Parshat Noach 5786
Noach’s Birth and Uniqueness
Noach was a tenth-generation descendant of Adam Harishon. And he and his family were the only descendants of Adam to not suffer the terrible fate of those who lived during the time of the flood.
He is first mentioned in last week’s Parsha (Parshat Bereishit 5:4-5). “Lemech lived 182 years, and he had a son named Noach, saying, “This one will bring us relief [yenachameinu] from our work and from the anguish of our hands caused by the soil that G-d has cursed.”
There is something unique that Noach brought to the world as Rabbi Yeruchem Levovitz explains in his Sefer Daas Torah (Bereishit 5:29). He writes about Noach’s tremendous trait of lovingkindness: “Noach is credited with granting the world with the innovation of ‘rest,’ though not a ‘rest’ of foolishness… a ‘rest of love [of G-d],’ etc. which found favor in the eyes of G-d. Through this innovation he was granted everlasting merit.” Reb Yeruchem adds, “It’s incredible: there were so many new innovations created which could have granted their innovators tremendous reward, had they only had the proper intention of performing lovingkindness…”
Noach’s Shmiras Einayim
In the end of last week’s Parsha, we also discussed how the world became corrupt and deserving of the flood. The sons of the rulers saw how pretty the rest of humanity’s daughters were, and they took themselves wives from whomever they chose. They were immoral with wives of others. Out of the entire human race, only Noach found favor in the eyes of G-d. Rav Meilech Biderman says why was this? Because Noach guarded his eyes from immorality.
A Tzadik
Our Parsha, Parshat Noach starts out by saying that Noach was a Tzadik.
“These are the generations of Noach. Noach was a good and just man. He was a pure man in his generation.” (Parshat Noach 6:9)
The Gemara (Sanhedrin 108a) famously teaches us that Noach was a Tzadik in his generation, but if he lived in the generation of Avraham, he would not be a Tzadik per se.
With regard to the pasuk: “These are the generations of Noach; Noach was a righteous man, and wholehearted in his generations” (Genesis 6:9), Rabbi Yocḥanan says: Relative to the other people of his generation, he was righteous and wholehearted, but not relative to those of his generations. And Reish Lakish says: In his generation he was righteous and wholehearted despite being surrounded by bad influences; all the more so would he have been considered righteous and wholehearted in other generations.
Paving The Way For Avraham
Noach and Avraham, who was his Descendant and was actually born during the very long life of Noach, were two very important men in the history of mankind, who were charged with two very different missions. The mission of Noach was the mission of survival. The world was at a crossroads that needed to be fixed, and Noach stepped up the plate and ensured the survival and continuation of mankind. In that way he “walked with G-d” and kept the status quo alive. He paved the way for a person like Avraham to emerge armed with the mission of spreading G-d’s word and “walk in front of Hashem”
For most of the resources I used for this Article please read the following Divrei Torah.
https://www.chabad.org/parshah/article_cdo/aid/1009768/jewish/Kehot-Chumash.htm
https://judaism.stackexchange.com/questions/145743/why-is-the-complete-life-span-mentioned-between-adam-and-noach-but-not-between
https://judaism.stackexchange.com/questions/145740/parshas-noach-why-was-noah-called-righteous-in-his-generation
