My Friend: The Flood is Over!
There is likely no other biblical character who has earned both the highest compliments and the most scathing criticism as Noah.
He is the only person in the Torah who is explicitly called a tzadik, a righteous man.
God tells him, “For it is you that I have seen to be righteous before Me in this generation.”
And in carrying out the Divine instruction, the Torah twice testifies, “Noah did everything that God commanded him to do exactly.”
He is the one man deemed worthy of saving in a world gone wrong.
Yet at the same time, throughout the ages, the sages “cut Noah down to size.”
The common critique is that Noah simply built an ark and saved himself, incapable or unwilling to save others.
In the Talmud, Rabbi Yochanan says that he was righteous only in the context of his generation.
The Zohar faults him for not being like Abraham or Moses, who both defended their people before the Al
mighty.
The Rebbe has numerous essays exploring what we might call “the Noah phenomenon.”
Modern thinkers have weighed in as well:
Rabbi Adin Even-Yisrael (Steinsaltz) asks “What Was Wrong With Noah?”
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks writes “Righteousness Is Not Leadership.”
And Rabbi YY Jacobson, flipping the perspective, titled his essay “Thank Goodness, Noah Was No Saint.”
It seems like a lot of critique for one towering figure.
But the point is not to “beat up” on our grandfather Noah. It’s clear to each and every one of us that we owe him our very existence.
The message is to recognize how far we have come. To look back at Noah is to realize that there was once a time when it was nearly impossible to effect change, to persuade others, or to entreat the Divine. But we’ve come a long way. Things have significantly changed.
Abraham becomes the first to engage the world, the first Jew, and perhaps the greatest influencer in history.
Moses, in giving us the Torah, becomes the one who can even argue with G-d Himself on behalf of his people.
If you are a Noah living today, in an ark minding your own business, and you lack the courage to be influential and partner with the Divine, if you believe you cannot bring about change, then you are “stuck in the ark,” and someone needs to tell you: the flood is over.
As the first Rebbe of Chabad taught, “We must live with the times,” meaning we must learn the Torah’s message and apply it to the present moment.
Today’s message is that Noah was a tzadik of a different era. Today, we are empowered to be more — to be agents of change, partners with the Divine, and influencers for good.
Step out of the ark. The world is waiting.
