This week’s parasha , Parashat Noach, presents the personage of Noach - the link between the antediluvian and post-deluge worlds – the link between Adam and Avraham. At the end of last week’s parasha , before introducing us to Noach, the Torah explains that Hashem will destroy the world because all of man’s inclinations were evil and his society had become corrupt. The world had been created for man’s benefit, yet man distorted and perverted its purpose – necessitating its destruction. Hashem commits to destroying the world. However, Hashem, in His infinite wisdom, chooses Noach as the vessel through which the world would maintain continuity with its beginnings. After the deluge, Noach emerges from the ark and builds an altar to Hashem – upon which Noach offers animals as a sacrifice. Hashem accepts Noach’s sacrifice and commits to Himself to never again destroy the land and all living things. The Torah provides the rationale for Hashem’s commitment – because man’s inclinations are ev...
Rabbi Benjy Owen, Dean, Margolin Hebrew Academy-Feinstone Yeshiva of the South, Memphis, TN