A.
אלה תלדת נח נח איש צדיק תמים הי' בדרתיו את האלקים התהלך נח:(“These are the outcomes of Noah; Noah was a perfect, righteous man [ish tzaddiq tamim]; Noah went about with G-d”). Thus begins our parasha, with what appears to be a ringing endorsement of Noah’s sterling qualities.
Yet, on careful reading, one is struck by a certain ambiguity in the inclusion of the word bë-dorothav, “in his generations,” an ambiguity which has sparked a millennia-long debate whose terms are encapsulated in the Talmud: רבי יוחנן אמר בדורותיו ולא בדורות אחרים וריש לקיש אמר בדורותיו וכל שכן בדורות אחרים (“Rabbi Yohanan said, 'In his generations [he was a tzaddiq], but not in other generations'; and Réysh Laqish said, 'In his generations, and how much more so in other generations'”; סנהדרין ק"ח.). In other words, the question is whether Noah qualified as a tzaddiq by some absolute standard, despite the depraved time in which he lived, or was he a tzaddiq only in relation to those times and the immoral behavior which characterized them?
Subsequent to the Torah’s apparent endorsement of Noah’s tzidqiyuth, whilst G-d is informing him of the advent of the Mabbul and the imminent end of the world, G-d explains that Noah and his family would be spared כי אתך ראיתי צדיק לפני בדור הזה (“...For you have I seen [to be a] tzaddiq in this generation”; VII, 1). It certainly appears as though the Torah comes down on the side of Rabbi Yohanan in the debate above. Nonetheless, there is a way to read the passage that is still in accord with Réysh Laqish, as we find in the opinion of Rabbi Yirmëya ben El‘azar elsewhere in the Talmud: מלמד שמקצת שבחו של אדם אומרים וכולו שלא בפניו (“[It] teaches that one should say part of a man’s praise before him, and all of it [only] not in his presence”; עירובין י"ח:), i.e., G-d has left the word tamim, “perfect,” out of his characterization of Noah to his face, but told us that he was a tzaddiq tamim elsewhere.
So, the controversy remains open.
B.
The third rebbe in the dynasty of Ozherov, Rabbi Yëhuda Leibush ha-Lévi Epstein, offers a fascinating insight into the matter in his Birkath Tov, but in order to appreciate it fully, some background is necessary.
We begin by recalling from the Creation account in last week’s parasha that every stage of the bëri’a, yëtzira, and ‘asiya (“creation, formation, and making”) of our physical universe is marked by a Divine amira, a “saying” or “pronouncement.” The word compels the notion of the use of language, and, as Hazal tell us, the Torah preëxisted the world, and was the “blueprint,” as it were, according to which Creation unfolded in all its stages: קודב"ה אסתכל באורייתא וברא עלמא (“The Holy One, Blessed is He, looked into the Torah and created the world”; זוה"ק ח"ב קס"א: וע"ע בראשית רבה פ"א סי' ב'). The Torah, of course, is composed of words formed with the twenty-two letters of the Holy Language (twenty-seven, if we count the special forms with which five of the letters are written at the ends of words). These letters and their sequencing within the words of the Holy Language encode all of the metaphysical information underlying the mathematical wave functions which describe every object and phenomenon in the cosmos.
It is this encoding of physical reality and its administration to which King David alludes when he sings לעולם ד' דברך נצב בשמים (“For the world [Lë-‘olam], Ha-Shem, is Your word established in the heavens”; Psalms CXIX, 89).
Next, it is necessary to appreciate that the Mabbul was a far more cosmic and cataclysmic event than is implied in the bland English word “flood.” As the Talmud makes clear, it was a wrenching resetting of the entire cosmos, one which began with, and incorporated, fearful, awe-inspiring celestial events (עיי' ברכות נ"ח-נ"ט,, ראש השנה י"א., ירושלמי תענית פ"א ה"ג,מדרש הגדול נח י"א, ירושלמי פסחים פ"א ה"א, ילקוט שמעוני בראשית רמז נ"ז, בראשית רבה פכ"ה סי' ב' וסנהדרין ק"ח:, הגהות ריעב"ץ שם, בין השאר). The very word is derived from a root meaning “confusion, chaos,” as is clear from that root’s employment near the end of our parasha to express G-d’s confounding of human language, a root which underlies the name by which Mesopotamia has ever more been known in the Holy Language, Bavel (XI, 7-9).
C.
With this in mind, the rebbe begins by pointing out that, when G-d begins to describe the Mabbul to Noah, He says: קץ כל בשר בא לפני (“[The] end [qétz] of all flesh has come before Me...”; VI,13). In other words, He calls the Mabbul a qétz. The rebbe then notes that Hazal inform us that the five letters with final forms are reserved for gëvuroth, “mighty” or “powerful” acts, such as are even described in English as “acts of G-d,” (עיי' זוה"ק ח"א ק"א. בסתרי תורה וע"ע עץ חיים שער י"ח פרק ה' ושער כ"ה דרוש ב'), and that several sources indicate that three of those letters, צפ"ך, have the gimatriya, the numerical value, of qétz, that is, 190 (עיי' שער הכוונות דרושי ר"ה דרוש ז' [בסוף] וט' ופרי עץ חיים שער השופר פ"א).
