רפואה מן התורה
Healing from the Torah
Last week in Parashat Bereishit we
looked at the idea of unified and broken dualities. We viewed those
dualities as both the unified equality of creation but also the nature of its
brokenness, touching primarily upon the relationship of the Creator and the
creation, and Adam and Eve. We could have also looked at the broken
duality of Cain and Able or the Garden as opposed to the world Adam’s family
would inherit. The fact is, the story of Adam and Eve (and their
family) disrupts the equality of creation only to be followed by the tension of
redeeming it. Turning to Parashat Noach, Genesis 6:9-11:32, it
begins the redemptive journey to restore that broken duality as part of Noah's story in
his own generation. As such, Prashant Noach begins, אֵ֚לֶּה תּוֹלְדֹ֣ת נֹ֔חַ נֹ֗חַ אִ֥ישׁ
צַדִּ֛יק תָּמִ֥ים הָיָ֖ה בְּדֹֽרֹתָ֑יו אֶת־הָֽאֱלֹהִ֖ים הִֽתְהַלֶּךְ־נֹֽחַ, “This is the line of Noah.—Noah
was a righteous man; he was blameless in his age; Noah walked with God.”
We learn that during the days of Noah his world was full of evil, a bad generation, with Noah choosing good. The Narrator of Torah makes the claim that Noah was the most righteous man of his generation, but that begs the question; was he righteous because he was more faithful and observant than others or was he righteous simply because everyone else around was not? In truth, Noah was like everyone else, he was human, imperfect, a husband, a father, a man who lived in a world needing repair, so what made him righteous? The word “righteous” (צַדִּ֛יק) itself means one who is “just in their actions.” Therefore, looking at Targum Yonathan (an early Midrash), what makes Noah righteous is that he is “complete in good works in his generation.” While the original biblical text does not say anything about good works, our oral tradition came to understand “righteous” in that very way, hence Noah walking with God meant that he did good deeds of righteousness. We can therefore look at Noah’s willingness to build an Ark as his good-works in the world which he lived, yet we must also note the words of Rabbi Elie Muck that being “righteous,” is not the same as being “perfect.”
We learn that during the days of Noah his world was full of evil, a bad generation, with Noah choosing good. The Narrator of Torah makes the claim that Noah was the most righteous man of his generation, but that begs the question; was he righteous because he was more faithful and observant than others or was he righteous simply because everyone else around was not? In truth, Noah was like everyone else, he was human, imperfect, a husband, a father, a man who lived in a world needing repair, so what made him righteous? The word “righteous” (צַדִּ֛יק) itself means one who is “just in their actions.” Therefore, looking at Targum Yonathan (an early Midrash), what makes Noah righteous is that he is “complete in good works in his generation.” While the original biblical text does not say anything about good works, our oral tradition came to understand “righteous” in that very way, hence Noah walking with God meant that he did good deeds of righteousness. We can therefore look at Noah’s willingness to build an Ark as his good-works in the world which he lived, yet we must also note the words of Rabbi Elie Muck that being “righteous,” is not the same as being “perfect.”
Our tradition also teaches that if
Noah lived during the days of Abraham he would not have been considered that
righteous. When Abraham was faced with the perverse cites of Sodom and Gomorrah
he called on the justice of life and bargained with God about the lives of
people. Noah, on the other hand, seemed more concerned about he and
his family as opposed to even the few who like him deserved life. As
such, we read about the totality of such death’s in Genesis 7:22 that says, “All
in whose nostrils was the merest breath of life, all that was on dry land, died.” Eben
Ezra in line with tradition comments that such life lost were those of animals
and not human life, life after all is precious in God’s eyes. That
is why Rabbi Jonathan Sachs is able to present a Noah that lost his title, the generation's most righteous man, simply on the point of the lost lives themselves
(think of Jonah and Nineveh) but also that later Noah fell prey to his
own humanity by debasing himself with too much wine (cf. Gen. 9:20-21). Rabbi
Elie Muck again comments that the shortcomings of Noah echo the evil
generation of the flood when “man failed to make his soul rule over his entire
being.” R’Muck reflects on other verses that paint the picture that the
“breath” of the soul was given by God, meaning that the soul is furnished with
the values of God. In other words, Noah failed his
quest to repair the word by not allowing his God-given soul to rule
over the rest of his behavior.
Is this a fair way to read the
story of Noah? First, as noted above, being “righteous” is not the
same as being “perfect.” Second, we have to read Noah’s humanity as
our own, we too are in process and make mistakes. Third, comparing
Noah to Abraham is about growth not achievement, and while I see the value in
making such a comparison, I am not sure it is relevant either since Abraham had
his own issues of human failure. And lastly, R’Sachs raises a question
regarding the use of midrash, the same question that we should ask as
well, “what do these words mean, not when they were first spoken or written
down, but to us, here, now?” We can therefore read the story of Noah as one
of valued driven struggles in the midst of a society that impacted the ability to do what
is right. The mystics teach that the Ark is like a sanctuary where
the light of God can be found, recalling how Noah did not debase himself until after he left the Ark, itself acting as a form of protection. Today, we live
in our world, a world with its share of evil, but also good, anger and hate,
yet love and caring as well. The tension that Noah experienced was between his God-given soul to guide his greater humanity and the inciting (and enticing) power of the world around him that had its own pull in the opposite direction.
A lesson from Parashat Noach asks us to elevate
ourselves over our circumstances, whatever that might look like. Perhaps Noah fulfilled his role and had no other beyond the Ark, or maybe there was other works that he failed to do, hence we turn to Perkei Avot that teaches, “It is not
your duty to finish the work, but neither are you at liberty to neglect it; If
you have studied much Torah, you shall be given much reward” Therefore, first, Torah (like the Ark) is to be embraced as our guide regardless if it is
fully learned and/or fulfilled, its teachings are for our better. Second, the protection of community (also like the Ark) and its support helps us to find the needed strength to persevere and grow, nurturing God given souls that govern our behavior in this world. And
finally, the story of Noah teaches that we cannot escape the impact of a world that needs
repair, but we have the innate ability to transcend it and help to restore its broken dualities even if only one step at a time. It is good to ask how
the story of Noah helps to restore the world around us, but looking at Noah in particular is also a reminder that repair begins with self.
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