Weekly Essay
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Noach Quick Overview — Johannesburg, 5769 ThemeThe basis of a world of individuality, creativity, and love of the earth is laid here as the מספר בני ישראל are prefigured in the שבעים אומות and become ultimately the lovers of the earth and its potential in כל הלומד תורה לשמה. This is why ultimately it is the nations of the earth who can be the true judges of the success of Yisrael, and who in the end must become their true lovers.
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VeZot HaBeracha to Noach — Executives, 5761 ThemeFrom ברכות to ברכות From the achievements of תוהו בליל ישימון to תוהו with ברכות as the specified directions Utilizing תוהו in נח בשגם as a backwards assertion of order The essence of תשובה Of a world that was created with a ה''ה as part of אברהם
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Noach Structure — Old City, 5744/1984
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Noach and Covenant — Undergraduates, 5763 ThemeUnderstanding the מבול as a discontinuity in the path of כיבוש over תוהו, a necessary mid-step in the journey to fulfilled ברית and ברכה, defining primally the role of משה and אברהם ונמרוד…Themes and patterns, ends and beginnings, Nimrod and Avraham; כיבוש, תוהו ותהום, Plato and Justice. The וכיבשוה as defining the essential path of Man that leads here to Avraham and Nimrod, and that reaches, at the end of שנות תוהו, a step beyond biology. At that point of biology’s end is the beginning of social evolution, the beginning of philosophy, of the Just City that can be Plato’s (which is Nimrod’s) or קריה נאמנה. But Avraham cannot win at this stage….and this leads next week to a redefinition of ברכה and ברית… The breakdown of paradigm accelerates as in מכעיסין ובאין but as רני עקרה suggests, the discontinuity of the break into the next level, post תיבה which was beyond normal modes of תוהו/כיבוש, is to be expected as catastrophic discontinuity. Thus נח-דניאל-איוב are central to the discovery of נחמה for only in total clarity about the failure of models is there any hope (this is why it revolves around יוחנן בן קרח).
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Noach Transitions — Undergraduates, 5762 ThemeSimilar dual elements in the model of Noach: Stage vs. transition; לגנאי או לשבח; qualitative distinction from Avraham or quantitative; שכור או מתקן עץ הדעת. Analysis of the מי נח as either a failing or an outgrowth of avoiding assertion over nature and the possibility that transition makes impacting others an impossibility. The נחמה aspect of נח would then also have a dual face, one which impacted society (invention of the plow, still within the old paradigm) and the בורגני לשם בורגנות and the להוט אחר האדמה, the איש האדמה, which required a totally new paradigm. The inescapability of the “Box” i.e. the תיבה and the insulation of נח.
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Noach — Undergraduates, 5761 ThemeTransitions from Vezot to Noach: From ברכות to ברכות; From the achievements of תוהו בליל ישימון to תוהו with ברכות as the specified directions; Utilizing תוהו in נח; בשגם as a backwards assertion of order; The essence of תשובה; Of a world that was created with a ה''ה as part of אברהם
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Noach — Undergraduates, 5760 ThemeUnderstanding the בשגם and its importance. Explaining how the only meaning consistent with it being משה is that it demands a synthesis of both צלם ובשר. Noach’s attempted תיקון is only provides for the acceptance and even primacy of בשר . But instead of demanding the separation of the cortex from the reptilian brain and the mind from the protoplasm that produces it, משה addresses טעם העץ כטעם הפרי in making even emergent qualities consistent with בשר and he deals with בני האלוהים in exactly the same way that he deals with the other מלאכים who demand מה אנוש כי תזכרנו. The surprising correlation between the impact of mind in creating more בשר in terms of allowing עבודה זרה וערוה and בשר creating more reliable mind and שבע מצוות בני נח. The approach of אברהם in working out backwards the mode of connection of mind back to flesh is the only approach that allows the ידון רוחי באדם and provides for the בני הנביאים that ultimately produce Moshe. Moshe’s achievement of צדיק כמשה means a total consistency and distance from any possible עבודה זרה. The contrast between Moshe and בלעם is in precisely this matter as well, contrasting בא על בעירן and the פורץ גדר עולם בבנות מדין the destructive deconstruction with the achievement of unity..
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Advanced FrameWorks Noach — Presented to Kollel Fellows, 1995 Theme“Two thousand years of Chaos” presents us with two sets of developed generations which define the possibilities of the future. The difference between them in the Torah is their relationship to flesh and the earth; in their relationship to קדשים (the sanctified) and חולין (the secular). Noach the חול must come before אברהם in order to provide the basis of successful relationship to earth. It was he who consciously came to save the future from the dangers of חכמה without roots, from self-definitions without relationships. It was he who built the Seventy Nations out of which Yisrael grows; he who built the Rainbow Covenant of Seven Mitzvot completed by the remainder of the 613; it was he who gave Avraham a starting point. His accomplishment must remain part of the legacy of every Yisrael – otherwise the very Torah of Life becomes the same danger that it was to Adam and the first ten generations.
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