Beraishis 6G Noach’s character

אֵלֶּה תּוֹלְדֹת נֹחַ נֹחַ אִישׁ צַדִּיק תָּמִים הָיָה בְּדֹרֹתָיו אֶת הָאֱלֹקים הִתְהַלֶּךְ נֹחַ

These are the products of Noach. Noach, a righteous man, was morally pure in his times: Noach walked with God.

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The first product of a person’s efforts are his own character traits. Noach was the product of Noach. (מ”ר: ללמדך שעיקר תולדותיהם של צדיקים מעשים טובים)

איש – He was a man – He was courageous, living by what was right in the face of much wrongdoing for 600 years. In verse 11 we see that the evils around Noach were moral sin (השחתת דרך) and theft (חמס).

צדיק – He was צדיק – righteous – in the face of חמס  theft.

• A צדיק is someone who gives everyone their due. He looks at everything from the standpoint of his duty, not his personal interests. The primary meaning of צדיק is social justice.

תמים – He was תמים – morally pure – in the face of השחתת דרך moral sin

• A תמים is a person who as a result of “walking”, progressing from step to step perfected his personality even when satisfying his physical aspirations. Self control achieved through moral will.

את האלקים התהלך נח – He walked with God.

• Being constantly aware of God was Noach’s root.
• His awareness of God was the source of his moral purity.
• His moral purity was the source of his honesty. (Throughout his writings, RSRH discusses this. חוקים the laws of moral purity, are the basis for משפטים civil law. To live a truly honest life, one must first be morally pure in the areas of sensuality. See Commentary to Vakira 18:4-5 fpr much more on this. GS)

The Torah stresses that Noach was morally pure despite the people around him being morally impure (תָּמִים הָיָה בְּדֹרֹתָיו) . It does not stress this regarding his honesty. The reason is that it is far more difficult to remain morally pure in an age of immorality than to remain honest in an age of dishonesty.

(In chapter 7 we see only the name צדיק used to described Noach. Hirsch comments there that living immorally is misusing and stealing the spirit and powers God gave us.)

Beraishis 6:9
pages 174-175