Noach 5764
In Parashat Noach, the Torah introduces us to a fellow by the name of Nimrod. The Pasuk writes on him that he was a great hunter in front of G-d. People would say that Nimrod was the example given for a great hunter in front of G-d. So there is a very interesting Eben Ezra explaining what it meant that he was a great hunter in front of G-d. So he writes that Nimrod would build altars and he would bring the great animals that he hunted as sacrifices on his altars.
The Ramban is shocked at such an explanation of the Eben Ezra. And Ramban says that it can’t be and that Eben Ezra is making the Rasha (bad) person into a Tzadik, (into a righteous man). It says the Rabbis had a tradition that Nimrod was a bad guy. So then how it can it be that Eben Ezra held that since Nimrod brought sacrifices in front of G-d, it is as if to say that he was a Tzadik with his sacrifices.
So I saw an explanation that was brought down in the book Moser Derech, based on a principal of the Saba from Kelem. The Saba from Kelem says that a person is judged in life not on the big things that he does or the grand things that he does, but really on the small things that he does. One is not necessarily judged on the one or two big events that he does in his life. For example where one built a hospital or pioneered a great project, but one is judged on the day to day items, on the small items. For example, on the everyday ‘good morning’ to his friend, or the giving of charity to the guy that walks in, or like helping somebody across the street. Doing the small Chessed (acts of kindness) day to day is really the true test of a person, and not the one or two big things one does in his life. The big things are not an indication of one’s servitude and loyalty to Boreh Olam. If a person could be careful to tie his shoes in the morning according to the Halacha, that’s already an indication of his servitude to Bore Olam. You are not necessarily judged on the big things.
So the Saba from Kelem wants to say like this. Nimrod wanted to go against that philosophy. Nimrod used to trap big animals. He used to trap lions, and elephants, and big animals. And it was those big animals that he would put on the altar. And Nimrod was trying to advocate that this is what G-d is interested in. Only in the big deeds. Only in the great things. And that’s why Nimrod was considered a Rasha, a bad person. Because he was trying to go against a Halacha that we have. The Halacha, for example that says, even if a person can’t afford a big animal, he’s able to bring a meal offering on the altar, or even just to bring a bird on the altar. So therefore Nimrod over here, because of his philosophy, even though he was building sacrifices like the Eben Ezra says, and even though he was building them in front of G-d, but the Eben Ezra meant that Nimrod is still Rasha because of it. So therefore the Ramban’s contention is no contention. The Eben Ezra was correct. Nimrod was a Rasha. Because he was trying to convey the philosophy that it’s only the big deeds that count.
But in Judaism, it’s to the contrary. We are measured really by the day to day small deeds and not necessarily by the big actions that we do.
