Art by Sefira Lightstone
A WEEKLY TORAH THOUGHT FROM RABBI MORDY
We are headed into election week. I’m sure everyone here is hoping for more ads, texts, calls, pamphlets and door knocks but sadly they are coming to an end. Perhaps we can find something in the parsha to take with us into what will likely be a dramatic week ahead?
So here we go. We enter the throes of Genesis with the Parsha of Noah. The story famously culminating with the flood that is chock full of drama (watch the movie for greatest effect). There are some crazy (scary) stories especially that of the flood and the subsequent rebellion against G-d, the Tower of Babel. But the Parsha itself is Noach. Named for the man who survived the flood and listened to G-d in a generation that was wicked and needed to be, according to G-d’s plan, destroyed. And yet we find in talking about Noach that he was referred to as “a righteous man in his generation,” which, our rabbis tell us, can go either way. Either he was so righteous because even in a terrible surrounding, still he was righteous or, says the more seemingly pessimistic opinion, he was just OK, and in any generation he wouldn’t have stuck out as much. Sheesh. Way to downplay Noach. Can’t we just give him credit for the fact that he was a righteous man? Why the need to take him down?
The answer is telling and teaches us something wonderful and applicable.
Noach may have been an average guy. He may have just been someone who was at the right place at the right time. And yet, the world was saved because of him. He wasn’t anything special, he just stood up in the face of adversity and we can all say that we’re here today because of that. He struggled just as we struggle. He’s not in the mood just like I may not be in the mood. But Noach gets the term righteous nonetheless. There are many candidates for many crucial roles who are up for election this Tuesday. But let us realize that regardless who wins, we can hope and pray that he or she will stand up and do the right thing. I may feel that “my candidate” will always be best, but sometimes G-d places the right person at the right moment to step up and do the right thing. Sometimes we don’t need to be Herculean heroes to make something amazing happen. Sometimes we’re presented with an opportunity and, instead of saying, “no thanks, not today,“ we make the most of it and something tremendous happens. (Sure, sometimes, most of the time, nothing happens, but we need to know what is possible.) as Yogi Berra famously said, “When you come to a fork in the road, take it!” Let’s seize the opportunity – and hope that our current and future elected leaders do the same – regardless of how flawed we may be as individuals, and we can truly make the world a better place. Good Shabbos!