Rabbi Benayahu Shmueli, Head of the Yeshiva: Chizuk for the 1st of Cheshvan - The Second Day of Rosh Chodesh

The following is based on Rabbi Shmueli's Hebrew Chizuk video for the 1st of Cheshvan, 5787

Good morning everyone. Today is Monday the second day in the holy Shabbat week, the 1st of the month of Cheshvan 5787, at the blessing of the new month. May it be a good month for us and for all Israel our brethren, fulfilling the verse, "And you shall find favor and good understanding in the sight of the L-rd and man".

Here is Parshat Noah (No'ach):

"These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a righteous man, perfect in his generations; Noah walked with the L-rd. And Noah begat three sons, Shem, Cham (Ham), and Yefet (Japheth). And the earth was corrupt before the L-rd, and the earth was filled with violence [chamas]."

When the Holy One, blessed be He, saw that they were walking in bad ways, the earth full of violence—which is robbery, and violence is also sexual immorality and major problems—He said, well, they told me. "What is man that you should recall him".. "I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the earth".

What does "the earth is filled with violence" mean? The Kabbalists explain: there are two evil forces that rule over man—the Serpent and the S"M angel spelled out by the letters, Samech, Mem, Aleph, Lamed. In those letters the Samech, Mem is the evil part, but in the  Aleph, Lamed, part, there is good in it; from this good, the S"M (angel) suckles, thus his name is Samech, Mem, Aleph, Lamed. The Aleph, Lamed is the good part in him, and the Samech, Mem is the evil part. The Serpent—the Chet (the 8th letter of the Hebrew Alphabet, that also sounds like the Hebrew word for sin)  is an evil part, but the Nun and Shin are a good part. (That is to say serpent is spelled by the letters, Nun, Chet, Shin and the middle letter of serpent is the Chet, which also sounds like the Hebrew word for sin.)

The Holy One, blessed be He, saw that the earth was filled with violence—the Chet (letter) of the Serpent and the letters, Samach, Mem of the S"M angel together spell out Chamas (which is spelled in Hebrew, Chet, Mem, Samech). He says: He sees that the earth, Oy Vavoy, is filling up with Chamas (violence, etc.)!

What did He do? He says to Noah: In order for someone to be saved, you make yourself an ark of gopher wood, make rooms (kinnim) in the ark and pitch it inside and out with pitch. 300 cubits the length of the ark, 50 cubits its width, 30 cubits its height, and finish it to a cubit upward from above where the water descended.

Where does 300 come from? 300 cubits is the (Gematria value of) Shin of the Serpent, make 300 cubits the length of the ark. 50 cubits its width is the (Gematria value of) Nun of the Serpent. What is left? A good part. We said in the Serpent the evil part is Chet, the good part is Nun and Shin; the Shin is 300 cubits length of the ark, the Nun is 50 cubits width. What (good) is left from the S"M angel? Aleph, Lamed. Lamed (Gematria value of 30) is 30 cubits its height, and the Aleph (Gematria value of 1) is "and finish it to a cubit upward". And then thus will be saved whoever needs to be saved, enter inside—and be saved.

And how does this work? This is through the Name Havayah Adnut. Havayah Adnut is the name Y-H-V-H, and Adnut is A-D-N-Y. But you need to combine them together. You take the Yod of Havayah, the Aleph of Adnut, then it is Yod (Gematria value 10) Aleph (Gematria Value 1),

Next we have Hei (Gematria value 5) and Dalet (Gematria value 4)- Hei (the second letter) of Havayah, Dalet (the second letter) of Adnut.

Vav (Gematria value of 6) Nun (Gematrai value of 50) - Vav (the third letter) of Havayah, Nun (the third letter) of Adnut.

Hei Yod – (the last letter) Hei of Havayah, and Yod of Adnut (the last letter of Adnut). Now if we saw them like this, this is their order, let's multiply them:

• Yod times Aleph, how much is that? 10, right?
• Hei Dalet, Hei times Dalet how much does this give us? 20, (that is to say the Gematria value of Hei, times the Gematria value of Dalet is 20.
• 20 and 10 is 30 cubits its height, thus we have 30 cubits its height (the arks height).

·         Vav Nun, the Vav of Havayah, Vav multiplied by Nun, (of Adnut)—300. (Meaning, Vav with a Gematria value of six times Nun (the Gematria value of Nun)—gives a result of 300 corresponding to the 300 cubits of the length of the length of the ark.

·         Then Hei Yod, Hei (5) times Yod (10)— gives us 50 cubits its width. Here is the management of the details... This is what Noah did regarding the ark.

Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai teaches that against the flood of the last generation—marked by disasters, harsh decrees, illnesses, and spiritual persecution—our ultimate refuge is the holy Zohar. Rabbi Shimon explains in the Zohar Chadash that he gathered the holy patriarchs—Avraham, Yitzchak, Yaakov, Moshe, Aharon, Yoseph, and David—alongside all the Tanaaim and Amoraim into the Zohar. Whoever enters and studies the Zohar receives a special spiritual umbrella that protects them from the driving rains and spiritual storms of the final era, serving as a true Ark of Noah.

Chacham Ovadia Yosef's Ark of Noah

I just want to tell you that Chacham Ovadia always used to say that our Ark is... it's the yeshivas. When a person flees to a yeshiva, goes to... these are the caves. There a person can flee and be saved.