So, we see that qétz refers to the Mabbul, with the full, cosmic, “act of G-d” implications of the event. This, says the rebbe, explains Noah’s role as a tzaddiq, for the four letters of the word tzaddiq in the Holy Language also spell the words qétz dai, “the end is enough,” שהצדיק נותן לאלו האותיות והשמות קץ שיהי' די, שיהי' במדה ובמשקל שלא יחריבו העולם וכמו"ש ש-די, שאמר לעולמו די. וכמו כן נקרא צדיק שאומר לבחינת קץ שיהי' די (“for the tzaddiq gives to these letters and words a qétz, that it be enough, that it be in a measure and weight such that the world will not be utterly destroyed, as Hazal said, ‘[The Divine name] Shad-dai [signifies] that He said to His world, "Enough!"’ [חגיגה י"ב.], and similarly [Noah] is called a tzaddiq because he says to the categorical qétz that it be enough”).
The rebbe then focuses on a different aspect of our two verses, the contrast between the terms bë-dorothav, “in his generations,” in the first verse, and ba-dor ha-ze, “in this generation,” in the second. Why should the first verse refers to Noah’s “generations,” in the plural, where we would expect to find instead , “in his generation”?
Ramban writes, in commenting on VI, 9, that this is in refers to the fact that Noah lived a long time, and hence saw several generations, each one worse than the last. The Torah notes (VII, 11) that Noah was 600 years old at the onset of the Mabbul; Rashi, commenting on VI, 14, tells us that G-d instructed Noah on all the details of building the téva, the vast box of gofer wood, כדי שיראוהו אנשי דור המבול עוסק בה ק"כ שנה ושואלין אותו מה זאת לך והוא אומר להם עתיד הקב"ה להביא מבול לעולם אולי ישובו (“in order the the people of the generation of the Mabbul would see him involved in it for 120 years and ask him, 'What is this to you?' And he would tell them, 'The Holy One, Blessed is He, is destined to bring a Mabbul to the world'; perhaps they would repent”).
Noah must have been 480 years old when he received the order to begin building the téva. At that point he had already seen many generations, שכל הדורות היו מכעיסין ובאין עד שהביא עליהם מי המבול (“for al the generations were increasingly angering [G-d] until He brought upon them the waters of the Mabbul”; אבות פ"ה מ"ב).
Throughout all those generations הי' יכול נח הצדיק להגן בעדם בזכותו ואך כאשר גברו מאד אזי לא יכול זכותו עוד להגן בעדם (“Noah the tzaddiq was able to protect them with his merit, and only when [the evil deeds of the others] became very overwhelming, then his merit was no longer able to protect them”). ואם כי היו רשעים אף על פי כן זכותו הגין עליהם (“And even though they were rësha‘im, even so his merit protected them”), ואך אחר כך כאשר בא המבול באותו הדור ולא יכול עוד זכותו להגן עליהם ולומר די כו' שבדור הזה אשר לא יכול עוד לעכב הפורעניות אזי לא יכול להקרא צדיק תמים וגו' (“And only afterwards when the Mabbul came in that generation and his merit was no longer able to protect them and say, ‘Enough!’... For in this generation when he could no longer prevent the disaster, then he could no longer be called a tzaddiq tamim....”). Noah was stripped of his title, as it were, and became a common, garden variety tzaddiq, still a rare enough commodity in that debased age.
‘Ad kan the Birkath Tov. We find this same concept of the “ripening” or “maturation” of iniquity elsewhere in the Torah. For instance, in Genesis XV, 16, Avraham learns that his descendants would not return to the Holy Land from Egyptian exile until the fourth generation, כי לא שלם עון האמרי עד הנה (“for the iniquity of the Emori is not complete until then”), and Rashi adds: להיות משתלח מארצו עד אותו זמן שאין הקב"ה נפרע מאומה עד שתתמלא סאתה שנאמר "וסאסאה בשלחה תריבנה" (“to be driven out of his land, for the Holy One, Blessed is He, is not avenged upon a nation until its measure is filled, as it is said [Isaiah XXVII, 8], ‘In full measure you contend [with] her by sending her away’”).
What indicated mëlo’ ‘avonam, the “fullness of their iniquity”? Rashi provides a clue in his comment toVII, 4, when G-d warns Noah כי בימים עוד שבעה אנכי ממטיר על הארץ (“For in another seven days I [shall be] raining on the earth”): It seems that there had also been another tzaddiq: אלו ז' ימי אבלו של מתושלח הצדיק שחס הקב"ה על כבודו ועכב את הפורענות וגו' (“These were the seven days of mourning for the tzaddiq Mëthushelah, for the Holy One, Blessed is He, was concerned for his honor and delayed the disaster....”). It was the combined tzidqiyuth of Noah and Mëthushelah which held the Mabbul at bay despite the rising depravity of the day.
Mëthushelah’s death was the last warning to the dor ha-Mabbul to repent; perhaps they would recognize their loss, and mourn for him. Instead, they threw a party, and the disaster was on....
D.
We see from this how precious every tzaddiq is to us, in every generation. Hazal assure us that there are 36 such tzaddiqim in every generation (סוכה מ"ה.), but it is in the nature of such a tzaddiq that he carry out the prophet’s injunction of הצנע לכת עם אלקיך (“Walk modestly with your G-d”; Micha VI, 8), and so we do not know who they are. For this reason, the death of every tzaddiq, of every great Torah scholar, should fill us with concern and foreboding, lest the generation’s iniquity “ripen,” and we lose our last defense against impending disaster.
This parasha offers a glimpse behind the curtain, and a timely reminder that G-d’s sense of timing is not ours, that His assessment of tzidqiyuth and greatness can have very far-reaching consequences indeed.
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