NOACH: Beyond our Righteousness

The Question: Why not Noach?

The Torah sweeps us at high speed through the first two-thousand years of human history, from the creation and first trial of man through 20 generations, at which point it pauses with great drama to introduce us to us to our father Avraham. Halfway in between, in this week's parsha, the Torah takes what we could call an unusual pit-stop.

Just to be clear, the Torah is not a history book. Everything in it is of course 100% true, but it leaves out many facts which would be of interest to historians: Avraham's encounters with other noteworthy individuals in Mesopotamia, the socio-theological nuances of the Chaldean worldview, etc. History, although an important branch of Wisdom, is not the main artery of Wisdom the Almighty wishes to communicate to us. Rather, through the Torah, G!d draws our attention to what man must focus on in order to become what he is capable of becoming -- the person he was made to be.

So, Adam was the first -- that's significant (even though the Torah frames him mostly in the context of his failure). And Avraham is the first of our forefathers -- as we say in the Amida: "our G!d and the G!d of our fathers, the G!d of Avraham, the G!d of Yitzhak, and the G!d of Yaakov." Avraham marks the new beginning for the Jewish people. But aside from the compelling historical reasons for mentioning the flood, why does the Torah dedicate so much attention to Noach himself?

And once we grant Noach importance, why don't we go so far as to say "the G!d of Noach" in prayer? The Torah attests to his undeniable greatness at the beginning of the parsha by telling us that Noach was a Tsaddik, a righteous man, "perfect and whole in his generations," and that "Noach walked with G!d!" These are unbeatable credentials!

And if you tell me, "the answer's obvious: Noach was father to the entire world after the flood; but from Avraham comes the Jewish people!" I'll respond two-fold:

1. Why then didn't we just get the show on the road with Noach? Let him be the forefather of the Jewish people! and,
   
2. G!d calls Avraham "Av Hamon Goyim," the father of many nations (Bereishit 17:5) -- indeed, even more so than Noach, Avraham was not just biologically the father of many nations, he intellectually established the foundation of Judeo-Christian values for the entire world. We are called the "Children of Israel" (after Yaakov who was later called "Yisrael") because Yaakov was the exclusive father of the Jewish people, as opposed to Avraham whose role seems to be more global.
   

If all this is true, why do we count Avraham as our father and not Noach?

The Reactionary's Reaction

Noach is described as צדיק בדורותיו, a "righteous person [alone] in his generations." He was a righteous man in a boundary-less world of theft, idolatry and adultery which had destroyed itself. The flood was only a physical manifestation of what society had spiritually wrought on itself (this is the way the Almighty runs our world: since we, by definition, do not recognize the damage our actions are causing to our psyche and in the hidden worlds of other people, Hashem has to add the special effects of physical repercussions to bring them to light).

The Torah characterizes the source of all these problems as a trait called חמס, which Ounklus translates as "snatching," a violent and pervasive sense of entitlement to what is not one's own. The chilling lesson that is depicted in the life of Noach is that, in subtle ways, this evil can penetrate even the hearts of the greatest of men.

With a little introspection, we clearly see this in ourselves. I live in Jerusalem, and whenever I take visitors to the Kotel, they are very often shocked by the brazenness and sheer number of people asking for charity even as one tries to focus with eyes closed on his personal prayer. The natural reaction, which I think everyone can relate to, is to close up. Ironically, our response in disgust to the sense of entitlement of another is to grab the money in our pockets more tightly. This is especially interesting to note since the mitzva of צדקה (Charity) comes from the root of צדק, which means "Justice," which should not be connected with our personal desire to be charitable, yet the reality is that it is. The most natural thing is to be affected by the people around us. In a infinitely milder way, even though Noach distanced himself from the thievery outside is doorstep, in trying to keep his family unaffected, he was affected.

