These are the offspring of Noach, Noach was a righteous man, perfect in his generations; Noach walked with Hashem. Noach had begotten three sons...
There is much that needs to be understood in this Passuk. Firstly, the Midrash discusses its opening words, אלה - These are, and says as follows.
בכל מקום שנאמר 'אלה' פסל את הראשונים, 'ואלה' מוסיף על הראשונים. כאן שנאמר 'אלה' פסל את הראשונים, דור המבול. - Wherever the Passuk introduces a group of items by stating ‘these are’, it intends to exclude the items mentioned in the previous passage; and whenever the Passuk states ‘and these are’, it intends to adjoin the following items to the ones mentioned in the previous passage [i.e. because when the Passuk says ‘and these are’, it implies a linkage with those mentioned above, by contrast, ‘these are’ connotes exclusiveness]. Thus, here, where it is stated, ‘These are the offspring of Noach’, it purports to exclude the ones mentioned in the previous passage, namely, the generation of the Flood. The יפה תואר asks on this Midrash; why was there a need for the Torah to explicitly exclude the Generation of the Flood from Noach’s righteousness when this is obvious, as we find that only Noach was rescued from the flood while the rest of the generation all succumbed in the flood?
Furthermore, the Torah begins the Passuk with the clear intention of enumerating Noach’s offspring, but instead goes on to list his praises. Rashi explains this deviation as follows.
הואיל והזכירו סִ פֵר בשבחו. - Since the Passuk mentioned him, it told of his praise. This explanation of Rashi is hard to understand, for we can ask on the mere mention of Noach’s name as well; why was there a need to mention his name, and to enumerate his children, altogether - don’t mention his or his children’s name and have no need to list his praises either?
Additionally, we can ask; because the three children of Noach were rescued from the flood as well, why does the Torah say in the last Passuk of the previous Parsha, ונח מצא חן בעיני ה' - And Noach found grace in the eyes of Hashem, and not ‘Noach and his three children found grace in the eyes of Hashem’, as they too were found worthy of being rescued from the flood.
The Passuk in Parshas Bereishis (ה' ל"ב) says, ויהי נח בן חמש מאות שנה ויולד נח את שם את חם ואת יפת. - When Noach was five hundred years old, he begot Shem, Cham and Yafes. Rashi explains the seemingly unproportionate old age of Noach when begetting his children.
כבש את מעינו ולא הוליד עד חמש מאות שנה, כדי שלא יהא יפת הגדול שבבניו ראוי לעונשין לפני המבול. - Hashem caused Noach to be infertile, and he did not beget children until the age of five hundred, so that at the time of the flood, Yafes, the oldest of his sons, should not be of age to be subject, by the Heavenly court, to punishments for his sins.
According to this notion, that Noach’s children were all too young at the time of the flood to be subjected to heavenly judgment, we can understand all that we questioned above.
The reason why the Torah says, ונח מצא חן בעיני ה' - And Noach found grace in the eyes of Hashem, and not ‘Noach and his three children found grace in the eyes of Hashem’, is because although Noach’s children were indeed rescued as well, it wasn’t because they were righteous like their father, rather because they were too young to be subjected to heavenly punishment.
But according to this, the obvious could be asked; if so, why don’t we find other young people of that generation being saved merely because they weren’t of age to be subjected to punishment? Therefore, the Torah feels the need to explain and say that Shem, Cham and Yafes were the children of Noach, to imply that it was their young age in addition to the merit of their father that saved them from the flood, as opposed to the other young people of that generation, who although were also too young to be judged by the heavenly court, nevertheless they all perished in the flood as part of the punishment meted out to the general public. Therefore, the Torah indeed needed to tell us, אלה תולדות נח - These are the offspring of Noach, to imply that it was for this reason that those three were saved, and once the Passuk mentioned his name, it told of his praise...
At the same time, the Torah also wanted to explain why all the other youngsters were not rescued; and thus says 'אלה' - these are, to explicitly exclude the Generation of the Flood from Noach’s righteousness, in order to imply that this was the very reason that their children were not rescued the same way that Noach’s children were rescued.
זרע שמשון פרשתנו אות א
