Dvar for Parshat Noah

Delivered to students of Yeshiva Ohr Somayach on Shabbat Noah, October 23rd, 2009

Hashem created the world in six days. We can’t even imagine the suddenness of light’s conception. Our minds cannot encompass the instant that the skies opened and the seas flooded the surround. These actions are described with such quickness in Breishiet that the parsha appears to climax in its first few passages.

If Hashem created the world in such swiftness; in such an exacting finesse, why did it take Him such a long time to destroy the world in the Flood of Noach? Including the ark’s construction, it took almost 150 years for Hashem to destroy the world.

Such is the common view that Hashem’s purpose for the flood, and for Noach as an accessory, was to destroy the world, and in doing so, rid it of the theft, sexual perversion, and idolatry that had infested His creation.

This inference though is purely superficial. A careful examination of the parsha shows that Hashem’s motive in bringing on the Great Deluge —and the pre-requisite time period of the ark’s construction— was to encourage the people of the world toward teshuva; toward repentance of their transgression against G_d and man.

Midrash says that G_D asked Noach to construct the ark not at the shores of the sea, but at the top of a mountain. This was intended to arouse people’s curiosity in the giant project. Also, since the Torah says that it took Noach 120 years to build the ark, there was plenty of time for people to undergo self-examination. Surely this points to Hashem’s desire for teshuva —even from the people He had marked for destruction.

This bodes well for us in current times. Since the world appears to be hurling toward Mashiach, not eternal rebuke, we can be confident that we too have an opportunity for teshuva. If the people who perished in the Great Flood could have returned to Hashem, so too can we.

Of course, if we are headed for global catastrophe, we still have 120 years to work on that.