Sunday, October 18, 2015

Great moments in not checking your source

One of the first Rashis in Noah says "Our Rabbis" thought Noah would have been regarded as perfectly righteous in any generation "while others" say he would have been a nobody in any generation aside for his own.

Yesterday the Rabbi invited us to note Rashis subtly in pointing out the latter view, the one that seems to disparage Noah*, is attributed to ordinary people while it was the Rabbis who embraced the more positive take. He went on to sermonize about how seeing the good in people is a top ten trait.

Only OOPS the view he considers disparaging to Noah is attributed by the Midrash to R. Yehuda and only a quirk in Rashi's style made it seem like one view belonged to rabbis and the other didn't. Also OOPS both views disparage Noah! The second says he wasn't anything special but the first says he could have been special but failed to reach his potential.

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