Perashat Noah 5780

Perashat Noah 5780

Noah was a righteous man, righteous beyond what any of us can imagine. He was devout, hardworking and dedicated. He tended to the needs of each and every one of the animals on the teba for the duration of the flood, feeding each one according to its schedule, staying awake around the clock to take care of them. But for all the animals he saved, he didn't manage to save ONE person other than the members of his own family.

We are taught that Noah didn't pray for the people of his generation, and because of that failure, the waters of the flood are forever called by his name.
 
"Ki mei Noah zot li... For [like] the waters of Noah shall this be to me..."(Yeshaya 54:9).
 
How is it possible that such a refined person could sit by and do nothing as everything around him headed for destruction? And if he was capable of walking away from the world, and of letting it all drown behind him so long as his family was saved without a prayer on his lips, how could the Torah possibly call him a saddik?
 
The answer is so powerful. He was, in fact, a saddik. The problem was that he didn't believe that about himself. The funny thing about beliefs is that they don't only live in our heads, they live in our world and in our actions. They live in the risks we are unwilling to take, the words we are scared to say and the job at which we are afraid to fail.
 
The Zohar reveals in the name of Rabbi Yehoshua that while Noah was a saddik, and while he could have prayed for the generation, he didn't believe he was worthy enough to do so. Therefore he simply didn't (1: 67:). Those waters are his. Those lives lay, in some way, at his feet. He is not blamed for cruelty but for his lack of action. 
What a twisted irony. He was simultaneously both a saddik and a quasi-murderer! 
 
If that is the case, Noah didn't do anything wrong even though he was wrong. So why is he blamed? What could he have done?
 
Many people will feel like the concept we are discussing is purely academic. After all, those who already believe in themselves will carry on their merry way, and those who do not will not change because they have figured out how much they are being held back by their self-limiting beliefs! They simply do not believe themselves capable of stepping forward into the light and demanding to be seen and heard.
 
Van Gogh once said, "If you hear a voice inside you say, 'you cannot paint', then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced."
 
Maybe Noah was taken to task for the fact that he didn't try at all, even if he thought he would fail. If there was a tiny voice saying, "you cannot pray", perhaps Noah should have drowned it out with prayer until that voice was silenced! So much was at stake. At least TRY!

So to, maybe Hashem is tasking each and every one of us, every single day, with that same thing. TRY WHAT YOU THINK IS IMPOSSIBLE.

There are so many voices in our heads whispering, "you cannot keep Shabbat", "you cannot make peace with your family", "you cannot learn to pray", "you cannot possibly keep Kosher", "you cannot forgive".
 
And perhaps those voices are right. That is, until you do, and then those voices are simply wrong.

Noah's name means comfortable, and maybe that was his problem. Can you ever know YOUR limits if you've never tested them?

Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Shlomo Farhi