The movie Noah created a widespread buzz about the Bible story. Here is Kabbalah’s take on the Noah story:

1. The Story of Noah in a Nutshell

In a nutshell, the Bible story of Noah speaks of sinful people and the Creator, who brings a flood on the world. “Noah was a righteous man, perfect in his generations” (Genesis, 6:9). This is why he was the one chosen to survive the flood.

But he did not survive alone. Rather, he was commanded to build an ark and move into it along with his kin, and pairs of all the animals, and to remain in the ark for forty days and forty nights until the flood stopped.

The Creator made a covenant with Noah and his family that the flood would never return. As a token of the covenant, He placed the rainbow in the sky. More » [Source: Dr. Michael Laitman, Noah Parsha – Weekly Torah Portion.]

2. What Is the Meaning of the Story of Noah in the Bible?

“Noah was in his generations a man righteous and whole-hearted; Noah walked with God.”

So begins the chapter on Noah, immediately confusing the reader with what appears to be a straightforward story about our world.

However, it confuses only those who aren’t yet ready to read the Bible differently, still finding the simple historical narrative about a person named Noah satisfactory.

Ask yourself, “Where am I in this story of Noah?” Or better yet, “What is the meaning of my inner Noah?” You must seek only one approach to the contents of this book: “Everything I read here is about me.” Noah, the righteous, his wife, kids, and all the animals, the ark and the Tower of Babel all exist within me. They are forces, desires that govern my inner and outer worlds. All I have to do is get to them and sense them, and the gates to all the secrets will open for me. More » [Source: Semion Vinokur. What Is the Meaning of the Story of Noah in the Bible?]

3. What Is the Meaning of Noah’s Ark & the Flood in the Bible?

Mayim (“water” in Hebrew) is the flood that will drown your spiritual embryo if you heed the body’s questions, destroying all that you’ve worked so hard to assemble within.

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• Kadosh (Holy)
• Holding a Grudge
• Prohibition on Divination
• A Male Goat to Azazel

Kadosh (Holy)

Holy means using the will to receive that was previously in order to receive. It is the reverse form of the ego—benefiting only others or the Creator. When it is in favor of others it is still at the degree of bestowing in order to bestow, the degree of Levites. But when we receive in order to bestow, it is at the degree of priests, the opposite the initial nature.

Holding a Grudge

We cannot correct ourselves if we are still “keeping score.” It is an internal energy. These are very deep corrections that astonish us when they appear because we suddenly understand how deep are our calculations for ourselves.

Prohibition on Divination

Divination is forbidden because it contradicts bestowal. If a person wants to bestow it makes no difference what will happen in the future. All we need is to connect with others and to give them. In that, we will find our new life. If we make any calculation, it is the will to receive.

One truly advancing toward bestowal is indifferent toward the future. All that that person wants is to bestow, to “be” in the other. In that state one has no connection to divination, as there cannot be any considerations. Hence, we should make the corrections within us because in each of us is the desire to know the future or to guess it.

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• A Woman in Labor
• Circumcision
• Menstruation
• A Bird

A Woman in Labor

This is the will to receive that has received the power to develop and beget new acts of bestowal in every man.

Circumcision

The circumcision is a correction of a newly born desire. If it is a man, he must go through a special correction in his prevailing, to stop him from using his Sium, Yesod, in order to touch the Malchut where the greatest, and worst desires can be found, and which can be corrected only at the end of correction. Therefore, one who wishes to be Yashar El (straight to God, Israel), must make a circumcision, meaning limit ourselves from using the desire to bestow beyond the point of one’s Yesod. We also determine these signs as customs in our world.

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• Inauguration of the Tabernacle

Inauguration of the Tabernacle

“Inauguration of the tabernacle” is the point from which we can bring offerings, meaning correct our desires in actual fact. In that state we can correct each desire by making it similar to bestowal, love of others, the Creator. We become similar to the Creator in that desire, understand the wholeness of creation, the eternity of creation. We ourselves become as the Creator, as it is written, “Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God” (Hosea, 14:2). This is what we should achieve, and these actions bring about great joy.

So it is not a coincidence that the revelation of the Creator is mentioned on the same day as the inauguration of the tabernacle. But what does revealing the Creator mean?

Upon beginning to perform the work of the tabernacle we discover the Creator according to the law of equivalence of form. As we perform the same acts as the Creator, the Creator “dresses” in us, and we begin to feel that our actions create our situation, our place, and our status. One who performs acts of bestowal and love, correcting one’s evil inclination, becomes like the Creator. This is why such a person is called “man” (Adam), from the word Domeh (similar) to the Creator.

It is said that Nadav and Avihu sacrificed with foreign fire. What does it mean?

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• Donation
• Oil
• Spiritual Punishment

Donation

“Tarum (“raise” but also “donate”) the Creator.” To advance toward the goal, we must engage in the uniqueness, importance, and greatness of the upper force, that there is none else besides Him, He is the only operator in reality, we are in it, and we are totally operated upon. To the extent that we acquire His qualities, we become independent. That is, we take on ourselves the actions we can carry out correctly, and we begin to do them by ourselves until we become like Him, until we can do everything He does.

This is how we begin to recognize and understand that degree, the whole of reality, the purpose, the beginning and the end, the cause and the consequence, the whole process we are going through. Thus, we become as great, wise, strong, and united as the Creator. This is true for each of us, and for all of us together.

Once we have all corrected ourselves and achieved the complete end of correction, and all of us together have become completely like Him, another development awaits us. We need to correct ourselves, acquire power and wisdom to perform another, very special work after the end of correction, after the Third Temple, but for now our perception is inadequate to comprehending the reality we will discover at that time.

The Inauguration of the Tabernacle

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