Do You Hear Me?

By Rabbi Joshua (audibly known as The Hoffer) Hoffman

The Torah, in describing the moral deterioration that led to the flood, says that the earth had become corrupt, and was filled with robbery. Rashi explains that corruption refers to both idolatry and sexual immorality. Still, he writes further, the final judgement came because of robbery. Why was this sin the deciding factor? Ramban and Rabbeinu Bachya say it is because it is an offense that one should understand through his own logic. By failing to follow one’s logic, one is no better than an animal. On another level, the Maharal, in his commentary to Avos (1:2) says that robbery is the opposite of gemilus chasadim, acting with kindness towards others. Rav Yitzchok of Volozhin, in his introduction to the work Nefesh HaChaim, written by his father, Rav Chaim of Volozhin, writes that his father would constantly tell him, that a person is not created for himself, but to help others in whatever way he can. The rampant robbery that occurred in the world before the flood, negated the main purpose of the world, and led to its destruction.

Rav Shimon Schwab points out that the unsavory attitude of the generation of the flood had its effect on Noach, who the Torah refers to as a “tzadik tamim,” a righteous, perfect man. It is remarkable to note, says Rav Schwab, that Noach, in the five hundred years he lived before the flood, was not able to save a single person, outside of his family, from destruction. Apparently he focused on maintaining his own moral rectitude, but did not actually go out and try to teach people about God and moral behavior. This is the meaning of the opinion mentioned by Rashi, that Noach was a tzadik “lefi doro,” on the level of his generation. Avraham, in his generation, in contrast, actively sought to teach people about God.

Rav Ya’akov Kaminetsky, on the other hand, notes that the midrash tells us that Noach did, in fact, chastise the people for worshipping idols. The reason that he was not able to save anyone is that he emphasized the wrong points. The people knew that the idols were powerless, but worshipped them in order to engage in sexual immorality. Noach failed to understand this, and this failure, says Rav Ya’akov, represented a certain limit in the degree of his righteousness. Part of righteousness, he says, is an intensive search for the truth. A basic fundamental in one’s service of God, he says, is to focus on the central factor behind one’s actions. Noach should have rebuked the people for their sexual immorality, which lay at the core of their sins. This failure to understand the core of the people’s sins is what led some of the sages to say that Noach was a tzadik only “lefi doro.”

Rav Kaminetsky’s explanation brings to mind a story that was popular in Yeshiva Mercaz HaRav when I was a student there, in the early 1970’s. The story is that the Rosh HaYeshivah, Rav Tzvi Yehudah Kook, once entered the beis midrash at a time that he had designated for the students to study the work Chafetz Chaim, on the laws of leshon harah, or evil talk. Many of the students, however, were continuing to study Talmud rather than Chafetz Chaim. Rav Tzvi Yehudah thereupon left, and when some students watched to see where he went, they saw that he went into another room and began to cry. When asked why he was crying, he said that the Talmud in Berachos says that if someone has the fear of heaven, his words are listened to. The fact that many students did not listen to his designation of a set time to study Chafetz Chaim indicated to him that there was some lack in his fear of heaven, and that was why he was crying. According to Rav Kaminetsky, the fact that people did not listen to Noach, as well, reflected poorly on the level of his righteousness.