Being Good Is Not Enough, Be A Force of Good – Parsha Noah 5783

Noah is an interesting Parsha and he, an interesting character. A troubled character. Parsha Noah is a bit confusing due to its contradicting words and plot. The name of the Parsha carries its essence; Noah means rest, pleasant. Yet, it is this “righteous man who was perfect in his generation” that lived through the flood. He sees destruction, death, and ultimately renewal of a new world. He lived a life not restful or calm with the worst of calamities. As the Father of all humanity, Noah has a universal message to all. 

The Torah makes clear, Noah is a righteous man. He is good, he follows in G-d’s steps. The argument seems to me that being good is not enough. Being good for his  own sake, led to a world being destroyed. 

         “for the earth has become full of robbery because of them, and behold I am destroying them from the earth”

G-d expresses his discontent for the corruption the people caused. This was the first opportunity Noah had to beseech the Almighty to give the people another chance or to grant him time to help make positive change. But Noah was good and followed orders from God. He built the ark. 

This altercation seems to be problematic; his lack of action to save the world. Did Noah lack enough good to fight for others? Or was it that he lacked faith? We know he had faith in G-d. His faith in G-d gave him absolute certainty he would survive and drove him to build the ark. It wasn’t a lack of faith and trust in G-d. 

Believe gives strength For Good

Belief in himself is what Noah was lacking. This lack of believe in himself led him to only fend for himself and his family. Precisely the opposite of how societies are created. Societies cooperate and watch over each other. This ensures safety and advancement. 

A lack of belief in yourself affects all matters of behavior and brings about selfishness. A selfish gene was born in Noah, the survival of the fittest(or good) at its fullest. The selfish gene is passed on to future generations, this is what we learn from the odd story of the Tower of Babel. 

The brief retelling of Tower of Babel says the people all spoke one language and were one people. They aspired to build a tower that went to the heavens and make for themselves a name. What’s wrong with that? The intent. The selfish intent to want to be big and known. When we build, the right intentions need to be in place. The purpose for building should be to house families, communities, all for the greater good. The conclusion of this story indicates something was awfully wrong with the people’s actions. When God decides to destroy the tower and dispel the people by confusing them with the addition of different languages, something is wrong. The world became more fragmented. 

Partners in Creation

G-d doesn’t want to destroy our creations. The universe wants to be created and continue growing to resemble heavenly energy. The basic structure and desire of G-d is that it wants us to partner with him in creating a better world. We see this desire in the most natural of ways, we partner with creation to have kids. Kids are not born in a science lab, we create life in partnership with G-d. When we tithe we partner with G-d on our earnings. When G-d expressed he was disappointed with the people. He very likely was hoping Noah would step in. 

Reading the parsha through this lens, we cannot blame Noah. Not believing in himself, although it led to destruction of all humanity, it is a common thing. Many of us lack this belief in ourselves. We see giants all around and follow in the footsteps of giants but feel like ants ourselves unable to create significant change. We cannot blame Noah for this. What must be noted is Noah was a man who did only for himself. A moral individual, so much that G-d built a future on him but a troubled character because he was for himself. 

Noah is a Man of Morals

The covenant was established with Noah because he was a moral man. What the Torah also makes clear is that Noah is not a leader. A leader is not just good, but is also a force for good. He brings people along to his ideas. Even if it’s one person that gets saved, one person represents a world of its own. As a anais Nin says, 

           “Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting                                       that a new world is born.”

It is not telling what the world would be like, had Noah made the choice of trying to fight for others. What we do know is we follow in the steps of Abraham and Moses to spread the beauty and morality G-d wants in this world. 

Be Good and Be A Force For Good

In modern day it’s easy to get lost in personal actions. Let’s be real, life gets busy and our families require a lot of time from us. Like Noah, we are busy trying to survive and make a name of ourselves. This is the single most important message Noah is giving all of humanity. Be good and be a force for good. We need to do for ourselves, but who are we if we only do for ourselves as the mishnah says. 

We need to believe in ourselves. Belief we have the power to help at least one person, influence other people with our actions and our kind words. If we see something wrong, a crime, we must speak, we must stand. If we don’t we are accomplices in that crime. That’s the law. How much more that’s true in spiritual things that seem insignificant. We must take personal responsibility to be a force of good in the world we are a part of.