Make a Tzohar/Light for the Tayvah/Word

Rabbi Gary S. Creditor
Parshat Noah
October 11th, 2002

 

Introduction

Hebrew is a beautiful language. It's our language. It's the language of the Bible, except for a few small sections written in Aramaic. Long ago I learned how different it is from English, its nuances and uniqueness, especially that words have multiple different meanings. It this, which allows us to learn deeper lessons from what, seems to be a plain, simple text.

The story of Noah is a phenomenally powerful story. It has been misappropriated for children, because it is an adultstory. It is a story about good and evil and about the end of civilization by forces of mass destruction, namely, a flood. It tells about the salvation of one family and enough animals to repopulate the planet. In a scary way, it is a very contemporary story.

Having established that we must take the Noah story seriously and leave aside all comic book pictures from our youth about a silly looking boat and beautifully colored and smiling animals, the Hebrew language of the Torah enables us to look deeply into this story. Tonight I would like to learn with you lesson from Noah about light.

I.

God gives Noah instructions about building the ark. [Parenthetically speaking, it is a rectangle and does not have a keel. There are neither oars nor rudder with which to steer or direct the boat. It bobbles like a box on the water, with multiple decks.] It is to be three hundred amot long, fifty amot wide, and thirty amot high. It has three decks and an entrance way on the side. It will be covered with pitch, inside and out. The Torah does not involve itself in other details such as:

Where will they put the food? How will they clean the ark?

How were the animals organized? How will they get ride of refuse?

There is, though, one other detail of concern in the text. [Stop and ask for suggestions]

After shutting the ark securely and completely: From where will they get light?

For this the Torah records God commanding Noah: "A tzohar make to/for the ark."

Tzohar is a fascinating word. So is the Hebrew for ark – teyvah.

II.

What is a tzohar? The Rabbis themselves debated this word. In the Midrash on Bereshit it is recorded: "Abba bar Kahana and Rabbi Levi did explain it. Rabbi Abbah bar Kahana said: It means a skylight . Rabbi Levi said: A precious stone. Rabbi Pinehas said in Rabbi Levi's name: During the whole twelve months that Noah was in the Ark he did not require the light of the sun by day or the light of the moon by night, be he had a polished gem which he hung up. When it was dim he knew that it was day, and when it shone he knew that it was night. Rabbi Huna said: Once we were taking refuge from Roman troops in the caves of Tiberias. We had lamps with us. When they were dim we knew that it was day, and when they shone brightly we knew that it was night."

This is a fascinating Midrash. Rabbi Abba bar Kahana is a practical man. He assumes like us that the light for the Ark isexternal. All Noah had to do was let it in! Therefore, Rabbi Abba bar Kahana, on the assumption that the Torah would of necessity included such an important detail, interprets the word Tzohar to mean skylight or window. Rabbi Levi views the Ark entirely differently. He perceives the Ark to be entirely closed. There is no opening to the outside. Neither the sun nor the moon can illuminate the inside of the Ark. Why? Because it's raining for forty days and forty nights! Therefore, Rabbi Levi interprets the word tzohar to refer to an internal source of light. Based on a gematria, assigning numerical value to letters he equates the Hebrew word tzohar to the Hebrew for precious stone.

One lesson: We are all travelers on our own personal arks. They may be constructed differently, but they all serve to protect us from the storms that buffet us about. When we close the doors and pull down the blinds in our homes, from where will come the light? Sometimes the answer is: from the outside. It can be friends, relatives, spouses, parents, children and community, synagogue community. Other times the answer will be: from the inside. The light, strength, perseverance for our path will have to come from within our own selves. There is the light of inner faith, the light ofbelief in a loving and protecting God. Some light is visible light, the sun and moon, the light bulb, and that of smiling faces. Some light is invisible even as it can be felt in our hearts. The two Rabbis of the Midrash refer to these different types of light. The story at the end teaches the beautiful thought that the source of light is strongest when the darkness is darkest. In the Midrash the two answers coexist. So, too, do the different sources of our light exist side by side in our lives.

III.

As a postscript to this thought, I read a commentary, which posed a very good question. There are so many parts of the ark for which God did not give explicit instructions. Why did he have to command Noah to build a window? Isn't it a bit self-evident? Does Noah need a commandment for something so simple and obvious as a window? Wouldn't it get awfully stuffy and smelly cooped up inside without a window? Did this command have to be incorporated in the heavenly blue print?

An answer: Once I had a congregant who was very close to her mother and father. In fact, her husband looked so much like her father that I mistook them to be father and son and she was the daughter-in-law! When her mother died she was terribly hurt, but she still had her father, who, in addition to two children, needed her attention. In a few years her father died and her hurt was nearly inconsolable. I knew that she could have remained behind closed doors of her home endlessly. So I told her that when shiva was over, I was coming that morning and she was going to come out and walk around the block to indicate that shiva was indeed over. She had to come out into the light. I will never forget the brightness of the sunshine that morning.

Another lesson: Sometimes when we are locked in our little boxes, we, too, need a window. When things seem so terrible, we need to open the window or have someone open it for us to allow in the light of day, be reaffirmed that there is still goodness in the world, that we are loved. At critical junctures in life, this can't be assumed, and that is why God included the command to build the tzohar in the description of the ark.

IV.

The word tayvah has more than one meaning. Here in Genesis it means ark, a special type of boat. Yet it also means the closet behind me, which we also can an ark. But it has another meaning, word. With that definition we can translate the sentence "Make a tzohar for the tayvah" to mean "make a window for the word."

I conclude this learning about tzohar with a story from the Chasidic lore on this use of the words tzohar and tayvah.

The famous Rabbi Yitzchak Luria of kabbalistic fame prayed with extraordinary devoutness during the Days of Awe. Then he was told from heaven that there was one man in a certain town who prayed better than he did. The celebrated kabbalist traveled there, called for the man, and asked him:

"Are you a Torah scholar?"

"No."

"Do you know how to pray?"

"No."

"Then what did you do during the Days of Awe?"

"Rabbi," answered the man, "I don't even know the whole alphabet – only from alephto yud.So when I came to the synagogue, and I saw all the congregation praying so devotedly, all aloud, while I can't pray at all, my heart broke inside me, and this is what I said: "Aleph, beis, gimmel, daled, hei, vov, zayin, ches, tes, yud. Master of the Universe! Put together all these letters into words the way You understand, and I hope You'll find them acceptable." That's what I said with a broken heart, but with all my strength, then I started all over again from the beginning."

And according to the story, these were the words that made more impact on High than the prayers of the saintly Rabbi Luria.

Conclusion

A last lesson: As much as there is the external light, and the internal light, and the need for others to help others open the window for light, we must open the doors of hearts and the windows of our souls, to allow our prayers and feelings to come out and ascend on high. From ourselves, out of ourselves we make windows for the words to come out and arise from us heavenward.

The tzohar of the ark was an important detail, worthy of being mentioned in the Torah.

May we see the light.

May we feel the light.

May we share the light with others.

May we make out of ourselves windows, to allow our hearts to be shared with one another and our prayers ascend to God.

Amen.