Avraham and Noach as Leadership Paradigms - in memory of Rabbi Israel Orenstein Z"L

 My grandfather, Rabbi Orenstein, was a scholar and leader. He received his semicha (rabbinic ordination) from Rabbi Hutner of blessed memory, and was the rabbi and leader of a beit knesset in Massapequa, NY, for close to two decades. My grandmother, his wife, unfortunately developed renal failure, and her dialysis and the medical difficulties that arose, in many respects led to the end of my grandfather's public tenure as a rabbi. They moved to Florida to a retirement home and for close to a decade, nobody knew that my grandfather was a rabbi. When they learned of his erudition and stature, as a talmid chacham and community leader, they asked him to partake in the monthly scholar program, whereby they would ask resident scholars to speak on different topics. He spoke on a range of topics at the Young Israel of Pembroke Pines, but one of the topics most dear to his heart was Hashem's vision for a more perfected world, which he saw through the lens of the dialectic exemplified by the leadership styles of Avraham on the one hand, and Noach on the other. 

Noach, a righteous man "in his generation," walked "with Hashem." On the face of it, what could be more exalted, my grandfather said, than walking with Hashem. The pinnacle of human experience, to walk in the ways of God. Rabbi Soloveitchik, in the Lonely Man of Faith, talks about it as the acme of human experience. Abandoned by his own father and mother, it is Hashem who "gathers him in" (Tehillim 27:10); the Rav explains this as the height of human experience, loneliness, existentially bringing man to new heights in his divine worship that otherwise couldn't be attained. 

At the same time, in my humble opinion, the archetype represented by Adam, (Adam II in the words of Rav Soloveitchik), is a very limited one, and is far from what we aught to strive for. In effect, it would seem to me, that Noach only managed to reach that level. Noach used loneliness to propel himself to a betterment of the world, but not one in which he walked before God. Far be it from me to critique the work of Rabbi Soloveitchik, but I think that he couldn't have written his work if he had lived in Israel, if he had seen the potential of the ways of Avraham Avinu, the forbearer of all of mankind in calling out in God's name.

And indeed, Avraham did call out in God's name. ""He planted an "eshel" in Beer-Sheba and there he proclaimed the name of Hashem, God of the Universe. (Breishit 21:33)"". More than anything, that was the mandate that Avraham received - that Noach did not receive, and that Adam surely could not bring to the world - "I am El Shaddai; walk before Me and be perfect (Breishit 17:1)," Hashem commands Avraham. Why is it that Avraham is given this command - and not Noach? Because Avraham had proven himself worthy, because he walked before God, because he didn't reconcile himself to the moral realities of the time, and even cast aspersion on God's ways when he felt they were morally equivocal. That, the fiery Jewish soul is the father of our people - and not Noach. The one who eschews pretense, who can concomitantly send off Lot because of his pernicious spiritual influence, refusing to live in the same domicile, and then, with flinching, in the blink of an eye, go to rescue him because he is his brother. The one who refuses to take booty for himself, if it would in the merest way diminish from God's glory in this world. The one who can say to Malchizedek, you have come to greet me and welcome me in my victory; You, Malchizedek talk about the God of the heavens above, I, though, am rooted in this world, and it is not for me to be on a pedestal, in a lofty, ethereal universe - but rather, Hashem's providence and mandate is here, "and thus Avraham gave Malchizedek a tithe," demonstrating that it is only man whose life is interwoven with others, who feels their pain - who dares to walk before God - who can truly walk with God. 

Eretz Yisrael is the place for that: "I shall walk before Hashem in the Lands of the Living (Tehillim: 116:9)." Eretz Yisrael is the place unique for fulfilling Hashem's mandate to make a better world.