Noach

The first words of our parsha, אלה תולדות נח, "these are the offspring of Noach," are followed by, נח איש צדיק תמים היה בדרתיו, "Noach was a righteous man, perfect in his generation." Rashi explains that the reason it mentions the offspring of Noach and then goes on to describe his righteousness before listing his children teaches us that the main offspring of a person are his spiritual accomplishments. The next Rashi focuses on the word בדרתיו, "in his generation," saying that some of our rabbis see it as praise - if he was righteous now in this decadent generation, he would have been even greater of a tzaddik had he lived in a good generation. Then there are those that say it's a negative, that compared to his generation he was good but had he lived in a good generation he wouldn't have amounted to much.

Many ask if you can interpret something good, why would we give a second option to interpret it negatively?

Shem MiShmuel points out that Rashi refers to the ones that view Noach in a positive light as our rabbis and the ones who view it negatively as “others” to show us that the ones to learn from are positive people and not ones who view everything negatively.

Another lesson we learn from Noach is that even though he was the only one in his generation that was good, the Torah still tells us that he was תמים, perfect; he didn't have an ego. The Noam Megadim explains why from the next words of the posuk, because, את האלקים התהלך נח, "Noach walked with Hashem." What kept him humble was the fact that Noach walked with Hashem, always aware that it was Hashem who was in control and everything came from him.

This means he understood that no matter what, even though the entire world was being destroyed around him for acting immorally and he was the lone one to be saved, he still felt like he was lacking in what he should be. Perhaps this is why some say that, when Rashi says that others interpret it negatively, it's referring to Noach himself for he felt that he could have still been better.

Noach lived through through the destruction of the world, came out to a world devoid of humanity, a world of utter destruction, yet he came out strong and resilient. From the ruins, he rose and rebuilt. How did he do it? Imagine coming out of the ark to a world with nothing, seeing the aftermath of the total annihilation of the word and having to rebuild. Can we imagine the difficulty? The only way he was able was his completeness with Hashem; he had total trust that Hashem was in control and did it for a purpose, so he was able to rebuild.

This week I lost my grandfather; he was a survivor of the war. Much like Noach, the survivors witnessed the destruction of their world and came out still ready to rebuild. How? They lost everything, families destroyed, no homes, no place to go yet they forged on ready to rebuild. What gave them the strength? There were two qualities that I noticed in my grandfather. First, he always saw the good in everything. I remember once he was telling us about the DP camps. The way he was describing it sounded so good that my grandmother said to stop talking like that; you’re making it sound like a party. He only wanted to focus on the good.

 The second quality was that all he did, he did for Hashem. I remember walking home from shul with him, but I don't remember walking there with him. Then I realized it was because he was always the first one there; he was at shul before I would even think about going, because he had to be the first one there. When it came to spiritual things  there was no comprise. It's these qualities that enable a person to come from the ashes and begin anew. Let's take the lesson of Noach and the survivors and make sure that all we do is for Hashem, then we too will see the good in everything and live happier more fulfilled lives!