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"These are the chronicles of Noah: Noah was a righteous man, faultless in his generation. Noah walked with God.".
Noah is the first person who is mentioned as being righteous, and this is the first time that the concept of righteousness is mentioned at all. The idea of righteousness was implicit in the creation of the world from the very beginning. For example, God said, "It is not good for a man to be alone; I will make a wife for him." Thus, it was implicitly made clear what God considered "good": for a man to get married and establish a family.
The next righteous person mentioned is Adam's son Seth, about whom it says, "And Adam had a son in his likeness and form," that is, just as perfect as Adam when he was created, but again, this is implicit. Actually, all ten leaders of the generations mentioned between Adam and Noah were righteous. That is why they are mentioned. The concept that a man is created to be a "philosopher," a "decent person," a "moral person," used in various philosophical and religious teachings, is made apparent here for the first time. Why is this?
Noah represents the concept of Foundation, or Righteousness, of the Supernal Father (Aba Ilaa), a spiritual entity God constructed out of the remnants of the initial souls that broke up because they could not imitate God in doing good to others. Now the new spiritual entities could interact with each other, could mature, and thus could interact both with humanity and the Creator. The righteousness of the Supernal Father is the reflection of the righteousness of God and is the intense feeling of "right" and "wrong" that each human has inside.
The Foundation of the Supernal Father extends into and gives life to the Foundation, or righteousness, of the Cosmic Man (Zeir Anpin), which can be thought of as the sum total of human spirituality interacting with the Divine. The righteousness of the Supernal Father is shared with the Supernal Mother (Ima Ilaa), and it also is the source for the righteousness of the Cosmic Female (Nukva), who reflects God's presence in this world.
The name Noah embodies the above concepts because it means "pleasure" or "rest," "menuchah" in Hebrew. The curse of Adam was lifted from the earth in the days of Noah. Noah also invented the plow to simplify the working of the land.
Art: Giorgio De Chirico - Love Song
This passage contains the phrase, “God will bring you to the Land of Israel.” This is the 5708th phrase from the beginning of the Torah, and the year 5708 (1948) corresponds to the year of the establishment of the State of Israel. The passage itself consists of ten phrases, and each phrase has the name of God Adonay (יהוה). Some of the phrases contain the name of God twice, making up 14 names of God, with the gematria of 14 * 26 = 364.
Further, God promises to increase the fruit (פרי) of your hands, your womb, and your animal, and these three fruits with their three letters yud (ייי) is one of the syllables in the 72-letter name of God. The first letters of the passage “God will again rejoice” (ישוב יהוה לשוש) constitute another syllable (ילי) of the 72-letter name of God. Together, these six letters complete the 364 and bring it to 370.
These are the 370 lights that anyone who turns away from bad and becomes good deserves, and the 370 lights are extended to him from Above. The source of these 370 is in the highest spiritual entity, Erech Anpin, or Long Face, hinted at in the phrase “God will again pity and love us.”
Art: Ignace Henri Jean Fantin-Latour - Fruits and Flowers
"Cursed is the person who makes a sculptured or cast idol."
This is one of the 11 curses given on the mountain Eival. The 11 blessings negating these curses were given on mountain Gerizim, and they were the complete opposite: "Blessed is the person who makes a sculptured or cast idol." There were also 11 goat skins used in the construction of the Tabernacle and 11 spices in the mix used for daily incense burning. Why are there eleven? One would expect ten since there are ten Sefirot, the ways of God in the world. As the Sefer Yetzirah insists, "There are ten sefirot and not eleven." There is a spiritual rule, "One who increases diminishes." How can it be violated?
In truth, just as there are 10 ways of Holiness in the world or 10 Sefirot, so there are 10 ways of evil corresponding to them. There is an additional spark of life of Holiness that gives life to all the 10 ways of evil. The secret of this is in the phrase, "And His Kingship is ruling over everything," sung on Rosh HaShanah.
However, there is a difference between the 10 ways of good and the 10 ways of evil, in that the 10 ways of good are called Thusness and Essence, and they are also called Vessels. It is this Essence that sustains and makes the good alive, and being of the same kind, it is mixed with them, and this is represented by the 10 coverings of the Tabernacle. It is different from the 10 ways of evil, whose Essence, being good, does not mix with them but hovers above them, making the whole group consist of eleven parts. The eleven curses, goat skins, and spices all work on the bad to subdue and ameliorate it.