Orienting Our Hearts Outwards

Rashi explains on the verse (6:14) the highly unusual request from the Almighty to take the most scholarly and righteous person of the generation and have him purchase power tools to build a boat over a 120-year period. G!d wanted to force Noach out of his shell and to interact with the world he was leaving behind. People would inevitably come and ask him what he was doing building such a large ship in the middle of terra firma, and he would have to get into the back-and-forth of the end of the world coming.

G!d tells Noach, עשה לך תיבת, "make for yourself an ark." "For [himself]" because even if no one was going listen to him (which they didn't), Noach had to perfect himself.  If he was going to rebuild the world, he would have to care about it with all his heart. The Almighty wanted Noach to perfect himself internally so he would be able to externally rebuild a world that was built on the opposite of entitlement -- on concern for the other. The salvation for Noach was not going to come from the fact that he was in a boat when the rain started to fall, but rather from the fact that he had to build it, and all the while speak to and think about all the people who couldn't grasp spiritual truths that were so obvious to him.  

All this, explains the Alter of Slobodka, was to awaken prayer from Noach for the sake of the world -- a world which he has given up hope for, and we must note, a world which any of us would have given up hope for as well. And it is because he never did genuinely pray for them, that the prophet Isaiah attributes the flood to him, calling it the "waters of Noach" (Isaiah 54; Zohar Noach daf 63). The tragedy of Noach is that the year he spent in the ark day and night feeding tens of thousands of animals (a superhuman task) was meant to fix his trait of Chesed (Love) to be able to build the world anew, but realizing his mistakes, he could barely leave the ark, a broken man (8:15-16, Rashi on 9:5).

Let's not forget the accolades G!d introduced Noach with.  Noach was a deeply religious man.  "Religious" in the real sense -- not just "frum."  He was a "perfect Tsaddik," meaning he certainly cared about others, gave charity, visited the sick, consoled mourners, cared for orphans and widows...  Any opportunity to do good for others which was available for him, he undoubtedly took, but we see the rigor with which the Torah treats great people -- Noach did not go above and beyond what he believed to be his obligation.
Avraham, however, upon hearing of the destruction of Sodom, immediately rises in prayer to G!d to find sufficient merit for the salvation of Sodom (18:23-33). Again, this is beyond what we would even call "above and beyond."  If G!d tells you He is going to do something, you do not try to convice Him otherwise.  This episode must be understood properly, but we see what it took to be the first father of the Jewish people. Avraham is the "pillar of Chesed (Love) in the world, the one who brought into human reality the authentic reflection of G!d's Love for us -- beyond all conceptions of obligation and "what is expected of me." Avraham was a person whose love for others and his desire to give everything he had to give was completely self-generated, not reactionary. (This is, of course, the deeper meaning behind the epitome of Avraham's kindness, which is the feeding of angels, who of course do not need food [Rav Tsadok haKohen].) As such, he rose above the level of צדיק (Tsaddik) to become a חסיד (Chasid), whose striving was not just to fulfill his obligation, but to become a giver from his core like G!d.

It should be noted that we are not called the בני אברהם, the "Children of Avraham," but rather, the בני ישראל "Children of Israel," because our Love must be channeled in practice through Truth, the trait of Yisrael (Yaakov). Love, as we know, can be hijacked and take a person to extremes out of balance (i.e. worrying about guests and ignoring one's wife). The Chatam Sofer even explains that Noach limited his outreach out of fear of losing his children to such a dangerous world, which is a very reasonable concern. And of course, a person has to think about himself! Otherwise he will not have what to give! If a person spends a lifetime digging wells in Africa, but never sat down to dig a well in himself and understand life better, he's doing a disservice to himself and to others.

While all this is true, every Jew must know that Avraham is the first of our forefathers because our hearts' orientation must go out beyond ourselves. If this is our hearts' orientation, when the appropriate opportunities arise, our actions will follow. Even as we build our own arks of Torah and mitzvot, we must work hard to remind ourselves to rise above our own righteousness, that shying away from those who need our help is beyond the pale of the Jewish DNA.  We should be students of our forefathers who were students of the Almighty -- everything we learn and everything we receive is a gift best received by sharing with others.