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Sunday, October 11, 2026

Noach 1

The opening of Parshas Noach, Bereshis 6:9 through 7:4, covers Noach's righteousness, the corruption that brought the Flood, the building of the ark, and the seven-day delay before the rain. One idea keeps coming back. The Flood was decreed for chamas, the ordinary, "everyone does it" dishonesty that wears away peace, truth and justice, and Noach stood out because he refused to join in, even as he gathered food for the ark. A second thread runs through the ark itself. Noach does every part that human effort can do, and Hashem adds the miracle only where it is needed.

The pesukim

Bereshis 6:9

אֵ֚לֶּה תּוֹלְדֹ֣ת נֹ֔חַ נֹ֗חַ אִ֥ישׁ צַדִּ֛יק תָּמִ֥ים הָיָ֖ה בְּדֹֽרֹתָ֑יו אֶת־הָֽאֱלֹהִ֖ים הִֽתְהַלֶּךְ־נֹֽחַ׃

These are the chronicles of Noah: Noah was a righteous man, faultless') in his generation. Noah walked with God.

"These are the chronicles of Noach: Noach was a righteous man, faultless in his generations; Noach walked with God." The verse just before, at the end of last week's parsha, said only that Noach "found favor in the eyes of Hashem." On its own, that could sound as if Noach did not really deserve to be saved and Hashem simply liked him. So the Torah opens this parsha by stating plainly that he was a tzaddik (a righteous man) and tamim (faultless). He was saved because he was truly great, not by mere favor.
Bereshis 6:10–13

וַיּ֥וֹלֶד נֹ֖חַ שְׁלֹשָׁ֣ה בָנִ֑ים אֶת־שֵׁ֖ם אֶת־חָ֥ם וְאֶת־יָֽפֶת׃

Noah fathered three sons: Shem, Ham and Yefeth.

וַתִּשָּׁחֵ֥ת הָאָ֖רֶץ לִפְנֵ֣י הָֽאֱלֹהִ֑ים וַתִּמָּלֵ֥א הָאָ֖רֶץ חָמָֽס׃

The world was corrupt before God, and the land was filled with crime."

וַיַּ֧רְא אֱלֹהִ֛ים אֶת־הָאָ֖רֶץ וְהִנֵּ֣ה נִשְׁחָ֑תָה כִּֽי־הִשְׁחִ֧ית כׇּל־בָּשָׂ֛ר אֶת־דַּרְכּ֖וֹ עַל־הָאָֽרֶץ׃

God saw the world, and it was corrupted. All flesh had perverted its way on the earth.

וַיֹּ֨אמֶר אֱלֹהִ֜ים לְנֹ֗חַ קֵ֤ץ כׇּל־בָּשָׂר֙ בָּ֣א לְפָנַ֔י כִּֽי־מָלְאָ֥ה הָאָ֛רֶץ חָמָ֖ס מִפְּנֵיהֶ֑ם וְהִנְנִ֥י מַשְׁחִיתָ֖ם אֶת־הָאָֽרֶץ׃

God said to Noah, "The end of all flesh has come before Me. The world is filled with [man's] crime. I will therefore destroy them with the earth.

Noach had three sons. The earth became corrupt before Hashem and filled with chamas, and Hashem told Noach, "The end of all flesh has come before Me, for the earth is filled with chamas because of them." Chamas means robbery, and the decree of the Flood was sealed because of it. This was not open violence in the streets. It was small, everyday dishonesty that had become normal: everyone did it, so no one thought it was wrong. The lesson is that "everyone does it" never makes something right.
Bereshis 6:14

עֲשֵׂ֤ה לְךָ֙ תֵּבַ֣ת עֲצֵי־גֹ֔פֶר קִנִּ֖ים תַּֽעֲשֶׂ֣ה אֶת־הַתֵּבָ֑ה וְכָֽפַרְתָּ֥ אֹתָ֛הּ מִבַּ֥יִת וּמִח֖וּץ בַּכֹּֽפֶר׃

"Make yourself an ark of cypress wood. Divide the ark into compartments. Caulk the inside and outside with pitch.

