Cut Him Some Slack!
When Noach and his family finally enter the teiva, we are told they do so “מִפְּנֵי, מֵי הַמַּבּוּל,” because of the rising flood waters, (7:7). Rashi points out that these words imply that Noach was lacking complete emmuna, and that he only went into the teiva after the waters of the impeding flood compelled him to do so.
It is not necessarily Noach’s apparent lack of emmuna that should bother us, (although in reality it should), after all, that is one of the enduring questions in all of Tanach- how is it that those with such a direct connection to Hashem, especially those who witness His open miracles, can fail to believe in Him, or even worse, betray him for other gods! What should bother us though, is that this is being said about a man who spent 120 years of his life building teiva but for the his belief in Hashem, despite the constant taunting and ridicule of those around him! This much we do know, Noach did have emmuna, and this is clear from his behavior in the years preceding the flood.
It is not necessarily Noach’s apparent lack of emmuna that should bother us, (although in reality it should), after all, that is one of the enduring questions in all of Tanach- how is it that those with such a direct connection to Hashem, especially those who witness His open miracles, can fail to believe in Him, or even worse, betray him for other gods! What should bother us though, is that this is being said about a man who spent 120 years of his life building teiva but for the his belief in Hashem, despite the constant taunting and ridicule of those around him! This much we do know, Noach did have emmuna, and this is clear from his behavior in the years preceding the flood.
If this is so, how might we help explain Rashi’s "harsh" words about Noach?
1 comment:
To further your point, I think is a very human thing to know something terrible is going to happen but not believe it until its actually happening. For example it once happened to me that however it was we got locked out of an apartment we were supposed to be staying at for shabbos it was so close to shabbos that no locksmith could come in tome. everybody was freaking out and they were worried about what we were going to do on shabbos but I found myself oddly calm. I thinks its because even though i understood the gravity of the situation in my hear tI didn't want to believe it so I thought nothing bad was going to happen. ( baruch HAshem we got in, thank you eliyuhu hanavi for unlocking the door)
I think maybe what Rashi is commenting on is something Iv'e heard about noah. While Noach was a tzaddik he didn't have the ability to bekarev anybody, to get anybody to do teshuva. Maybe Rashi's criticism is that he was not secure enough in his emunah to confront other people about believing in Hashem.
Michelle
Post a Comment