As we explained in last shiur, being that ז׳ Cheshvan comes out always in Parashat Lech Lecha, which means that it's always in the week after Parashat Noach, and since it says in the Zohar, חלק ב׳ דף ס״ג ע״ב and in דף פ״ח ע״ב, that שבת מיניה מתברכין כולהו יומין, that from Shabbos all the days are blessed, so the day of ז׳ Cheshvan is blessed from the Shabbos before, which is Parashat Noach. So obviously, there must be a special connection with Parashat Noach. Also, as it says in the Shelah, in the beginning of Parashat Vayeshev in חלק תורה שבכתב, that all the מועדי השנה, all the times of the year, the special times of the year, are connected to the פרשה of the week, and he says sometimes to the פרשה they're in, which is the פרשה after, the פרשה we read on the Shabbos after that date, and he says sometimes to the פרשה before. So in this case, ז׳ Cheshvan is also connected to Parashat Noach. In last shiur we explained the connection of ז׳ Cheshvan to Parashat Lech Lecha, and in this shiur we're going to explain the connection of ז׳ Cheshvan to Parashat Noach. Especially that within a few days it's going to be י״ז Cheshvan, the seventeenth day of Cheshvan, and the seventeenth day of Cheshvan is the date on which the mabul started according to one opinion, so this time of the year is also connected to Parashat Noach, because Parashat Noach is the פרשה that tells us about the mabul, and this is the time of the year when the mabul started. And therefore, we will find in their own place. While they were in Yerushalayim they were in a very high spiritual מדרגה, but then when they left Yerushalayim and came to their own place, which means they lowered themselves to a lower מדרגה, because before they were completely involved only in spiritual matters, but then after ז׳ Cheshvan, then they started getting involved in physical matters, so it is a ירידה. On the other hand, it's a yeridah l'tzorech aliyah; through this ירידה they reached higher מדרגות, because as we explained before, by going back to their own place and getting involved in physical things and bringing kedushah into the physical things, they fulfilled the desire of Hashem. As the Midrash says, that נתאווה הקדוש ברוך הוא להיות לו יתברך דירה בתחתונים. Hashem desired to have a dwelling place in this world. The truth is this Midrash is written concerning the Mishkan, that when Hashem commanded them to build the Mishkan, the purpose was that He should make Himself a house, kivayachol, so to speak, in this world. But in sefarim, this Midrash is used also, not only לגבי the Mishkan, but בכלל לגבי what is expected of a Yid. That why did Hashem bring the Yidden into this world? He created a world, a physical world, and brought us here, the reason for that was because by us working with the world and doing mitzvot within this physical world, we bring Him into this world, we make this world a דירה, a dwelling place for Hashem. And this is accomplished after the Yidden leave Jerusalem, because as much as they work with physical matters while they are in a very high madregah in Jerusalem, still it doesn't come to the involvement in this physical world that they have when they come back home, because here they get involved in all their physical needs more than before, and they do that all leshem shamayim, so then this represents the real accomplishment of דירה בתחתונים, of making a dwelling place for Hashem in this low world. And actually, this is a higher madregah in essence than the way it was before, as we explained in last shiur, because when a person reaches high madregot for himself, then this is things for himself. But when he goes away from his high madregot and accomplishes what Hashem wants, so then this is not the pleasure that he has, but then this is pleasure for Hashem. So this is nachat ruach or תענוג להבורא, for the Creator, which is a much higher madregah than whatever he accomplishes for his own sake, which is only נחת רוח להנברא.

But lichorah, we have to understand: Why is ז׳ חשון the date that represents this inyan? After all, as we explained, ז׳ חשון was the date that the last person who lived the furthest away from Jerusalem would reach home. But the people who lived closer than that, they reached their home and they started working with their place in the physical matters even before ז׳ חשון. And it's self-understood that most people lived closer than that. So for most people, it was before ז׳ חשון that they started working with bringing kedushah into their own home, into their own place, into the physical activities that they did later on. So why is it that ז׳ חשון was established as the date for everybody when they start asking for rain in Eretz Yisrael, which represents the date when the Yom Tov finished, even though for most people it finished before?

