PARASHAT NO'ACH

Parashat No’ach

Genesis 6:9 - 11:32; Isaiah 54:1 - 55:5; Matthew 24:36-44

No’ach, the namesake and focus of this week's parsha, seems at first glance quite contradictory. On one hand, the Torah explicitly testifies in the beginning of the parsha that No’ach was perfectly righteous, and he alone merited to be saved from the destruction which befell his contemporaries. Everyone alive today is descended from him and exists only in his merit.

On the other hand, Rashi points out that some Sages question how pious No’ach truly was. The verse emphasizes that he was righteous in his generation, which can be read as implying that if he had lived in another generation, such as that of Avraham, he wouldn't have been considered unique or special in any way.

This is difficult to understand. If the Torah explicitly praises No’ach, why do the Sages minimize his greatness, and why do they specifically compare him to Avraham? Further, No’ach wasn't righteous enough to be completely exempt from the pain and suffering which was meted out to the rest of his generation. He was forced to survive the flood by spending a year in cramped quarters together with the rest of the animal kingdom, and he enjoyed no rest as he was constantly busy feeding each animal at the time when it was accustomed to eat. If he was indeed so righteous, why wasn't he simply told to escape to the Land of Israel, which according to one opinion (Talmud - Zevachim 113a) was miraculously protected and spared from the flood until the waters subsided?

Furthermore, after Noach survived this difficult experience, he received permission to exit the ark and was given a promise that God would never again destroy the world. No’ach responded by planting a vineyard, getting drunk, and debasing himself (Genesis 9:20-21). How could he have fallen so far so quickly?

The answer to these apparent contradictions lies in the Zohar (Vol. 3 15a), which questions why the Haftarah (Isaiah 54:9) refers to the flood as "Mei Noach" - the floodwaters of Noach. Since Noach was the righteous tzaddik who was spared from the destruction, why is the flood named for him, implying that he was somehow responsible for it?

The Zohar answers that God commanded No’ach (Genesis 6:14) to make an ark to save him and his family from the impending flood. During the 120 years that No’ach was busy doing so, he neglected to pray for his contemporaries to repent their sins and be spared, and as a result, he was held accountable for the flood which may have been prevented through his prayers.

The Zohar teaches us that although No’ach was personally righteous, he was content with his own individual piety to save himself and his family without being properly concerned about the welfare of his contemporaries. The Midrash compares No’ach to a captain who saved himself while allowing his boat and its passengers to drown.

With this insight, we can now appreciate that No’ach's spiritual level was indeed complex and somewhat contradictory. He withstood the tremendous temptation to join the rest of his sinful generation and remained uniquely pious, yet at the same time he could have done much more on behalf of others.

Rabbi Moshe Shternbuch writes that this explains why No'ach was forced to endure such a difficult and exhausting year in the ark, instead of living peacefully with his family in the Land of Israel. Even though No’ach was deemed sufficiently righteous to be saved and to repopulate the earth, he was found lacking in the area of feeling compassion for others. In order to teach this lesson, God required him to spend the duration of the flood engaged in continuous chesed, feeding the various animals around the clock, each with its own unique menu and eating time.

The parasha commences with ‘these are the generations of No’ach’ and then proceeds to list his attributes. From this the sages deduce that our good deeds are like our children that we leave behind as a witness to following generations!