abundant and continuous devine sparks of G-ds Goodness that surround us.
Evil only needs a drop of Goodness to operate and sustain the fueling of Terrorism, Anti-semitism, ‘a pandemic’ and all deficiency and illness that exists in the world.
It is our inclination and need today to deal with these issues with might (gevurah)… to confront evil with physical force. But the rectifying blow to obliterate evil is spiritual and means we must to also remove… ‘starve out’ the source of Evils’ power. That requires us to utilize all the flow of Goodness that we are given, and use it for the Good. Evil will no longer have the power of goodness to operate.. not even a drop , and evil will cease to exist.
The guidelines of Torah; Righteous conduct and Mitzvot remains the Supreme manner and method to elevating goodness and obliterating evil. We ought not be fooled by the many distractions evil throws at us. That’s how He works.
The Divine Flow of Goodness is necessary for all Creation to sustain. When all the flow of divine goodness is not ‘absorbed and utilized’ for the good, it spills out to others who may use it for evil. Living in a Righteous Way according to the guidelines of Torah and mitzvoth will remedy this.
Hamas in Parshas Noah;
Theft, idolatry, incest, sexual immorality… evil doing et al.
The word ‘hamas’ appears in this weeks parshas Noah. Hamas can be translated as; robbery/theft, crime, violence and is a general term covering a myriad of transgressions and understood as evil et al. The evil upon the earth became so bad, there was the need for a ‘cleansing’ the Flood.
11 Now the earth was corrupt before God, and the earth became full of robbery(hamas)
12 And God saw the earth, and behold it had become corrupted, for all flesh had corrupted its way on the earth
13 And God said to Noah, “The end of all flesh has come before Me, for the earth has become full of robbery(hamas) because of them [the ‘robbers-hamas’], and behold I am destroying them from the earth.
Theft/ robbery according to the Talmud is a general category that relates to all sins and considered the #1 of all transgressions. Time is the tool that proceeded, was instrumental, and is contained in all creation, all creation contains within it the element of time. When a person is not using the creation of time to do positive things ie the mitzvoth, to elevate himself, others and the world it is considered to be ‘stealing time’.
When we learn that in Bereishit where it states first “In the beginning..’, it is referring to “In the beginning [of time] , also translated as “With the beginning of time [all else was created]. This kabbalistic insight then includes the understanding that… So we understand then that all transgressions are an act of by stealing time and a great transgression through the evil acts of hamas (robbery, theft, sexual immorality etc) , the world became corrupt,…impure , and Hashem deemed that a purification of our world to be appropriate… The Flood.
As it was-is-and will be, evil must be obliterated.
Summary;
Evil can only exist with a drop of goodness. Goodness is ‘the fuel’ that flows constantly into the universe. It fuels all things good but also is used , even as just a drop, to fuel all things evil. All of the constant flow of goodness that is not consumed for ‘goodness’ through our upliftiing spiritual acts i.e. mitzvot, causes an overflow of goodness and may be aquired for use by evil forces; anti Semitism , terrorism, hate or malady. To defeat evil, we must better utilize the flow of Goodness by increasing our postive effect on ourselves and the world through our deeds (mitzvot). When we ignite all the flow of Goodness for Good, we remove the ‘overflow’ of Goodness and the opportunity for evil to exist. For without a drop of Goodness, evil cannot exist.
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The Divine Flow of Goodness, The Shefa;
Leib Getzel (Lawrence) Lax
Addictions and Counseling
http://lawrencejlax@gmail.com
http://lawrencelax.com