By A Tzadik was Noah A Tzadik?
By A Tzadik was Noah A Tzadik?
Earlier this year my wife, Symcha and I went on a cruise. Actually we went on two cruises, which is pretty remarkable because prior to this year I had never even been on one. I had always wanted to go, but my wife was reluctant to do so. We had a great time and really enjoyed both of them – one was a river cruise in France on a relatively small boat and the other was a big ocean liner.
For some reason, maybe because today’s Torah portion is about a guy who also went on a cruise I was thinking about my experiences on these two boats this morning. After all, like me, he was on a boat for a period of time. But that is where the similarity ends.
Noah’s boat was much, much bigger than the ship I was on. He travelled much longer than I did. He didn’t visit any islands. He certainly did not encounter any natives, nor did he go to any duty-free tourist shops. He didn’t have entertainment on board the ship, and I can’t imagine that he had either the service or the food that we had. Instead he had a whole lot of animals on his ship, in fact, an entire zoo was travelling with him – which he had to take care of.
Noah was the captain of his ship, which reminds me of one of my favorite stories about a captain.
A guy who never amounted to very much got lucky and won the lottery. He takes his winnings and goes and buys the biggest boat he can afford. Proud to show off his shiny new boat and new status to his parents, he invites his parents, who are simple people of modest means to come and take a tour of his boat. He points to his outfit, and his captain’s hat and says, “Look Mama, I’m a captain.” His mother replies, “Sheldon, I want you to know — by me, you’re a captain. By Papa, you’re a captain, but by a captain you’re no captain.”
The question applies to “Captain” Noah. Not whether or not he is a captain, but was he a tsaddik? The way Noah is described in the beginning of the Torah portion launches one of the greatest ongoing debates of all time, which we could phrase as posing the question — “By a tzadik was Noah a tzadik?”
Rambam, known as Maimonides takes one position while Ramban, Nahmanides takes the opposite position, and our sages throughout the ages line up on different sides.
To be in a better position to evaluate whether Noah should be considered a tzadik or not, it would be helpful to better understand what qualities and attributes constitute being a tzadik in our tradition.
The primary characteristics of a tzadik, a righteous person is one who:
Spends a considerable amount of time, in fact, most of his day studying: studying Torah, which includes rabbinic sources such as the Talmud and midrash, meforshim (commentators), halacha (Jewish law), musar (Jewish ethics), and other texts.
But a tzadik does not only spend his waking day studying. He also does mitzvoth. He performs good deeds and punctiliously observes the commandments. His life is filled with faithfully carrying out the ritual requirements, intricacies and details of Jewish law.
He also does the aspects of Jewish law that pertain not only to our relationship with God, but with the laws that govern our interactions with other human beings. A tzadik finds time to perform acts of hesed, kindness and compassion.
By his very nature, a tzadik is not self-centered, but is compassionate, cares about others and is kind. He or she is humble, not filled with hubris or sanctimoniousness over his or her actions. A tzadik, as his name implies, gives tzedekah, charity and donations to help others.
Perhaps the best way to capture the essence of what is a tzadik is to tell you that in the Hebrew language, and therefore, in Judaism, we do not have a word for saint. The closest we have is this word tzadik.
It is difficult to find any one of these qualities in an individual, much less all of them – and I may even be leaving out a few. We understand that a true tzadik, one who possesses all of these attributes is extremely rare.
So let’s come back to Noah. When the world was about to perish, he did what he was commanded to do. He built an ark. But some of our commentators feel his shortcoming is that he could have and should have spoken out, that he should have done more to avert the destruction of humanity. Similarly, along this line of thinking, Rabbi Yehudah bar Illai is quoted in midrash Tanhuma as criticizing Noah for taking his time and not rushing out to immediately rebuild the world once the rain ended and the flood waters had subsided.
But on the other hand, we cannot discount Noah’s fortitude in the face of the depravity all around him. Noah was the only person who did not succumb to the distorted norms of his time and who alone among all his contemporaries remained virtuous and moral – no small feat. After the flood, and upon exiting the ark, we read that Noah became a tiller of vineyards, and that he basically became a drunkard. The hero who saved humanity, who found favor in the eyes of the Lord and who was a righteous person goes on a downward spiral and becomes a “master of the soil.”
Rabbi Meir Simcha Hacohen author of Meshech Hochma, an explanation of the midrashic sources, points out that there are two ways to worship God. One is when a man is alone and secludes himself with his faith and the other is when a person deals with the needs of society, and helps others. Noah was the first kind of righteous person.
There is a Yiddish term, “a tzadik im peltz”, meaning “a righteous person in a fur coat.” It refers to the fact that there are two ways to stay warm when it is cold outside. You can put on a fur coat, and stay warm, or you can light a fire. In the second instance you warm not just yourself, but others as well. Noah was a tzadik im peltz.
Noah’s behavior and becoming a degenerate is sometimes explained as caused by what we call today, PTS, post traumatic stress syndrome.
He may or may not have been a tzadik at the beginning of his life, but he certainly was not at the end of the story. We learn from this week’s parasha that each of us should do our best to live an exemplary life, not in seclusion or on our own, but with people. We should not be discouraged if we do not measure up and fall short of the definition of what it means to be a tzadik. Even if we can be good in just one dimension, it is positive. While by a tzadik we may not be a tzadik, we should think of the characteristics as aspirational and be inspired to try to reach those heights as best as we can.
Rabbi Stuart Weinblatt
Congregation B’nai Tzedek
Potomac, MD