Hashem tells Noach, 120 years before the Flood, when Noach is 480 years old, to make an ark of atzei gofer, which Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan translates as cypress wood. He is to divide it into compartments and coat it inside and out with pitch, a tar that makes it waterproof. Gopher is a strong, water-resistant wood. The compartments were so that people, and each kind of animal, could be kept apart in separate rooms and smaller sub-rooms.
Bereshis 6:15

וְזֶ֕ה אֲשֶׁ֥ר תַּֽעֲשֶׂ֖ה אֹתָ֑הּ שְׁלֹ֧שׁ מֵא֣וֹת אַמָּ֗ה אֹ֚רֶךְ הַתֵּבָ֔ה חֲמִשִּׁ֤ים אַמָּה֙ רׇחְבָּ֔הּ וּשְׁלֹשִׁ֥ים אַמָּ֖ה קוֹמָתָֽהּ׃

This is how you shall construct it: The ark's length shall be 300 cubits, its width 50 cubits, and its height 30 cubits.

The ark is to be 300 cubits long, 50 wide and 30 high. Today's cubit is about 21 inches, but the commentaries say Noach's cubit was two handbreadths longer, about 28 inches. That makes the ark roughly 700 feet long, about 117 feet wide and 70 feet high.
Bereshis 6:16

צֹ֣הַר ׀ תַּעֲשֶׂ֣ה לַתֵּבָ֗ה וְאֶל־אַמָּה֙ תְּכַלֶּ֣נָּה מִלְמַ֔עְלָה וּפֶ֥תַח הַתֵּבָ֖ה בְּצִדָּ֣הּ תָּשִׂ֑ים תַּחְתִּיִּ֛ם שְׁנִיִּ֥ם וּשְׁלִשִׁ֖ים תַּֽעֲשֶֽׂהָ׃

Make a skylight for the ark. Make it slanted, so that it is one cubit [wide] on top. Place the ark's door on its side. Make a first, second and third [deck].

Hashem tells Noach to make a tzohar (a source of light) for the ark, to slope it so that it is one cubit wide at the top, to put the door in its side, and to build a lower, second and third deck. Many ships have a hatch on top, but the rain of the Flood was so powerful that an opening on top would have let the ark flood, so the door went on the side. According to the Gemara in Sanhedrin 108b, the top deck was for Noach and his family, the middle deck for the animals and the bottom deck for the waste.
Bereshis 6:17–18

וַאֲנִ֗י הִנְנִי֩ מֵבִ֨יא אֶת־הַמַּבּ֥וּל מַ֙יִם֙ עַל־הָאָ֔רֶץ לְשַׁחֵ֣ת כׇּל־בָּשָׂ֗ר אֲשֶׁר־בּוֹ֙ ר֣וּחַ חַיִּ֔ים מִתַּ֖חַת הַשָּׁמָ֑יִם כֹּ֥ל אֲשֶׁר־בָּאָ֖רֶץ יִגְוָֽע׃

"I Myself am bringing the flood. Water shall be on the earth to destroy from under the heavens all flesh having in it a breath of life. All that is on land will die.

וַהֲקִמֹתִ֥י אֶת־בְּרִיתִ֖י אִתָּ֑ךְ וּבָאתָ֙ אֶל־הַתֵּבָ֔ה אַתָּ֕ה וּבָנֶ֛יךָ וְאִשְׁתְּךָ֥ וּנְשֵֽׁי־בָנֶ֖יךָ אִתָּֽךְ׃

But I will keep My pledge that you will come into the ark. You will be together with your sons, your wife, and your sons' wives.

Hashem says He is bringing the Flood to destroy all flesh, but He will keep His covenant with Noach: "You will come into the ark, you and your sons, your wife and your sons' wives." Hashem lists the men together and the women together, not husband beside wife. This hints that marital relations were forbidden on the ark. From here we learn that in a time of trouble in the world, a person should hold back from marital relations as much as possible.
Bereshis 6:19–20

וּמִכׇּל־הָ֠חַ֠י מִֽכׇּל־בָּשָׂ֞ר שְׁנַ֧יִם מִכֹּ֛ל תָּבִ֥יא אֶל־הַתֵּבָ֖ה לְהַחֲיֹ֣ת אִתָּ֑ךְ זָכָ֥ר וּנְקֵבָ֖ה יִֽהְיֽוּ׃

"From all life, all flesh, bring two of each kind into the ark to live with you. They shall be male and female.

