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The following are a couple of excerpts from RSRH's commentary on Parshas
Noach.<br><br>
<font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=6><b>7</font>
<font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=4>1
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3><i>And
</i></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>God
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3><i>said to Noach: Enter the
ark, you and all your household, for I have seen you righteous before Me
in this generation.<br><br>
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=4>L'fanei</i></b></font>
<font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>, before Me. A person can appear
righteous in the sight of other<br>
people, and yet not righteous in the sight of God. And the reverse
is<br>
also true. What is more, the concepts that people attach to words
are<br>
not always accurate and true — certainly not in a period of general<br>
degeneracy. The words “virtue,” “justice,” and the like, remain — in<br>
every age — in current use, but people distort the meaning of these<br>
words and ascribe to them their own aims and opinions. There are<br>
times when the Name of God, too, is on everyone’s lips, but is
emptied<br>
of all content through the fault of the generation. Scripture
therefore<br>
stresses: </font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3><i>Tzidek </i>
<i>l'fanei</i></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>— i.e.,
according to My standards.<br><br>
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=4><b>2
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3><i>Of every pure animal you
shall take seven pairs, the male and its mate, and of animals that are
not pure you shall take two each, the<br>
male and its mate.<br><br>
</i></b></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>The prototype of
mankind is not the savage. The first human being<br>
and his children, and also the noble ones among the Noachides, were<br>
still close to God. Adam, Hevel, Seth, Noach, Avraham, Yitzchak,
Ya’akov<br>
— none of them brought offerings to a false god. The mouths of the<br>
accusers who impute primitive attitudes not only to us, but to all
the<br>
great men of old, should be shut. David and Yeshayahu and all the
great<br>
ones of Israel who brought offerings, or prayed for the restoration
of<br>
the offerings; who saw in the offerings God’s nearness to Israel and<br>
God’s glorification in Israel — none of them stood before a cruel
and<br>
bloodthirsty god who delights in the convulsions of a dying animal;<br>
who, in his folly, accepts the death of a bull as atonement instead of
a<br>
man’s own death; who transfers onto an expiring animal all the fear,<br>
pain, and agony of death that should rightfully be suffered by a
man.<br><br>
Rather, throughout the generations, an offering was <i>zevach todah</i>,
an<br>
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3><i>expression of complete
devotion</i></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>. Through the
blood that was spilled, we<br>
were required and we vowed to devote our own blood to God’s holy<br>
Will. The head and limbs, breast and body, fat and kidneys placed on<br>
God’s altar dedicated our limbs and eyes, our hearts and bodies, all
our<br>
bodily desires — even the lowest of them — as
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>'<i>lechem Isheh
l'Shem</i></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>, “to sustain<br>
the holy” on earth. One who brought an offering — even a Noachide<br>
who brought an offering — was taught, and vowed, to offer
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3><i>himself
</i></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>to<br>
God.<br><br>
Hence, only those animals that are nearest to man’s nature and are<br>
fit to be </font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3><i>his
representatives </i></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>are
suitable for offerings. Accordingly, only<br>
those animals that were later permitted to Israel as food are fit to
be<br>
used as offerings — and
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3><i>the same reason applies in
both cases</i></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>.<br>
Hence, only those animals that are nearest to man’s nature and
are</font></body>
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