Parashat Noach: Go Through the Motions

Living Emunah By Rabbi David Ashear

In this week's Parasha , Noach was commanded to bring into the Teva two of every kind of animal that existed in the world to keep it's species alive. The sefer Birkat David quotes from studies that were done investigating how many species exist in the world. It said there are 10 kosher animals, 5,300 non-kosher animals, 18,000 kinds of reptiles, 9,000 kinds of birds and hundreds of thousands of insects. As big as the teva was, it was mathematically impossible for all of those animals to have fit on it. Furthermore, Noah and his family were given the job of feeding those animals. Even if every one of them would have spent all of their 24 hour days feeding the animals, they still wouldn't even come close to reaching every animal each day. Moreover, where was all that food stored ?Just the elephant alone eats approximately 300 pounds of food a day. Obviously this must have been accomplished by way of a miracle from Hashem. If that's the case, the Ramban asks, why did Hashem instruct Noah to build such a big Teva ? Anyway, it wasn't going to fit everything. He answered, Hashem wanted the miracle to be minimized as much as possible. And then he added, this is the way of all miracles. Man has to do all he can. And then Hashem does the rest. This is how it is with everything we do in life. We go through the motions, doing what we can, and Hashem is the One who gets things done. With this knowledge, if a person ever runs into a situation where it doesn't seem possible for him to accomplish his goal, but he knows it's the right thing to do, his job is to proceed with it, and he can then leave the rest to Hashem. Rabbi Avraham Salem, a mohel in Israel, told the following story about himself. Some years back on a hot day in the month of Elul, he had many brit milas scheduled in Netanya and the surrounding areas. The second to last one of the day was scheduled for 7:00 PM in one location. And the last one was in a different location pretty far from there, with sunset being at 7:15. This meant the mohel would have less than ten minutes to get there and do that last brit milah . He had no other choice. That was the only possibility for him to get all of them done on that day. While he was driving to that last brit milah, he saw smoke coming from underneath his car, and he quickly pulled over. He saw one of his tires was completely flat. It was too late to first call a taxi. He made a tefila to Hashem, "Please help me get this Mila accomplished." It seemed impossible to get there and complete it before sunset. But this rabbi knew he had to put in the effort and Hashem would decide what happens. So he waved down the next car driving by and begged the driver to help him. The driver was apprehensive, not knowing who this man was. The rabbi already started thanking him and got into his car and told him, "Please just go. I assure you we are doing holy work. I'll explain on the road." It was about a five mile drive to the next place, and there was nine minutes to go until sunset. The rabbi told the driver who was not religious, "You are Hashem's messenger. I am trying to get a brit mila done by the end of the day. I'm going to say Tehilim now and you just drive" When they arrived at the address, the rabbi was afraid to look at his watch. The driver told him you still have more than four minutes to go. The rabbi ran into the shul and was able to finish the mila before sunset. When he came out, he told the driver, you have no idea how great of a mitzvah you just did. The driver then said, "My name is Shimon. And if I just did a great mitzvah and you are a rabbi, please give me a beracha that I should get married. I'm 45 and I'm still single. I'm so lonely." The rabbi then put his hands on Shimon's head and gave him a heartfelt beracha and concluded by saying, "B'ezrat Hashem, I will have the merit to circumcise your first born son." The rabbi concluded this story by saying it was just one year later when Shimon called him in tears telling him that he got married two months after that episode, and now they had their first baby boy and were hoping he could come do the brit milah. That day that the rabbi tried to do all of those brit milas it seemed like he hit a roadblock and wasn't going to be able to complete the mission. Yet he kept going, because he knew that he just had to make the efforts, and it will be Hashem who actually gets things done. Shabbat Shalom.