You write, “A good analogy is the story of Noah’s Ark, where Noah and his family were saved together on one boat.” This reminds me of a commentary on the story of Noah’s ark in the Kabbalistic text The Zohar/Book of Splendor. After noting that other Hebrew patriarchs, being informed by God that damnation was about to rain down on some people for transgressing His laws, pled on their behalf (e.g., Genesis 18:22-33), ends “But Noah just built the ark, and so the whole world was destroyed.”
I don’t think that The Zohar is a holy text, but I do like this observation: even the righteous man is too selfish, thinking about guilt or innocence just in saving his own family.
You write, “A good analogy is the story of Noah’s Ark, where Noah and his family were saved together on one boat.” This reminds me of a commentary on the story of Noah’s ark in the Kabbalistic text The Zohar/Book of Splendor. After noting that other Hebrew patriarchs, being informed by God that damnation was about to rain down on some people for transgressing His laws, pled on their behalf (e.g., Genesis 18:22-33), ends “But Noah just built the ark, and so the whole world was destroyed.”
I don’t think that The Zohar is a holy text, but I do like this observation: even the righteous man is too selfish, thinking about guilt or innocence just in saving his own family.