I tell you, more than 25 years ago, I sat with Chacham Ovadia. It just happened to come up for me, yes? Listen to a wondrous thing. He says to me, in the middle of his speaking: "Look, on the great and awesome Day of Judgment, I don't know what will be". Speaking about himself, yes? "But I have a notebook, like a diary; every place I go, I come home, I write: 'Today I was here, today I was here, I gave a sermon here'. Everything he would write. Where he preached with him, he writes: 'Benayahu said such-and-such, this one said...' Yes. 'I was in such-and-such a place, I preached like this'. He says: 'This... all along I thought after my 120 years I would take the book Yabia Omer with me. He says: 'Now, no. I want this, this notebook, where I brought merit to the public, where I went from place to place. This I want with me, that I did not abandon.'"

Now I'll tell you another thing: He says, when his son Rabbi Yaakov Yosef passed away, his son, he was crying, crying. He was at home crying, and one day Bibi came to console him. He saw him crying. He said to him: "Listen, you are the Prime Minister. He says: 'I have great grief. Leaving aside my son—that is a small grief compared to what you are doing!' he says to him. 'That is my great grief! The main grief is over the Torah students whom you want to draft!'" Even back then he told him this. That is how he spoke to him in fiery flames. "'My second grief is my private grief, of all the nation of Israel. My son brought merit to the public, it's a pity for him. But know this, it is the greatest grief, what you are doing—that you want to draft Torah students, that is the greatest grief!'" Now, I'm not just telling you this, my own eyes saw it...

Here in Raanana I was at many such occasions, where the Rabbi says to them: "What is this?" He... he... all his strength was only so that there would be Torah students, that they wouldn't leave the yeshivas, that they would continue. How to secure money for them, he would wear out his feet so there would be funds for Torah students. And it pained him if a Torah student had no money, he would give from his own pocket. He had bank accounts and it didn't interest him. There were... there were... there were times when wealthy people gave him blank checkbooks. They told him: "Whatever you want, honorable Rabbi, write it down". Torah students would come and tell him: "This is his situation..." Click-click-click! Click-click-click! Click-click-click! He writes! Even from his personal account! Yes. What wonders this man was! A wonder!

Rabbi Shmueli then recited a Mussar poem of Chacham Ovadia Yosef, which is quoted in full in the Hebrew Chizuk video for the first of Cheshvan, 5787.

Chacham Ovadia Yosef Sees the Messiah

During a Torah lesson (shiur) in Yazdim, Chacham Ovadia Yosef made the astounding declaration: "I saw the Messiah!"

When he asked the Messiah why he had not yet arrived, the response was: "There is a minyan of children who don't know how to say Shema Yisrael".

Returning to the narrative of Parshat Noach and the stopping of the deep waters, we look at the historical precedent of Rabbi Yehuda Fatiyah in Baghdad. His teacher was Rabbi Abdullah Somech (who was also the teacher of Rabbi Yosef Chaim). Even at the young age of 17, Rabbi Abdullah Somech recognized Rabbi Fatiyah's immense potential, laying hands on him and declaring that he would issue halachic rulings and judge with great authority. When continuous heavy rains flooded Baghdad for ten days, turning the streets into raging extensions of the Tigris River and causing widespread tragedy, Chacham Fatiyah took a friend to the grave of Chacham Sasson Mordechai. Through tearful prayers, the recitation of Psalms, and placing an item in the waters, Rabbi Fatiyah miraculously stopped the flood. This demonstrated the profound power of tzaddikim who walk in Hashem's path, fulfilling the promise that "your fear and your dread shall be upon every beast of the earth". Throughout history, great rabbis commanded complete mastery over wild animals. The Ohr HaChaim HaKadosh, Rabbi Galanti, and Rabbi Raphael Meir Panigel (the Chacham Bashi who traveled to Algeria and Morocco during times of famine) all demonstrated this spiritual dominance. Once, when a ferocious lion escaped its enclosure in a governor's garden in Tunis, causing utter panic, Rabbi Panigel calmly approached two loose lions, gently petted them, and led them back without any harm. Similarly, Rabbi Raphael Ankawa was legendary for riding on a lion. On one journey, a Yemenite gentile accompanied Rabbi Ankawa and witnessed a lion flee simply because the Rabbi revealed his holy covenant (Brit Kodesh). Mistaking it for a simple charm, the gentile tried to use the same method alone on a later trip and was tragically mauled.

Avoid Naming Your Child, Nimrod

Did you hear about that, that some name their children Nimrod? They don't know, they don't know. This week, (the parsha describes) Nimrod.

There was a couple in Ashdod, that their son went astray. They were crying, crying. What didn't they do for the honor of the Torah?

They told them: "Come to Rabbi Meir."

They came to Rabbi Meir. They didn't want to come, they say: "We don't know what this is, come!" He returned your son to you, believe that it is from heaven. Good. She is crying, crying, telling him... wants a special Tikkun for her son. He says to him, he says to her: "What is his name?" She tells him: "Nimrod ben Rachel." [Shout and laughter] Wow! Nimrod is a wicked person. May Hashem save us, why do you call him Nimrod? He didn't know, he says they didn't know. And... and therefore he made him a name change and that was it. He says: He returned? Yes, he returned ....