Noach
The Imrei Emes and the Sefas Emes, raise an obvious question. If Noach was an “ish tzadik tamim,” a man who was a perfect tzadik, why does he drink immediately after he leaves the tayva and moreover, how does he allow himself to get so, so drunk? Doesn't sound like what we would expect from a perfect tzadik.
The Imrei Emes answers the first question by saying that Noach was weakened in general after the mabul and as a result of being wounded by the lion when he was late with its dinner one day. So he drank a little wine to strengthen himself as the Gemara says, “wine is the foremost of all medicines.”
So how did things go so terribly off the rails? The Sefas Emes explains that Noach knew exactly how much he could drink before the wine would affect his thinking and behavior. And he drank exactly that amount, as the pasuk says, he drank from "the wine," meaning the same amount. The problem was that something had happened since the last time he drank—the mabul. As a result, the generations, including Noach himself, became weaker. (It is also possible the wine became stronger as Chazal explained, on the very day he left the tayva Noach planted, the vine grew, he harvested the grapes, made wine, drank and got drunk. So it stands to reason that this wine might have been somewhat higher proof than he was used to!) Noach’s mistake weas that he conducted himself after the mabul as he had before the mabul. He forgot that something had happened in between --the world had changed. And when things change, the standards and boundaries from before no longer apply. What was accepted and appropriate before was now harmful and inappropriate.
A new world demands new boundaries if we are to remain safe. In Noach’s case he should have been stricter. In other cases, it might be necessary to loosen the reins. Forty years ago, Rav Shlomo Wolbe, z”l, said that a generation, regarding Chazal’s concept of “decline of the generations,” was every three years. A decade ago, Rav Shmuel Kaminetzky, shlita, said every twenty minutes. Could be down to twenty seconds at this point. Rav Moshe Feinstein ztz”l, told the New York Times that his popularity was due to his being able to give answers to questions that were true to the Torah and ones that the people of his time could live with. So, they kept asking him.
In our times, perhaps more than ever before, the only constant is change. When things change, in the world or within us, we need new boundaries. What was ok a year ok, might not be enough, or be too much, for today. Autopilot works in Waymo’s. People like us still need to think.
Good Shabbos,
Rabbi Goldberg