What is Mine to Do
Logos in action
Dear friends,
The world has gone mad. Human beings have abandoned morality. One person alone remains righteous and blameless. This person will save us from extinction.
That’s not Gal Gadot. It’s the biblical account of Noah, which we read this Shabbat. Like an apocalyptic Hollywood blockbuster, it sets us up to identify ourselves as the one person who still sees clearly despite everyone else’s lies and cruelty.
וַיַּ֣רְא יְהֹוָ֔ה כִּ֥י רַבָּ֛ה רָעַ֥ת הָאָדָ֖ם בָּאָ֑רֶץ וְכׇל־יֵ֙צֶר֙ מַחְשְׁבֹ֣ת לִבּ֔וֹ רַ֥ק רַ֖ע כׇּל־הַיּֽוֹם׃ יהוה saw how great was human wickedness on earth—how every plan devised by the human mind was nothing but evil all the time.
נֹ֗חַ אִ֥ישׁ צַדִּ֛יק תָּמִ֥ים הָיָ֖ה בְּדֹֽרֹתָ֑יו
“Noah was a righteous, innocent man in that generation.”
The Italian Renaissance commentator, Sforno, who will be our focus in our weekly Torah class on Thursdays this fall, explains the words צַדִּ֛יק תָּמִ֥ים, righteous and innocent:
Righteous – in action.
Innocent – in thought. (Hebrew - במושכלות)
The Hebrew word, Tamim, translated here as innocent, implies wholeness and simplicity along with blamelessness. What Sforno points out about Noah is that his mind maintained a simple truthfulness, an ability to remain perfectly on point in ethical and intellectual matters which led his fellow humans astray. This is our constant work.
How can we do that?
An earlier Roman has a suggestion or two:
“I do what is mine to do. The rest doesn’t disturb me. The rest in inanimate, or has no logos, or it wanders at random and has lost the road.”
Meditations, Book Six, 22
Imagine voting for a candidate who speaks like that.
Marcus Aurelios, the second century AD emperor of Rome, was, compared to other Roman emperors, as “righteous and innocent” as they came. Much of his Meditations are simple ways to maintain innocence, simplicity and goodness in a world filled with lies and madness.
Reading Noach this week, with Tuesday upon us, reminds me of what might be the most important issue in this election, which has been all but forgotten these past months. A flood is upon us. There it is in Spain. In Florida. In North Carolina. It’s coming our way.
The word Logos, which the emperor used above, is an ancient concept still used in philosophy. In this case it means something like the logical structure of the universe. There are rules that govern the natural world, and rules that govern the relationship between actions and results. The Torah expresses it like this:
וַיַּ֧רְא אֱלֹהִ֛ים אֶת־הָאָ֖רֶץ וְהִנֵּ֣ה נִשְׁחָ֑תָה כִּֽי־הִשְׁחִ֧ית כּל בָּשָׂ֛ר אֶת־דַּרְכּ֖וֹ עַל־הָאָֽרֶץ׃ {ס}
God saw how corrupt the earth was, for all flesh had corrupted its ways on earth.
Human moral corruption leads directly to the corruption of the earth itself.
So what are we to do? How are we to save the planet in the blockbuster of our lives?
“I do what is mine to do,” said Aurelios. I build my ark. Make the window in it according to the instructions. I send out that dove when its time, and see the rainbow appear out of the clouds.
These next few days, let’s do what is ours to do, and may we be rewarded with the rainbow.
Rabbi Misha
PS.
Heads up - next Friday we have two great Shabbat gatherings with prayer, music and food, one in the Upper West Side with Daphna and one in Brooklyn with me. Regardless of what happens on Tuesday I think it will feel good coming together, so we hope to see you there.
Rabbi Misha