Sometimes the old saying is true. It can be lonely at the top. Hard and unpopular decisions must get made which may mean losing a popularity contest every now and again. Sometimes a leader must be proactive or take up a cause. Sometimes a leader must sit his/her hands and wait for the right opportunity to act or have enough patience and not react. Sometimes a leader needs to have confidence to let things work themselves out with minimal invasiveness and without causing tumult, anguish or divisiveness. Perhaps the great leaders are the ones who know when to sit on his/her hands and knowing when to be aggressively proactive. Noach is an excellent case in point. Certainly he was proactive. He prepared for the Mabul, the Flood. However he didn’t enter into the Ark when the first drops arrived. He waited until the last possible second when there was no hope of saving anymore of God’s creation.
This week we read Parshat Noach. Noach’s should be familiar to all of us. God sends a flood as a means of dealing with the growing disappointment in mankind abysmal behavior. However one man, Noach, is deemed Ish Tzadik B’dorotav – a righteous man in his generation and God makes a covenant with him and his family. As a result, Noach, his family, and the male and female of every species will be saved in order to re-create after the flood. God instructs Noach to build a Tevah, an Ark. So Noach becomes proactive and begins building. According to the Midrash Tanchuma, it took Noach 120 years to build the Ark. Also, the Ark was built atop a mountain in order to give Noach the greatest amount of time to complete the project. This meant hauling all the materials up a mountain. Imagine spending roughly 1/8th of your life preparing for the future. Imagine spending roughly 1/8th of your life engaged in a single endeavor. Imagine putting off gratification for 1/8th of your life and then knowing your sense of accomplishment is predicated on the destruction of so much. Imagine spending 1/8th of your life hauling Gopher wood up a mountain. Every day Noach spent his time engaged in one activity, building the first aircraft carrier. Eventually the project would become the purpose of living. During this time, Noach’s life was not so easy. In fact, from a practical perspective, Noach’s life seems quite depressing.
According to Midrash Tanchuma, Noach faced ridicule from others and he was threatened with death. Yet despite it all, he continued building even though the gratification from the project would not occur for many years. For us, Judaism is much like the Noach building the Ark. For many, observance of Mitzvot is an uphill struggle. While it is human nature to demand results and savor the fruits of one’s labor sooner rather than later, putting off this sense of accomplishment is not exactly immediate. One must have a strong sense of self, a strong sense of purpose, and a sense of mission to know when to be aggressively proactive and know when to let all that pieces that one worked so hard to prepare to fall into place. For all of us, Judaism works the same way. The observance, prayer and Torah study provides purpose in our life. It allows us to create a balance between charging ahead like a bull in a china shop and waiting patiently and confidently for the right moment.
On this Shabbat Rosh Chodesh, may we learn from Noach’s patience and perspective. May we have the courage and wisdom to derive joy from the time we invest in learning Torah and observing Mitzvot. May we have faith to face down the ridicule, both the external and the internal variety of ridicule, as we make Judaism part of our life, just as the Ark became part of Noach’s life.
Peace,
Rav Yitz
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