Dvar Torah for Parshat Noach

Based on Likutey MoHaran I, #112

"Make a light for the teivah (ark, word), ... and the opening of the ark you shall put in its side...."

Rashi explains: a light some say a precious jewel and some say a window. (Genesis 6:16)

Often a person wants to pray to God and yet when he's ready to begin he finds himself flooded by darkness, deluged by the torrential downpour and overflowing river of his own sins.

He seems to be trapped in an inescapable darkness. These thoughts of sin, both real and imagined, are incessant. It seems to him that even if he would stand in prayer for 40 days and 40 nights these thoughts would continuously rain down upon him. They cloud his entire mind and his world seems black. Is there no way out of the darkness?

In truth there is. That is, if one prays whatever words he can utter with all the sincerity he can muster, the truth of those words will shine for him, cutting through the darkness, allowing him to find the opening that will enable him to escape the wrongdoing of his past and to begin thinking and acting in a more appropriate way.

"Make a light for the teivah," the word of prayer you wish to utter. Whether that word shines jewel-like with a brilliant truth, like the prayers of the tzaddikim; or is merely a window that allows the truth to shine through, the truth is strong enough that "the opening of the word," the honest word will make a hole, "in its side," the side of darkness. With this you will survive the flood.

Agutn Shabbos!
Shabbat Shalom!

For gematriya fans: Reb Yaakov Meir Shechter, shlit"a, points out the following: the measurements of the teivah are: 30 (height) by 300 (length) by 50 (width). 30 is lamed, 300 is shin, 50 is nun. These are the letters of LaShoN, tongue.