We Jewish people are known as the children of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Why shouldn't we also be known as the children of Noah? It cannot be because not all Noah’s children remained pious because neither did all of Abraham's or Isaac's. After all, the Torah refers to Noah as an "Eesh Tzadik Tameem Haya B'Dorosav." Noah was an Eesh. An Eesh means "a man of achievement." According to the rabbis, he invented the plow. He was also a Tzadik which means that he knew how to respond to the needs of others. In an evil generation he maintained his moral equilibrium. He was also Tameem which means "whole." He was not like an individual who separates himself away from life. There are certain people who are righteous only because they put themselves in ivory towers. They do not imbibe in life. They stay away from relationships, etc. Not Noah. He was a whole man yet righteous. The Torah also says that he was these things in his generation. There are two traditional explanation of what this means. One explanation is that in Noah's generation he was righteous in comparison with the others, but if he would have lived in Abraham's time he would not have been considered righteous at all. There is another explanation, which says that Noah was such a righteous man that if he could be righteous in his generation he most certainly would be righteous in any generation. It seems to me, though, that there could be a third explanation. Noah was a responsible individual. He knew how to respond to the needs of others. That's what responsibility means. When a boy becomes Bar Mitzvah he becomes responsible. He must learn how to respond to the needs of others, to the needs of his time, to the needs of his people, etc. The reason, probably, why we are not known as the sons of Noah as well as the sons of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is because of what happened when Noah left the ark. When Noah left the ark the first thing he did was plant a vineyard and get drunk. It says later on "he revealed himself in the midst of his tent," "Vayeeskal." Noah could no longer be a responsible individual. He was only interested in himself now. He was wallowing in self-pity. In fact, because of this, there is a story of what one of his sons, Canaan, did to Noah, either a homosexual act or castration (there is conflict about this in the commentaries), but Noah, as a leader, was finished. Noah could not respond anymore. The new challenges were too much for him. All he wanted to do was sit in his tent and wallow in self-pity. The same word for "reveal" in Hebrew means "exile," "Galus." He wanted to be exiled from his responsibilities and people. Noah could only be righteous in his generation with the challenges he knew, with the people he knew. He could not face a new situation. He did not have the strength to start all over again. Abraham, on the other hand, left his father's house and was told to start all over again, and he was able to do so. He could respond to that challenge. Noah was broken by the challenge of starting all over again. In life we need others to respond to. We just do not do them a favor when we respond to their needs. We do ourselves a favor because it cements our humanity and our identity. Noah, when he did not have his friends anymore to respond to, could not cope. Many of you here have had to start over again. You have not had to start like Noah with no one but your family, or like Abraham in the midst of total strangers, but you had institutions and people with a common religion and outlook, but it was still difficult. We must always learn in life how to respond. That is really the most important thing. If we cannot learn to respond we cannot really even develop ourselves. I am reminded of a cute story they tell about an American Jewish girl who went to visit her Israeli cousin. After she came down from the plane she gave her Israeli cousin a talking doll. The Israeli cousin picked up the doll and pushed the button on the back and the doll said, "Mommy.11 The Israeli girl looked at her American cousin and said disappointedly, "She speaks English," to which her American cousin replied, "Don't worry, she just got here. Give her time." Obviously the doll is never going to learn Hebrew, and people who are not responsible, who do not know how to respond cannot really amount to anything. In order to be an Eesh and a Tzadik and Tameem you must know how to respond. If you fail, if you do not know how to respond, you will only end up broken as happened to Noah when he no longer could respond.