In Your Face
Praise of others is always a positive exercise. Praise enhances their overt qualities while it helps them to actualize their hidden traits. But even praise has its limits.
Two Versions of Praise
When the Torah introduces Noach in the beginning of this week’s Parsha it calls him a “tzadik tamim-a perfectly righteous person.” Yet when G-d addresses Noach directly, He only refers to him as a tzadik-righteous person, but omits the word tamim-perfect.
Rashi explains that this teaches us that when we praise a person to his face we may say only some of his praise. However, when we praise someone not in his presence, we may utter his full praise.
At face value (no pun intended), the reason for this distinction is that telling a person all of his qualities might go to his head and cause him to become conceited.
This explanation, however, is problematic.
Knowing one’s qualities is just as essential as knowing one’s faults. Egotism and arrogance are not generated by the knowledge of our virtues, but by the attitude that they are an exclusive result of our own efforts, without recognizing the role that G-d has in giving one these qualities. Instead of withholding praise to insure humility, it would make more sense to tell someone that his virtues were a gift of G-d. Why then should we not tell a person all of his praise in his presence?
Regression or Stagnation
To tell us our precise virtues to our face, may lead us to two possible negative outcomes, of regression or stagnation. Knowledge of our “perfection” might cause us to become smug in our own self-assessment, that may make us more vulnerable to evil, causing us to backslide.
Alternatively, even if the knowledge of our qualities will not cause us to decline, it might still stifle our progress. Why should we have to continue to grow, when we were told by others that we have reached the pinnacle of virtue?
Not on Our Face
On a deeper level yet, the words “one does not relate all of one’s virtue to their face,” can be interpreted to mean that one should not suggest that all of one’s virtues are on the “face,” they are already exposed and fleshed out. Rather, it is important to recognize that our true virtues are still in the realm of potentiality. We must always be aware of the need to actualize our potential.
When G-d spoke about Noach, He acknowledged Noach’s spiritual potential, that he was a “perfectly righteous” person. When he spoke of him to his face, i.e., about his surface qualities, He did not allow him to think that these qualities were already in existence; they still had to be actualized.
Chassidic Revelations
With this premise we can explain why many of the qualities that the Jewish people have been endowed with have not been fully articulated in the Torah and Talmudic writings, but have come to light more recently in the writings of Chassidic literature.
For example, the Ba’al Shem Tov claimed that each Jew — no matter how close or distant he was to Judaism — possessed unique spiritual treasures. While this teaching is hinted to in earlier sources, it took the Ba’al Shem Tov and subsequent Chassidic Masters of recent times, particularly the Lubavitcher Rebbe, to give more robust expression to this concept.
Why was this concept not articulated more forcefully in earlier times? And if these treasures are as latent and embedded in the subconscious as to not have any real impact on our conscious existence, what benefit is there in discussing them now?
In light of the above, we may suggest that just as we don’t tell a person all of his qualities in his face because they are so far from being a reality, similarly, the Jewish people and the world at large in the distant past had a long way to go before these qualities could have manifested themselves in the open. By concealing their inner greatness from the Jews, it prevented them from resting on their laurels, or, worse yet, complacency and degeneration.
Now, however, that we are on the verge of entering into the Messianic Age, where the obstacles that cause us to stagnate and degenerate will be fully removed, and our inner qualities are closer to the surface, it behooves us to appreciate our true value.
In today’s world, knowing who we are and the treasures we possess, will inspire us to make the final thrust towards Moshiach and Redemption, by adding in our efforts to liberate these phenomenal qualities that we possess within.
This process of personal liberation will lead us to the time when all of our inner spiritual treasures will have been excavated, and be clearly visible on our faces for all to see.
From the book Light from the Future: Parshas Noach by Rabbi Heschel Greenberg, published by the Jewish Discovery Center.