Art: Barbieri - The Spice Shop Paolo Antonio
As a child, man is given over to his evil inclination, as in “sin is waiting at the entrance to the world,” and he does not start on the road of self-improvement, if at all, until he matures. That is the meaning of “when you wage war against your enemies,” who are your evil inclination and the members of your body, accustomed to self-gratification since childhood. However, “God will give you victory over them” – when one tries, he can indeed become better. Then “you will see a beautiful woman” - that is your soul. She will have to “trim the hair of her head,” that is, get rid of erroneous preconceived ideas. “She will have to pair her nails,” that is, to abstain from the overabundance of even permitted physical pleasures. And she will have to change the dress in which she was captured – that is the garment that the soul had created through her previous wrong deeds.
Now she will cry for her father – that is God, and her mother – that is humanity. She will do this for a month – and that is the month of Elul, which precedes Rosh HaShana and Yom Kippur. She will cry for a “month of days” - that is, the soul should rush as if she only has days, not years, in which to perfect itself.
Art: Blanzifiore by Dante Gabriel Rossetti
The Smaller Sanhedrin courts of 23 were first consulted on every matter, even that of capital punishment. The requirement for the 23 arises because the 10 are the minimum to acquit, two more are needed to find guilty, which gives 22, and since the court cannot have an even number of judges, they add one more.
However, there is a deep meaning for this number. The name of God usually connected to the quality of Mercy is Adonai (יהוה), and its expansions, for example, the one above (יוד הא ואו הא) have 10 letters. So 10 are needed to acquit. The name of God connected to strict judgment, Elohim (אלהים), has 13 letters in the expansion (אלפ למד הי יוד מם). Thus 23 judges can properly combine the Mercy and the Judgment and arrive at a just result.
Art: Charles Hunt - A Plea For Mercy
When he cuts, he must think that the place of slaughter is the neck, garon (גרון), the gematria of which is 259. This is equal to three times the name of God Elohim (אלהים), the gematria of which (plus the whole) is 86 * 3 + 1 = 259. These are the three aspects of consciousness of the Cosmic Man, Zeir Anpin, which he possesses in his youth. They are called "youthful or childish consciousness," and they need to be replaced by mature or wise consciousness. They are found in the neck of Zeir Anpin because this is what connects his body – behavior – to his brain–mind.
The slaughterer should also think that the "childish consciousness" often results in the wrong behavior and thus represents the judgments found in the world. He should also bring down the wise consciousness in three aspects, thus sweetening and correcting the judgments found in the neck of Zeir Anpin, represented by the neck of the animal. The result of this is the combination of the name of God Adonai (יהוה) and Elohim (אלהים) three times, which (together with 1 for the whole) have the gematria of (86 + 26) *3 + 1 = 337, the same as the gematria of "kosher slaughter," or "shehitah" (
השחיטה).
It is well known that the name of God Adonai represents Mercy, whereas the name Elohim represents judgment. By combining the two, the slaughterer achieves the sweetening of the judgments found in the world, thus effecting cosmic changes through his actions.
Art: Sir Anthony Van Dyck - Youthful Self-Portrait
The grammar seems not to fit here, and it should say "All those mitzvot" instead. However, this teaches us a rule. A person who started a mitzvah must finish it because a mitzvah is ascribed to the one who completes it. That is why the Torah said, "All that mitzvah" – not part of that mitzvah.
Another way to understand this is to connect it to the prohibition discussed just prior – to distance one from idol worship. One who denies idol worship – defined as ascribing spiritual powers to any physical object or spiritual entity existing without being sustained and empowered by the Creator of all things – is considered as if he observed the whole Torah perfectly.
Yet another way to understand "all that mitzvah" is to say that we are talking about the study of the Torah. That is why it says, "All" – to include the Talmud and other oral teachings, which were later transcribed into writing. Then "guard and keep" means "learn and do and be careful not to forget what you learned."
Art: Paul Seignac - Learning To Count
