Shabbos Parashas Noach - 5778

Shabbos Parashas Noach - 5778

Rabbi Hal Miller These are the offspring of Noah--Noah was a righteous man, perfect in his generations; Noah walked with G-d. [Bereishis 6:9] Nehama Leibowitz notes that "Noah is the first figure in the Biblical story of

mankind to be awarded special titles of distinction." She translates 'tamim' as

'whole-hearted', and points to the use of this same word in 17:1 where G-d says to

Avraham, "Walk before me and be thou whole-hearted." While Noach is portrayed

as tamim in the past sense, Avraham is in the future tense. Leibowitz ties this to the

"in his generations" phrase.

Rashi relates the two traditional views of "in his generations": either Noach would have

been deemed righteous even in a righteous generation (kal v'chomer), or he would

have been considered a 'nobody' in a righteous generation, only earning the title

because the rest of the people of the time were even worse than he. Ramban translates this pasuk as "Noach was a completely innocent man", and says,

"The verse mentions that Noach was free of all guilt, and complete in his innocence, to

inform us that he deserved to be saved from the Flood because he deserved no

punishment at all. For the term tzedek refers to someone who is innocent in judgment,

the opposite of the term rasha." Ramban continues by explaining the "in his generations"

as meaning that Noach was the ONLY person in the time frame who qualified to be saved

from the Flood, that others (such as Methuselah) who were also called tzedek were to be

compared against those of the time, but that Noach was "completely" righteous. He

specifically disagrees with the latter explanation of Rashi. Rav Moshe Feinstein discusses the idea that one's good deeds are the legacy one leaves

behind, as though those deeds were his children. He goes so far as to say that good deeds are a better legacy than children, "the main offspring of the righteous are their good deeds."

He asks why Noach did not have progeny until he was 500 years old, seeing as how all

others of the times had children at far younger ages, plus Noach had only three. "The answer

is that G-d did not wish Noach to have children that might be influenced by the evils of their

generation--thus becoming liable to perish along with the rest of mankind. G-d therefore

granted Noach three children--the exact amount that He in His wisdom knew Noach would

be able to influence and imbue with his own positive traits." Rav Moshe appears to be

holding with Ramban, that Noach's "righteousness" is not tied to the evil ones of his generation, but to his own goodness and good deeds. Noach's "children" for the first 500

years of his life were only those good deeds, and they alone merited Noach to be the one

who G-d would save from the Flood. Once that chain of events was set into motion, Noach

was granted three sons to whom he would teach values, and with whom would rebuild the world. Our question, then, is can we reconcile these "opposing" positions, one being that Noach was

only "righteous" at his time, the other that he would have been considered "righteous" at any time. Then Hashem said to Noah, "Come to the ark, you and all your household, for it is you that

I have seen to be righteous before Me in this generation." [Bereishis 7:1] Rashi's comments on this later pasuk may provide us our answer. But it does not say, 'a righteous man, perfect' (as it does in 6:9.) From here we see that

we say part of a person's praise in his presence, and all of his praise when not in his

presence. In 6:9, where the verse speaks to us about Noah's good qualities, the verse

refers to many aspects of his character: righteousness, perfection, walking with G-d. But

here, where G-d speaks to Noah directly, He only mentions one aspect. This is not

meant to diminish Noah's status, but to teach us that one should not overly praise a

person in his presence. For, as Rashi explains (in Eruvin 18b), the object of the praise

may feel that the speaker is insincere in his words. Rashi is saying that Noach WOULD be considered righteous in any generation, and the

reason for the phraseology is the lesson in humility. The other lesson to remember is the one about good deeds being our "children", our primary

legacy. Combining our actions with teaching children to be righteous is what enables us to

walk with G-d.