by Rabbi Michael Berg
The first time I read this, I was moved by it. I have, Baruch Hashem, never had a problem with empathizing with others. Sometimes too much.
We can never really know what someone else is truly thinking but we can try to feel what they feel - even if it is different from our own feelings on a given situation. In fact, we must if we are committed to strive toward Godliness.
I am reposting it despite the fact that we aren't up to this Parsha yet.
And adding the American Indian adage of
"Don't judge another until you have walked a mile in his mocassins."
- Barbara
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In this portion, we read about the destruction brought about by the great flood. The Torah tells us that the flood was caused by the tremendous negative actions of that generation. The only person worthy in that generation, who merited being saved by the Creator, was Noach.
In the book of the prophet Yeshayah, the flood is called “the waters of Noach.” Our sages tell us that the reason the flood was named after Noach was because he should have prayed for the people of his generation, but did not. This would seem to indicate that Noach lacked a sense of caring for others, but this is certainly not true. The Midrash teaches that during the 12 months of the flood, Noach did not sleep at all because he was busy feeding and taking care of the animals that were with him in the ark. Clearly Noach was a man who cared for others. Noach is also called a “righteous person” in the Torah; this means that he was certainly a caring and sharing person. Why then did he not pray for his generation to be spared the destruction and death of the great flood?
To explain this, Rabbi Chaim Shmulevitz references another story in the Torah. When Hashem decided to destroy S’dom and Amorah, Avraham pleaded with him. “Avraham came before Hashem and said ‘maybe there are 50 righteous people in the city, will you still destroy and not save the place for the 50 righteous people that are there?’” Hashem answers “If I will find 50 righteous people in S’dom I will save the entire city for them.” But alas, there were not 50 righteous people to be found. Avraham then continues pleading with Hashem, “…maybe there are 45 righteous people…” but even 45 righteous people cannot be found. Avraham continues until he says “…maybe there are 10 righteous people…” when even 10 righteous people cannot be found Avraham is silent. Why did Avraham not continue? Maybe there were 9 righteous people in S’dom and maybe Hashem would save the entire city for these 9. Why then did Avraham stop at 10?
The Midrash explains that Avraham learned from the time of the flood that there has to be a minimum of 10 righteous people to save others. For at the time of the great flood, there were 8 people who were to be saved and nevertheless the rest of the world was destroyed. From there, Avraham learned that there is no purpose in praying and begging for less then 10, because his request would definitely not be accepted.
Now we can understand why Noach did not pray for his generation to be saved: He knew that there were too few righteous people to be saved. He did not pray because he knew that his prayers would be wasted.
We now understand why Noach did not pray to save the world from the flood. What is difficult to understand though is what we quoted above from our sages: that the flood was called “the waters of Noach” because he should have begged and prayed to the Creator to save the world and did not. Noach did not pray because he knew that it would be futile, why should he be punished for this?
Rabbi Chaim Shmulevitz answers this question based on a very important lesson. One of the important aspects of a spiritual person is feeling the pain of another person. We should develop ourselves spiritually so that when we see another person in pain we should feel his pain. Of course when we can help, we should, but even when we cannot help relieve the other person’s pain, we should feel his pain as ours.
When a person experiences great pain in his life, his natural reaction is to cry. The greater the pain, the more the person cries out. For instance, even when a person is at the dentist and he is undergoing a painful procedure, he will often cry out. He does not think that this will diminish the pain at all, nor does he think that his crying out will help him in any way. It is just a natural response to a feeling of pain. A person should develop himself spiritually so that he feels the other person’s pain as his own and reacts to it in the same way. This is an important spiritual level which we should strive to attain.
This explains why Noach was punished for not crying out to the Creator to save the world from the flood. Although intellectually he knew that his prayers and crying would not make a difference, nevertheless, if he truly felt the pain of others, the pain of the world, he should have cried out. In essence the Creator is saying to him, “Although you knew that your crying and prayers would not help, nevertheless, if you truly felt the pain of others you should have cried out. Not because it might help, but rather because that would be your natural reaction to the feeling of pain.” Because Noach did not cry out in feeling the pain of the world the flood was named after him.
This is a very important lesson for us. Not simply to try to assist and relieve the other person’s pain when we can, but to develop ourselves so that no matter what, we feel the other person’s pain as ours. This is a very difficult level to achieve, but it is one that we need to achieve in our spiritual development.
