This Shabbat is "Shabbat Noach" where we read about about Noach, his generation and the Flood (Mabul). Many Jews still discuss whether Noach was a righteous person (Zaddik), as he obviously hadn't warned his generation that G - d was to bring about a Flood. According to Talmud Sanhedrin, Noach had warned his generation but got fed up, as people called him an old fool. After a while, Noach stopped warning others and continued silently with building the ark.
Many times, Noach is compared to Avraham. Why was Noach called "Zaddik" and was he a real "Zaddik" when we compare him to Avraham.
However, I think that we have to look at the times. Noach definitely was a Zaddik in his generation because he didn't associate with all the evil behaviour of his environment. This may sound so easy but it isn't. Especially not when you are the only one showing some moral in a completely corrupt society where people love about you.
Studying Parashat Noach is anything but easy, as there is plenty of Kabbalah, incl. soul reincarnation, involved.
Also part of Parashat Noach is the story of the "Tower of Bavel - Migdal Bavel". There are people who overlook the deep meaning of the story with Nimrod and his Tower. Okay, the people built a tower and G - d caused a mess with the languages, so what ?
What is fascinating is that there are countless of kabbalistic explanations when it comes to Nimrod and the Tower. Also here we find different soul reincarnations and their purposes. The people building the tower were split into a few groups with different purposes. Some were still scared after they heard about Noach's Flood. They wanted to sin but nothing being afraid of G - d's punishment. Others wanted to fight G - d and kill him.
The kabbalistic book "Sefer Brit Menucha" deals with the names of the angels and their tasks. The book is extremely hard to understand. If ever !
I bought it and I am still struggeling. Rabbi Chaim Vital wrote a commentary on the book but after going through his book I learnt that his commentary is even worse to understand than "Brit Menucha" itself.
At the end of the book, its author, Rabbi Avraham of Rimon, describes the angel world of the Tower of Bavel. How Nimrod was able to influence the angel world and almost got them to the point where they followed his will. At this point, G - d hat to act !
Rabbi Avraham doesn't tell us too much about what was going on outside the Tower but rather what was going on INSIDE. How offerings influenced angels and about Nimrod's magic powers.
Today we like to think that those old generations were mayby foolish. Look at us today ! If Nimrod came along, he would laugh about our lacking intelligence !
The entire "Brit Menucha" on PDF:
http://hebrewbooks.org/pdfpager.aspx?req=31194&st=&pgnum=1&hilite==
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