October 29, 2008 Noah’s deadly lack of curiosity Parshat Noach
(Genesis 6:9-11:32) Was Noah someone who would have been
recognized as a tzadik in any generation? Or was Noah only a
tzadik in a relative sense, only in comparison to those around
him? One midrashic teaching, taking the latter route, compares
God's selection of Noah to the story of a lone traveler finding
another lone soul on the road, and engaging him in discussion
simply because there was no on else to talk to. As Dr. Aviva
Zornberg summarized this midrash: "God chooses Noah not because
he has achieved significant wisdom or virtue, but because he
seeks to convey to someone the knowledge of Himself." Walking
all by himself on a path that everyone else in the world had
abandoned, Noah became the object of God's attention. The
midrash isn't, I don't think, being harsh or unfair to Noah. It
is just sharing, in candid terms, its read of a Biblical
character who is an essentially decent person, but who also
possesses some very deep personality flaws.