מֵהָע֣וֹף לְמִינֵ֗הוּ וּמִן־הַבְּהֵמָה֙ לְמִינָ֔הּ מִכֹּ֛ל רֶ֥מֶשׂ הָֽאֲדָמָ֖ה לְמִינֵ֑הוּ שְׁנַ֧יִם מִכֹּ֛ל יָבֹ֥אוּ אֵלֶ֖יךָ לְהַֽחֲיֽוֹת׃

From each separate species of bird, from each separate species of livestock, and from each separate species of land animals, bring to yourself two of each kind to live.

Noach is to bring two of every kind of bird, livestock and land animal, male and female, "to live" with him. "To live" means more than surviving. Noach has to keep them healthy, caring for them as well as he cares for himself on the ark. These animals will be the parents of every future generation of their species, and they must leave the ark able to fill the world again.
Bereshis 6:21–22

וְאַתָּ֣ה קַח־לְךָ֗ מִכׇּל־מַֽאֲכָל֙ אֲשֶׁ֣ר יֵֽאָכֵ֔ל וְאָסַפְתָּ֖ אֵלֶ֑יךָ וְהָיָ֥ה לְךָ֛ וְלָהֶ֖ם לְאׇכְלָֽה׃

Take with you all the food that will be eaten, and keep it in storage. It shall be food for you and [the animals]."

וַיַּ֖עַשׂ נֹ֑חַ כְּ֠כֹ֠ל אֲשֶׁ֨ר צִוָּ֥ה אֹת֛וֹ אֱלֹהִ֖ים כֵּ֥ן עָשָֽׂה׃

Noah did all that God had commanded him. He did it [exactly]:

Hashem tells Noach, "Take for yourself (kach lecha) all food that is eaten and store it away," as food for him and the animals. "For yourself" means from your own property. Noach could have reasoned that everyone was about to die anyway and simply emptied the local stores. Hashem told him not to take what was not his, and promised a great miracle so that his own food would be enough for every creature in the ark for a year. Noach listened and did exactly as Hashem commanded, which shows his honesty in a world full of chamas.
Bereshis 7:1

וַיֹּ֤אמֶר יְהֹוָה֙ לְנֹ֔חַ בֹּֽא־אַתָּ֥ה וְכׇל־בֵּיתְךָ֖ אֶל־הַתֵּבָ֑ה כִּֽי־אֹתְךָ֥ רָאִ֛יתִי צַדִּ֥יק לְפָנַ֖י בַּדּ֥וֹר הַזֶּֽה׃

God said to Noah, "Come into the ark, you and your family. I have seen that you are righteous before Me in this generation.

After 120 years, Hashem speaks to Noach again: "Come into the ark, you and your household, for I have seen that you are righteous before Me in this generation." Here Hashem says only "righteous." At the start of the parsha, speaking about Noach to others, the Torah praised him as righteous, faultless and walking with God. The Gemara in Eruvin 18b learns from this that a person's full praise is said when he is not there, and only part of it to his face.
Bereshis 7:2–3

מִכֹּ֣ל ׀ הַבְּהֵמָ֣ה הַטְּהוֹרָ֗ה תִּֽקַּח־לְךָ֛ שִׁבְעָ֥ה שִׁבְעָ֖ה אִ֣ישׁ וְאִשְׁתּ֑וֹ וּמִן־הַבְּהֵמָ֡ה אֲ֠שֶׁ֠ר לֹ֣א טְהֹרָ֥ה הִ֛וא שְׁנַ֖יִם אִ֥ישׁ וְאִשְׁתּֽוֹ׃

Take seven pairs of every clean animal, each consisting of a male and its mate. Of every animal that is not clean, take two, a male and its mate.

