The Spinker on the Parsha

Just a summary of the Imrei Yosef (Rav Yosef Meir of Spinka zy"a) on Parshas Noach:

We know that Rashi brings down two ways to expound the pasuk "נח איש צדיק תמים היה בדורותיו". Some learn this l'shevach, that he was a tzaddik in his own generation, and if he were in another generation of holy people he would also be a great tzaddik, while others learn l'gnai, that he was a tzaddik relative to his generation, but were he to live in the times of the great Avraham Avinu he wouldn't be considered a tzaddik. Now, the Imrei Yosef wants to say that these two opinions are not in conflict with each other. He quotes from the holy Kozhnitzer Maggid that based on the pasuk, "טוב מעט לצדיק בהמון רשעים רבים", we see that the wicked influence their surroundings negatively with their evil ways, to the extent that they even fog the spiritual clarity of the tzaddikim around them. So you would read the pasuk to mean that a tzaddik gets only a little goodness when he surrounded by many reshaim. Conversely, since the power of tov is stronger than that of rah, if tzaddikim join together, then the opposite would be true. 

Based in this the Imrei Yosef explains that granted Noach was a tzaddik in his own right, but he was still weighed down from reaching higher levels due to his lowly generation. So on the level of tzidkus which he had reached in his own generation, he would be nothing special relative to, say, Avraham. That is what the the "dorshim l'gnai" are pointing out. But even this opinion doesn't disagree with the idea that were Noach to live in the times of Avraham, he would be able to reach higher levels of tzidkus and be considered a great tzaddik, even in that generation. So really there is no machlokes between the two opinions in Rashi in the way that most people understand it, rather it is only a disagreement as to what the pasuk is referring to, Noach's actual level of tzidkus, or even his potential level of tzidkus were he to be in a greater generation.  

We should be zoche to join together in kedushah and tzidkus, to survive the deluge of negative influence threatening to drown us from all sides, and to rise above it, achieving our full potential.  

Good Shabbos!