O C T O B E RM 2A4Y, 82 ,0 22 00 2|0 N|O EAMC OH R | P A G E 1 Congregation Beth Sholom TORAH WEEKLY Learning Initiative ז"ל A Project of the Linda Mitgang To sponsor an upcoming edition, please click here Real Leadership ZMANIM Candle-lighting 5:44 pm BY RABBI KENNETH HAIN Mincha 5:50 pm [email protected] Shacharis Hashkama 7:45 am “Religion creates community, community creates altruism and Tent 8:15 am altruism turn us away from self and toward the common good “ Sephardic 8:45 am Lord Rabbi Jonathan Sacks Joel Shiff/Main 9:15 am Mincha 5:45 pm Back in the early 70’s, when I entered the rabbinate, an essay Shiur w/ R. Miller 6:00 pm (which later became a book) entitled “Servant Leadership” Maariv 6:35 pm launched thought provoking discussions in a variety of fields. Shabbos Ends 6:43 pm Politics, education and even business were challenged by the novel approach. The author, Robert K. Greenleaf presented IN THIS ISSUE in a comprehensive and thought-provoking way the centrality 1 Real Leadership of the quality of being a “servant” in the realm of leadership. Rabbi Hain Greenleaf writes “the servant leader is a servant first… then conscious choice brings him to aspire to lead.” This 2 Noach the Righteous provocative approach created a paradigm shift in modern Rabbi Ben Skydell leadership thinking. In my view, the “servant leader” is a very Jewish idea. Rav 4 Halacha Al HaDaf Meir Simcha of Dvinsk, in his “Meshech Chochma” on Parshat Chayim Maza Noach (Bereishit 9:20) quotes a Midrash which identifies this quality of servant leadership as the critical difference 6 Tracing the Obscure History of between Noach and Moshe. a Very Popular "Misconception" Rabbi Miller “Rav Berachia said: Moshe was more beloved than Noach. Noach went from being a “tzaddik” to being a “man of the 7 The Paradox of Humanity earth”. While Moshe is first called an “ish Mitzri” – an Egyptian Rabbi Fogel man, ultimately he becomes an “ish Elokim” – “A man of G-d.” 9 Migdal Bavel in Art What happened? Why does the tzaddik Noach descend, Rabbi Miller S E P TOMECMAOTJASUYBOUACOEU GEM1TUBLJPAJJMCJGURAU5OYUEAUGTTU ASU,MN RLMBEY1UNOG 31TSYGY M2AE SAEU,B8 T2 1 U0 R, U1YT1B ,Y2E ,1S52 2 S,2 5G2E5R T19,021 2016T19, 0R2,U ,2072 , , 12 0 | 20S8,2 ,05420 2 0T ,02,B2,0| 02 2 0|202E | 200C 02|20H 0N | MH20 S0 |2| 2A| VI|0 U| BU0A 0 TR|A| B DPSK AK ET Z |EK- '|A|HIEBKBSMAOE MI N M VEHOT EITKVRNIOOTCISALRICDO-T-IEAKOREDSHARBEM H B'FECITU AEB ICAUAT| V|AHSMDECHAVSL IZNKRS H V HIM A R |EE|NOP |ATPI|O K|YI ITA I ON |TAP |P P EOP |G |APG. A|IAPA NP| A EILGE GP4GAPG| AP EG EPAE3|AGE 3EAGCE A G GE 2PGEH2 P22GE E2A EA 2 2E |G 2G2 2 E2PE A32G E 2 while the “foreigner” (Ish Mitzri) Moshe rise to the heights of TO PAY FUTURE SHUL leadership? CONTRIBUTIONS NOW, PLEASE CLICK HERE The Meshech Chochma explains: “There are two ways to serve TO CONTRIBUTE TO THE Hashem. Noach isolates himself and retreats to a life of RABBI'S CHARITY FUND,PLEASE CLICK HERE worshiping Hashem, while Moshe occupies himself with the needs of others. Moshe “our teacher” is the ultimate “servant leader” and thereby becomes the “man of G-d”. While that may be a high bar to reach, it should at least challenge us to see ourselves as servants for the greater good. Leadership is not always displayed in public ways. More often quiet acts of “chesed” – reaching out to someone who is alone, calling a person who is Congregation Beth Sholom & not well, helping someone who is struggling financially – Young Israel of Woodmere beautifully demonstrate the qualities of “servant leadership.” Invite you to join in The Linda Mitgang z''l Learning Initiative While we continue to endure this ongoing pandemic, let us be Yahrzeit Commemoration leaders. Let us seek opportunities of sharing, of caring and of serving... While we might not be a Moshe, we can be a leader Motzei Shabbat, Oct 31, 2020 at 8:45 pm who serves others. with Special Guest Rabbi Yehuda Sarna Chief Rabbi of United Arab Noach the Righteous :נֹ ַח ִאי ׁש ַצ ִ ּדיק Emirates, Chaplain NYU Having recently returned from Dubai, Rabbi Sarna will share insights and implications of BY RABBI BEN SKYDELL historic recent events, particularly the Peace [email protected] Agreement with Israel Sponsored by Dr.Charles Mitgang and Family. The nature of Noach’s piety has been the subject of debate for as long as people have been reading the Chumash. In a world Zoom info to follow. filled with corruption, Noach is singled out in the text as being wholly different from those surrounding him. As the conclusion of last week’s Parsha stated, “The LORD saw how great was man’s wickedness on earth, and how every plan devised by his mind was nothing but evil all the time. And the LORD regretted that He had made man on earth, and His heart was saddened. The LORD said, ‘I will blot out from the earth the men whom I created—men together with beasts, creeping things, and birds of the sky; for I regret that I made them.’ But Noach found favor with the LORD.” Click to Contribute One interpretative view sees Noach as a prophet who desperately preached that the members of his generation should repent of their evil ways; however, despite his best efforts, those entreaties were to no avail. The Talmud C L I C K T O (Masechet Sanhedrin 108a) quotes Rabbi Yosei from Caesarea as teaching, T H E N E X T T O R A H W E E K L Y ! “What is the meaning of that which is written: ‘He is swift upon the face of the waters; their portion is cursed in the earth; he turns not by way of the vineyards’ (Job 24:18)? This teaches that Noach the righteous would rebuke the people of his generation and say S E P TOMECAMJOTUJJASYUBUAOCOEN UGE1MLUTJABJPJCJEGUARU5YUOGUTEAT US , NJ L1MERBUNOYG1 31UTSGY2ME 2 SA,UE8B TN2, 1U0 R1,TB ,Y2 E1 S2,5 2E S2 , E5 2RT19021 ,20 6T089R,20 ,5 2072 ,0 2, 1, 202 |,0 82, ,2 054 22 0 ,0022 B,,|0 0 |2 0 20| E2|2 2| 0C202 |H0 B00 N | 0HM20 S | EA2 |V |0I| UA BH 0|R|TA DP SK TAK |AE -ZK '|HNIEBSAOKE MAIN VEHAET OKRTNVRLIOCTIALRCSO--DIETOKIAOEHABRMOE HM'F BECTIA CEI UTAV|A EHSM|HCDLSVIZNKS CHRV HMA I |AEP|O|HAP |OTIK I|Y AT TA|PNI| P P PEO G| A|GP A|APIA|P EN IGAEL GPGPAG | A P EGPA6EAE G2|EGAC AE G G E3PGE3H3P 3GE EA3 EA3 E3 |G 33G 3 9E3PE A23G E 3 to them: Repent. And if you do not, the Holy One, where there is perfume.” Blessed be He, will bring a flood upon you and float your corpses on the water like wineskins In his commentary to the Chumash, Rashi adds filled with air that float on water, as it is stated: that the life of Avraham is the standard by ‘He is swift upon the face of the waters…’” which Noach should be judged. “Some of our Rabbis explain it (this word) to his credit: he Similar iterations of this view can be found in was righteous even in his generation; it follows Josephus, the early Church Fathers, and the that had he lived in a generation of righteous books of the Apocrypha. In the Gnostic Concept people he would have been even more of Our Great Power, we read “And he [Noach] righteous owing to the force of good example. preached piety for one hundred and twenty Others, however, explain it to his discredit: in years. And no one listened to him”; the Book of comparison with his own generation he was Jubilees states that “On account of his accounted righteous, but had he lived in the righteousness, in which he [Noach] was generation of Abraham he would have been perfected, his life on earth was more excellent accounted as of no importance.” Although Rashi than any of the sons of men except Chanoch.” entertains both possibilities, ultimately most (Both these citations are from James Kugel, The readers are left with the impression that Noach Bible as it Was.) These traditions regard Noach does not compare to Avraham, and that had as being at the pinnacle of both holiness and they both lived at the same time, Noach would devotion, and see him as a man who was deeply havebeen considered insignificant. This is concerned with the salvation of others. because, in his next comment on the Chumash, Rashi writes “In the case of Avraham, Scripture This is, however, not the only view of Noach’s says (Bereshit 24:40) ‘[God] before whom I character. In a celebrated passage on the page walked’; Noach needed God’s support to uphold of Masechet Sanhedrin mentioned above, the him in righteousness; Avraham drew his moral Talmud cites a dispute between Rav Yochanan strength from himself and walked in his and Reish Lakish concerning how to understand righteousness by his own effort.” the Torah’s statement that “Noach was a righteous man; he was blameless in his age; In two of his addresses to his Chasidim, the Noach walked with God.” The text states: Sefat Emet utilizes the latter comment of Rashi in a way that both heightens the difference “Rabbi Yochanan says: Relative to the other people between these two men but at the same time of his generation he was righteous and allows the reader to see Noach in a deeply wholehearted, but not relative to those of other favorable light.