Musar for Eruvin 36:13
ואמר רבי ירמיה בן אלעזר מקצת שבחו של אדם אומרים בפניו וכולו שלא בפניו מקצת שבחו בפניו דכתיב (בראשית ז, א) כי אותך ראיתי צדיק לפני בדור הזה
from which it follows that until that time he did not beget after his own image. An objection was raised: R'Meir said: Adam was a great saint. When he saw that through him death was ordained as a punishment he spent a hundred and thirty years in fasting, severed connection with his wife for a hundred and thirty years, and wore clothes of fig [leaves] on his body for a hundred and thirty years.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' How in view of this statement could R. Jeremiah b. Eleazar maintain his?');"><sup>29</sup></span>
Shenei Luchot HaBerit
Noach then was righteous in terms of his generation since he responded to inspiration from "above." G–d "encouraged" Noach during the one hundred and twenty years prior to the deluge. He sent him on a mission to warn his contemporaries to repent of their wicked ways. The Torah however, records only מקצת שבחו בפניו, וכלו שלא בפניו. The usual meaning of this concept is that one does not reveal all of a person's merits while he is alive, whereas when eulogizing such a person one must reveal all his merits. In this instance the meaning of שלא בפינו is that Noach did not initiate his role as the conscience of mankind, but he was prompted to do so by G–d.
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