B"H

Monday, Tishrei 29, 5779 / October 8, 2018

Shalom. I hope you had a very joyous and wonderful Sukkot and Simchat Torah holiday.

It is with gratitude to G-d that I inform you that our daughter in Toronto gave birth to a baby girl.

B”H, mother and daughter are doing well. May G-d bless you all with simchas and nachas.

In this week's Parsha, Noach, the second Parsha in the Torah, we read about the story of Noach and the Great Flood. 

G-d said to Noach, "The end of all flesh has come before Me, for the earth is filled with violence, and I will destroy them with the earth."

G-d commands Noach to build an ark to shelter him, his wife, their three sons and their wives, from the Great Flood which G-d will bring. He also commanded Noach to bring into the ark two of each of the non kosher species and seven from the kosher animals, so they too will be saved from the flood. 

The Flood lasted forty days.  But, the water was so high and the destruction was so great that they had to spend a full year in the ark, until the water receded and it was safe to exit.

Q.  How long did it take Noach to build the ark?

A.  120 years.  The reason is that G-d wanted to give the people a chance to repent. But they didn't repent and G-d brought The Great Flood.

Q.  How old was Noach when G-d brought The Great Flood?

A.  600 years old!

Q.  How long did Noach live?

A.  The Torah tells us that Noach lived to the age of 950. His grandfather, Metushelach, lived to the age of 969. He died seven days before the flood. Noach’s father, Lemech, died a young man, (by comparison), at the age of 777. He died a few years before the flood.

Q. The rains lasted forty days. Is there any significance in the fact that it rained for forty days?

A.   Yes.  The purpose of the water was not only a punishment, but also a purification process to purify the world. Just like a mikveh (ritual bath) needs a minimum of 40 se’ah (certain measerment) of water to purify a person, so too, the waters came down for 40 days to serve as a spiritual cleansing and purification process.

HAVE A VERY GOOD, HAPPY, HEALTHY AND SUCCESSFUL DAY