Delivered: October 5, 2013 by Louise Winheld
Parashat: Noach – Gen. 6:9-11:32

SHABBAT SHALOM!

Have any of you heard of Michelle Obama? What about Eric Greitens? Barbara Van Dahlen? William McNulty? Jake Wood? You will, this morning. These are special people, as you can tell by my grouping them with Michelle Obama. Stay tuned….

This week’s Torah portion is about Noah. Everyone knows the story of Noah and the Flood and the Ark: an apparently easy story for children to understand. But is it only for children? What might we adults learn from this story?

Noah is described as being “righteous in his generation.” The dictionary definition states that “righteous” means “morally right; meeting the standards of what is right and just; guiltless; moral.” What did Noah do that was righteous? He followed God’s orders, explicitly. So why isn’t Noah one of our patriarchs? Some commentators have written that despite what Noah did, we shouldn’t ignore what he did NOT do: he didn’t try to save the rest of mankind from the flood. He didn’t even warn them about the coming flood, nor did he try to get the people to change from their evil ways. Noah just followed exactly what God told him to do, but he did no more. He didn’t question God or argue with him as Abraham did much later vis a vis the towns of Sodom and Gemorrah. Noah only saved his own family and the various pairs of animals. For this reason some commentators have said that Noah lacked compassion; and that is what kept him off the list of patriarchs.

An early commentator, Rabbi Berechia, in the Talmud, wrote that Noah’s piety did not extend to a concern about the welfare of others. He was more concerned with his own safety and survival than he was with the survival of his friends and neighbors and the rest of the world.

The 18th century Chasidic master Rabbi Elimelech of Lizensk once observed that there are two kinds of “righteous” people: one who is genuinely righteous and one who dresses like a righteous person in a fur coat. Each of them faces a freezing winter in a different way: one will go out and collect wood for a fire; the other will wrap himself in his fur coat. The one who collects wood lights a fire and invites others to join him. He not only warms himself but others as well. The one who makes himself cozy in his own heavy coat is secure, but those around him will freeze. Rabbi Elimelech saw Noah in this second category.

Morris Adler, an influential Conservative rabbi who died in 1966, wrote that nowhere did Noah show a feeling of sadness and pathos that an entire generation was to be lost and the world destroyed. At no time did Noah express any concern or give any thoughts to all that was to be lost. It was as though Noah stood apart from the rest of the world. It might be said that Noah had a fatal flaw: a lack of compassion; and it was this lack that prevented him from becoming the father of a new religion and a new community.

Adler later wrote, in The Voice Still Speaks, that a great leader is not only a person of ideas, not only a person of personal integrity and devotion, but also a person of tenderness, a person of compassion…If he is insensitive to the sorrows of people, all of his ideals and all of his personal qualities will fail to confer greatness upon him.

Consider Noah as a leader: what kind of leadership did he display? Nowhere are we told that he had any followers or any students. He apparently built his ark all by himself. He seems to have been a loner, a “righteous” man whose influence extended only to the narrow circle of his family. He just followed orders from God and that was all. He didn’t seem to consider anyone else except himself and his family…and the various pairs of creatures he corralled onto his ark.

It seems that Noah’s “righteousness” may be in serious doubt.

Now how might we in the 21st century relate to Noah? What can we learn from his story? For one, being righteous is good but it’s not enough. We must be compassionate for all those around us: be aware of those who may be less fortunate than we are, and we should do something to help them. My chavurah recently had a discussion about whether Judaism is a religion of CREED or DEED. We realized shortly into our discussion that Judaism is really a religion of BOTH, and we need both, in order to believe as well as to act based on those beliefs. And we should consider not only WHAT we should do but also what we should NOT do.

The people that I mentioned at the beginning of this d’var torah are undoubtedly righteous people and excellent, compassionate leaders as well. Michelle Obama created “Joining Forces“, a national initiative to mobilize all sectors of society to give our service members and their families the opportunities and support they have earned. Eric Greitens is the founder and CEO of “the Mission Continues”, an organization that awards community service fellowships to post 9/11 veterans, empowering them to transform their own lives by serving others and directly impacting their communities. Barbara Van Dahlen helped to organize “Give an Hour”, an organization that develops a network of volunteers, nation-wide, to help US troops and their families who were and are affected by the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, by giving an hour of their time each week. William McNulty and Jake Wood are the co-founders of “Team Rubicon”, a Los Angeles organization which unites the skills and experiences of military veterans with first responders to rapidly deploy emergency response teams wherever they are needed around the world.

And lest you think that the need for compassion is far away from our cozy San Diego, let me share something about a friend of mine who just retired and warranted a wonderful article in the San Diego Jewish World, published on line by Don Harrison. Nancy Herzfeld-Pipkin has just retired after 37 years of teaching English and English-as-a-Second-Language in our area community colleges. When she was asked, at her retirement party at Grossmont College, what quality ESL instructors need most, she quickly answered, “compassion.” She said, “Many of the ESL students are immigrants from all over the world, refugees, people struggling, people who are here under very difficult circumstances. They have come here with almost nothing, and learning language and a new culture is not easy, so their instructors have to be compassionate.” But that doesn’t mean lowering standards. Nancy has been extremely successful with her students, many of whom have gone on to 4-year colleges. Nancy offered quality education infused with her understanding of the students’ situations; that way she prepared them for the demands of further education and/or employment in a new culture. A test of a teacher’s success is the success of her students in the “real” world. Nancy has succeeded admirably.

In closing, and getting back to Noah and this week’s portion, being righteous is a good thing, but it’s certainly not enough. Noah was righteous, there’s little doubt about that. But it wasn’t enough. Being compassionate toward others on our planet is equally important. And the combination of righteousness and compassion is the best combination. As it is said in one of the prayers (on p. 112) of our prayer book: “How deeply YOU have loved us, Adonai, our God, gracing us with surpassing compassion!”

SHABBAT SHALOM!

ALSO:

* In Time magazine of July 1, 2013: “Can Service Save Us?” (p. 24 ff)

* You Can Help Too: on Oct 26, 2013, 23rd annual Make A Difference Day, the nation’s largest day of community service. Millions of volunteers will unite to improve the lives of others in their communities. Go to makeadifferenceday.com