The courage to live with uncertainty.

For each of us, there are milestones on our spiritual journey that changed the direction of our life

and set us on a new path.

For me, one such moment came when I was a rabbinical student at Jews College and had the privilege

of studying with one of the great rabbinic scholars of our time,

Rabbi Dr. Nacham Rabinovich. He was and is a giant.

One of the most profound of rabbinic and Maimonidian scholars of the modern age,

equally at home with every secular discipliners with the entire rabbinic literature,

and one of the boldest and independent of

Poskim as his several published volumes of responses show. He also showed what it was to have

spiritual and intellectual courage, and that in our time has proved sadly all too rare. The occasion

wasn't special. He was merely giving us one of his regular divret Torah. The week

was Parshad Noach, but the midrash he quoted to us was extraordinary. In fact, it's quite hard to

find. It appears in the book known as Buba's Tanchuma, published in 1885 by Martin

Buba's grandfather Schlomo from ancient manuscripts.

It's a very early text, some say as early as the 5th century, and it has some overlap

with an ancient midrush, of which we no longer have the full text, known as Midrush Yilam Danu.

The text is in two parts, and it's commentary on God's words to Noah. After the water subsided from the flood,

then God said to Noah, come out of the ark. On this, the midrush says, Noah said to himself,

since I only entered the ark with permission from God, shall I leave without permission? The Holy One, blessed be he, said to him,

are you looking for permission? In that case, I give you permission, as it says. Then God said to

Noah come out of the ark. The midrash then adds, Rabbi Yehuda-Ber-A-Loy said,

...