A vort fun dem Rebbe on this week's parsha, Parshas Noach. The parsha starts off with the words אלה תולדות נח, these are the תולדות, which means the children or the happenings of Noach, and then the Torah adds נח איש צדיק, נח was a tzaddik. And Rashi explains, why did the Torah add Noach was a tzaddik? הואיל והזכירו, since the Torah mentioned him, סיפר בשבחו, so he tells us about the praise of Noach, he praises him. שנאמר, like the pasuk says, זכר צדיק לברכה, if you mention a tzaddik, you have to give him a berachah, you have to praise him. And the Rebbe asks, what's the purpose? Why takeh do we have to praise a tzaddik when you mention him? What does it add? What does this praise add to the tzaddik? And the Rebbe says the peshat is like this. We know it says in chassidut and other sefarim that one of the qualities of dibbur, of speaking, is that it brings out things that are בהעלם, things that are hidden, hidden in the person's machshavah, in your mind, and no one knows about it, that it's not begilui, not revealed, so when you speak it out, it reveals it.

Now the truth is it's not only that it reveals things inside the person who speaks, but it could also reveal things in outside of the person, too. It says in sefarim the reason why you're not allowed to speak lashon hara is not only because it's an aveirah for the speaker, it's an aveirah, too, for the one who listens, it'll also hurt the one that's spoken about. Why? Because sometimes you speak about something of a person, a certain bad middah, this bad attribute that he has, that could be he actually has that, but it's בהעלם, could be it's hidden in him, he doesn't act upon it, it doesn't come out in a revealed way. When you speak about it, since dibbur reveals, it could reveal it in that person. So could be a bad middah that a person has hidden, but if he doesn't act upon it, then it's not bad. But by you speaking about it, it could bring it out begilui. If it's so concerning lashon hara, bad talk, speech, certainly when it comes to good. We know מידה טובה מרובה ממידת פורענות, the good middah of Hashem, the good מידה בכלל by Yidden is greater, much greater than the middah of punishment, which means of negative, something that's negative. So certainly that the dibbur that you speak about somebody that's good could bring out in that person a good middah. That means if a person has a good middah, but he doesn't act upon it, but inside him there is such a middah, if you speak praise about that person, you could cause that middah to come out begilui, and that means that his avodat Hashem can become better. And that's why it's important to praise a tzaddik, and it really refers to all יידן, ועמך כולם צדיקים, all the Yidden are called tzaddikim, to say good things about them, that that could bring out within them good middot.

And the Rebbe says this explains another thing. If the Torah praises Noach because it mentioned his name, so you praise him, why doesn't the Torah do it in the previous parshah? In the end of the previous parshah, Bereishis, it mentions Noach already. So why doesn't the Torah praise him there? Why does the Torah wait till Parshas Noach to praise him? And the Rebbe says this is the peshat. In the previous parshah, it doesn't talk about Noach's avodat Hashem. All it says is ונח מצא חן בעיני השם, נח found grace in the eyes of Hashem. What's the inyan of finding grace? Finding grace, chen, is something that doesn't so much depend on the behavior of the person. It's like a מתנה מלמעלה, it's like a present that's given from Hashem. Like the Gemara says, חן אשה על בעלה אפילו היא מכוערת, there's a chen of a woman on her husband even if she's not nice, not beautiful. But there's a certain chen, and that's not because of, that's something that's a present that's given. And בנוגע נח actually, it says in מדרש רבה, לא שהיה כדאי אלא שמצא חן, not that he was worthy of it, but he found chen in the eyes of Hashem. And actually the mefarshim in Midrash connected to this Gemara of, this lashon of גמרא, חן אשה על בעלה, that it's a chen, chen is something that comes milmaalah. So since in the previous parshah it doesn't talk about the avodah of Noach, it talks about something that Hashem related to him, then there it's not so important to mention the praise, cuz as we said, the whole inyan of mentioning praise is because that helps a person in his avodat Hashem. So there, when it doesn't talk about avodat Hashem of Noach, there it's not so important. In this parshah, where it starts talking about Noach and about the behavior of Noach, so here it's important to mention his praise, to praise him, to bring out the good that could be b'he'elam in it, that it should come out into giluy, and this will help him in his avodah. And from there we learn out benogea every Yid, that it's an inyan to praise another Yid, as the Rambam says in Hilchot Deot, and the reason is because by doing that, it might help in him in his avodat Hashem to bring out certain middot that he has, which he doesn't act upon it, it's b'he'elam, that you might, by praising him, bring out those מידות בגילוי.