No More Bullies

People often criticize Israel’s strong use of military force.  Others will retort and say, “What choice does it have?  Israel lives in a rough neighborhood.”  Bullies who attack us must be met with strength and might.   That is the only language that Israel’s enemies seem to understand.  That is the only thing that makes Israel safer and more secure.  But I continue to wonder if this rough playground logic lives up to our Jewish ideals.

The Torah calls Noah a righteous man.  The ancient rabbis debate whether or not he is righteous.  Why?  The Torah offers a perplexing description of him when it states, “Noah was a righteous man; he was blameless in his age.” (Genesis 6)  Why does the Torah qualify his righteousness and say, “in his age?”  Is this to suggest Noah was only righteous in comparison to the other people who lived during his time? 

We know everyone in Noah’s age is evil.  That’s why God floods the earth and destroys them.  God said, “I have decided to put an end to all flesh, for the earth is filled with lawlessness because of them.”  Noah stands out as the best of a rotten bunch.  He is not that great but compared to the evil surrounding him, he looks like a righteous man.  His righteousness has an asterisk attached to it.

The medieval commentator Rashi concurs, “In comparison with his own generation he was accounted as righteous, but had he lived in the generation of Abraham he would have been accounted as of no importance.”  Many agree.  Noah does not even come close to Abraham!

But Noah saves the world.  He protects the seeds of the future in the Ark.  Abraham could not even save Sodom and Gomorrah.  The Talmud states, making the rabbinic disagreement plain, “In Noah’s generation he was righteous and wholehearted despite being surrounded by bad influences; all the more so would he have been considered righteous and wholehearted in other generations.” (Sanhedrin 108a)  Noah was not righteous in comparison to others but despite others.

Truly righteous people are those who swim against the tide, who despite bad influences surrounding them stay the course. They follow the dictates of a moral code regardless of what everyone else is doing.  They are righteous because they ignore the costs and remain focused on doing right. 

It is never an excuse to say, “Everyone else is doing it.”  We must always strive to do what is right.  Those who are righteous are those who are able to withstand the pressures of the outside world and stay true to their ideals.

I continue to dream.  Like Noah we can save the neighborhood and perhaps even redeem the playground from its bullies.