Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] When the Torah is talking about Noah, who we know about because of the flood, the Torah is telling us that Noah was a righteous person, he was a tzadik.
[00:00:12] But the Torah is qualifying his righteousness. The Torah is saying that he was a righteous person in his generation. And there are two interpretations of this qualification. First of all, the fact that he was righteous in his generation shows that he was not influenced by others, by the people around him. So this is something which is a great compliment. Torah is giving him a compliment that even though he lived in a very corrupt society, he was still a righteous person. But then there is another layer of understanding of disqualification, that he was a righteous person for his generation compared to others who lived in those times, he was a righteous person. But had he lived in the times of, let's say, Abraham or Moses, perhaps he would not be called a righteous person. So he is a relative tzadik.
[00:01:10] What does that mean? If we will look at three people. Noah, Noah, Abraham, Avraham and Moses Moishe.
[00:01:20] These three people were leaders of their generation. Noach Noah is called by the Torah a righteous person. Abraham Avraham was also a leader of his generation. He was a righteous person. And he was the one who was trying to teach his entire generation about morality, about God and the proper ways of life.
[00:01:44] And Moses Moishe Rabbeinu was obviously a leader who took the Jews out of Egypt. He stood up against Pharaoh, he led the Jews through the desert for 40 years, and he received the Torah. So let's look at these three leaders. When God comes to Noah and tells him that, you know what, this generation is rotten and I am going to destroy all mankind besides for your family. And I'm going to start new people from you. I'm starting from scratch from you. What did Noah do? Noah said, okay, that's nice, and he went on to build his ark. Now the Torah does tell us that it took him a very long time to build his ark. And while he was doing it, people were coming to him and asking him, what in the world is he putting up here? And he was telling them that God is about to destroy the world because of your corrupt ways.
[00:02:49] And people listened to him, said, eh, these are conspiracy theories, fake news, and ignored his advice. He was telling people that their behavior is no good. He was telling people that perhaps they should repent. But he was doing it only once. They would come over to him and ask him what's going on. He did not make any attempt to either go out into the world and help People improve themselves. Nor did he make any attempt to defend his generation in front of God. He did not argue with God. He did not say, well, God, maybe let's give them a second chance. Compare with Abraham, Avraham Avinu. When God came to Abraham and he told him that he's about to destroy the city of Sadom, what does Avram say? Avram say, well, you are telling me that the entire city is bad, but what if there are 50 righteous people in there? God says, okay, if there's 50 people who are good, I'm not going to destroy the city because of them. Avraham says, okay, but what about 40? You see, this is how we know that Abraham was a. He was the first Jew because he was the first one to bargain with God. So Avraham says, and what if there's 30 and what if there is 2010?
[00:04:12] So Avraham was trying to defend the city of Sodom and he was trying to protect at least the righteous people. Maybe there are some merits that because of them you should not destroy the city. We don't find it in Noor, but we find it in Avraham. Now let's compare all that to Moses Moshe Rabbeinu. There are several times throughout the 40 years in desert when God is upset at the Jews because they do wrong things. For example, the sin of the golden calf. Jews are worshiping an idol. That's the worst transgression in the Torah. They are obviously far from righteous. They just committed a grave sin. God tells Moses that, you know what? I am fed up with these people.
[00:05:07] They are not worthy of anything. I'm going to destroy them and I'm going to start a new nation from you, Moses. So God is telling to Moses, Moshe Rabbeinu pretty much the same thing what he told to Noah, Noah many generations before that. God wanted to destroy the entire mankind and start humanity 2.0 from Noah. And Noah said, okay, let's do that. Sounds good. And then God wanted to destroy the entire Jewish nation and start Jews 2.0 from Moses Moshe Rabbeinu. So what does Moshe Rabbeinu tell God? He tells him, no, no, no, no, no, it's not going to work this way. If you are destroying the Jewish people, you'll have to destroy me with them together.
[00:05:56] I am not going to let you do that. And God had to give in.
[00:06:02] Why is it that righteous people are created in this world? According to Chesedut, a righteous person is someone who does not have any bad desires. He does not have Any even attempt to do something bad.
[00:06:20] I have a lot of bad desires and my purpose in life is to overcome these bad desires and do the right thing. You will ask me that sounds good. You know, I see a purpose in my life. The purpose of my life is to make the right decisions. I have inner struggles, I have doubts. And I have to decide what's right, what's wrong, and. And that's the purpose of my existence. But what about righteous people? Righteous people don't have inner struggles. So what is the purpose of their existence? God says, you're right. The life of a righteous person is very boring. He doesn't have any inner struggles. So why is he here? He is here only to help others. Righteous people are here to be leaders. There's no any other purpose of righteous people in this world. By the way, this is a very interesting point, that in other religions there are righteous people and everyone else is here to serve these righteous people because they are the pinnacle of creation. The Torah says it's the other way around. The righteous people are here to help us. They are here for us. God creates righteous people because he wants to have leaders. Now we see the difference between three types of leadership. One of them is Noah. He was a righteous person, but was he trying to help anyone else? No. So Noah was a righteous person. And God is describing Noah as a righteous person, but a relatively righteous person. God does not want to give him full credit for his righteousness. And now we see why. Because he was a righteous person, but he did not fulfill his purpose. His righteousness was only for himself. Compared to Avraham, Avraham was a righteous person also, and he was teaching other people about God.
[00:08:03] That's what his entire thrust in life was. That's what he dedicated his life to. To teach other people about God and about morality. So he was very different from Noah. But when God wanted to destroy the city of Sodom, Avraham says, one second. What if there are righteous people there? Avraham was ready to stand up only to defend the righteous.
[00:08:26] Avram was not ready to defend the wicked, as opposed to Moses.
[00:08:33] He was ready to defend even the wicked. When God said that he wants to destroy the entire nation. Why? Because they are wicked. Moses did not argue with the fact that they committed a great sin. Moses knew he was one who broke the tablet because of that.
[00:08:49] But he was defending them even though they were sinners. So this is the difference between the three levels of leadership. Noah. Noah was a righteous person, but he failed at his leadership. He was a righteous person only for himself. Avraham was a leader, but he was a leader only for the righteous. And Moses was a leader for the entire Jewish nation. The righteous people and the sinners. For everybody together. Why? Because you can be a leader only for those who you care for. You cannot be a leader for people who you don't care for.
[00:09:28] Noah did not care about anyone. Avraham cared only about the righteous. He wanted to make everybody righteous. But he was ready to argue only for the righteous people.
[00:09:39] Moses was caring for everyone.