So we must say that in truth, as long as the last one, the furthest one, did not start doing his avodah of bringing kedushah into his hometown, for all other people who lived closer it also was not considered that they started doing their avodah with bringing kedushah into the physical world where they lived. And the reason for that is because, as the lashon that we said from the Midrash, נתאווה הקדוש ברוך הוא להיות לו יתברך דירה בתחתונים, השם wanted a dwelling place בתחתונים. בתחתונים means in this low world. Now, why He wanted that we don't know, but we do know that He wanted to bring, that we should bring kedushah into this low world. And that is understood that the lower the place is, which means the further away it is from kedushah, the more important it is to bring kedushah into that place. Because if we say in general that Hashem wanted that we should bring kedushah and make a dwelling place for Him in this low world, so the low world is the place where Hashem wants to have His dwelling place. So He wants it in every part of the low world, and the lower it is, the more important it is to bring kedushah of Hashem into that part. Now we understand that גשמיות is נשתלשל, comes from רוחניות. When we speak about the person who lives the furthest away from Yerushalayim, this represents the concept in רוחניות of being further away from kedushah, because Yerushalayim represents the place of kedushah, as we know that the word Yerushalayim is made up of two words: יראה שלם, which means complete יראה, complete יראת השם. And in Yerushalayim actually the שכינה dwelt, so the further away a person is from Yerushalayim, it represents in רוחניות that it's further away from kedushah. So when we say that the last person reached the furthest place from Yerushalayim, this represents the furthest place away from kedushah. Now, since Hashem wants a dwelling place in this low world, which means a world which is far in itself from kedushah, so the place in the world itself which is even further, the furthest within the world itself, is more important. And therefore, when do we consider it that really Hashem accomplished His desire is not when the person who lived close to Yerushalayim came home and started doing his avodah in his place, but when the last person came to the furthest place and he brought kedushah there, that's when really we say the fulfillment came of the desire of Hashem.

And the truth is we could go even a step further. Not only do we say that the reason ז' חשון is the date because before that, since it wasn't the furthest place, it didn't really accomplish the real desire of Hashem, but it's even more than that: that even those people who brought kedushah into the world in their place before ז' Cheshvan, but as long as there is still somebody someplace who did not bring kedushah in his world in his place, so then it is missing by everybody else. Because we're all one, we're all united, and in order to say that the fulfillment of the desire of Hashem of bringing kedushah in the world is accomplished, everybody has to do it in every single place. And as long as it's not done in one place, then in all other places we can't consider it as if it's done 100%. And this we understand from a mashal, because the lashon, the expression in the Midrash is, Hashem wanted a dwelling place, a dirah in this world. So the mashal the Midrash uses is of a house, of a dirah. When a person builds himself a house, he has many rooms: more important rooms, less important rooms. Certain rooms are used very often and are very important: the place where he sleeps, the place where he eats. And then there are extra rooms which are used from time to time, and they're not that important. They are further away, so to speak, from the needs of the person. Nevertheless, when a person buys a dirah, buys a home or builds a home, when can we consider that the whole home is built and he feels, feel that he accomplished his desire of having a home? Not only when the dining room is finished, or when the living room is finished, or when the bedroom is finished and the other rooms are not built yet, at that moment he doesn't feel that his house is finished yet, even though the main room is there. So we don't say that, well, that part is finished 100%, so he feels that he accomplished what he wanted in the main part, the other things are separate ענינים. It is not so. They all go together. The house is one unit. The whole house and all the rooms in it are like one unit. When does he feel that he accomplished his desire and he has his home? When all the rooms, even those that are further away from his needs, are finished. Then he feels satisfied not only with those rooms, but that's when he gets his real satisfaction of the whole house, even the main rooms. And as long as those extra rooms are not finished, even the main rooms don't give him the real satisfaction. And since the mashal is given of a dirah, the lashon of the Midrash is that Hashem wanted this world to be His dirah, His home, the same applies concerning Hashem. When can we consider it that Hashem feel that His desire is being fulfilled? Not only when people who are close to Yerushalayim start doing their avodah, which is similar to the case when the dining room is built, but also when the people who are far away, who are not that close to him, when they do their avodah in bringing kedushah there, when that is turned into a dirah for Hashem, that's when Hashem feel satisfied with the whole dirah, even with the parts that were finished before. As we see a similar thing in halachah: The din is that certain dinim apply to Eretz Yisrael only if כל יושביה עליה, if all the people, all the Yidden live in Eretz Yisrael. And the Gemara says in Arakhin דף ל״ב עמוד ב׳, and also the Rambam פסקנט that in הלכות שמיטה ויובל פרק י׳ הלכה ח׳. And the Rambam there adds that not only do we have all the Yidden in Eretz Yisrael, but it has to be שלא יהיו מעורבבין שבט בשבט, they shouldn't be mixed a שבט in a שבט, אלא כולן יושבין כתקונן, they should all live properly, which means each one should live in his place. Which means that in order for these dinim to apply to Eretz Yisrael, in any place of Eretz Yisrael, you have to have all the Yidden in all their places. And as long as there are some Yidden who are not in their proper place, then all the other places, where the people are there properly, also wouldn't have this special din. So we see that there are certain things that you can't apply it to one person as long as there is somebody else who doesn't have it. And the same is this inyan: that as long as there is a person who did not accomplish his avodah in bringing kedushah into his place, then even though other people did it by them, still, even by them we don't count it that it was accomplished, because all the people are together, it's all one unit, and when can we say that this was accomplished? Only if they all accomplish it. And this is why ז׳ חשון is the day when we say that the avodah of making a dwelling place for Hashem in this physical world started. Even though in some places, people who live closer to Yerushalayim it started earlier, but as long as the last one didn't come to the last place, we can't consider it that it was done, because as long as there is one person even that didn't start doing his avodah in bringing kedushah into his place, then it affects everybody else, that by everybody else we can't say that they did it. So what we see here is, the inyan of ז׳ חשון brings out the concept of the achdut, the unity of all the Yidden. That as long as one Yid did not start doing his avodah, then all the other Yidden suffer, and we can't consider it even by them that they started doing their avodah properly.

