F

or each of us there are milestones 
on our spiritual journey that 
change the direction of our life and 
set us on a new path. For me, one such 
moment came when I was a rabbinical 
student at Jews’ College 
and thus had the privilege 
of studying with one of 
the great rabbinic schol-
ars of our time, Rabbi Dr. 
Nachum Rabinovitch.
He was, and is, a giant: 
one of the most profound 
Maimonidean scholars of 
the modern age, equally at home with 
virtually every secular discipline as with 
the entire rabbinic literature, and one of 
the boldest and independent of poskim 
(halachic decisors), as his several pub-
lished volumes of Responsa show. He also 
showed what it was to have spiritual and 

intellectual courage, and that in our time 
has proved, sadly, all too rare.
The occasion was not special. He was 
merely giving us one of his regular divrei 
Torah. The week was Parshat Noach. But 
the Midrash he quoted to us was extraor-
dinary. In fact, it is quite hard to find. It 
appears in the book known as Buber’s 
Tanhuma, published in 1885 by Martin 
Buber’s grandfather Shlomo from ancient 
manuscripts. It is a very early text — 
some say as early as the fifth century — 
and it has some overlap with an ancient 
Midrash of which we no longer have the 
full text known as Midrash Yelamdenu.
The text is in two parts, and it is a com-
mentary on God’s words to Noah: “Then 
God said to Noah, ‘Come out of the 
ark’” (Gen. 8:16). On this, the Midrash 
says: “Noah said to himself, Since I only 
entered the ark with permission (from 

God), shall I leave without permission? 
The Holy One blessed be He said to him: 
Are you looking for permission? In that 
case I give you permission, as it says, 
‘Then God said to Noah, Come out of the 
ark.’”
The Midrash then adds: “Said Rabbi 
Judah bar Ilai, ‘If I had been there, I 
would have smashed down [the doors of] 
the ark and taken myself out of it.’”
The moral Rabbi Rabinovitch drew — 
indeed the only one possible — was that 
when it comes to rebuilding a shattered 
world, you do not wait for permission. 
God gives us permission. He expects us 
to go on ahead.
This was, of course, part of an ancient 
tradition, mentioned by Rashi in his 
commentary (to Gen. 6:9), and central 
to the sages’ understanding of why God 
began the Jewish people not with Noah 

Rabbi Lord 
Jonathan 
Sacks

38 | OCTOBER 7 • 2021 

SPIRIT
A WORD OF TORAH

The Courage 
to Live 
with 
Uncertainty

