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The Perfect But Imperfect Noah

Rabbi Dr. Eugene Korn is editor of Meorot: A Forum for Modern Orthodox Discourse and the American director of the Center for Jewish-Christian Understanding and Cooperation in Israel. His article on “The Perfect But Imperfect Noah” is very interesting an informative.

“Noah was a righteous man; perfect in his generation.” As many students learn in their first Torah classes, the phrase “in his generation” gave our Rabbis license to fling open the gates of interpretation. Some saw it as additional praise for Noah, while others saw it as a criticism of his righteousness: perfect “in his generation” — but, evidently, not in the generation of Abraham or Moses. What is this rabbinic ambivalence all about?

Noah provided the Rabbis with a central idea in Judaism. The Torah paints a generally negative picture of gentiles (think of Genesis, where Abraham’s neighbors are immoral pagans, or Exodus, where they are Egypt’s cruel slavemasters; in Leviticus, gentiles engage in abominable practices like sacrificing their children to Moloch; in Deuteronomy they appear as idolatrous Canaanite nations), but our classical sages saw Noah as an ethical person who refused to participate in the violence inundating his generation.”

Read complete article at -- http://www.thejewishweek.com/jewish_life/sabbath_week/perfect_imperfect_noah

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