Imagine your boss gave you an enormous assignment which you spent months toiling to complete. Whenever any co-workers walk by your office, they see you totally immersed in the project. The whole company knows about your epic project that is to be unveiled at the end of the year. Finally the big day arrives for you to present your unique assignment to the boss – an act that assures you promotion, and a pay rise. The entire company is gathered, waiting to see your work of art, and suddenly your body is all numb, you’re too scared to press the ‘PRINT’ button. What a fool you are! Your whole success is depending on that PRINT button!!
This is exactly what we see in this week’s Parshah. Noach spent 120 years on a project to save the world. He invested tremendous energy in building the ark; no doubt he was full of enthusiasm and passion to complete his mission. Whenever somebody would ask him what he was doing he would rebuke them and the rest of the generation about their behaviour and warn them to repent or else they would perish in the Great Flood.
However when the time came to enter the ark we are told, “Noach went into the ark BECAUSE of the flood water”. The Medresh explains that Noach, of little faith did not fully believe that the flood would come, so he did not enter the ark until forced to do so by the water.
Can you imagine preaching and teaching about something and then when the time comes he gets cold feet! Did he really not believe in what he himself taught the world? Building the ark was his project for 120 years and yet he didn’t even believe that a flood was coming!?
I heard a particularly insightful idea from my Father-in-Law to explain Noach’s actions. Noach after spending so much time on building the ark began to lose sight of what he was doing. The monotony set in and building the ark just became his job – no purpose, no heart no passion – it was just what he did. Every morning he went to work building the ark and rebuking the generation. To him it became his mere job and not a rewarding and meaningful project divinely instructed by G-d.
Once his attitude had weathered over the years, when the waters actually came he didn’t even go into the ark until the waters themselves literally had to force him in.
This message applies to all of us in many of our endeavours. Much of what we do whether at work, at home or in shul, is done quite the same day after day, month after month, year after year. We thank Hashem every morning for a new beautiful day. We thank our spouse for doing a chore. But are we just going through the motions? Have our actions become somewhat robotic?
The test of life is to take those ‘motions’ that we go though and inject some ‘e’-motions [no I don’t mean anything to do with computers!]
Good Shabbos
Yaakov