Thursday, October 27, 2011

It has been a while, but lets get back to business with פרשת נח

 

Last night at פרשה and Poker we had a great discussion about Noah and his ark.  I would like to share some of this with all of you and perhaps elaborate on some of it.  We began with a discussion of the משנה from פרקי אבות that says: ובמקום שאין אנשים. השתדל להיות איש, and in a place where there are no people, strive to be that person… This phrase/concept is not a new one, it is not something that should surprise us… We are all familiar with that basic societal goal of having people step up and rise to the occasion.  We all need to be willing to take steps to be the person who is willing to act when and when not called upon to act.  This is a basic demand of all societies of conscience.  In our society we often do not heed these words because of fear, and because we worry that the person we are trying to help could be evil or could hurt us.  This is sad and disappointing, but this is what our news causes us to think and feel.  Our news reports day in and out about the bad and the ugly and the things that have gone awry.  Our news is always talking about these horrible occurrences in our world when somebody simply wanted to help another person.  We should be scared to help, because look at the possible outcomes of that help.  But then there is the reality that the news is only reporting on the exceptions.  The news is not telling us about the 5,000 or 100,000 good results for every one of those bad results.  The risk would probably be considered unfounded if the news told us of the opposite as well.

So what does this have to do with Noah.  The introductory words of this week’s portion are:

ט) אֵלֶּה תּֽוֹלְדֹת נֹחַ נֹחַ אִישׁ צַדִּיק תָּמִים הָיָה בְּדֹֽרֹתָיו אֶת־הָֽאֱלֹהִים הִֽתְהַלֶּךְ־נֹֽחַ: י) וַיּוֹלֶד נֹחַ שְׁלֹשָׁה בָנִים אֶת־שֵׁם אֶת־חָם וְאֶת־יָֽפֶת: יא) וַתִּשָּׁחֵת הָאָרֶץ לִפְנֵי הָֽאֱלֹהִים וַתִּמָּלֵא הָאָרֶץ חָמָֽס: יב) וַיַּרְא אֱלֹהִים אֶת־הָאָרֶץ וְהִנֵּה נִשְׁחָתָה כִּֽי־הִשְׁחִית כָּל־בָּשָׂר אֶת־דַּרְכּוֹ עַל־הָאָֽרֶץ:


9. These are the generations of Noah; Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God.

10. And Noah fathered three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

11. The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.

12. And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted its way upon the earth.

 

Noah was considered to be that person we are all striving to be in that he was upright and walked with God… Or did he.  Here is a commentary on the verses:

These are the generation of Noah... and Noah walked with God...

Why are we Jews not considered to be the descendants of Noah but rather of Abraham, while the rest of the world is referred to in our literature as “the children of Noah”? The explanation is that even though Noah was righteous and perfect in his actions, he was not the ideal of the righteous ­Jew. Instead, he was the ideal of the righteous gentile. “Noah walked with God,” not with people, not with others - he was not inter­ested in humanity, in the environment. His righteousness was directed inward, to himself and his family. He was what is known in Yiddish as a tzadik in peltz — a “righteous man in a fur coat." He was commanded by God to build an ark- he built it board by board and nail by nail, for a hundred and twenty consecutive years, and it never crossed his mind that there might be a way to avert God’s decree and to save the world from destruction.

Abraham was different, as we are told by our Sages, “Abraham converted the men and Sarah the women.” Abraham taught the world proper behavior and knowledge of God. When God wished to overturn Sodom, Abraham did all in his power to save those wicked people. – ALSHEKH

 

Now in order to better understand this commentary we need to first grasp the concept of a Tzadik in peltz, a righteous man in a fur coat.  This concept is one that does not come right to us upon first glance.  But think about it, there are countless ways to warm oneself or to keep oneself warm.  Putting on a jacket is just one of the ways.  But one could also choose to light a fire so that others could keep warm, one could walk around giving hugs so as to share body heat… But a person who puts on a jacket and watches as others are freezing, this is not a good character trait in a righteous person.  During the Holocaust righteous gentiles became that great person by not being a tzadik in peltz, but by being a person who put his/her own life in serious jeopardy because they could not be warm and okay with the actions being perpetrated in their midst.  Others chose to not join the Nazis and to not fight against them or help the victims.  By not joining the Nazis they managed to save their own humanity, but by looking away and not saving others they forsook the humanity of the person in their midst.

This commentary accuses Noah of such a behavior.  He built this ark for 120 years, that is 43,800 days, that is 1,051,200 hours and that is 63,072,000 minutes… And he did not stop for just one of those minutes and say, hey wait a minute, can’t we save some more people from this?  Why didn’t he say to God as Avraham did?  Where was his righteousness?

I do not agree with every aspect of this commentary and here is why: the differentiation of the example of a righteous Jew vs. righteous human.  I think that we need all humans, and not just Jews to walk with people and with God, and not with just one or the other.  We need a world in which people see the needs of others and are not content to be well off by themselves.  We need a world where all people are collectively inspired by people who do good to others.  To assert that only Jews do this is not accurate and not a fair evaluation of the real world in which we all live.  This is in part why I have always asserted that Avraham was not the first “Jew,” but the first monotheist.  Ya’akov (Jacob) was the first Jew.  All three of the great monotheistic faiths trace their roots back to Avraham and in that way he was a person who would not just build an ark to protect himself while the other 99.9% of creation is decimated.  He argued for the sake of humanity and the sake of justice.  That is a person we all can look up to and we all can strive to be more like.  Noah did a good job at keeping things going in this world.  But Avraham is the person who was not content with just continuity, rather he could only be content when justice was allowed to reign supreme.

 

שבת שלום