STAM
TORAH
PARSHAS
NOACH 5779
“LOVEY
DOVEY”[1]
Chayn
Miller is a teacher in Mishmar Hasharon[2].
At a seminar for teachers in Tel Aviv in 2016 she related the following
personal anecdote:
“During
my first year working in the educational system I was a teaching intern. I
walked into the first-grade classroom on the first day and saw in the middle of
the room was a little boy with big eyes sitting on a chair spitting, cursing,
and screaming. He looked at me and I looked back at him. Then I walked over to
him and whispered in his ear, “I know you have a big heart, I know you’re a
smart kid, and I know that you want to be a good boy.”
“The
little boy laughed at me disdainfully. In front of the entire class he
announced, “You’re a dumb teacher! You don’t know anything! Everyone says that
I’m a disturbance, including my teachers and the principal. Even my parents say
that I’m a pain in the neck!”
“I
gently repeated the same words again, “I know you have a big heart, I know
you’re a smart kid, and I know that you want to be a good boy.”
“Every
day I would repeat this same message to him, and every day he seemed to mock me
and the message. But then after three weeks, I walked in one day to find a
small chair next to my chair and the little boy with big eyes was sitting on it
quietly. That day he accepted me as his teacher.
“On
the last day of the year, he approached me and asked me how I know that
children are good. I replied that I had a secret to share with him:
“I told him that when I was a student in
school, I felt lost. The first day of first grade was the hardest day of my
life. Until fifth grade I couldn’t read or write, and most of the time I sat in
class and just stared mindlessly at the teacher.
“Before
I went to sleep each night I would ask myself why I came into the world? I
thought I was an idiot with a defective brain, and I was sure that I would
never amount to anything. Whatever I know about education, is not from what I
was taught in University, but rather what I learned from the tears that rolled
down my cheeks each night. That’s how I was sure that even though you may not
have seemed to be, and even though you yourself didn’t believe me, I knew that you
are a really good boy with a good heart.”
Chayn
Miller then continued to address the assemblage:
“Often
people ask me why I became a teacher. This is my greatest pride. I, Chayn
Miller, the special education student who the system wanted to give up on, has
joined that system as a teacher in the hope that I can change and improve it.
“Teachers,
Principals, esteemed members of educational system, realize that your words
matter, as do your attitudes and hopes for each child. At some point your
encouragement and positive approach will be internalized by the student. There
is no child that cannot; there are only children that can! Working in education
is an opportunity to save souls.”
One
of the beloved Shabbos zemiros sung on Shabbos morning has as its refrain a
reference to the dove of Noach. “Yonah matzah vo manoach… – The dove
found on it rest, and there will rest those who are weary of strength.”
What
is the connection between the dove and Shabbos?
After
the conclusion of the flood, Noach wanted to ascertain whether the floodwaters
had adequately subsided. He first dispatched the raven, but it flew around the
ark, refusing to venture further. Noach then dispatched the dove. It flew three
missions before it found dry land and didn’t return.
If
the purpose of sending the birds was to find out if the land had dried, why
would the relatively docile dove be a better emissary than the raven, which is
a bird of prey?
The
Torah also uses different phraseology when it describes each time Noach sent
the dove. The first time Noach sent the dove the pasuk states: “He sent off the
dove, away from himself.” The second time it states: “He sent off the dove,
away from the ark.” The final time it says “He sent off the dove” without
specifying any further detail.
What
message is the Torah conveying by relating about each mission in detail?
Rav
Dovid Hofstedter[3] explains that the animals
were very apprehensive to leave the ark. During the year they were there, they
had all of their food and needs provided for them. Leaving the ark meant that they
would be entering an entirely different world than the one they had last seen
before they entered the ark. This was why the raven refused to leave the
general area of the ark.
Targum
states that the dove Noach sent was his own personal pet[4].
Noach concluded that the only animal that would be willing to venture off into
the unknown was his own dove. This was not despite the fact that Noach had a
personal relationship with it, but because of it! The dove was comfortable to
fly even an extremely long distance from the ark because it knew that Noach
would accept it back at any time.
The
wording of the pasuk reflects the reason why Noach chose the dove. The first
time, “he sent the dove, away from himself”. He sent the dove that he had a
personal affinity for, away from himself. The dove returned, but after another
week, “Noach sent off the dove, away from the ark”. This time he sent it even
further, into the unknown where it could no longer see the ark. The final time,
he didn’t send it from himself or from the ark; he merely sent it off on its own.
Because
the dove knew that it was lovingly reaccepted by Noach both times despite its
failed mission, it was willing to venture forth again, and each time it went
even further, until it didn’t return.
This
contains a very practical message for us as parents (and educators). Our ultimate
dream and hope for our children is that they leave our homes to go out into the
world on their own. But the world is a scary and unnerving place, full of challenges
and unknowns. The more confidence we invest in our children, and the more love
and encouragement we show them during their formative years, the more willing
and confident they will be to venture forth into the vagaries of life.
Based
on this approach we can add the following: Shabbos each week affords us the
opportunity to bask in the knowledge that Hashem loves us and cherishes our
efforts. We state in the Shabbos Kiddush “And grant us a heritage, Hashem our
G-d, with love and favor Your holy Shabbos.” The love and elevation we feel on
Shabbos is meant to carry us throughout the week. As we head out of the
spiritually elevated and comfortable confines of the holy Shabbos, its boost of
inspiration is meant to help us navigate the spiritual challenges of the
workweek and workplace.
On
Shabbos we sing about the rest that the dove found on Shabbos because it is
symbolic of our experience. The dove was able to leave the protection of the ark
and go into a vast and ominous world because it was sure of the love of Noach
which it had experienced for so many years. “And there will rest all those
weary of strength”, i.e. in the Shabbos we become rejuvenated and reenergized
to face the outside world.
In
the Musaf of Rosh Hashanah[5],
we state: “And also Noach You remembered with love.” In the Torah there is no
mention of G-d remembering Noach with love. How can we state with such
conviction that it was with love?
Perhaps
it’s because Noach could only have accomplished the incredible feat he did – to
save and sustain the surviving world – because he felt and knew he was loved by
Hashem. How else could he have spent one hundred and twenty years building the
ark, a year on the ark, and then having the confidence to emerge from the ark
into the frightening emptiness that awaited him?
The
love we feel from others encourages us and fills us with confidence to
accomplish and venture beyond our comfort zones. The love we give to others
infuses them with those same capabilities. There is hardly a greater gift we
can be given, or give others.
“Grant
us a heritage with love and favor Your holy Shabbos”
“There
will rest those who are weary of strength.”
Rabbi Dani Staum,
LMSW
Rebbe/Guidance
Counselor – Heichal HaTorah
Principal – Ohr
Naftoli- New Windsor
[1] The following
is the lecture I was privileged to deliver in Kehillat New Hempstead, Shabbos
Kodesh Parshas Noach 5777.
[2] A kibbutz in
Central Israel
[3] Dorash Dovid
[4] See also
Ha’amek Davar who explains that both the raven and the dove were Noach’s
personal pets, and that was why he had the right to send them out of the ark.
If they were not his personal pets and they were the only male remaining of
that bird, jeopardizing their lives would have been jeopardizing the entire
future of that species.
[5] In the
introductory paragraph of the Zichronos section
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