BIODIVERSITY

Noah Was a Righteous Man

by Rabbi Lawrence Troster
16 Oct 2004 / 1 Heshvan 5765

This week's Torah reading is the story of Noah and the Flood. One question that arises is why Noah was chosen to build the ark and survive the Flood. The Torah calls Noah a “righteous man; he was blameless in his generation.” (Genesis 6:9). The Rabbis raised the question as to why it was necessary for the Torah to mention that he was righteous and blameless “in his generation.”

How easy it is to feel more virtuous than other people when we recycle, drive a hybrid car, buy organic food or live in an environmentally correct way. We can say to ourselves: I am doing my part and that is enough. We know the flood is coming and we try to build an ark of personal environmental virtue. But we know that if the environmental crisis continues, there will be in fact no ark for us, for our children and for many of the other species on earth. We must act as an example to energize others to rethink the way they live. We must not be complacent. We must work harder to save all of us. We should not let it be said that we were only righteous in our generation, but also that we raised our voices for everyone.

Rashi mentions both interpretations in his commentary: “Some of our Rabbis interpret it to Noah’s credit. How much more righteous would Noah have been, had he lived in a righteous generation! Others interpret it to his detriment. He was righteous compared with his generation; but had he lived in Abraham’s generation he would have been considered as naught. “There are midrashim which reflect both interpretations. In the first interpretation, Noah spends 120 years building the ark so that people in his generation would come and ask him what he was doing and when he explained they might then repent. The second interpretation is found in the Zohar, which points out, that when Abraham heard that God was going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, he argued with God while Noah never said a word to try and stop the Flood. He only tended to his own survival and that of his family. There is a very profound lesson here for environmental activists.

The ark is often seen as a symbol in religious environmentalism for the saving of the biodiversity of the earth’s ecosystem. If you want to explore this further, visit COEJL’s special section on biodiversity. If you want to learn more about biodiversity science check out the Center for Applied Biodiversity Science. See also Conservation International's Biodiversity Hotspots website. Conservation International is an organization which applies innovations in science, economics, policy and community participation to protect plant and animal diversity in major tropical wilderness areas and marine ecosystems. This organization works in more than 30 countries on four continents.