It’s All In The Timing
Upon hearing of a dangerous or challenging situation that invites us to stand up with courage and resolve, we often ask ourselves if we have what it takes to respond to that moment. We’d like to think that we’d be heroic and exemplary, throwing caution to the wind and willing to sacrifice for a higher purpose. But until tested, we are never quite sure.
This week’s portion bearing Noach’s name describes him as a “righteous man, blameless in his generation.” On one level, some rabbis damn Noah with faint praise. To be considered righteous against the low bar of a decadent, selfish, and violent generation is hardly laudatory. However, other sources highlight how hard it is to be good when all around you are selfish, thoughtless, or even evil. Perhaps this inspired the verse in Pirke Avot: In a place where no one is acting like a human being, strive to be a human being.
Noah’s example is particularly relevant in our current moment. With the coarsening of behavioral standards, the strains on our sense of shared civic purpose, and the increasing acceptance of toxic attitudes, it requires significant generational initiative, determination, and courage to speak out and act against the prevailing norms.
As God placed the rainbow in the clouds as a sign that never again would the earth be destroyed–thus investing total responsibility and agency in humanity to save itself–we, too, are inspired in this moment to rise to dispel the darkness with the wondrous light of human possibility and potential.