What does it mean to be righteous?

What does it mean to be righteous?

What does it mean to be righteous in our generation?

In this coming week’s torah portion, Parashat Noach, the text opens with the idea that Noah was righteous and perfect in his generation.

I was thinking about this description of Noah and wondering why he was singled out.  Maybe Noah was singled out because he was doing what god asked him to do? Or maybe he was singled out as an example?

Rashi, the 11th century commentator from Provence, offers up the idea as to why or what it means that Noah was righteous and perfect in his generation:

• On one hand being, for Rashi, righteous could be a good thing; a model for others to follow,
• Or, on the other hand, Rashi says this could be to his discredit as he is standing out as a leader, yet no one seeks to follow his example.

I ask again, what does it mean to be righteous in our generation?

Another example, something maybe we can relate to:  Imagine, walking down the hall at our school and stopping in front of a classroom.  You witness the following.  The teacher is teaching. The students are standing on their chairs, there are some throwing papers, talking, screaming, and some are looking out the window. And, then there are two students telling the other students to sit down and listen to the teacher. To the observer, this class is out of control and that the two students and the teacher are failing to engage ….

If we look at this story through Rashi’s question:  What does it mean to be righteous?, maybe the kids were trying to be dugmaot (examples) for the other students like Noah was for the rest of the wicked world with the hope that they would follow suit.  Or perhaps, their righteous behavior is not setting an effective tone such that others will follow along.

Recently, I did some searching online and came across an interesting statement,

Wornick delivers academic excellence through its innovative and challenging K-8 education curricula steeped in critical thinking, creative and collaborative problem solving, public speaking, and community service. Wornick students become engaged leaders committed to a life of Jewish ethics and values, life-long learning and personal excellence, with deep connections to Israel and the Hebrew language.

When I think about this statement, it makes me feel like we are trying to model and instill righteousness right here at Wornick.  We are trying to follow Rashi – create righteousness through community service, be engaged citizens, help in repairing the world, committed to learning and striving for personal excellence.

It starts with us as a board, for our students, with the hope that it will ripple outward to the entire community. By modeling good deeds and righteous acts, we hope that others will follow us.  I think that for Rashi, he understood that Noah was unique in his generation because he set the stage for how others should live their lives, so that others would follow him.  May we all, us as a board, our students, and our community, be fortuneate to rise up like Noah, living lives of righteousness, fulfilling the ideals of our mission, so that we can inspire others to do the same.

- Amy Sosnick, Trustee