Shabbat Parashat Noach - 5781

Shabbat Parashat Noach - 5781

Rabbi Hal Miller

  These are the offspring of Noach. Noach was a righteous man,

  perfect in his generations. [Bereishit 6:9]

Commentators have much to say on what 'offspring' and 'generations'

refer to, but we will leave that for another day. The rest of our verse

seems to be a single thought, but it is not clear as to what that thought

might be. As translated, it sounds like the second part is a qualifier for

the first part. What is the Torah telling us about Noach here?

The Talmud [Avodah Zarah 6a] tells us that perfectly righteous refers to

righteous in his deeds, perfect in his ways.

Rashi cites a midrash in Tanchuma where we read two opinions. One is that

Noach would have been considered righteous and perfect in all generations

but the other view is that he was considered righteous only in the evil one in

which he found himself, but would have paled by comparison, say, to

Avraham had Noach lived then (they did in fact cross paths in ilfetimes.) As

Rashi put it, there are those among our rabbis who expound this as praise,

that since Noach was righteous despite his surroundings, all the more so

would he have been righteous in a good generation. But Rashi continued

that others say Noach's righteousness was only by comparison to those

around him, and that in another time he would not have been considered

anything special. So where does that leave us?

The verse says, ish tzedek tamim hayah, literally, a man perfectly righteous

he was. Ibn Ezra says this means both righteous and perfect, but Ramban

holds to the more precise translation, that the word tamim (perfect) actually

is a modifier to tzedek (righteous), that Noach was perfectly righteous as a

single trait. Ramban explains that tzedek refers to someone who is innocent

in judgment, one who has faced some set of charges and had been adjudicated

as innocent, so Noach was perfectly innocent, didn't get off on a technicality.

The Brisker Rav tells us why this is relevant by reminding us of the story of

Avraham's attempt to save Sdom based upon there being at least a few righteous

people there. Even though there probably were a few, they were lost with the evil

ones because when an evil nation is decreed for destruction, those good folks who

might have had some sins are destroyed too. Here, Noach, despite having the good

qualities of being tzedek, would be destroyed in the Flood if he were not perfect.

Thus the Torah mentions that Noach was not just tzedek, he was tzedek tamim,

perfectly righteous, and therefore separated out to be saved.

You may ask, what about Lot? Why is he different from Noach? We note that Lot

himself, despite being tzedek by comparison with the other Sdomites, would not

have been saved. It was only in the merit of Avraham, to whom the word tamim

was also applied [Bereishit 17:1], that Lot was saved.

Kol Dodi (Rav Dovid Feinstein) writes that it makes no difference whether Noach

was as perfect or righteous as Avraham. The Torah here is teaching us that each

of us will face our own challenges, and each will be assessed based on how we

do in our own environment. "Someone who has faith that God knows what is best

for him and accepts whatever God gives him is declared perfect."