גַּ֣ם מֵע֧וֹף הַשָּׁמַ֛יִם שִׁבְעָ֥ה שִׁבְעָ֖ה זָכָ֣ר וּנְקֵבָ֑ה לְחַיּ֥וֹת זֶ֖רַע עַל־פְּנֵ֥י כׇל־הָאָֽרֶץ׃

Of the birds of the heaven also take seven pairs, each consisting of a male and its mate. Let them keep seed alive on the face of all the earth,

Noach is to take seven pairs of every clean (kosher) animal and bird, and one pair of every animal "that is not clean." The Torah could have used the single word temei'ah, "impure." Instead it says asher lo tehorah hi, "that is not clean," spending three extra words to avoid the harsher word, even though it uses tamei freely elsewhere. The Gemara in Pesachim 3a draws the same lesson from the same wording a few verses later (7:8): a person should always go out of his way to speak in refined language, even when it takes more words.
Bereshis 7:4

כִּי֩ לְיָמִ֨ים ע֜וֹד שִׁבְעָ֗ה אָֽנֹכִי֙ מַמְטִ֣יר עַל־הָאָ֔רֶץ אַרְבָּעִ֣ים י֔וֹם וְאַרְבָּעִ֖ים לָ֑יְלָה וּמָחִ֗יתִי אֶֽת־כׇּל־הַיְקוּם֙ אֲשֶׁ֣ר עָשִׂ֔יתִי מֵעַ֖ל פְּנֵ֥י הָֽאֲדָמָֽה׃

because in another seven days, I will bring rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights. I will obliterate every organism that I have made from the face of the earth."

"In another seven days I will bring rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights, and wipe out every being I have made." The seven days were the mourning period for Mesushelach (Methuselah), the great tzaddik of that time. Hashem held back the Flood out of honor for him. The dates match: Mesushelach was born in the year 687 and lived 969 years, so he died in 1656. Noach was born in 1056, and the Flood came when he was 600, also in 1656.

English from The Living Torah by Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan, used with the permission of the Kaplan family. Hebrew: Miqra according to the Masorah (CC BY-SA).

Takeaways

  • "Everyone does it" never makes something right; the Flood came because of normalized, everyday dishonesty.
  • Leaders set the tone: when the face of a community is corrupt, everyone learns from it.
  • Do everything human effort can do, and leave only the rest to Hashem's miracle.
  • Use refined words even when it takes more of them, as the Torah did with "not clean."
  • Give a person part of his praise to his face and all of it behind his back.
Going deeper— the stories, Kabbalah and the reasons behind the reasons

Why the Torah needs both "found favor" and "righteous"

  • When a punishment comes into the world, such as a plague, and especially when there is widespread immorality, the righteous are killed along with the wicked. The Gemara in Bava Kamma 60a says that the righteous are actually taken first.
  • So being a tzaddik was not enough to protect Noach. He also needed to find favor in Hashem's eyes so he would not be swept up in the punishment of the wicked. The two verses together show that he had both.

A boat built slowly as a 120-year warning

  • Hashem told Noach about the Flood when Noach was 480, giving the world 120 years. Noach was known to everyone as a righteous man, and he travelled from community to community urging people to change their ways.
  • He planted cedars, waited for them to grow, cut them into boards and sanded them. He built the ark slowly on purpose, so people would see someone acting on the warning and change their minds.
  • Instead they mocked him and asked what he was doing with his boat. No one listened.

"In his generations": praise or criticism?

  • Why add "in his generations" if he was simply a tzaddik? Rabbi Yochanan reads it as a limit: compared to other generations, such as those of Avraham or Moshe, Noach would have been ordinary, and he stood out only among the wicked. Reish Lakish reads it as praise: if Noach was righteous even in the most corrupt generation ever, he would have been greater still among great people.
  • Rashi brings both views but words them differently. For the praise he writes, "Some of our Rabbis expound it as praise." For the criticism he writes only, "And some expound it as criticism." He drops the words "our Rabbis."
  • One way to read this difference: there are always people who go looking for the negative in someone, and they are the ones who read it as criticism. But that reading of Rashi's words makes a point more than it follows the plain meaning. More simply, Rashi is keeping his commentary short and noting, neutrally, that the critical reading exists.
  • The Me'am Loez brings only the praise reading: Noach was great even in his own generation, and he would have been even greater among great tzaddikim.

