Parshas Noach
Maybe
By Rabbi Label Lam
Who is wise and will understand these things, (who is) understanding
and will know them? For the ways of HASHEM are straight; the righteous
walk in them and transgressors stumble over them. (Hoshea 14:10)
How many things in life are like this? The same instrument which is a
means of production for one person can be the cause of another man’s
demise. A bottle of wine, a telephone, a car, a bundle of money, a
biological urge, or practically anything can be properly used or abused.
It is not only universally true about things but ideas as well. Even the
Torah can be a stepping stone or a stumbling block depending on how one
either understands or mangles its meaning and message. The more potent a
thing, the more it has a capacity for either constructiveness or
destructiveness. At the core of this issue is a most powerful and yet
private point we call “free will”.
I still have ringing in my ears from more than thirty years ago in public
school when a teacher told us about (excuse me), “the cruel G-d of the Old
Testament” and how the later new “improved” version introduced an era of
love. I sat there like a fool, frustrated and bound by blanket of
ignorance. How, though, would I answer it today? Let us deal with the
premise of that terrible and insulting phrase, “the cruel G-d of the Old
Testament!” Was the great flood an act of a capricious cruelty? Just the
opposite is true!
Our sages tell us, “There were ten generations from Adam to Noach to let
you know the extent of His patience that all the generations acted
infuriatingly until He brought upon them the waters of the flood. (Pirke
Avos 5:2-3)
Commenting on the reason for the extension of those ten generations Rashi
writes, “He was waiting for them, maybe they would -do Teshuva-
return/repent!” Wow! Ten long generations! For 1656 years, day after day,
moment by moment HASHEM feeds and clothes and maintains each detail of a
world and a humanity that not only fails to recognize its purpose here but
one that also seeks to pervert it with their own foolish and selfish
agenda, while consciously thwarting the will of their Maker.
Moshe Cordovero, writes on the verse, “Who is G-d like You” (Micah 7:18-
20), “This attribute refers to the Holy One, Blessed Be He, as a tolerant
King who bears insult in a manner beyond human understanding. Without
doubt, nothing is hidden from His view. In addition, there is not a moment
that man is not nourished and sustained by the Divine power bestowed upon
him. Thus no man ever sins against G-d without G-d, at that moment
bestowing abundant vitality upon him, giving him the power to move his
limbs. Yet even though a person uses this very vitality to transgress, G-d
does not withhold it from him. Rather, the Holy One, Blessed Be He,
suffers this insult and continues to enable his limbs to move. Even at the
very moment that a person uses that power for transgression, sin, and
infuriating deeds, the Holy One, Blessed Be He, bears them patiently.”
(Tomer Devorah)
“And it came to pass after the seven-day period that the waters of the
Flood were upon the earth.” (Breishis 7:10) Our sages tell us, “We learn
from here that the Holy One, Blessed Be He, gave them seven days after the
final decree, maybe they would do teshuvah…” (Tosefta Sota) Not only was
there extraordinary patience for ten long degenerate generations but hope
was extended up until and past the last days.
Understanding the extent to which the realm of free-willed choosing is
exclusively our own, we come to realize that the whole world, like a tiny
ark, may stay afloat because of a single word- “MAYBE!”
Text Copyright © 2004 by Rabbi Label Lam and Torah.org.
