November 5, 2017

Much of Parshat Noach is taken up with genealogies. The first line of the parsha, “These are the begettings of Noah,” is the classic introduction for a genealogy throughout the book of Bereishit (see Ber. 10:1, 11:10, 11:27 for some examples).

Here though, instead of being followed by an enumeration of Noah’s children or an account of his own birth, as we might expect, the verse stops to tell us about Noah’s moral and spiritual qualities—that he was a righteous man, that he walked with God—before going on to tell us about his children. “Noah was a righteous whole-hearted man in his generation; in accord with God did Noah walk. Noah begot three sons: Shem, Ham, and Yefet.” This structure is a bit surprising; why this detour before moving on with the genealogy?

Rashi suggests two possible explanations. First, he suggests the mention of Noah’s righteousness is purely parenthetical. Since Noah was such a righteous man, the verse can’t mention Noah without telling us that, following the principle of Zekher Tzadik Livrakha, ‘the mention of a righteous person should be a blessing.’ This explanation is a little problematic, since this is far from the only mention of Noah and is not even the first mention of him, but it is only here that the Torah talks about his righteousness. This perhaps motivates Rashi’s second explanation—that the verse is telling us the essential, or primary legacy – the “begetting” of a righteous person is not their biological offspring, but instead, their actions.

Our tradition is rightly a very pro-natal one. Having and raising Jewish children is an important part of how we perpetuate the life of our people, but Rashi is telling us that how we behave, how we act, can be just as important. Not everyone is blessed to raise children of their own, but all of us, whether we have children or not, can have an impact on future generations through our actions. Whether we directly impact future generations as caretakers, teachers, and role models, or our actions enhance the physical, moral, and spiritual wellbeing of the community as a whole, we can each merit having a “toldot” to create a legacy of our own that will live on after we are gone.

Shabbat Shalom,

Rabbi Garth Silberstein