outside within the realm of the holy. And Noah made the ark, which included all things belonging to this world, inert phenomena and plant-life along with animals, and he brought these into what is holy. This is the meaning of the “building of the ark,” which refers actually to the Ark of the Covenant: Noah entered into the ark and took everything with him, for the human being, as is known, includes all that exists—all the created things, all that is inert along with plant-life and animals and humankind [literally, “that which speaks,” possessing language]; he took everything with him into the ark and repaired them by means of his own repentance. . . . He took them with him, as is known that a human is called a microcosm. [The conception of man as a microcosm, found in ʾAvot deRabbi Natan (recension B, ch. 31) and present also in various ancient Greek philosophical texts, entered into the writings of medieval Jewish figures such as Saadya Gaon, Moses Maimonides, Isaac Israeli, Abraham Ibn Ezra, and Bahya ibn Pakudah.41]
For this reason Noah, unlike Adam, was permitted to eat the flesh of living things because Noah took all the created things with him and repented [of his earlier indifference to the fate of all living things], as we learn in the Midrash.42 And in this manner he repaired everything—all that is inert and the plants and animals and humankind—and therefore Noah and his sons were permitted to eat animal-flesh. The First Man, it is true, repaired them in the sense of giving them names. But he did not “take them with him” to repair them (on a deeper level). And so when he sinned and all the creatures fell with him, though he repented and recited the Shabbat Psalm, the creatures themselves were not truly repaired until the time of Noah and his sons when Noah repaired and brought everything with them into the ark. Noah brought into the realm of the holy all the Fallen Sparks found within all that is inert and all that is found in plants and animals and human beings, and everything became unified as it is written (in the Zohar) “that Noah and the ark became one.”
Comment: In Hasidic texts, Noah often emerges in quite a negative light. He is contrasted to Abraham who pleaded with God on behalf of the cities of the plain (Gen 18:22–33), whereas regarding Noah, the biblical account itself includes no mention of his protesting God’s bringing a flood to destroy the rest of life on earth (Gen 6:11–22). But Maʾor va-shemesh, following a precedent in the Zohar, compared Noah, instead, to Adam, and consequently Noah emerges not only as a significantly more positive figure, but as one with mythic connotations.
In this homily, both Adam and Noah engaged in tikkun (repair). Kalonymus Kalman viewed Adam’s act of tikkun in regard to animals as much more superficial in nature, as it was accomplished simply by Adam’s assigning names to all the various animals (Gen 2:19–20). Noah, in contrast, took the animals with him into the ark. And the homilist explained that it is for this reason that Noah and his descendents, unlike the earlier generations, were permitted to eat the flesh of animals.
Noah’s taking his assortment of animals and birds and the like into the ark which he had built acquires also a symbolic dimension, that of bringing everything that comprises the world within the realm of the holy. This is viewed, in the passage, as Noah’s work of cosmic repair. And in its view of man as containing within himself all that is in the world, the homily reflects, in its own way, the conception of man as a microcosm, a miniature replica of the entire world.
Kalonymus Kalman echoed this concept in that through man’s repentance, all is repaired; the fallen Sparks within all aspects of reality are lifted up and redeemed, allowing for a unification of all that exists. That conception expresses a sense of the complexity of the human being who is understood as including all levels of the larger reality in which he lives, including inert nature and plant and animal-life—all these are viewed as being part of the human being. (Although the Kraków master and those whose interpretations influenced him had no awareness of the theory of evolution, the reader might overhear an implication of evolution in this conception.) Hence, Noah’s coming into the ark together with the animals both symbolizes and exemplifies his bringing all of earthly existence into the realm of the holy.
The homily views the biblical portrait of Noah through the lens of a kabbalistic worldview in a way that makes of Noah a supreme spiritual hero. And beyond that, the use of the word tzaddik (“righteous”) in reference to Noah (Gen 6:9) invites the homilist to perceive in Noah a kind of prototype of the Hasidic holy man striving for the repair of existence precisely by bringing the totality of life within the realm of the holy.
The reader can easily hear in this homily an intrinsic human connection with the entire world of life and even with inert matter.
38. Maʾor va-shemesh, I, 6b.
39. Midr. Pss. 92:4, 5, 7; Pirqe R. El., ch. 18.
40. Zohar, I, 59b.
41. Tanḥ (P’kudei), #3. See Altmann, Studies in Religious Philosophy and Mysticism, 19–28.
42. Tanḥ-Yelamdenu, 52 (on Gen 6:14); Zohar hadash (No’ah), 29a; Ginzberg, Legends, I, 165, V, 186, n. 49.
Lekh l’kha
Go Forth!—Go to You!43
“The Lord said to Abram, ‘Go forth from your native land and from your father’s house to the land that I will show you . . . Abram went forth . . . .” (Gen 12:1–4)
All the commentators already related to the expression, “Go forth” (Lekh l’kha) (an idiom which, hyperliterally, would read, ‘Go to you’). It is known from holy books that Abraham investigated and sought God in order to serve Him. In the beginning he explored the possibility that the sun is God and then that the moon and the stars were divine rulers and he examined their character. Then he considered the world of the angels, in which each angel is appointed over a certain aspect of the world, and he concluded that they are not God. Then, upon coming to the land of Israel, he continued to investigate and determined that there is a ruler who is beyond our reach, for in the land of Israel God Himself acts in a providential way, as it is written, “It is a land which the Lord your God looks after, on which the Lord your God always keeps His eye . . .” (Deut 11:12), and he understood that this Ruler is above all the other forces and that He alone is the true God who is worthy of worship, and he served Him with all his heart.
But he then thought that he had already attained all that it is possible to comprehend and that one cannot advance beyond that point, that having already reached the goal and purpose of such service he needn’t endeavor to go beyond that level of understanding. But in truth he was only at the very opening of the gate at which the truly righteous (holy men) ask of God, “Open for me the gates of righteousness” (Ps 118:19). And it is explained in the holy book, Noʿam ʾElimelekh44 concerning this verse that it is the way of the truly righteous ones to constantly examine their deeds with humility every single day, for in their own eyes they have not yet satisfactorily fulfilled their duty in respect to religious devotion, and with that recognition and striving it is possible for them to reach the place of their Root from which their souls were hewn.
And for this purpose God said to him, “Go forth” (go to you), meaning that you must go to your deeper self, for you have not yet reached the Root of your soul. And you must further humble yourself, in the way of the truly righteous, to realize that you are still situated only at the very opening of the gate and have not attained all that is possible. And you must engage in further effort to “go
