“Noach was a righteous man in his generation.” (Bireishis 6:9)
Rashi quotes the comment that Noach was considered righteous only because he lived in his generation, but had he lived in a “different generation” he would not have been considered righteous. This view is presumably linked with the criticism that Noach did not reach out and try to influence the people of his generation to better their ways. Indeed, in his generation such efforts would not have worked. But in the generation of Avraham we see that a righteous person (Avraham) was able to reach out and influence thousands.
The Meshech Chochma (9:20) observes that Noach goes from being described as a “righteous person” to being described as a “man of the land,” seemingly a significant downgrade in description) whereas Moshe goes from being described as “A Mitzri Man,” to being described as “The Man of G-d.” The Meshech Chochma attributes the difference to the quality that Moshe had to reach out to help others. It was this quality that catapulted him to progressively greater heights.
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