The following observation comes from a sefer called Nachlas Eliezer, which was written by R’ Eliezer Kahan, who was a mashgiach in Gateshead.
The pasuk says: ויבן נח מזבח לה' - “And Noach build a mizbayach for Hashem...” (Bereshis 8:20). When Noach emerged from the teivah, he built a mizbayach and offered korbonos [sacrifices]. The Medrash Rabbah (34:9) comments on the fact that the Torah uses the word vayiven [he built] rather than va’ya’as [he made] in connection with the mizbayach. The Medrash explains that the reason for the choice of the word vayiven is because it can also be read as vayaven, meaning “he understood” (etymologically related to the words binah and havanah, which mean ‘understanding’).
What did Noach understand? He understood why Hashem had commanded him to take more kosher animals (7 pairs of each) onto the teivah than non-kosher animals (1 pair of each). He understood that the reason was so that there would be “extra” kosher animals from which to bring korbonos upon leaving the teivah. So “vayaven” (he understood) and “vayiven” he built a mizbayach immediately upon exiting from the teivah. So says the Medrash.
There is a second Medrash on the very next pasuk. The pasuk begins: וירח ה' את ריח הניחח - “Hashem inhaled the pleasant aroma” (Bereshis 8:21). The Medrash says that the reference here is too much more than merely smelling the roasted meat. The Medrash says that Hashem smelled the aroma of Avraham Avinu rising up from the fiery furnace into which he was thrown (for having broken his father’s idols). The Medrash continues that Hashem also smelled in Noach’s offering the aroma of Chananya, Mishael, and Azariah who were also thrown into a Fiery Furnace (Doniel Chapter 3) for refusing to bow down to the idol of Nevuchadnezer, King of Bavel.
Why did the Ribbono Shel Olam see or smell, as it were, the mesiras nefesh aroma of Avraham and the mesiras nefesh aroma of Chananya, Mishael, and Azariah in the korbonos of Noach?
The Nachlas Eliezer writes that Noach did something over here that was very significant. The Ribbono Shel Olam told him to take 7 pairs of kosher animals and only a single male-female pairing of the non-kosher animals. Noach asked himself why. For the same money, he could have hypothesized that the purpose of ensuring a surplus of kosher animals was to allow him to eat. He could have concluded “Hashem wanted me to be able to eat steak every night as a reward for my efforts!” Why then, did Noach assume that the reason for the surplus of kosher animals was that the Ribbono Shel Olam wanted korbanos? It is because when looking at the situation, Noach, rather than seeing his own needs, saw – as it were – Hashem’s “needs”. He put his pleasures and appetite and desires aside. He said, “No! Seven pairs are not for me! They are for the Ribbono Shel Olam.”
That self-denial, that small act of thinking about the big picture – something beyond oneself – was the first step of mesiras nefesh. Given the context of the Dor HaMabul – a generation that was into self-gratification and each person’s own pleasure – Noach took a step in the opposite direction. “No, I am not going to go ahead and enjoy myself. I am going to take those same animals that I could have eaten myself and sacrifice them to the Ribbono Shel Olam. The Ribbono Shel Olam “smelled” in the aroma of that korban the mesiras nefesh of later generations: Of Avraham Avinu and of Chananya, Mishael, and Azarya. Their dedication and self-sacrifice grew out of this small act of Noach at the dawn of mankind.
R’ Frand relates: People throw around the expression “mesiras nefesh” all the time. “It was raining and I came to the chasunah – Ah! What mesiras nefesh!” “I drove two and a half hours to Lakewood to such and such — What mesiras nefesh!” Frankly, I used to be put off by such language, thinking that it was a cheapening of a term reserved for real self-sacrifice and self-deprivation.
Someone corrected me and explained that the expression nefesh in Tanach can have a secondary meaning as well, as in the phrase:אם יש את נפשכם - “if it so be your desire” (Bereshis 23:8). Mesiras nefesh means that I put away my desire. I don’t want to get wet at night. I don’t want to schlep out on a cold winter night to attend somebody’s chasunah. I would rather stay home in my cozy house. Going out requires “mesiras nefesh” because I give over my ratzon, my desires, on behalf of someone else. A person does not need an act of martyrdom or self-sacrifice to be moser nefesh. A small act may also be mesiras nefesh. That is exactly what Noach did here. “I could have eaten these things, but I gave them to the Ribbono Shel Olam.”
That act modeled a behavior and had an affect such that ten generations later, Avraham Avinu was truly moser nefesh and scores of generations later, Chananya, Mishael, and Azarya, were literally moser nefesh allowing themselves to be cast into a fiery furnace rather than bowing down to an idol. (R’ Frand)
