Chomer Lidrush

A spark to start your drasha.

1) Avraham and Noach: Two Models of Religious Deveotion

A guest contribution from our chaver R. Shmuel Goldin.

Why the comparison? Why are the rabbis intent on comparing Noach to Avraham?

This is not an exercise that we usually perform. We don’t, for example, compare Moshe to Shmuel, Yosef to Eliahu or even Adam to Noach. We are generally content to allow the actions of each individual speak for themselves. Why the sudden change when it comes to Noach and Avraham?

Most obviously, we might suggest that the rabbis want to underscore the stark contrast between these biblical personalities when faced with the fate of “others.”

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2) Traveling First Class in Wartime

"Noach ish tzaddik tamim haya b'dorosav" (6:9). In Sanhedrin 108a, R. Yochanan reads b'dorosav critically: only in his own generation was Noach a tzaddik, and not in other generations. Reish Lakish reads it as praise: if he was a tzaddik even in his generation, all the more so he would have been one in a better generation. The Alter of Novardok, R. Yosef Yoizel Horowitz, in Madregas HaAdam, written during the First World War, explains that the Amoraim are not arguing about the substance of Noach's righteousness or how it measured against Avraham Avinu's. Their question is what made Noach a tzaddik, and what forced him into it.

The Alter gives a mashal from the railways of his day. A man who travels first class in peacetime...

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3) Who Takes the Garment

Two weeks ago we stood in shul on Yom Kippur and made commitments, and Sukkos and Simchas Torah carried us forward. Now the Yomim Tovim are behind us, and the question is not whether we meant it; we did. The question is whether we will act. “Vayikach Shem va’Yefes es hasimlah” (9:23). Rashi notes that the verb is singular, vayikach, and explains that Shem exerted himself more in the mitzvah. Shem started, and Yefes joined. Shem’s descendants merited the tallis with tzitzis, while Yefes’s descendants merited burial (Yechezkel 39:11). Both brothers carried the same garment and achieved the same result for their father. Why do the rewards differ in kind?

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Partnered Content

The Harvard University Center for Jewish Studies invites applications for the 2027-2028 Daniel Jeremy Silver Fellowship

Applicants must be active members of the clergy who have demonstrated serious intellectual and academic ability, interest, and energy in the pursuit of scholarship in Jewish studies. Find out more.

L'maan Tzion: Advocacy for Israel

TRAGEDY IN NORTHERN ISRAEL: 15-Year-Old Killed, 23 Injured As Hezbollah Cluster Munition Explodes During School Trip

A 15-year-old student was killed and 23 others were injured Monday afternoon when an unexploded munition believed to have been fired by Hezbollah detonated during a school trip in northern Israel, triggering a massive emergency response involving military helicopters, bomb disposal teams, and dozens of rescue personnel.