These
are the generations of Noah. Noah was in his generations a man righteous and
wholehearted; Noah walked with God.
Genesis 6:9
Rashi
comments on this, the opening verse of Parashat
Noaḥ: some of our Sages explain the phrase “in his generations” to Noah’s
credit: Noah would have been an even greater ẓaddik (righteous person) had he lived in a righteous generation.
Other Sages explain the phrase to Noah’s discredit: he was a ẓaddik only relative to his own
generation, had Noah lived in the generation of Abraham, he would have been
considered of no importance.
Three questions arise:
1)
Rashi’s source is the Talmud [Sanhedrin
108a], where Rabbi Yoḥanan states: “in his generations, not in other
generations,” while Resh Lakish opinion is that Noah was righteous “in his
generations, all the more so in other generations.” Rabbi Yoḥanan simply states
his assessment of Noah, without any hint of derogation. Why does Rashi understand the comment to be
derogatory?
2)
Consistently, when the verse uses the phrase “You shall come to the judge who
will be in those days,” our Sages comment “Yiftaḥ in his generation is considered
as Samuel in his,” with no implied deprecation.
Why does Rashi not follow this approach?
3)
The Talmudic comments merely state “if he (Noah) were in a different
generation,” without specifying which generation. Why does Rashi choose to
compare Noah to Abraham’s generation?
The final question provides the
answer. Rashi goes beyond Rabbi Yoḥanan’s comment. Rashi suggests not comparing
Noah to “a” (non-specific) generation, but specifically to Abraham’s
generation. Abraham too lived at a time when few, if any, of his contemporaries
were righteous. Yet no one would claim that Abraham was righteous only relative
to his generation. Despite being surrounded
by evil, Abraham was able to achieve the level of absolute righteousness. The
derogation is that Noah was satisfied to be righteous only relatively and did
not strive to be the Abraham of his generation.
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