You have to argue with God to get to hear the Law.

Why Doesn't the Jewish Tradition Hold Noah in Higher Esteem?

Abraham and Moses are considered wholly righteous men, but Noah isn’t quite. That’s because, unlike them, he does what he’s told without question.

...the difference between the righteous and the not-quite-righteous becomes clear. It lies in the presence or the absence of any dialogue, or if you will, argument, with God.

...You have to argue with God to get to hear the Law.

...Even when Abraham finally does what he is told, it is always with a sense of regret and sorrow. Forced to send his firstborn Ishmael away—not the Almighty’s test but Sarah’s demand, which the Lord went along with—he felt grief and compassion for the lad. Were he incapable of compassion, he could not have founded a faith, just as Moses, had he been incapable of compassion, could never have shepherded the Israelites for 40 years in the wilderness. You teach your children or your flock to be human only by showing them how you regard others, even those less than entirely unblemished—in their own generation, or in anyone else’s.
This piece is excerpted from a post in Mosaic by Atar Hadari.