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The Ability To Save The Entire World
“Noah had little faith,” Rashi comments. Yet how can one suggest that a man who spent 100 years building an ark, in spite of the fact that everyone mocked him and called him crazy, was lacking faith? Rashi cites the verse, “Va’yavo Noach … el hateiva mipnei mei hamabul/Noah came in … to the ark because of the waters of the flood” (Breishis 7:7). He explains that Noah’s belief wavered until the floodwaters actually came, and only then did he enter the ark.
There is an additional way to understand Noah’s lack of faith, and that is that he had little belief in himself. He doubted his ability to change and save the world. When God instructed him to build an ark because He was going to destroy the creatures of the world, Noah complied and began the construction immediately. Yet what he did not do is either a) protest God’s decree and try to convince Him to be merciful, or b) set out to inspire the people around him to straighten their ways so that they, like he, would be rescued.
It cannot be said that Noah failed to warn the people of his generation of their impending doom. The Zohar teaches that Noah himself was saved because he rebuked his wayward neighbors and told them that God’s punishment was coming: “Noah warned them every day, but they did not pay attention. And the verse: ‘Yet if you warn the wicked… you have delivered your soul,’ (Ezekiel 3:19) is applied to him. From this we learn that whoever warns the wicked – even if the wicked do not heed him – that person saves himself, while the wicked are punished according to their sins” (Zohar Breishit 68A).
Yet Noah’s admonishment served only to save himself. He did his duty as he was instructed by God, but he did no more, and he was therefore unable to convince any of his contemporaries to change their ways. It is possible that Noah’s inability to influence others was a result of his lack of concern for their wellbeing. Yet Noah is described as an “ish tzadik/righteous man,” and though the Sages debate the degree of his righteousness, it is unlikely that the term tzadik would be applied to one so callous and selfish as to be wholly unconcerned with the decimation of his entire generation.
Noah’s failure to inspire and influence his peers can thus be understood as a complete lack of faith in his ability to do so. Who am I to motivate the masses? Who am I to change the course of history? I am so small and insignificant, and the world and its problems are so vast!
Yet what Noah failed to recognize is that there is an infinite spark of God within each of us. Though he complied with God’s instruction to build the ark, he had no faith in the Godliness inside of himself. Nor did he recognize the Godliness in each of God’s other children. Had he had this faith in himself and this recognition of the holiness of his contemporaries, he would not simply have warned them, but he would have encouraged them to see and manifest their inherent divinity. I CAN change the world, he would have realized. And uniting with his neighbors by virtue of the common Godliness that we all share, he would have averted the impending disaster.
Noah had little faith. What about you?
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Pnei Hashem is an introduction to the deepest depths of the human experience based on the esoteric teachings of Torah. www.pneihashem.com
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