Oct 28/06 — Parashat Noach

Commentary by Chazzan Aníbal Mass

We read in the Torah that God has a project “in mind” for this world: to generate happy individuals able to build a fair society. For this reason He trusts in humankind’s natural ethical instinct. And that’s why, previously, He didn’t tell Cain that it is bad to kill; however He punishes Cain when he kills Abel, his brother. Cain should have known that killing is an act against God’s will. And, yes, it should have been obvious that humans weren’t created to kill.

But this message was not clear at all. Society became a model of total anarchy and destruction. God allowed human beings to experience this form of government for ten generations. But society demonstrated that without having clear laws, it pretended to believe that it didn’t know what is good and what is bad, using the absence of law as an excuse for misbehaviour. The result of that model was a degenerate society dominated by violence, death, etc. Then God sends a flood to destroy every creature in the world, but saves Noah, a man “fair in his generation.”

Now let’s go to our Parashah. What does it mean to be “fair in his generation”? Some authors understand that without significant merits, Noah was a “good boy” compared to the perversion surrounding him. Others, on the contrary, consider that Noah had double merits: the first for being a righteous person; the second for being a righteous person in that specific generation, understanding that it is even more difficult to be a good person if society is corrupt.

But I think that this Parashah brings new messages for these days when we have been witnessing so much violence, terror and insensibility.

It is a question of looking at the news to see that human evil has no limits. From the attack on the Twin Tours in New York to the massacres in Africa, from the bombing attack on the AMIA in Argentina to the bombing of a train in India.

Now, have you ever asked yourself: “So, why doesn’t God eliminate all the wicked people and save the righteous in the way He did with Noah?”

And there is an easy answer to that question: Noah’s generation didn’t have any laws, or judges, or police; therefore, the only “present” judge to bring order to the world is God.

But, today—and this is the part that many people still don’t understand—God has delegated the administration of justice to humanity, for He has let us know the road that we should go down (and that’s why the Torah was revealed). It is our responsibility to make sure that justice is done. “Tzedek, Tzedek Tirdof”, “Justice, Justice, you will pursue”, and not “Don’t worry because I will do justice on your behalf...”

Therefore, if our attitude towards violence, injustice, and terror is passive, it will mean that we haven’t understood what God wants from us.

A Jew cannot be passive in light of the events that we are seeing in the world. A Jew should find a way to pursue justice.

My friends, this Parashah teaches us that justice and the truth are in our hands. We can pray to God so He can help us succeed, but we must not delegate this responsibility that concerns each one of us.

Shabbat Shalom.