Parshat Noach: Maintaining Our Growth - A Lesson from Noach's Mistake

ויחל נח איש האדמה ויטע כרם (ט:כ)

And Noach made himself mundane and painted a vineyard.

Chazal teach us that the personalities in the Torah were on spiritual level we cannot comprehend, and yet it is still appropriate to look at their lives and ask questions, so we can learn from their experiences. They too were human, albeit on a much higher spiritual plain. Any novice reader of this week’s parsha would be troubled by the episode that occurs right after Noach leaves the ark. What is the very first thing he does after spending a year protected by Hashem, in a world where everyone else around him has died? He plants a vineyard, gets drunk, resulting in horrible consequences. How are we to understand this?

One valuable lesson from this is the danger of abusing alcohol, a topic which deserves a lot of attention in our Jewish society, where I am concerned adults do not always act as good role models for our children, but I will leave that topic for another day. I prefer to focus here on what went wrong for Noach when he left the ark. On his level, what did he miss that lead to such devastating results?

Rav Shlomo Wolbe zt”l explains that Noach didn’t know how to re-enter society properly. He spent an entire year of total selflessness where he sustained the animals and lived a purely spiritual life as a prophet. The Torah describes his act of planting the vineyard as making himself “mundane.” Rashi explains that he should have planted something else; wine is intoxicating and thus was not the appropriate first choice. Rav Wolbe adds that when a person experiences a spiritual lift and then does something not on par with his newfound level, it is called “making himself mundane.”

It is for this reason that Chazal teach us to end Yom Kippur by going outside to build our Sukkah; to maintain that spiritual height by keeping involved in mitzvoth. The insight here is that every time you complete a mitzvah, it is important to carefully consider your subsequent actions, lest you “make yourself mundane.” Rav Wolbe compares this to space travel. The most dangerous part of the entire trip is re-entry into the atmosphere. If the shuttle does not enter with the exact angle and speed, it will burn up in seconds.  So too, after Yom Kippur, after spending a day on a high spiritual level, it is crucial to consider how you will re-enter.

We find ourselves at Rosh Chodesh MarCheshvan, just days after Simchat Torah and three weeks of chagim where, G-d willing, we grew to a higher spiritual level. We now must focus on how to maintain our growth, so we can become stronger, more committed Jews and not lose what we have achieved. This reminds me of Chassidic story I heard ten years ago from my Rav, Rav Moshe Weinberger. There was a man named Matul and he was a simpleton, so everyone in town called him Matul Naar, which is the yiddish version of Matul the simpleton. Although he didn’t love this somewhat derogatory name, he learned to live with it. After a number of years of searching, Matul was found a shidduch and from then on everyone called him חתן מת. The night before the wedding, the town Rebbi saw Matul sitting and weeping. He went over and asked “Tomorrow is the happiest day of your life, so why are you crying?”. Matul said when he became engaged, everyone called him chatan matul, which he liked. He cried because he knew that tomorrow, after the wedding, people will again call him Matul Naar, which he didn’t want to happen.   

Rav Weinberger said this is how most of us feel at the end of Simchat Torah. The whole year we are Matul Naar; finally Elul and the Yomim Noraim come along and we grow in our avodat Hashem, and perhaps Hashem looks at us as a Chatan. But we are sad now, as we don’t want to return to being called Matul Naar again, as regular life returns.

The words of Rav Wolbe and Rav Weinberger help shed light on Noach’s mistake and what we can learn from it. We must have a plan. Just as we took the time to introspect and find areas of our avodat Hashem to improve upon, we also must plan on how to integrate our new improved selves into regular, daily life.

CLICK HERE to read my thought on Parshat Noach from last year, which includes an insight into Noach and touches upon understanding his mistake.