The following was my sermon of October 12th, 2007 given at Friday Night services.
My High Holiday sermons will begin appearing next week. As always, your comments and thoughts are welcomed.
Your comments are always welcome.
"Ordinary Greatness" A classic rabbinic debate is found in the Torah portion “Noach.” The Torah opens with the following: “These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, perfect in his generation; Noah walked with G-d.” (Genesis 6:9) The debate revolves around Noah and the phrase “perfect in his generation.” That could be understood in two ways. “Perfect in his generation” could mean Noah was able to be a perfectly righteous man in his generation, in other words, in an awful society. G-d was going to destroy this world because it was filled with violence and cruelty. It was an evil place and for anyone to be able to remain righteous and walk in G-d’s ways is deserving of additional praise. Noah was righteous and able to remain perfect even in his generation. That’s one way to read it but here is another interpretation. “Noah was perfect in his generation” could mean he was perfect only in comparison to his generation. His was an evil society and in his generation, Noah was the best of a bad lot. In a better society, Noah would be no saint. Which one is the correct reading? Truth be told, this debate has been part of our tradition and unresolved because one can easily make a strong case for either view. One could argue that this phrase is there to praise him because the Torah praises Noah. The Torah says, “Noah was a righteous man”; it says, “He walked with G-d” and G-d does save him and his family. How can one argue with that? Here is how: Noah, unlike a true righteous man like Moses or Abraham, never once argues for mercy on behalf of those about to be destroyed. When Noah was told by G-d to build an ark to save himself, he never once says, “What? G-d, you cannot do that! Let me first try to convince my neighbors and my friends to change and repent. Surely, there must be some good people out there!” Instead, he says, “How big do you want the boat?” Indeed, the Torah never shows us one single act of righteousness on the part of Noah. In fact, after leaving the ark, Noah gets naked and drunk out of his mind! Unless that is the new definition of righteousness, Noah was no saint! So one could go either way…or we could read it in a completely different fashion. This year, I looked at the text and noticed that there may be a word we are not reading correctly. The Torah says, “These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, tamim hayah b’dorotav, perfect in his generation. Noah walked with G-d.” Tam is usually translated as “perfect” or “blameless” but that may not be the right translation here. What does it mean to be a Tam? We have seen this word before; it is in the Passover Haggadah. On Passover, we speak of four sons at the table: the wise child, the wicked son, the simple son and the one who does not even know how to ask a question. What is the Hebrew word for the simple son? “Tam”! Tam does not mean righteous, perfect or blameless, but simple or ordinary, in other words, nothing spectacular. A person who is called a “Tam” is not being insulted nor is he being called perfect. A tam is an “ordinary Joe”. And that may be the way to understand this sentence in Genesis: “Noah was a righteous man, an ordinary person in his generation.” That is how I would read it, neither condemning him or praising him, but describing his life. Noah was righteous simply because he was ordinary. And when the Torah talks about Noah, I think it may very well be giving us a practical way of thinking about righteousness. Noah was noticed by G-d by being an ordinary person in his generation who did what was required of him, answered the “call” when necessary and lived by basic guiding principles. Nothing more. He had done nothing spectacular to merit the attention of G-d, but G-d selected him for a reason, and maybe it was just ordinary greatness. More and more, I am realizing that to impact the world doesn’t mean doing spectacular things, but just being ordinary and practicing simple goodness. To follow up on the sermon I gave on Rosh Hashana, one of the possible reasons for my ulcerative colitis condition and its frequent “flare-ups” may have to do with what my doctor describes as “the mind-gut connection”. Tension, anxiety, worry and pressure can be the triggers for causing the ulcers to develop in the colon. And that makes sense because my condition has a tendency to worsen right around the High Holidays, before major speeches or events like a bat mitzvah or a eulogy. Times of great anxiety can worsen my condition. It is funny. As much as I speak publicly, I get very tense and uneasy before speeches. It can be in front of a small and friendly group, a large gathering of dignitaries, a Bat Mitzvah or a Sunday school group, I worry and agonize before and during each and every speech. And my doctor warns me that if I want to keep my condition in remission for any length of time, it would be helpful to do more than just take medicine but remove tension as much as possible. As a result, I’ve done a lot of soul searching this summer trying to figure out how to keep what I’ve got under control. I think this week’s Torah portion and this interpretation can very therapeutic for me. You see, I think the reason I get so nervous before speaking, beyond the normal “speaker’s jitters” is because I feel this incredible pressure that I must do well each time I speak. If it is at a Friday night service, I worry that there may be a newcomer and this is my one shot to bring him or her to our community. If it is a great sermon, he or she will become a part of us and I don’t want to lose that opportunity. If it is a speech before the community, it is essential I do well to represent our Jewish faith. If it is a Bat Mitzvah, I must showcase how great of a place this is, and if it is a eulogy, it is my only chance to bring real comfort to a family. That may sound good and noble but it is based on flawed thinking, thinking that changing the world requires extraordinary efforts. The Torah may be teaching that Noah was a righteous man by being ordinary in his generation, just simply walking with G-d. You know, as much as rabbis want to think we can impact the lives of our congregants and community by what we preach and what we teach, the truth of the matter is we do probably can more with ordinary acts, simple gestures and kindness. I think Rabbi Israel Koller was right on the money when he told me once, “ Sermons are nice and teaching is great. But you will be long remembered not so much for a eulogy you’ve delivered but whether you were there for the family when they need you in their time of need, not for any single sermon you’ve given, but whether you came up to someone and wished them a ‘gutn shabbes’ (good Sabbath) and made them feel important, not by what you said at a community gathering but whether you were there and made the effort to be there.” He is so right! Ordinary acts tranform lives. And perhaps the greatest way to become righteous in the eyes of G-d is just by being a “Tam”, a person of ordinary greatness. In August, the Imam from the Islamic Center, Jamal Daoudi, came for the first time to synagogue to join us at a service. He didn’t come for a dialogue or to deliver a speech but just to be our guest at Zahava’s Bat Mitzvah. A simple act and yet, it made a huge impact on our community. Last Saturday night, Marilyn, the kids and I were invited and joined our Moslem brethren at their break the fast for Ramadan. In addition, I attended Friday services this week. I too didn’t come to dialogue or deliver a speech. I, like the Imam,was there in friendship. The reaction was unbelievably positive and warm; I have received e-mails, letters and words of kindness ever since. Rabbi Koller was right; those simple ordinary acts of just willing to be there did more good for our two communities and impacted more people than any speech given or dialogue ever attended by the two of us. Noah was a righteous man, ordinary in his generation. That phrase is meant neither to praise nor insult the man but to give us, the readers of the Torah, advice on how to live. We have a tendency to look at the world and feel that in order to make a difference, we need to be extraordinary. And yet we can all be counted among those who, like Noah, “walked with G-d” just by doing simple ordinary acts. Righteousness may be all about simply being there for others, doing what is expected of us by G-d and extending our hands in friendship and kindness. Perhaps those are the things G-d found in Noah and why he was chosen to start the world anew. May we find favor in the eyes of G-d and humanity for the same reasons. AMEN
Rabbi Victor Urecki
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