And Hashem said “I will blot out Man whom I created from the face of the earth... for I have reconsidered My having made them”. And Noach found grace in the eyes of Hashem.
The Midrash (ב"ר כ"ט א') tells us that Noach merited to be rescued from the flood only due to the grace that he found in the eyes of Hashem, and says as follows.
כי ניחמתי כי עשיתים ונח. אפילו נח שנשתייר מהם לא היה כדאי, אלא שמצא חן בעיני ה', שנאמר ונח מצא חן בעיני ה'.
- When reading the two Pesukim together, it reads; ‘for I have reconsidered My having made them and Noach’. This implies that even Noach, the only man who survived the flood, was not worthy of being rescued, but was saved only because he found grace in the eyes of Hashem, as it is stated, ‘And Noach found grace in the eyes of Hashem’. This motion to rescue Noach, not due to his worthiness rather due to his finding grace in the eyes of Hashem, is hard to comprehend, as this doesn’t seem to be morally correct, for innocence and guilt depends only on the litigant’s actions and not on his finding grace in the eyes of the judge.
Additionally the Midrash (כ"ו ו') tells us; אפילו נח שנשתייר מהם, לא שהיה כדאי, אלא שצפה הקב"ה שעתיד משה לעמוד ממנו וכו'
- Even Noach, who remained from them, was not spared because he was worthy, but because Hashem foresaw that Moshe was destined to arise from him. This too needs to be explained, for why was it specifically Moshe’s merit which saved Noach more than the merit any other righteous descendants of Noach.
The Zohar (סז ע"ב) tells us;
עָא רַחַמִין על בניוי. לא בזיב הוא וכיון דאמר ליה דְישְתֵעָלְמָא ואִתְאַבִידו.
- After Hashem informed Noach that he and his children would be rescued, he didn’t pray on behalf of the rest of mankind and therefore they were all destroyed. The Gemara in Taanis (יא ע"א) says the following in regards to one who behaves in this manner.
בזמן שישראל שרויין בצער ופירש אחד מהן באין שני מלאכי השרת שמלוין לו לאדם ומניחין לו ידיהן על ראשו ואומרים פלוני זה שפירש אל יראה בנחמת ציבור
- At a time when the people of Israel are steeped in distress and one of them separated himself from the community and does not share in their pain, the two ministering angels who accompany a person come and place their hands on his head, and they say; “This person who has separated himself from the community, shall not witness the consolation of the community when they are delivered from their affliction”.
Nevertheless, the Zohar continues and says; אמר רבי יהודה. אף על גב דְזַכָּאָה הוה נח. לַאו איהו כדאי דקב"ה יָגִין על עָלְמָא בזכותא דְמאן דְיתלי בזכותא דְאבהן קיימי. אבל נח לא הוה ליה בזכותיה אלא בזכות אבהן קיימי כמשה.
- Rav Yehudah said, although Noach was indeed righteous, he wasn’t able to pray for the wellbeing of the rest of mankind, for as we see, when Moshe prayed on behalf of the Jewish people he prayed on their behalf in the merit of their forefathers, Avroham Yitzchak and Yaakov, but Noach, who didn’t have anyone in whose merit he was able to pray on behalf of mankind, was indeed not able to pray on their behalf.
We can now understand both Midrashim ever so beautifully. After Hashem informed Noach that he and his children were to be rescued from the flood, and yet he didn’t pray on behalf of the rest of mankind, he was guilty of ‘separating himself from the community, and not sharing in their pain’, and thus was supposed to be punished in ‘not being delivered from the affliction’. Thus, the Midrash says, ‘that even Noach, the only man who survived the flood, was not worthy of being rescued’.
Nevertheless Noach ‘found grace in the eyes of Hashem’, when ‘Hashem foresaw that Moshe was destined to arise from him’. For Noach’s descendant, Moshe, brought Noach’s innocence to light, because from Moshe we see that one can only pray on behalf of others when they have the merit of others to invoke on their behalf. Therefore, Noach who didn’t have anyone’s merit to invoke, was not guilty for not praying on behalf of mankind, and was therefore worthy of being delivered from the affliction and to be rescued from the flood.
זרע שמשון פרשתנו אות כ"ז
