This Shabbos, we read the Torah portion of Noah.
"Noah was a righteous man, he was perfect in his generations..."
Some sages interpret this derogatorily. I.e. - in his own generation he was righteous, but if he had been in Avraham’s generation, he would not have been considered of any importance."*
Yes, the righteous Noah lived under lockdown. Even when the lockdown finally ended, the family and their pets, having quarantined together for many months, had evidently got used to living this way, and didn't want life to go back to normal, till G-d ordered them out.
And this is why Noah's righteousness didn't stack up to Avraham's:
Avraham woudn't have needed this order. In fact, had Avraham lived at that time, he wouldn't have agreed to quarantine in this forsaken ark in the first place. For Avaraham believed in congregating all peoples and teaching them that G-d exists! Neither a heathen belief in the supremacy of nature nor governmental decrees could override this Existence.
Avraham's faith was more powerful than Nimrod, the C.D.C., the W.H.O., Fauci, Cuomo, or any other political or medical power that may have ruled at the time.
As such, while Noah practiced social distancing long before the flood (and that is why the flood happened, as explained in Chasidus), Avraham would never have kept his distance from all those sinful people during those turbulent pre-flood times, and surely would have continued his outreach until they, too, recognize the One and Only Power of the universe, without any mask or concealment, averting the need for a flood in the first place.
So let's take this eternal lesson from our forefather Avraham, and the eternal lesson from this week's portion:
"Get out of the ark," the lockdown is over!
Get back to shul, back to school, fill up all yeshivas with more and more students, take that ridiculous diaper off your face, and keep those ridiculous swabs out of our poor children's nostrils, and let's bring Moshiach now!
* Sanh. 108a, Gen. Rabbah 30:9, Tan. Noach, Rashi
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