Insights on Education from Parashat Noach — Resources and Strengths: How Far Must One Go?

- How much time, strength, and resources am I expected to invest in a child? Are there clear rules for this?

- How can I, as a parent — a father, a mother, or an educator — free myself from pangs of conscience and feelings of guilt, lest I did not do enough or perhaps did not act correctly in raising the child, and therefore the results are not as expected?

- And sometimes the thoughts go in the opposite direction: I did far more than was necessary, showered him with too much and spoiled him, did not set boundaries, and did not establish clear lines in the more precise places. What is the correct path, and what is the Torah’s guidance on this matter?

Let us reflect on our parashah, and we will see that these matters are broader and touch upon many areas of life.

Noach Was of Those of Little Faith — Is That Possible?

“And Noach came, and his sons, etc., because of the waters of the Flood” (Bereishit 7:7).

“Even Noach was of those of little faith: he believed and did not believe that the Flood would come, and he did not enter the ark until the waters forced him” (Rashi).

The commentators have difficulty understanding this. After all, the Midrash (Bereishit Rabbah 30:8) establishes that Noach was a righteous man “from beginning to end,” and the Ramban (there, 6:9) writes that he was “meritorious and complete in his righteousness” and that “he was a prophet.” If so, how could our Sages call him “of little faith”? Moreover, Noach spent 120 years building the ark — and precisely now he doubts and does not believe wholeheartedly that the Flood will come?!

Rabbi Yosef Tzvi Salant zatzal, in his book “Be’er Yosef,” explains that it may be said that Noach’s hesitation came because he knew that the Holy One, blessed be He, is compassionate and gracious, that His mercy is upon all His works, and that He would not bring them to utter destruction. Indeed, the Gemara (Sanhedrin 108b) says regarding the verse “for in yet seven days,” and likewise “and it came to pass after the seven days, that the waters of the Flood were upon the earth”: What was the nature of these seven days? The Holy One, blessed be He, first set for them a long period and then a short period. Rashi explains that the Holy One, blessed be He, added another seven days to the 120 years He had allotted them, perhaps they would be aroused to repentance and He would not need to bring the Flood. Consequently, because Noach believed in the mercy and kindness of the Holy One, blessed be He, toward His creatures, waiting for their repentance, he did not enter the ark until the waters forced him.

This was Noach’s righteousness: with regard to the Flood, he was of little faith, meaning that he believed in the power of repentance until the very last moment, when the waters were already forcing him.

Accordingly, the question becomes even stronger: what did our Rabbis see fit to call him, because of this, “of little faith”?

However, the explanation is that since he had been explicitly commanded by the Holy One, blessed be He: “בֹּא אתה וכל ביתך אל התיבה” — “Come, you and all your household, into the ark,” he should have fulfilled the command immediately, without delay and without doubt. This is what Rashi wrote — “he believed and did not believe,” meaning that his waiting for the mercy of Hashem, blessed be He, and not entering the ark immediately as he had been explicitly commanded, is what caused him to be called “of those of little faith.”

Accordingly, it appears that the verse comes to teach us a great principle.

Every event that happens to a person in this world is directed toward him, concerning him, or around him, and he must view it as a kind of command of Hashem from Heaven. Consequently, he must accept it as it is, without various considerations or calculations, for none of us truly knows the intention of the One Who causes events to unfold.

The Torah taught us a great and important principle: the distinction and separation between what depends on me and what I must accept as it is, as the will of Hashem and His blessed command that it be so.

In essence, our entire life is built around the central axis between “hishtadlut” — my practical side as a person within Creation — and “emunah and bitachon” — the side that the Creator of the world has arranged, formed, and determined for me.