In a time of anger, Hashem singled out Noach

  • The Zohar teaches that when there is divine anger in the world, Hashem does not show mercy to individuals. The only prayers accepted then are those of a whole congregation or of a very great tzaddik. Everyone else is swept up together.
  • The Flood came in exactly such a time of anger, when Hashem said He would wipe out the humanity He had created. Yet Hashem made an exception for Noach, which shows how great Noach was.

Why "the chronicles of Noach" turns to his righteousness

  • "These are the toldos (offspring, chronicles) of Noach" leads you to expect a list of his children. Instead the verse says, "Noach was a righteous man."
  • First reason: Noach's children survived the Flood only because he was righteous and faultless. So his righteousness itself counts as his offspring.
  • Second reason: Noach himself is called the offspring, because he counts as many people. All of humanity comes from him.
  • This is a comfort for anyone without children: a person's righteousness and good deeds are his true offspring.

From "children of Adam" to "children of Noach"

  • The people of the first ten generations were called "children of Adam." From Noach on, mankind is called "the children of Noach," because he had the merit to survive the Flood and repopulate the whole world (Zohar).

Kaddish, and not relying on your children

  • It is still very good to have children. They can help a parent's soul after death, and their saying Kaddish helps a great deal. Ashkenazim say Kaddish for a parent even on Shabbos and Yom Tov, when other signs of mourning are not kept, because Kaddish raises the parent's soul.
  • But no one should neglect Torah and mitzvos expecting a son to make up for it. Even in this world, a person who loses his fortune is rarely helped by his children; after the seven days of mourning, they go back to their own lives.
  • Kaddish said without attention does little. It is like freeing a prisoner of the king: only someone the king respects can win his release. The child must have standing before Hashem himself, and no one knows whether a child will outlive the parent.

Ketz, the prosecuting angel

  • The Me'am Loez brings from the Zera Berach that whenever a person sins, an angel is created that acts as a prosecutor, and its name is Ketz. Ketz goes after the person who created it until that person is fully punished, or until the person fully repents, which gets rid of it.
  • So ketz kol basar ba lefanai means more than "the end of all flesh has come before Me." It also means "Ketz, the prosecutor of all flesh, has come before Me" to argue against humanity. He would not stop until humanity either repented or was punished.

"From their faces": corruption starts with the leaders

  • "The earth is filled with chamas mipneihem" usually means "because of them," but mipneihem can also mean "from their faces." The face of a community is its leaders.
  • The Me'am Loez brings this from Rav Moshe ibn Chaviv, the grandfather of the Me'am Loez's author. The leaders were worse than everyone else, and the people learned from them. When leadership is corrupt, the corruption trickles down to everyone.
  • The same idea appears in Tractate Taanis (10a–b). When rain is held back, the sages fast first, the ones fit to be appointed leaders of the community, because the people look up to them and they reflect the community.

What chamas looked like: the fruit seller

  • Bereishis Rabbah describes the crime of that generation through a fruit seller. A farmer brings a load of fruit to the market. Townspeople come to haggle, each one tasting to see whether the fruit is good, nibbling while they argue over the price.
  • When they are full, they say they do not like the price or the fruit was not that good, and they leave. The farmer goes home with all his fruit eaten and no money. Even those who did pay used counterfeit coins.
  • The immorality of that generation was out in the open. The Me'am Loez says on 6:2 that the sons of the leaders saw young women made up and parading naked in the streets, and took whomever they chose; this usually happened on Rosh Hashanah (Targum Yonasan; Zohar Chadash). The robbery was different: quiet and subtle, so no one called it a crime.
  • Ask any one of them and he would say, "I was only tasting; everyone does that." That is chamas: robbery so normal that everyone accepts it. It still happens today, in business and in many other places.

Hashem sees the intent to steal

  • In court, "I was only tasting" was a winning defense, so the farmer was robbed legally. Hashem said: the victim cries out and no court will help him, but I see into a person's thoughts, and I know there was an intent to steal.

"Everyone else did it": a story from the playground

  • At a children's play center, kids kept rescanning to ride the little motorcycles again and again while others waited. A mother in line grew more and more frustrated with them.
  • When her own son's turn ran out and the attendant said one round per person, she insisted he go again, because everyone else had.
  • If something bothers you because it is wrong, teach your child that we don't do it. Don't join in. This was the society before the Flood: everyone went along, and no one but Noach was willing to break the cycle.

