It says that Noah was a righteous person in his generation. I think I shared this last year: there are two teachings from the Apte Rebbe about this week’s reading. He teaches that the power is not that it just gives wisdom or understanding, but that it completely transforms it. As I was teaching the chevre on Thursday night, these are two of my favorite teachings. But you can’t keep repeating the same lesson over and over, and this year I was going to teach something else. I was reading in a different book, the O’hev Israel, and it’s the same teaching, but deeper. I was excited about the fact I could retell this teaching.

When the flood was beginning and the waters were overcoming the world, that moment is when Noach entered into the ark. Rashi explains, even Noach lacked in his certainty. He believed the flood was coming, and he didn’t believe the flood was coming. He did not enter into the ark until the water literally forced him into the ark. The O’hev Israel asks, how can this be understood in the literal way? It’s impossible to understand that Noach lacked certainty or trust in the Light of the Creator.

We know that for 120 years before the flood came, Noach was building the ark. He was taking the planks of wood and carrying them past people, and telling others that if you don’t change your ways the flood will come in 120 years. He dedicated his life for 120 years to letting everybody know the mabul, flood, was coming. He dedicated his life, and built the ark. It’s impossible to believe he did not believe the flood was going to come.

We know every one of us has a spark of the righteous in us, which explains why one of the great works we need to do is to sweeten judgments, to ask for mercy and kindness to come down on everybody. Even if sometimes it seems like a decree has been given and the judgment is starting to come down, the righteous person strives to continue to ask for, in our mind, in our meditations, to never give up, to ask for mercy for others, for the world.

This is the secret, he explains. It says in the Idra Rabba, the Great Assembly, that the Creator’s secret is given to the righteous, to those who are truly connected to him. Until the righteous acquiesces, accepts, agrees to judgment to come down to this world, it cannot come down.

It’s an amazing lesson. Until enough people agree to judgment coming down, it cannot come down. The greater a person is, the more connected he is to the Light, the more his agreement means.

If a person, chas v’shalom, finds themselves in a medical situation, usually what a person tries to do is not to accept it. There is a difference between simply not accepting, or using this tool of not letting it come down. The reality is that the person himself, or those around him, begin to agree with this judgment. If there is enough agreement, that’s when the judgment comes down.

It’s an amazing lesson. Judgment does not come to a particular person, or in a global way, until there is an agreement to it. Agreement is when at some point we say it’s probably going to happen. The secret is that judgments only come down when they are agreed to. The more righteous, the more connected a person is, the more important this agreement is.

Until there is agreement to these judgments, the judgments do not come down to this world. If this works in that way, certainly it works in the other way. When we do not agree to those judgment, we have the power to remove them.

Therefore Noach, who was righteous, because he desired to awaken mercy, he wanted to remove the judgment of the flood. He did not allow that thought. And who told him? God told him it was going to happen.

Noach said, I will not allow this thought to permeate me, my mind, my heart, my soul. He did not allow this thought to permeate his being. He kept on reminding himself, telling himself, mercy can come down, this flood can be stopped.

Now we understand in a completely different Light the tremendous possibility that Rashi explained in the Midrash. Noach believed with small certainty in the coming of the flood. He did not want to accept, to agree. He didn’t want to acquiesce to the judgment. He knew his agreement to the judgments would bring them, allow them to manifest.

But, because he was only one person in the world with this consciousness, he did not have the power to save all the people in the world at that time. But he did whatever he could. And he kept on forcing this lack of certainty, this non-agreement to the judgment, until the waters forced him into the ark and he saw he would die if he remained outside.

This is an amazing lesson. Every one of us is connected to the Light of the Creator on a different level, but it’s important we connect to the removal of judgment for others, and for ourselves as well. We need to make this removal of judgment for others our life’s work. This is the power of consciousness. I did not understand from reading the O’hev Israel that judgments do not come until they are agreed to. There is a critical mass of levels of agreement–1 person, ten people, one hundred people are different levels.

Noach gives us this gift on this Shabbat. It says Noach was forced into the ark by the waters of the flood. Those words are the channel by which the soul of Noach flows down to us and gives us the power to remove judgment. When you see someone else in pain, in potential judgment, make this a part of what we do. We can do this as we listen to this reading: that we will not accept that judgment, and we will not give our agreement for that judgment to come down. We have that power, that ability. That makes a difference. It allows one degree for that judgment not to come down.