“Theory of Relativity,” Rabbi Elaine Zecher’s Shabbat Awakenings
October 24, 2025 | 2 Cheshvan 5786
Welcome to Shabbat Awakenings, a weekly reflection, as we make our way toward Shabbat. You can also listen to it as a podcast.
The world is corrupt. Why?
That is what this week’s Torah portion attempts to answer with a story. We remember the flood and sing about it at summer camp and religious school, but the reason is more insidious.
The portion opens with three characteristics of Noah, some person who appeared on the scene in the last sentence of last week’s portion.
“GOD saw how great was human wickedness on earth — how every plan devised by the human mind was nothing but evil all the time. And GOD regretted having made humankind on earth. With a sorrowful heart, GOD said, “I will blot out from the earth humankind whom I created — humans together with animals, creeping things, and birds of the sky; for I regret that I made them.”
But Noah found favor with GOD. (Genesis 5:6-8)”
His qualifying traits that begin this week’s portion provide the reason for his favor:
Noah was a righteous man; נֹ֗חַ אִ֥ישׁ צַדִּ֛יק
he was blameless in his age; תָּמִ֥ים הָיָ֖ה בְּדֹֽרֹתָ֑יו
Noah walked with God. (6:9) אֶת־הָֽאֱלֹהִ֖ים הִֽתְהַלֶּךְ־נֹֽחַ
If God regretted making humankind, how could Noah counter such wickedness? The rabbis of the midrash (B’reishit Rabbah, 30:9) were struck with the prepositional phrase of the second characteristic. Noah may have been blameless but why have the addition “in his age?” Could it have been when everyone around him was so awful, he looked good? Or was it that in a world where people acted so despicably, he had the will and grace to rise above them and show his righteousness and connection to a higher power than himself?
There are many who would argue that in relation to the others, he merely looked much better. He didn’t argue with God to save more lives but followed God’s command. Perhaps, the third description that he “walked with God” emphasized that point more directly.
I want to give Noah more credit. In a world filled with so much evil, he acted. Those three characteristics acknowledge some inner strength. And though we know the end of the story beyond the 40 days of rain, the eventual discovery of land, and the negative effect of the experience, the beginning of the story informs us.
This is why:
We learn just two verses (6:11) later just how awful the people were.
וַתִּשָּׁחֵ֥ת הָאָ֖רֶץ לִפְנֵ֣י הָֽאֱלֹהִ֑ים The earth became corrupt before God
the earth was filled with lawlessness. וַתִּמָּלֵ֥א הָאָ֖רֶץ חָמָֽס׃
Our attention may turn to corruption and lawlessness, but the verb forms instruct us with more information. They are in the passive voice and give the impression that the effect of devising evil plans just happened as if people weren’t actually paying attention and it crept up them. In a world where most people aren’t asserting righteousness, integrity, and sacred obligation to see the divine in each other, the society deteriorated. They no longer have a voice. God’s regret led to only one destructive option unless you were a fish. Noah could rise above it.
Albert Einstein may have named his theory of relativity in connection to gravity, time, and space, the Torah has offered us an alternative view in connection to human behavior and the proclivity to act with good and bad intent. We are not passive participants but rather, we have the resource within us of righteousness, integrity, and the ability to regard one other with sacred obligation in contrast to others in our age, in our time, in this generation.
The choice is ours. Let’s use it wisely.
Shabbat Shalom! שבת שלום
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Rabbi Elaine Zecher