Parshat Noach
by Rabbi Avi Billet
לפְּֽרִי־צַ֖דִּיק עֵ֣ץ חַיִּ֑ים וְלֹקֵ֖חַ נְפָשׁ֣וֹת חָכָֽם
The fruit of a righteous man is the tree of life, and the wise man acquires souls. – Mishlei 11:30
In Medrash Tanchuma, the second entry on Parshas Noach has Rabbi Tanchuma expounding the following in the Beis Medrash.
“The verse says (Mishlei 11:30) that the fruit of the Tzaddik (righteous individual) is the tree of life. Rabbi Yehuda HaLevi bar Shalom would say that when a righteous person departs from this world without having had children, he is pained and he cries. God says to him ‘Why are you pained and why do you cry? Because you didn’t have ‘fruits’ which are children? In this world there are ‘fruits’ much nicer than children!’ And the person says ‘Master of the World, what fruits are these?’ And the Holy One Blessed is He says ‘It is the Torah in which you involved yourself, as the verse says ‘It is a Tree of Life for those who cling to it (Mishlei 3:18)’!’ And how do we know this refers to Noach? Our sages taught us that Noach didn’t die until after he had seen the world repopulated, until he saw the Kotenes of Zippori, and until he saw 70 nations which descended from him. And yet how, in retrospect, does the Torah refer to him? אלה תולדות נח – these are the generations, or the legacy of Noach… נח איש צדיק – Noach was a righteous man.”
It is a beautiful sentiment that should apply to every person, regardless of whether one has children. We all know of the notion that “you can’t take it with you,” that the only thing which one takes to the grave is the good deeds one accomplished in life, and in the case of our People, a reputation that was founded in Torah principles, the memory of a life guided by the Torah’s teachings.
Do people who have children have someone to carry on their name? Often enough. If it’s about a family name, then those who only have daughters are more than likely not to have a family name carry on. And even if people know who are the descendants of any couple or individual, what does it mean anyway?
Some children grow up and never marry, some marry and never have children, some people have children who do not reach adulthood (לא עלינו), and some people within a generation or two are telling their secular or not-Jewish grandchildren “My parents were very Orthodox” [I have personally met many people in this latter category, especially in Florida.]
This is not to downgrade the beauty of building a family, but it is to simply note that there are very few guarantees in life, and that the only thing that is most within a person’s control in terms of outcome is one’s own behavior, and therefore one’s own reputation. We all know people who “did everything right” in raising their children, only to have their children go in a different direction in adulthood, and we also all know people who followed a different path through childhood and, later in life, found a path that is most gratifying, fulfilling, and meaningful. And no one could have predicted how far such individuals ‘traveled’ in their personal life journeys.
To Noach’s credit, if we follow a simply mathematical series of hints, we will discover that at the time of the commandment to build the Ark, Noach, at age 480, had ZERO children. When God approached him to build the Ark, it wasn’t because Noach was in a great position to rebuild the world. It was because God said to him “Because I see YOU as a righteous person before Me.” Not his children, not any one else, but Noach alone.
The Midrash Tanchuma continues noting that the second half of the Mishlei verse also refers to Noach, because he took care of souls. He provided for them and fed them. There is a debate recorded as to whether humans and animals all ate the same thing on the Ark (R Akiva says he fed everyone dried figs, Rabbis think each species had its own food).
Noach took responsibility for the souls of all the animals either simply through feeding them, or as the final interpretation in Midrash Tanchuma puts it, through being on top of feeding times for every animals, at every hour and at every needed feeding – so much so that the sages also say that Noach did not sleep for all of the 12 months on the Ark.
[That last sentiment puts a very different light on the story of Noach getting drunk and falling asleep after getting off the Ark!]
There is a popular debate over whether Noach was a righteous man for all time, or simply in comparison to those of his generation.
Attributing the verse from Mishlei to Noach indicates that Noach’s legacy is enshrined in his deeds, the legacy he left of fulfilling God’s word and giving of himself to help humanity in the way he could.
Was Noach at fault for not doing more to save the people of his time? The jury is out on that one – some say he could have done more, while others argue that it was a fait accompli and Noach had to fulfill his mission so the world could experience what was to become its destiny.
Our lesson from Noach is that no matter what hand life has given to us, our job is to be a living legacy for those who see us. May we be blessed to be forever known for our accomplishments in Chesed, kindness, Mitzvah-fulfillment, and looking out for our fellow Man.
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