Noah
The
Sages in the Midrash did not focus on the physical aspects of the Deluge, but
on its moral and religious repercussions. They did not think that Noah’s deliverance
from the flood bore religious meaning for later generations. The Sages thought that one should not declare
a day of rejoicing in honor of Noah’s having been saved when so many other
lives were lost. But the covenant made
between God and Noah at the cessation of the Flood was preserved for all time
by the Sages…they thought we can learn important lessons from the causes of the
flood…the virtues necessary to maintain a proper society had been destroyed,
and corruption and lawlessness reigned…
Moshe Kaveh (contemporary)
After the Torah said that Noach was a righteous man, meaning that he was neither a
man of violence nor one who perverted his ways… it is said that he walked with
God…he was not enticed by astrologers, enchanters and soothsayers…Now since
Noah was a righteous man and undeserving of punishment, it was fitting that his
sons and his household be saved by his merit for if his sons were to perish, it
would have been a punishment upon him…
Ramban (13th Century)
In order
to explain the relative merit of Noach’s
righteousness, the Torah indicates that it was of a “negative kind.” It was not
that he did good, but what he did was not wrong. While he did not do anything wrong, he did
not promote righteousness either. He
abstained from the principal sins of his generation; immorality, violence and
idolatry…
Moshe Alshich (16th Century)
At this
point, an intelligent child must surely ask how it is possible that a man whom
the Torah described in the most glowing terms as a righteous and perfect
individual did not turn to God in prayer in order to help save the members of
his generation and give them a chance to repent and rehabilitate
themselves?...The answer is that Noach did not
“neglect” to pray for his contemporaries either because he did not care or felt
that they deserved to perish. He knew
that there was a need for only ten righteous people in order to ensure the
survival of the world…He reasoned that if there were indeed ten righteous
people alive at the time God would not have instructed him to prepare for the
deluge…
Bachya ben Asher (13th Century)
The
first 77 verses of the parsha deal with the flood, while the last 76 verses
after “this is the sign of the covenant” refer to our world…in appraising these
two worlds, it would appear that there is no difference between them…It is not
coincidental that only after the episode of the tower of Bavel,
when there was no longer “one language” and there was no longer “one speech”
for all of mankind, was Abraham able to arise and to revolt against the world
of his father and his idols. In a world
of “one language and one speech,” an Abraham can never arise…
Yeshayahu Leibowitz. (20th Century)
Relevant
here is the tradition that the Flood was not a single cataclysmic event, but a
process…people h ad lost the capacity to discriminate between God, man and
nature. A linguistic rigor was lost. At that time, by no coincidence, “a third of
the world was flooded by the overflowing oceans,” according to Rashi…There are
several indications in the Midrash that the men and women knew that the Flood
was on its way…
Aviva Zornberg (Contemporary)