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.
שלום ושבת טוב חודש ,טובות בשורות בברכת
