Noach: The Greatest (of THIS Generation...)

Every week, when I sit down to write my blog, I spend a few minutes perusing the archive, to see what I wrote in previous years on this same Torah portion. This is my
eleventh (!!) year of writing, so these days it actually takes me a while to scan through earlier installments. Considering how much I've written about each parashah, I was surprised to discover something I haven't addressed before in our Torah reading, about Noah and the Flood. I've mainly covered the flood itself, its aftermath, and the final story of the Torah portion, about the Tower of Babel. But this year, I wanted to take a few minutes and talk about the man himself - the Ark-builder, the patriarch, the wine-enthusiast, the animal-lover, and perhaps the last worthy person on earth, pre-Flood - Noah. Noah was truly a righteous guy, blameless even. And we know this because... the Torah kinda-sorta praises him for it? At least, I think it does...

The very first verse of our parashah states, "This is the line of Noah.—Noah was a righteous man; he was blameless in his generation; Noah walked with God." (Gen. 6:9)

See??? A perfect statement! Noah was righteous and he walked with The Lord. Pretty unmitigated praise, right? Soooo, why does the text then need to add "blameless in his generation"? A website where I frequently read the Torah portion AND find good rabbinic commentary is www.sefaria.org. One neat feature of their site is that you can click on a verse in the reading, and up pops a handful of commentaries on THAT verse, from various rabbis throughout the ages. If you're lucky, you may stumble upon a verse with 20, 30, or even 40 different commentaries. I clicked on Genesis 6:9, and the page displayed 99 (!) different opinions on this one verse. So yeah, a lot of people had strong opinions on this one...

Rashi, one of the most famous commentators of all time, can explain better than I what the issue is: "Some of our Rabbis explain it to his credit: he was righteous even in his generation; it follows that had he lived in a generation of righteous people he would have been even more righteous owing to the force of good example.

Others, however, 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" (cf. Sanhedrin 108a). And I find this a really intriguing philosophical question: Is it MORE commendable to be a model citizen when NO ONE ELSE is, because you're sticking to your morals and your good behavior in a place where you are all alone? Or is it more impressive to live among really phenomenal people, and have your righteousness be SO incredible, that you even stand out among other, incredibly qualified candidates??

In other words, is this like being a professional basketball player, and showing off by "schooling" a group of 12-year olds? Or is it more like being the gold medal winner at the Olympics, where you pitted your skill against the best of the best, and you STILL won?

Was Noah the one-eyed man in the land of the blind, and thus not REALLY so impressive (just by comparison), or should we be especially impressed that he remained righteous, even in a wholly corrupted world? We humans are easily swayed into following the norms and expectations of society, and going-along-to-get-along. Blend in, don't stand out. In some ways, I think maybe it doesn't matter which of the two encapsulated Noah's behavior. He STILL made an effort. And it is especially important to remember that we do not get to pick the times in which we live. Comparing our lives and our world to a different era is kind of an exercise in futility. The real question is, RIGHT NOW, at this moment, in this reality, in our current climate, can you make your voice heard and be a difference-maker? We are so, so, SO tempted to say "no." It's easier; it's less risky. "Someone else" will step up, if I don't. But what if the answer could be "yes"? Noah was only unique because he CHOSE to set himself apart. Your generation is going on at this very moment, good or bad. Are you able to stand out? Only you know the answer to that question.


CC images in this post, courtesy of:
1. Rabbi Gerber's iPhone (screen shot)
2. Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices on Wikipedia
3. offnfopt on Wikimedia Commons (Presidential Citizens Medal)
4. Eileen on Wikimedia Commons