October 25, 2025

Thoughts on the Sedra

Bereshis Verse 9:20 – וַיָּ֥חֶל נֹ֖חַ אִ֣ישׁ הָֽאֲדָמָ֑ה וַיִּטַּ֖ע כָּֽרֶם

Rabbi Yitzchok Breitowitz

The Kotzker and his Years of Seclusion

David Sokoloff’s portrait of the animals and the ark.

This is a little raw but I am still posting it.

Davened at Anshei Chesed and Rabbi Billet spoke many times about Noah.  It was all excellent and I thought and thought about his Torah. The below is inspired by Rabbi Avi Billet.

Verse 9:20

וַיָּ֥חֶל נֹ֖חַ אִ֣ישׁ הָֽאֲדָמָ֑ה וַיִּטַּ֖ע כָּֽרֶם׃

Noah, the skilled worker of the earth, degraded himself by planting a vineyard.

Charles Kahanah from Rashi and Ibn Ezra.  This is also how Artscroll translates it.

This is a Medresh:

“Noah, man of the soil, began, and he planted a vineyard” (Genesis 9:20).

וַיָּחֶל נֹחַ אִישׁ הָאֲדָמָה (בראשית ט, כ), נִתְחַלֵּל וְנַעֲשָׂה חֻלִּין, לָמָּה, וַיִּטַּע כָּרֶם, לֹא הָיָה לוֹ לִטַּע דָּבָר אַחֵר שֶׁל תַּקָּנָה, לֹא יִחוּר אֶחָד וְלֹא גְּרוֹפִית אַחַת? אֶלָּא וַיִּטַּע כָּרֶם,

“Noah, man of the soil, began [vayaḥel]” – he became profaned and unholy [ḥulin]. Why? “And he planted a vineyard.” Should he not have planted something else, that was constructive, a fig tree branch or an olive tree branch? Instead, “he planted a vineyard.”

Notice that the Medresh does not say he degraded himself by being an ugly drunk but by planting a vineyard and not figs or dates or even wheat which makes the most sense.  

Why did Noah then plant a vineyard?  I did not see anyone explain this.  Perhaps after leaving the ark and seeing a desolate world, he felt the world needed wine to overcome the harshness of their experience and a destroyed world that needed rebuilding.   After all, wine is poured on the Mizbach as a wine offering to God.  The Medresh still criticized him.  However, when you think about it, let us say that Noah planted wheat or a fig and date orchards, he would have planted a vineyard and gotten drunk. The Medrash says that the Torah still criticized him.

Onkelys:

וְשָׁרֵי נֹחַ גְּבַר פָּלַח בְּאַרְעָא וּנְצִיב כַּרְמָא:

Noach began to be a man of the soil [a man who worked the land] and he planted a vineyard.

Yerushalmi:   וּשְׁרֵי נחַ גַבְרָא צַדִיקַיָא “לְמֶהֱוֵי” וּנְצִיב כַּרְמָא

Sefaria translates as – And Noah began to be a righteous man, and he planted a vineyard.  

The word לְמֶהֱוֵי should probably be before גַבְרָא and it should read – וּשְׁרֵי נחַ “לְמֶהֱוֵי” גַבְרָא צַדִיקַיָא  וּנְצִיב כַּרְמָא

What is the Yershalmi saying?

We can say two explanations:

1 – Noah even after leaving the ark remained a Tzadick.  What about after getting drunk?  

2 – We know that the beginning of the Parsha says Noah was a Tzadick.  The Maharsha says that the reason why Yosef was called Yosef HaTzadick, Yosef the righteous one, was that Yosef was the משביר of the world, he fed the world.  Anyone who has a major hand in feeding the world is called a Tzadick.  Perhaps this is what the Yerushalmi is alluding to.  Noah walked out of the ark and faced a barren world,  He had to feed the world.  He had to recreate agriculture and had to grow a food supply.  He  had to plant fields of wheat, barley, and other crops.  He had to plant trees.   This is why the Yershalmi called Noah a Tzadick because he fed the world.  

Why does the Yershalmi say that he began to be a righteous man, when he was a righteous man well before this time.   Additionally he fed his family and the animals on the ark and if my theory is true, he was a Tzadick on the ark and it continued after he walked out of the ark.  Perhaps the Yershalmi meant that he was a Tzadick before and continued to be a Tzadick, not that he began now.  He began to grow food and continued to be a Tzadick.

Targum Yonasah ben Uziel

וּשְׁרֵי נחַ לְמֶהֱוֵי גְבַר פְּלַח בְּאַרְעָא וְאַשְׁכַּח גוּפְנָא דְמוֹשְׁכֵיהּ נַהֲרָא מִן גִינוּנִיתָא דְעֵדֶן וְנַצְבֵיהּ לְכַרְמָא וּבֵיהּ בְּיוֹמָא אֲנֵיצַת וּבְשִׁילַת עִנְבִין וְעַצְרִינוּן

And Noah began to be a man working in the earth. And he found a vine which the river had brought away from the garden of Eden; and he planted it in a vineyard, and it flourished in a day; and its grapes became ripe, and he pressed them out.

