Parshat Noach

October 25, 2025 ~ 3^rd day Cheshvan, 5786

I would like to dedicate this Dvar Torah in memory of my father-in-law, my mother-in-law and my parents. May their Neshamot, each have an Aliya.

The following is abstracted from an interesting analysis in the book, Unlocking the Torah Text: Bereishit by Rabbi Shmuel Goldin. (Gefen, 2007)

I would like to lead you through several passages in the text. A series of small textual variations appear. The Torah describes the entry of Noach's family into the ark by stating,

Noach and his sons, and his wife, and his sons’ wives entered the ark, because of the waters of the flood. (Bereishit, 7:7)

When G-d commands Noach to exit the ark after the flood has ended, He states,

Go out from the ark; you and your wife, and your sons, and your sons’ wives with you. (Bereishit, 8:16)

Finally, when Noach actually leaves the ark, the text reads as follows:

And Noach went out and his sons and his wife, and his sons’ wives with him. 

(Bereishit, 8:18)

Strange. Why is the Torah inconsistent in its description of the order of entry into and exit out of the ark? 

Why is it that when Noach enters the ark, husbands and wives are listed separately?

When G-d commands the departure from the ark, husbands and wives are listed together.

And, finally, when the actual departure from the ark takes place, husbands and wives are again listed separately? 

These may seem to be unimportant variations but as is well recognized, and I quote from Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, “The use of language in the Torah is not vague, accidental, approximate, [or] imprecise.”

Commenting on the separation of the men and women, as Noach's fam­ily enters the ark, Rashi states, 

The men separately, and the women separately; marital relations were prohibited during a time when the world was engulfed in sorrow and tragedy. (Rashi, Bereishit 7:7)

It would have been totally inappropriate, the Torah hints, for Noach and his family to carry on life as if nothing had happened, at a time when destruction literally rained down upon the world. In spite of the inevitability of the flood, and in spite of the un­imaginable evil that caused it, Noach and his family members are forbidden to ignore the pain and suffering outside the ark. The Torah indeed often indicates (as it does here through nuance) that it is immoral for man to live in a vacuum. We are forbidden to ignore the pain and suffering of others. As such, we can begin to also understand why G-d switches the familial order when He instructs Noach's family to exit the ark at the end of the flood: 

“You and your wife, and your sons and their wives,” G-d commands Noach, “men and women together.”

The flood is over. 

Rebuilding civilization and repopulating the world have become the order of the day. 

The resumption of family relations is not only a right, G-d states, but an obligation.  

At this point, the logical pattern seems to break down. The Torah indicates that as Noach's family departs the ark, men and women remain separate, in apparent defiance of G-d's wishes. 

Why is this gender separation consciously maintained by Noach's family even now that the flood has ended? 

This apparent problem actually provides a key to the final phases of Noach's story. Let’s reconsider the story in human terms. Imagine the scene of total devastation that greets the members of Noach's family as they begin to exit the ark. How deep their despair must have been, and how overwhelming their sense of aloneness. In the face of such tragedy and destruction, how can one possibly trust in the future? How can one even contemplate the thought of rebuilding, or beginning again? Noach and his children are paralyzed by the scene before them. They trust neither G-d nor themselves. 

Men and women leave the ark separately, because they simply cannot contemplate the future. 

The text that follows shows that G-d feels compelled to respond in a number of ways: 

• He promises that He will never again curse the earth because of man's actions.

• He blesses Noach and his sons and commands them, not once but twice, to be fruitful and to multiply.

• He establishes a visible covenant with mankind, symbolized by the rainbow, and promises that He will remember that covenant and never again destroy the world through flood.

• G-d directly responds to the paralysis that Noach and his family are ex­periencing. He urges, encourages, and cajoles them to move beyond the moment, to realize that the future can and must be built. 

Everything hinges upon how Noach and his family respond at this juncture.

The results are mixed. On the one hand, civilization continues. Noach's children have children, and the world is populated in the aftermath of the flood. On the other hand, on a personal level, Noach never moves past the tragedy of the world's destruction. The text chronicles his spiritual descent as he plants a vineyard, drinks from its wine and falls into a drunken stu­por. Unable to face what the world has become, Noach escapes in the only way that he can. The man who has saved the world at G-d's command is transformed into a tragic figure right before our eyes. 

Noach's struggle and failure in the aftermath of the flood should move us to consider the spiritual heroism of a generation of our own time. 

In the aftermath of World War II, survivors of the Shoah emerged, one by one, from ghettos, concentration camps, forests and other places of hid­ing, to face a world similar to Noach's after the flood. These survivors had witnessed unspeakable cruelty and horror. Their world had been totally destroyed, their families murdered. Who could have blamed these survivors had they given up on the world? How understandable it would have been had they been paralyzed, like Noach, unable to continue. 

Almost to a one, however, this was not their response. With unimaginable strength and indomitable spirit, these survivors rebuilt their worlds. They married, had children and grandchildren, and successfully created professions and careers. They refused to succumb to hatred and bitterness, all the while courageously living decent, moral lives. 

The contributions made by this generation of survivors, to the Jewish community at large, and to the State of Israel in particular, in the aftermath of their own indescribable personal tragedies, are immeasurable. Where Noach failed, the generation of my in-laws and my parents succeeded, and we bore witness to their success.

Now, many decades later, as we celebrate the release of the remaining living hostages, and the relief experienced by all Israelis and by everyone here and in the rest of the world, I venture to say that the survivors, in whatever capacity they served, whether former hostage, family member of a hostage, family member of all those who were Niftar during these past 2 years, including family members of all the deceased Chayalim and Chayalot, will each demonstrate the same resilience that their forebears displayed. And they will succeed as well.

Shabbat shalom.