in a different world

Rashi comments: קץ כל בשר בא לפני – כל מקום שאתה מוצא זנות, אנדרולמוסיא בא לעולם והורגת טובים ורעים.  Taz (in Divrei David) points out that Rashi seems to be a stira minei u'bei, self-contradictory. If the evils of the pre-flood world dictated a response of  אנדרולמוסיא that kills טובים ורעים, good and evil folks alike, then how is it that Noach himself was spared?  Doesn't the fact that he survived and was spared prove that in fact it was not an indiscriminate punishment, that  טובים were not killed alongside רעים?

Rashi writes in Braishis that the world was created with the letter 'hey' because  כה״י זה שסתום מכל צדדין ופתוח מלמטה לרדת דרך שם.  Last week I mentioned the question of Shem m'Shmuel: Why did Hashem not create the world with a letter that has a big opening on top so that the tzadikim could go up to shamayim?  The elevator goes in both directions, doesn't it?  

Shem m'Shmuel answers that olam ha'zeh can only bring a person down.  There is no upside.  The very word טבע, the laws of nature, is based on the same root as as used in the expression ספינה טובעת בּים, a boat sinking in the sea.  Olam ha'zeh is the quicksand that will sink you into places that are hard to get out of.  The way out is by rising above it, by choosing to live למעלה מין הטבע.

Taz uses a similar yesod to explain our Rashi.  He writes that if you read the pesukim carefully, you see that the command to build the ark, pesukim 14-16, precedes Hashem telling Noach that he is going to bring a flood, pasuk 17.  Why would Hashem tell Noach to make an ark before telling him that there is going to be a flood?  Taz answers that  אנדרולמוסיא בא לעולם effects everyone, טובים ורעים, in that עולם.  What the ark did is isolate Noach from the world.  Hashem showed Noach that even when the world of טבע warrants destruction, he has a place of refuge outside it.

Sefas Emes and others see "teivah" as an allusion to words of Torah and tefillah.  These are our places of refuge למעלה מין הטבע that can take us outside whatever is going on in the world.

This is not just a nice derasha, but it's lomdus that unlocks a Tosfos.  The gemara (San 59) has a principle that  ליכא מידעם דלישראל שרי ולעובד כוכבים אסור.  You cannot have a case where dinei Yisrael is more lenient than dinei bnei Noach.  Tosfos comments that even though a ben Noach who keeps shabbos is chayav misa but we obviously are not, that does not count because the Torah specifically gives us a mitzvah to observe shabbos.  בדבר שהוא מצוה לישראל לא אמרינן הכי העובד כוכבים ששבת חייב ולישראל מצוה  The more difficult question is with respect to other days of the week.  There is no mitzvah for us to keep shabbos on Monday, for example, but the halacha is that an aku"m that keeps a day of shabbos on Monday is chayav while we are not.  Why is that not an exception?  Tosfos cryptically writes מ"מ יש עליו מצות שביתת שבת.  

R' Yosef Engel (Ben Porat 4) explains as follows: you only say ליכא מידעם דלישראל שרי ולעובד כוכבים אסור when talking about the same cheftza, in this case the same day of the week.  You have to compare apples to apples.  The reason why an aku"m that keeps shabbos is chayav but we are not is because these are in effect apples and oranges.  For us, there is a day of shabbos.  For an aku"m, it's Saturday.  Those are totally different worlds, totally different units of time.  We live in a world where the seventh day of the week has kedusha, where we come in contact with olam ha'ba.  They have no access to such a thing.

R' Yosef Engel then goes on to say an even bigger chiddush: the same thing applies to Monday.  For us, it's "yom sheni b'shabbos."  Every day of the week connects either to the previous shabbos or the upcoming shabbos and draws from its kedusha.  For an aku"m, it's just another day of the week.  Again, apples and oranges.

We look like we are in same world, going through the same days of the week, leading the same life, as our neighbors, as everyone else.  In reality, it's not the same at all.  We are למעלה מין הטבע , למעלה מין הזמן as it exists for them.