Bat Ayin

These are the generations of Noach (Noah); Noach was a righteous man, etc. (Genesis 6:9). And in the holy Zohar (Zohar I, 59b) [it is taught]: Noach, Noach — nyacha (rest/tranquility) above, nyacha below.

To understand this: behold it is written (Genesis 6:5), "for the evil of man was great... and Noach found favor in the eyes of Hashem." According to the plain sense of the verse, these two things are bound up one with the other — that because the evil of man was great, therefore Noach found favor.

And I would explain it thus: the truth is that it was precisely from their evil and their attachment to chamas (violence) and to the vanities of this world, the fleeting life to which they clung, that Noach drew a kal vachomer (inference from a lesser to a greater case) for himself, and said, "my strength is secured for Torah" — meaning, he said: rather than attach myself to the vanities of this world, which are mere vanity and emptiness, it is better that I attach myself to the life of life, the eternal life, the source of life. And so he attached himself to the service of the Creator, blessed be He.

This is the meaning of the verse "Noach found" — that is, "nyacha matza" (he found rest/contentment) — for No'ach (Noach) is numerically equivalent (gematria) to "kevod" (glory) of Hashem, meaning that he found the kavod (glory) of Hashem even within their evil, as above. As our sages, of blessed memory, said (Avot 6:12), "everything that the Holy One, blessed be He, created in His world, He created only for His glory (kevodo)."

And the verse warns us of this (Psalms 104:31), "Let the glory of Hashem be forever" — meaning, let the kavod (glory) of Hashem always be before your eyes; that is, wherever you look, you should see within it the aspect of the kavod (glory) of Hashem concealed therein, and it should not be hidden from before your eyes — just as Noach did, as mentioned above.

Through this, Scripture calls him "ish tzaddik" (a righteous man), as the verse says (Mishlei 10:25), "V'tzaddik yesod olam" (the tzaddik is the foundation of the world). That is to say, who is a tzaddik? One who perceives the "yesod" (foundation) that is in the world — meaning, one who perceives the aspect of the "yud" (the letter yud), which is the aspect of chochmah (wisdom) (Tikkunei Zohar, Tikkun 18, 32b), the aspect of the wisdom of Hashem that is concealed in the world within every single creation, for He created everything for His glory. And the tzaddik sees and gazes upon this everywhere, so that the kavod (glory) of Hashem is never hidden from him from being seen in anything, as stated above.

Thus is hinted by our Sages, may their memory be blessed, in their saying (Avot ch. 5, mishnah 1), "With ten utterances the world was created" — meaning to say, with the ten [aspects] in the letter yud, which hints to the attribute of chochmah (wisdom), everything in the world was created, and the tzaddik (righteous person) gazes and continually looks to perceive it, and through this attaches himself to Hashem, and through this he also elevates those created things which are on the lowest level, to Hashem as well.

This matter is hinted at in the letter tzaddik, which is composed of a yud and a nun in this form: צ. That is to say, the tzaddik (righteous person) attaches the aspect of yud, the aforementioned aspect of chochmah (wisdom), to all the lower fallen levels, for the nun hints at the aspect of the fallen, and the tzaddik, by means of the aspect of yud, the aspect of chochmah which he finds within the fallen thing — namely, that through which it was created — attaches himself to it within it, and thereby raises and elevates it upward. Nevertheless, the yud is inverted (for the tzaddik turns his face away from them, so as not to become attached to them).

And concerning this the verse warns us (Isaiah 40:26): "Lift up your eyes on high and see, who (mi) created these (eleh)" — that is to say, from the yud were created the eleh, the aspect of gevurot (powers of severity), as is known, that the word eleh hints at the aspect of gevurot (see Zohar I, 228a; Pardes, Sha'ar 23, chapter 1, entry "eleh") — referring to the lower fallen levels, [fallen] into the vanities of this world.

The meaning is that even the inferior aspects were created by the yud, by the aspect of chochmah, for the glory of Hashem (G-d), as stated above.

