Noach נֹחַ - Rest
Torah Portion: Genesis 6:9-11:32
Genesis 7:1–16
7 Hashem said to Noah, “Come with all of your household into the ship, for I have seen your righteousness before Me in this generation. 2 You shall take seven pairs of every clean animal with you, the male and his female. Of the animals that are not clean, take two: the male and his female. 3 Also of the birds of the sky, seven and seven, male and female, to keep seed alive on the surface of all the earth. 4 In seven days, I will cause it to rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights. I will destroy every living thing that I have made from the surface of the ground.”
5 Noah did everything that Hashem commanded him.
6 Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters came on the earth. 7 Noah went into the ship with his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives, because of the floodwaters. 8 Clean animals, unclean animals, birds, and everything that creeps on the ground 9 went by pairs to Noah into the ship, male and female, as Elohim commanded Noah. 10 After the seven days, the floodwaters came upon the earth. 11 In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst open, and the sky’s windows opened. 12 It rained on the earth forty days and forty nights.
13 In the same day Noah, and Shem, Ham, and Japheth—the sons of Noah—and Noah’s wife and the three wives of his sons with them, entered into the ship— 14 they, and every animal after its kind, all the livestock after their kind, every creeping thing that creeps on the earth after its kind, and every bird after its kind, every bird of every sort. 15 Pairs from all flesh with the breath of life in them went into the ship to Noah. 16 Those who went in went in male and female of all flesh, as Elohim commanded him; then Hashem shut him in.
Today’s Meditation:
What about the verse, “Entered into the ship”? I have always thought of Noah and his family just walking up the plank behind the animals, silent and willing. But today I had another thought. What if Noah said, “It’s time to get in the boat”? And some of his sons started wailing, “No, I don’t want to! This is crazy!” And what if they resisted? Would Noah try to calm them down and remind them of Hashem’s promises to save them? What if his sons thought, “But what about all our friends? What will they think?” Would peer pressure be extreme on his sons and daughters? What would ultimately bring them into the boat? Would Noah be shouting at them? Ordering them to enter?
What brought them into the boat was obedience. Their father did this extravagant thing. He got instructions from Hashem on how to build a boat, and with the help of his sons and daughters, they built it. It must have been a truly miraculous experience. They must have been overwhelmed when they saw the completed boat and the animals from all over the world entering it. The next step was to obey their father and board the ship. Would you have done that? Would you have left everything behind without hesitation?
Today’s Challenge:
Think today about what you would be willing to give up to “get on the boat” with Hashem? Would you give up everything? You may think you have already done that when you decided to join His Covenant and follow His Commandments. But, really, have you? Take some time to reflect on this.
