In Parshas Noach, we learn of a world that is completely corrupt, save for one righteous man, Noach.  The Torah tells us that נֹחַ אִישׁ צַדִּיק תָּמִים הָיָה בְּדֹרֹתָיו אֶת-הָאֱלֹקִים, הִתְהַלֶּךְ-נֹחַ, Noach was a righteous man, he was pure in his generation, Noach walked with G-d (Bereishis 6:9).  While there are those who say that while in his generation he was righteous, had he been in the generation of Avraham he would have been considered as nothing; there are rabbis who say that he was a complete tzadik and had he been in a generation of tzadikim he would have been even more righteous! (Rashi, ibid).  

In a time of immorality, idolatry, and thievery (Rashi to 6:11), the predominant sins of the time, Noach was a pure man.  G-d himself proclaims to Noach that he and his family are worthy of being saved because: כִּֽי־אֹתְךָ֥ רָאִ֛יתִי צַדִּ֥יק לְפָנַ֖י בַּדּ֥וֹר הַזֶּֽה, for you I have seen a righteous man before Me in this generation (7:1).  

In order for G-d to save Noach, his wife Naama (Rashi to 4:22), their three sons, Shem, Cham and Yafes, and the wives of their sons, G-d commands Noach to build an ark.  The ark is to have three floors: one for the people, one for the animals that would also be saved, and one for the garbage. Into this ark all those who would be saved would enter, and would remain there all the while that the flood waters inundated the earth, and for the duration of time until the waters fully subsided.

However, G-d, Who is Omnipotent, would have many ways of saving Noach and his family.  Why did He command Noach to build an ark - for one hundred and twenty year, no less!?

Rashi asks this question and explains as follows:

הַרְבֵּה רֶוַח וְהַצָּלָה לְפָנָיו, וְלָמָּה הִטְרִיחוֹ בְּבִנְיָן זֶה? כְּדֵי שֶׁיִּרְאוּהוּ אַנְשֵׁי דוֹר הַמַּבּוּל עוֹסֵק בָּהּ ק"כ שָׁנָה, וְשׁוֹאֲלִין אוֹתוֹ מַה זֹּאת לְךָ, וְהוּא אוֹמֵר לָהֶם עָתִיד הַקָּבָּ"ה לְהָבִיא מַבּוּל לָעוֹלָם, אוּלַי יָשׁוּבוּ

There are many ways for G-d to bring about salvation and deliverance (when He wants to save someone).  So why did He bother Noach with this construction?  So that the people of the generation of the deluge would see Noach busy with ark-building for one hundred and twenty years, and they would inquire of him, ‘What are you making for yourself?’ and he would answer them and say: ’In the future, G-d will bring a deluge upon the earth (hence I am building an ark to save myself)’.  Perhaps, upon hearing this, the people would repent (and the generation would be saved from destruction) (Rashi to 6:14).

Noach’s ark-building affects no one in his generation, and due to a complete lack of repentance, the entire world is destroyed in the mabul.  וַיִּמַח אֶת-כָּל-הַיְקוּם אֲשֶׁר עַל-פְּנֵי הָאֲדָמָה, מֵאָדָם עַד-בְּהֵמָה עַד-רֶמֶשׂ וְעַד-עוֹף הַשָּׁמַיִם, וַיִּמָּחוּ מִן-הָאָרֶץ; וַיִּשָּׁאֶר אַךְ-נֹחַ וַאֲשֶׁר אִתּוֹ, בַּתֵּבָה - And Hashem erased all existence from the face of the earth, from man to animal, to crawling things, to the birds of the heavens, and He erased them all from the land, and only Noach and that with him in the ark remained (7:23).

What lesson can we derive from the original question: Why did G-d command Noach to build an ark for 120 years?  If it wasn’t for the benefit of the people of the time, was there any other benefit?  If not, why did G-d not save Noach in a different (miraculous) fashion, and if so, what was the benefit, and what lesson can we derive from here?

Perhaps we can propose that the benefit of ark-building was not, in fact for anyone else; rather, it was for Noach himself.  Noach lived in a generation of depravity and destruction due to the behaviors and immorality of the people in his time.  And when he would exit the ark after the flood, he would behold a different destruction: utter desolation and complete nothingness. In short, Noach was a man who lived with destruction all around him.  Spiritual destruction of the world pre-flood and physical destruction post-flood.  

And so, G-d comes to him and says: “Noach, in order to save yourself, you must build.”  There is a much deeper and more profound lesson here than just building an ark.  The lesson that G-d transmitted to Noach, and recorded for posterity in the Torah ha’Kedosha, is that when facing a world of destruction (R”L), one must never give up, and one must continue to build.  In commanding Noach to build the ark, G-d was teaching him, and preparing him, for life after the flood.  

In essence, Hashem was saying: Noach, these 120 years of building, despite all the spiritual chaos and destruction around you, are to prepare you for life after the flood.  The ark was not only to save Noach and his family, for G-d has many avenues of deliverance and salvation.  The ark was to teach Noach that despite it all, he must look ahead to the future, he must never despair or give up, and he must always keep building.

This insight never occurred to me until this year, as we approached the first yarzheit of the kedoshim on Shemini Atzeres/Simchas Torah HY”D.  Klal Yisrael, as a nation, and Medinat Yisrael, as a land, was hurled into a world of churban, the likes of which had not been seen since the cursed days of the Shoah.   

And now, after a year when so many - far, far, far too many - holy, heroic souls have fallen in defense of our nation and Land - we must remember the lesson of Noach and his ark.  Though Noach was not the direct father of Am Yisrael, through his righteous son, Shem, he was the (10th generation) great-grandfather of Avraham Avinu, the father of the Umah Yisraelis.  

Noach and his ark-building must inspire us with a lesson that carries us forward.  As in every generation, they arise to destroy, and in every generation, Hashem saves us… and in every generation, we will continue to build the future.  We will build for the sake of Torah, we will build for the sake of our people, we will build for the sake of our Land, and we will build for our collective future, until the great day of Redemption.  For this is the courage of our people, and with Gd’s help, the path to salvation.

בברכת בשורות טובות, חודש טוב ושבת שלום