This is the connection between ז׳ חשון and Parashat Noach. In Parashat Noach, the Torah tells us about the חטא of the דור הפלגה. And the מפרשי התורה, the Ramban and the Rabbeinu Bachya and the Or HaChaim and other מפרשים explain that what was the חטא of the דור הפלגה that they build the tower? What was wrong with what they did? So they explain that they wanted that the whole ישוב בני אדם, that the people should all live in one place, and therefore they wanted to build this tower, that this should unite them all. But this is against the כוונה, the will and the desire of Hashem. Hashem created the world and he said: מלאו את הארץ וכבשוה, fill up the world and conquer it. Hashem wanted that the people should live all over. And therefore, what did Hashem do to punish them? So the pasuk is: ויפץ השם אותם משם על פני כל הארץ. השם spread them out throughout the whole world. ויחדלו לבנות העיר, and they stopped building the city. And this wasn't just a punishment, to punish them for what they did, but this was the fulfillment of what Hashem wanted. They wanted to live in one place, and Hashem spread them out because what he wanted, that they should live all over and be spread all over. And this fits to what we said before. We said before Hashem wants people, the Yidden, to go all over, to the furthest place, and over there bring kedushah. And as long as that's not done, so then even those people who bring kedushah in their place, which is closer to Jerusalem, it is still not considered that it was done 100%, because there is somebody who didn't do it yet. And this is what was the חסרון of the דור הפלגה. Hashem wanted, as the mefarshim say, that they should go בקצווי תבל, to the furthest places of the world, ולא יהיו במקום אחד כמחשבת אנשי הפלגה, they shouldn't be in one place. And actually, this is what Hashem said to Noach right after the מבול. He said to him: צא מן התיבה, go out of the תיבה, אתה ואשתך ובניך, you and your wife and children, ונשי בניך אתך, and the wives of your children with you, כל החיה, and all the animals, etc., etc. And the pasuk continues: ומלאו את הארץ, and fill up the world. Because they could have stayed in the תיבה, but then they would have been in one place. Hashem said, no, go out and fill up the world. Because Hashem wants that the whole world should be לשבת יצרה, should be inhabited. And in ruchniyut it means Hashem wants that his kedushah, his ruchniyut should be brought to all parts of the world. The furthest parts of the world. Furthest bigashmiyut, but mainly furthest biruchniyut, that as far as a place is biruchniyut in a spiritual sense from Hashem, kedushah should be brought there. And that's what ז׳ חשון represents: the concept of bringing kedushah to the furthest place. And as long as that is not done, then this affects all other Yidden, that all other Yidden don't accomplish their avodah. And this is why this date was chosen, ז׳ חשון, to be the date that symbolizes the idea of leaving Jerusalem and coming to your place as the date for everybody, even though as we said before, by some people they came to their home much earlier. Nevertheless, ז' חשון is the date, and therefore wherever they lived in Eretz Yisrael, ז' חשון was the date they started asking for rain. They, as far as they were concerned, could have started asking for rain before, but they had to wait till the last one would reach his place, to show that Hashem wants that kedushah should be brought to the furthest places. And when that is brought, then everybody else gains. All those people who think that they did it before because they brought kedushah in their place, but being that since there is somebody else who didn't do it yet, so he was missing. And then, when that last person does it, then everybody else could feel that this avodah of bringing kedushah into this world, which was the desire of Hashem, is accomplished.