Noah and a Pair of Lions: Its Not What You Think (Noach 5775)

(c) Paul Goldstein as featured in Daily Mail

This summer we took our niece and nephew to the zoo. She was fascinated by a lioness carrying a cub in her mouth. Which brought to mind a folktale about mothers carrying their young.

Once there was a lioness teaching her very young cub how to walk. As the cub builds some muscles, the lion watches over the cub, walks alongside the cub, keeps the cub from falling into gullies or stepping on snakes. "I will teach you how to walk in the world. Stay by me," she said. Wherever they went, the lioness and the cub walked together - side by side.

As the cub grew into the next season it comes time for the pride to cross from one plain to another across a wide river. But the river was too deep and too wide for the young cub to walk or swim across. The lioness loved her cub so much and would do anything to protect him. So she put the cub in her mouth and set out across the sea. At first the walking in the shallow water was easy. But the water got deeper and the lioness had to swim against a strong current it became more difficult.

The mother lion grew weary and breathless. Turning to her cub she asked, “Tell the truth little one; when I get old, shrink in size, and lack the strength to swim this great distance, will you take me in your mouth and swim me across?"

Her cub answered, “Mama, I will try. But I may not be able to carry you as I might be busy carrying my own children across the sea just as you are doing for me now." Hearing that the mother lion laughed delighting in knowing that she had truly taught her cub how to walk in the world with steps that went far beyond hers. (adapted from “An Offspring’s Answer” in Peninnah Schram's Jewish Stories One Generation Tells Another, p.154-55)

Which brings us to this week’s Torah portion and the story of Noah, which is followed next week the story of Abraham. About these two distinct characters Torah uses some similar language to describe them: the language of walking seemingly as a metaphor for living. Of Noah, we are told he walks with God. (Genesis 6:9.) Of Abraham we are told he walks before (ahead/in front of) God. (Genesis 17:1)

Thinking back to the young lion cub, one way to interpret this difference -- walking with compared to walking ahead of -- is to consider that Noah lived among the earliest generations of humanity. By rabbinic counting Noah lived 10 generations before Abraham. In those earliest years humanity needed the closeness of God the way a young cub needs the closeness of its mother. Then as humanity advanced it could go out ahead.

To paraphrase Abraham Isaac Kook (the first Chief Rabbi of (pre-state) Israel) Noah stayed close to the bare minimum but Abraham went beyond that. Rav Kook taught that Abraham went beyond the bare minimum and "sought to awaken the entire world to integrity and holiness.” 

Another illustration of the difference between waling with and walking ahead of is that Noah stands with God and accepts, without question or comment, the divine judgment leading to the Flood. Ten generations later, however, Abraham stands before God and protests the plan to destroy Sodom. Abraham implores God to act with justice. It seems Torah is imploring us through the example of Abraham to take our learning and run with it. Make it our own and develop our own advances.

That is what we ask of students at JCHS -- stay close in the early years while they are learning, then take steps ahead. Take the learning and make it one's own. Advance beyond; race out ahead. Use the safe, experimental environment of the school to try things that stretch one's imagination and inspire one's teachers. That is good wisdom for all of us as we learn and grow.