Dear Friends,
When introducing us to Noah in this week’s portion, the Torah tells us, “These are the generations of Noah—Noah was a righteous man in his generation.”
In the Talmud, Rabbi Yochanan immediately picks up on this wording and states,
“In his generation but not in other generations.”
(Sanhedrin 108a:17)
The great commentator Rashi expounds on this noting,
“In his generations – Some of our Rabbis… explain it to his discredit: in comparison with his own generation, he was accounted righteous but had he lived in the generation of Abraham he would have been accounted as of no importance.”
(Rashi on Genesis 6:9:2)
In other words, Noah was flawed and stood out not because of his virtues, but because he wasn’t AS flawed as those around him.
The Midrash drives this point home stating,
“Rabbi Hanina says: There is a parable for the statement of Rabbi Yohanan; to what is this matter comparable? It is comparable to a barrel of wine that was placed in a cellar where vinegar is stored; in its place, its fragrance diffuses, i.e., is noticeable, relative to the odor of the vinegar. When it is not in its place surrounded by vinegar, its fragrance does not diffuse, and its pleasant odor is not sensed.”
In other words, the rabbis noticed the wording of the Torah and recognized that Noah had the chance to be a leader and help save humanity, but failed to do so. And some of the comments in later rabbinic commentaries are brutal.
The Zohar, the seminal book of Jewish Mysticism, states, “Once God told Noah that he and his family will be saved, he did not pray for the rest of the world, and it was destroyed.” (Noach 67b)
And the Kotzker Rebber observes, “Noah was a ‘ah tzaddik in peltz,’ a righteous man in a fur coat. When it is winter and it’s freezing cold, there are two things one can do. One can build a fire, or one can wrap oneself in a fur coat. In both cases, the person is warm. But when one builds a fire, all who gather round will also be warmed. With the fur coat, the only one who is warmed is the one who wears the coat.”
In other words, Noah had the chance to help redeem the entire world, but given the chance he chose to focus on saving himself and his family and let everyone else fend for themselves.
To be fair, Lord Rabbi Jonathan Sacks attempts to redeem Noah’s reputation noting,
Yet what exactly was Noah supposed to do? How could he have been an influence for good in a society bent on evil? Was he really meant to speak in an age when no one would listen?
(“Righteousness is Not Leadership“)
Rabbi Sacks has a point. If the people had already shown they would not listen, what option did Noah have but to simply proceed with God’s instructions? And yet, the point still holds. By presenting us with the redemptive figure of Noah as “righteous IN his generation,” the Torah makes clear that even an imperfect leader can achieve great things.
Perhaps the larger message here is not about Noah or his generation, but about us.
This coming Tuesday our country will elect a new imperfect president. We will also have elected a new imperfect vice-president and new imperfect members of Congress.
That is not a statement on who I expect will prevail in this election.
It is simply a statement of fact that will be true regardless of how this election goes. We are, after all, electing human beings and by definition, that means the people we elect will be fallible. The hope is not that those who take office in January will be perfect. They won’t. The best we can hope for is that whoever is elected will rise above the noise, the static, the disinformation campaigns and the current social dysfunction, and act in a manner which benefits the greatest number of citizens.
Leaders are no different than you and me. They have their strengths and their weaknesses. They will misstep and misspeak. They are, after all, merely human. They will, I pray, do their best for our country. But no matter how hard they try, there will be times when they still come up short in our eyes. That’s why our voices do not simply matter when there is an election. By engaging in the political process throughout the year we can help our elected officials to make the best, most ethical decisions possible.
But that takes commitment and effort on our part. And voting this Tuesday is just one small part of that ongoing process.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Daniel Cohen