This is why the verse states "Eileh toldot Noach" (these are the generations of Noach) — "eileh" alludes to the quality of gevurot (severities/powers), as mentioned above. "Hayu toldot Noach" (were the generations of Noach) means that he elevated them upward, as mentioned above. (Or it is possible to explain "Eileh toldot Noach" to mean: that from the "eileh" — the aspect of the gevurot that the people of his generation performed [with] — Noach was born as kavod Hashem (the glory of God), as mentioned above.) And those very aspects which the people of his generation engaged in for evil — with those very same things Noach served Hashem, and he transformed the darkness, the aspect of gevurot, the aspect of the kelipot (shells/husks of impurity), and converted them into the aspect of light, the aspect of kedushah (holiness).

This is called the aspect of Yisr"ael (Israel), which in gematria (numerical value) equals Or Choshech (light and darkness), for Yisrael transform darkness into light, as our Sages of blessed memory said (Bereishit Rabbah 73:3): tzaddikim (righteous ones) transform the attribute of din (judgment) into the attribute of rachamim (mercy), just as we said (that the aspect of the vanities of this world were created through the attribute of din — see above in the second derush/discourse).

This is the essential purpose of the creation of the world: to transform choshech (darkness) into nehorah (light). How beautiful is the teaching of the Maggid, zal"h (of blessed memory), who explained the saying of Chaza"l (our Sages of blessed memory) (Chagigah 3a): "Why do the taf (little ones) come [to the assembly]? In order to give reward to those who bring them." He, zal"h, explained: tap is the aspect of smallness, the aspect of the vanities of this world and physical desires. "Why do they come" — "in order to give reward to those who bring them," meaning Yisrael, who bring these aspects back to their root and source, which is the aspect of chochmah (wisdom), the aspect of the yud through which they were created, as mentioned above. Vedoch pokach hachacham (and the wise will understand this well).

Meaning, that Yisrael unify all seven of their qualities (middot) to Hashem, to the aspect of the "One," the Chief (Aluf) of the world, as it is said (in the blessing of Yotzer Or), "the King who is exalted alone from of old (me'az)" — meaning, that the Holy One, blessed be He, is exalted above the aleph-zayin (א"ז). That is to say, through Yisrael, who unify the aleph with the zayin — meaning, they unify the aspect of His Oneness and His being the Aluf (Chief) of the world, which is hinted at by the letter aleph, with their seven qualities (middot), which are hinted at by the letter zayin. As the verse says (Mishlei 13:25), "And the tzaddik (righteous one) eats to the satisfaction of his soul" — meaning, even when he eats physical food, his intention is for the satisfaction of his soul, and not for the satisfaction of his physical body.

This is also alluded to in the word "Noach" (נח): through uniting the letter alef with the zayin, as mentioned above, the letter chet (ח) is formed, and this aspect became attached to the nun (נ), the aspect of "the fallen" as mentioned above. Thereby he attained the aspect of Yisrael, who are called "those who cling to Hashem," as the verse states (Deuteronomy 4:4), "And you who cling to Hashem, etc." For they attach the lower aspects to the higher aspects, raising them upward to the level of kedushah (holiness), as mentioned above.

This is hinted in the verse: "No-ach, i-sh tza-dik ta-mim" (Noach, a righteous, perfect man) — the initial letters [of these words] equal in gematria "Yisrael," [which equals] the gematria of "or" (light) and "choshech" (darkness) combined, as mentioned above, because he too converted choshech into or, and so he too is called by the aspect of "Yisrael." And the letter ches became attached to the letter nun (thus forming "No-ach" as above). Furthermore, the letters of the Name Havayah (the Tetragrammaton) became attached to the letter nun in the aforementioned manner, and this is hinted in the verse (Bereishit 8:8), "vayishlach et ha-yonah" (and he sent forth the dove) — the letters of Havayah together with the letter nun are contained within one word, as we said above.

And concerning this, Noach is called "Noach, Noach" [doubled], and the Zohar HaKadosh (the Holy Zohar) states: "naycha ila'ah, naycha tata'ah" (rest above, rest below) — meaning that he brought about rest in the upper worlds and in the lower worlds, through his elevating and drawing [sparks] into the aspect of holiness as mentioned above, so that a state of yichud (unification) was brought about in the worlds, and there was rest above and below.