As HaGaon Rabbi Yitzchak Hutner defined it (Sefer HaZikaron, p. 394, sec. 26, under the heading “Hishtadlut and Bitachon”): “האדם יראה לעיניים וה' יראה ללבב” — “Man sees with the eyes, but Hashem sees into the heart” (I Shmuel 16:7), and it follows that a person does not see into the heart. And if you will say: if so, man lacks knowledge of the heart. Rather, in truth this does not concern him at all, and regarding this it is written: “הנסתרות לה' אלוקינו והנגלות לנו ולבנינו” — “The hidden things belong to Hashem our God, and the revealed things belong to us and to our children”; a person has only what his eyes see. However, there is a special exception, where the hidden chambers of the heart and their investigation are truly relevant to him in practical halachah, and that place is the decision between hishtadlut and bitachon. For this depends on the individual level of each person as he is: according to the level of his faith should be the extent of his effort in hishtadlut, and the level of his faith is from the depths of the hidden chambers of the heart. Therefore, this decision is built much more on prayer to merit directing oneself to the truth than on intellectual judgment, as is the way with other decisions in Torah. May Hashem grant us the merit to determine the proper measure between these two — hishtadlut and bitachon.”

In this regard, I heard from Rabbi Aharon David Mendelowitz shlita of Boro Park (when I came to visit him at his home) that when Batyah, Pharaoh’s daughter, took the basket from the Nile, “ותפתח ותראהו את הילד והנה נער בוכה וכו' ותאמר מילדי העברים זה” — “She opened it and saw him, the child, and behold, a boy was crying… and she said: This is one of the Hebrew children.” How did she know?

He cited in the name of one of the Admorim who explained that a person’s service between hishtadlut and bitachon is very great. It is explained in Chovot HaLevavot that the less a person exerts effort, the greater his trust in his Creator. Batyah, Pharaoh’s daughter, wondered: How could they place such a small child in a basket without knowing what would become of him? Therefore she said in her heart that presumably his mother had done her hishtadlut in saving him, doing what was within her ability to do, and had left all the rest in the hands of the Holy One, blessed be He. Indeed, to make such minimal effort and rely completely on the Holy One, blessed be He — only a Jew is capable of acting in such a way. From this she understood that this child was of Jewish descent.

And always, in these matters, everything depends on a person’s level and the purity of his heart in the service of Hashem, as was explained from the words of Rabbi Yitzchak Hutner above.

As for our matter, presumably no one can say that there exists a clear book of laws with orderly rules for how one must act in every situation in which we encounter an educational question, of any kind, with our children.

Likewise, regarding the measure itself — how much we are supposed to invest, and where one must stop and let go — this is not something that can be guided and ruled upon in an absolute manner.

One must believe that the Holy One, blessed be He, gives tools and strength to every parent or teacher to give and bestow the very best he is capable of giving to his children or students. And of course, everything is only within the category of hishtadlut, for the beginning and end of the matter are all from Him, blessed be He, and in His hands alone.

Consequently, the boundary of my responsibility as a parent is defined by what I am capable of and able to do; beyond that, what remains for me is essentially to pray, for from the point where it is not in my hands to do, it is solely in His hands . (Of course, everything we do is from Him, blessed be He; the intention here is only with regard to my obligation of hishtadlut as a Jew endowed with free choice.)

We have learned:

A. We, as parents and educators, must “make an effort” in the work of education and not “succeed,” for successes — although they are generally the result of effort — in the pure truth are only from Him, blessed be He.

B. Learning in order to seek advice and improve is very important, but one must always live reality according to one’s abilities, strengths, and knowledge, and not live what is not within me or what I do not have.

C. One must know that the test comes from Him, blessed be He, and consequently frustrations and bitterness are the counsel of the evil inclination. Therefore, when pangs of conscience arise in our heart, let us try to discern whether they belong to the “test” aspect of the matter, or to the aspect of frustration and bitterness; presumably, it will then become a little easier for us.

D. When a state of helplessness arrives, or a reality of powerlessness, I must understand that I am now in a powerful, inner, and deep encounter with the Creator. The first thing I will try to do is to find through this yet another way of connection and bond with Him through prayer and more. From there onward, I will continue the clarification…

And all, of course, with siyata diShmaya.

Rabbi Michael Zecharyahu

Spiritual director at the Torat David Yeshivah Gedolah and chairman of the Legiono Shel Melech organization