[Avodah] Which Actions Have Value

[Professor L. Levine]

The following is from RSRH's commentary on Bereishis 6:16


You shall make a light for the ark and finish it within one cubit of the
top, and set the entrance to the ark in its side; you shall make it with
lower, second and third stories.

God chose one man who was to save
himself, his family and the animal world; he would be able to save them
and himself — only if he would do everything just as God had commanded
him.“Gadol<http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/7689-high-priest> ha-mitzuveh ve-oseh me-me she-aino metzuveh ve-oseh (Kiddushin 31a) is a
fundamental principle in Judaism. Contrary to prevailing opinion, a person’s
actions have value only if they constitute the performance of God’s
Will. What a person does on the basis of his own judgment, and the like,
is of secondary, uncertain importance. During the 120 years that passed
between God’s announcement to Noach and the actual onset of the flood,
Noach could have done so many things: he could have built a hundred
arks, and so forth. Scripture’s sole intent, however, is to say that Noach
did exactly as God had commanded him; the rest he left to God.

YL


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