Idols in public, and wheat as tall as trees

  • Idol worship began as something people did quietly and a little ashamed. Over time the shame disappeared, and idols were worshiped openly (Zohar).
  • In those days wheat grew as tall as trees, with kernels the size of melons. Hashem said: they don't even notice the good I do for them. The stalks are too tall to harvest, so I send a wind to blow the kernels down where they can gather them (Zohar Chadash).
  • Life was easy and full of leisure. Instead of thanking Hashem, they sinned all the more and destroyed themselves.

The three pillars that fell

  • In Pirkei Avos 1:18, Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel teaches that the world stands on three pillars: peace, truth and justice.
  • Before the Flood, all three were gone. There was no peace, because people stealing from each other led to fights and disputes. There was no truth, because people lied. There was no justice, because the judges were even more corrupt than the thieves and filled their own pockets.
  • With its three pillars gone, the world could no longer stand, so it had to be destroyed.

Stealing is wrong by plain logic

  • No one needs a prophet to know that stealing is wrong: no one wants his own things stolen. It is a wrong against both Hashem and people (Ramban).

Where the wood came from

  • In one account, Noach planted his own cedars. Bereishis Rabbah says he took the trees from the mountains of Ararat, and the Ramban places these in eastern Turkey, toward Baghdad.
  • Gopher is a strong, water-resistant wood. The Abarbanel says it may be balsa, which is very light and floats well.

An ark shaped upside down

  • A ship is normally narrow at the bottom and wide at the top. Noach's ark was the reverse: 50 cubits wide at the base, sloping up to just one cubit at the top. This comes from the Gemara in Sanhedrin 108b.
  • Picture a tall tent. The steep slope made the heavy rain run straight off the sides.

How the rooms were laid out

  • In Bereishis Rabbah (31:11), Rabbi Yehuda and Rabbi Nechemia disagree about the layout. Picture the seating in a large airplane: rows of rooms running the length of the ark, with aisles between them.
  • Rabbi Yehuda: rooms of 10 by 10 cubits, 30 to a row. Starting from the wall, there is an outer row on each side and a double row down the middle, with aisles in between: 30 + 60 + 30 is 120 rooms on a deck, and 360 across the three decks.
  • Rabbi Nechemia: smaller rooms of 6 by 6 cubits, 50 to a row, arranged as a single outer row, an aisle, a double row, an aisle, another double row, an aisle and a single outer row. That comes to 900 rooms across the three decks, since every deck had the same layout.

Why so many rooms, and why the ark wasn't smaller

  • The Ramban explains that Noach had to bring a male and a female of every species so that each could continue after the Flood, and he kept them all apart. He also needed space for food and for the waste.
  • The ark was far too small for all the world's species, elephants and giraffes included. That they all fit was a miracle.
  • Then why not make the ark even smaller and let the miracle do more? Because Hashem keeps miracles as small as possible and hides them inside nature. Whatever human effort can do, a person must do. Noach built the largest vessel a person could build, and Hashem did the rest.

Three identical decks

  • If the bottom deck was only for waste, why divide it into rooms at all? Because Noach did not yet know which deck his family would live on.
  • Even today, some people like to travel on the lower decks of a ship, where they are better protected from the weather, while others don't like being closed in and prefer the upper decks. So Noach built all three decks the same and decided once he was on board.

What was the tzohar?

  • One opinion: Hashem told Noach to go down to the Pishon river, where he would find a stone that gave off light. Bereishis Rabbah says the sun did not shine for the twelve months of the Flood, so Noach hung this stone in the middle of the ark and used reflectors to spread its light to every part of the ark.
  • Bereishis Rabbah adds that the stone shone brighter at night, like a lamp, and dimmer by day. The same principle is why we search for chametz at night: a candle's light is stronger in the dark.
  • The other opinion: the tzohar was a skylight of thick glass that the rain could not break. On this view the sun did shine during the Flood. The window was at the very peak of the ark, a cubit wide, and let light into the whole vessel.

