After The Flood

Long ago, in the early days of creation, a lone enigmatic figure lived. Noach surpassed those around him through his piety, and his allegiance to the traditions handed down from Adam to those early generations. Society had gradually gone astray and civilization rejected civility, infusing the world with deceit, treachery, immorality, and a warped approach to life and to worship. As civilization descended into chaos and corruption, Noach remained loyal to truth and goodness. He did what he could to save others. We know the whole story.

Surviving the flood, outliving the entire rest of humanity, and cultivating the physical and the mortal world afresh, Noach lived his life as the sole role model for all other living creatures, as well as for human beings. He was a pious mentor. How is it, then, that he later met with abject downfall and became defiled in a very troubling episode?

I found a penetrating perspective in the writings of the Ralbag, Rabbeinu Levi Ben Gershom, a great Rishon of the 13th century. The Ralbag links the loss of Noach’s entire generation to the subsequent tragic event later in his life. He writes that while a person can devote himself to saving others and being a mentor and role model for them, if that same person has no role model for himself, no one to turn to for mentoring or peer support, he will lack the self-awareness and insight necessary to improve and grow, leaving him unequipped to care for himself. Such a person, busy caring for others, may be unable to save himself from a downfall when he lacks someone to counsel, caution, discipline, and structure his inner life. Thus, writes the Ralbag, since everyone in Noach’s era had been wiped out, there were no elders or wholesome role models left to guide him, which we all need. Without a mentor, we have less insight into our deeper selves. We are more vulnerable and susceptible to the wiles and enticements that trigger our inner struggles. This, writes the Ralbag, is our “take-away” lesson from the Biblical saga of Noach and the aftermath of the flood. We can devote ourselves to saving others, yet without a role model for our own lives, we will not be able to save ourselves.

Many fortunate people have had early role models to mentor them. It might have been a parent. It might have been a teacher or a rebbe or a rosh yeshiva or seminary head. Our role model might have been a beloved older relative, or a congregation’s rabbi or rebbetzin. As we age, as earlier generations pass on, many of us are bereft of those role models. Their values and teachings may still live on in our minds, yet as we mature and our life challenges and stresses change, we may lack both the answers we need, and insight into our own inner conflicts and struggles. Some of us as adults turn to our peers for “peer support,” which is one form of role modeling. A peer group can become our auxiliary conscience, motivating us to stay on the straight path and not veer into temptation and folly. In that sense, a circle of caring friends may serve as a role model to give us encouragement and at times to confront us about our hypocrisies.

But a mentor figure remains important. To whom do you turn, as adults, when undergoing a religious or spiritual crisis? Who do you allow to examine your character and explore where you are headed in life? And while we’re on the subject of role models: who can you serve as a role model to? There are people out there, whether your children, your students, your clients, your neighbors, even a passerby on the street, in a store, or in traffic, who observes you and forms an impression of you and Jews in general. Each of us, through our conduct and speech, serves as a role model at one time or another. Especially when we’re out in public. I’m sure that all of you serve as role models in your community. And whether you know it or not, you probably are. n

Rabbi Dr. Dovid Fox is a forensic and clinical psychologist, and director of Chai Lifeline Crisis Services. To contact Chai Lifeline’s 24-hour crisis helpline, call 855-3-CRISIS or email [email protected]. Learn more at ChaiLifeline.org/crisis.