I always had a different interpretation the this verse as follows:

וַיָּ֥חֶל נֹ֖חַ אִ֣ישׁ הָֽאֲדָמָ֑ה וַיִּטַּ֖ע כָּֽרֶם

“And Noah began” to create a new world, the “man of the earth” Noah was an expert in agriculture, having created the plow and made farming much easier, “and he planted a vineyard”.

No one says this explanation.  You still can criticize him for first choosing to plant a vineyard.

Listened to Rabbi Breitowitz on Parshas Noah from 2023.  Got the following Torah from him.

Rabbi Yitzchak Breitowitz’s Torah provides insight into the Kotzker’s years of seclusion.  (10/17/2023 lecture – time stamp 44:48).

Rabbi Beitowitz mentioned Rav Hutner.  Rav Hutner says that in the Torah there are two architectural structures that are considered structures of holiness.  We have the תֵּבָ֗ה – Noah’s ark and we have the Miskan, the Tabernacle.  The difference between Noah’s ark and the Tabernacle is that Noah’s ark creates a protective wall so that the destruction of the flood should not enter.  Keep the floodwaters out. The Mishkan which radiates the light of God into the world is premised on the opposite assumption.  Let the light of God radiate outwards.  Noah contained his holiness in a walled area so it should not be destroyed by negativities.  Mishkan – let your holiness radiates outwards.  Rav Hutner says just as we find in the Torah itself that first there was a Noah who needed to protect himself from the environment and then there was an Avrohom who could go out and conquer that environment.  First there is an ark and then there is a Miskan. 

My addition.  Within the Mishkan there contained the Kodesh Hakedoshim which was sealed and expresses the concept of the Tevah – Noah’s ark and then you had the Kodesh, the Azrah which was open to the world.  To be able to radiate holiness to the world there has to be a core that is separated from the world, a place of pure holiness.

The Kotzker secluded himself in a room off the Bais Medresh, which was referred to as the Kodesh HaKedoshim, the holy of the holies.  The Bais Medresh was where the students and the world inhabited.  This is very symbolic of the Mishkan, having the core of holiness that then radiates to the world.   People did enter the Kotzker’s Kodesh Hakedoshim and it was a pure space of Torah and Hashem.

I sent this Torah to Rabbi Yitzchok Breitowitz via email, and he said that I accurately reflected Rav Hutner and that he liked my addition to the Kotzker and to Rav Hutner’s Torah.  I am truly honored.

Rabbi Breiowitz continued in his Shiur:

This is a model for our own life.  A person needs a place where they separate from the world, they distance themselves from immorality, they focus on spirituality and purity to get the proper perspective.  We can say that the purpose of a person’s yeshiva years is to place themselves in an ark, where they can protect themselves from turbulent waters by severing ties with the world; however, this is not the ultimate goal.  You have to graduate from the ark, which shuts out the bad influences, to the concept of the Mishkan, where your holiness radiates outward. To transform others, to help others, to elevate others. The challenge arises if you attempt to leave the Mishkan prematurely, before fully developing your Torah values; in that case, rather than radiating outward, your light may be extinguished by the negative influences you encounter.

 The ark of Noach and the Mishkan represent two states of holiness.  Going back to describing Noah as a Tzadik and a תמים – Tamin.   “Tzadick” is translated as a righteous person and “תמים” (Tamin) is translated as a perfect person, a person without a blemish.   A Tzadick is Bein Adam L’Moakom (between man and God) and a תמים – Tamin is Bein Adam L’Chavero (between man and man).  Before the flood, Noah was only a righteous person between man and God but not a תמים – Tamin.  Only after the flood did he graduate into a Tamin between man and man.  The turning point occurred during the year in the Ark.  Noah and his family had to constantly care for the animals both day and night and have compassion for them, which he translated into caring for humans.  Once he was late giving the lion food, and the lion took off Noach’s arm.  Noah started off life as a righteous person but was not invested in caring for others.   This is based on a Zohar.   This explains verse 7:1 differently than Rashi. At the time Noah went into the ark he was only a Tzadik and not a Tamin and God says ot Noah in this verse—וַיֹּ֤אמֶרוְ כׇל־בֵּיתְךָ֖ אֶל־הַתֵּבָ֑ה כִּֽי־אֹתְךָ֥ רָאִ֛יתִי צַדִּ֥יק לְפָנַ֖י בַּדּ֥וֹר הַזֶּֽה׃ – a Tzadkik and not a Tamin.   That is why verse 6:9 says that Noah was a Tzadikk and a Tamin in his generations.  This is the sum total of Noah’s life.  Noah was a Tzadik before the flood and became a Tamin after it.

It is not a right versus wrong.  It was what each one needed and was able to accomplish.   The right path for Noah was an ark.  The world was so destructive that Noah would not have been able to withstand its forces without the protection of the ark.  He needed to shut himself off from the world, both before and in the ark.  Avrohom lived in a different world and also was a stronger personality and was able to build a Mishkan, a holy place that radiated holiness into the world.  This kind of says it differently than the above.  But maybe not so.  Noah had to become an Avrohom and then even in the time of the pre-flood period, he could have stood up to the evil.