Hashem showed Noach a picture

  • "V'zeh asher ta'aseh," "this is how you shall make it": the word "this" means Hashem pointed to something. Noach could not picture how to build the ark, so Hashem showed him an image of it and exactly how to build it.

Angels brought the animals

  • How could Noach possibly travel the whole world catching a male and a female of every animal? Pirkei d'Rabbi Eliezer says Hashem sent the angels in charge of each species, and they brought the animals to the ark.

Food stored away, blessed and multiplied

  • Hashem could have fed everyone on the ark without any stored food. But blessing rests only on what is hidden from the eye. That is why the verse says to store the food away: once it was put aside, Hashem could bless it so that it kept increasing. In the same way, don't count your money if you don't have to.
  • Rav Moshe ibn Chaviv notes that the ark was not even big enough to hold all the food the animals needed, and that Hashem made a miracle so the food on board was enough for everyone.
  • There was no meat on board, because people were not allowed to eat meat until after the Flood. Noach also brought dried figs and dates.
  • Hashem gave Noach the wisdom to understand the nature of every animal: what each one needed, and when and how. Most of them he had never seen or heard of before.

Too much praise backfires

  • When people are talking about someone, don't praise him too highly. Too much praise invites "but too bad about his other faults" (Bava Basra 164b).
  • When a person's enemies are present, it is forbidden to praise him at all. They can't stand to hear it, and they will start speaking badly of him (Rambam, Hilchos De'os 7:4).

What happened in the seven days of mourning

  • The seven days were humanity's last chance. People could have mourned Mesushelach and said, "Our sins caused this great man to die." Instead they laughed at Noach: "Where's your flood? Is it raining in your house yet?"
  • During those days the rain started as a light sprinkle and grew harder and harder. Then it stopped, in honor of Mesushelach, holding back until his mourning ended and giving people time to repent.
  • Noach went from neighborhood to neighborhood in a last effort, warning that they would die in seven days. People made fun of him and no one listened.
  • The Gemara in Sanhedrin 108b says nature changed in those days: the sun rose in the west. Hashem also let people taste great pleasure, close to the delights of the World to Come, so that the fall would hurt all the more. The higher you are, the harder you fall.
Review questions
  1. Why does the Torah describe Noach as "righteous and faultless" right after saying he "found favor" in Hashem's eyes?
  2. Rashi writes "some of our Rabbis" for one reading of "in his generations" and only "some" for the other. What are the two readings, and what might the difference in wording mean?
  3. What is chamas, and how does the story of the fruit seller show what it looked like?
  4. Why was the ark built wide at the bottom and narrow at the top, and why was its door on the side?
  5. If the animals only fit into the ark by a miracle, why didn't Hashem make the ark even smaller?
  6. Why did the Flood wait seven days, and what happened during that week?
Sources
  • Me'am Loez — the running commentary followed throughout
  • Rashi — the two ways of reading "in his generations" and how he words each
  • Rabbi Yochanan and Reish Lakish — whether Noach would have been great in another generation
  • Gemara, Bava Kamma 60a — when punishment comes, the righteous are taken first
  • Zohar — in a time of anger, Hashem does not show mercy to individuals
  • Zera Berach — Ketz, the prosecuting angel created by sin
  • Rav Moshe ibn Chaviv (grandfather of the Me'am Loez's author) — "mipneihem" means the leaders; the miracle of the food
  • Bereishis Rabbah — the fruit seller; trees from Ararat; Rabbi Yehuda and Rabbi Nechemia on the ark's rooms; the two views of the tzohar
  • Pirkei Avos 1:18 — the world stands on peace, truth and justice
  • Ramban and Abarbanel — where the wood came from, and what gopher wood is
  • Gemara, Sanhedrin 108b — the ark's sloping shape, the use of each deck, the signs of the seven days
  • Ramban — why so many rooms, and why Hashem keeps miracles small
  • Pirkei d'Rabbi Eliezer — angels brought the animals to the ark
  • Gemara, Eruvin 18b — say part of a person's praise to his face and all of it behind his back
  • Gemara, Pesachim 3a — the Torah adds words to avoid saying "impure"