The Great Flood
Hashem observed the world's wickedness and decided to bring a great flood to destroy all living creatures on earth. However, Noach found favor in the eyes of Hashem and was instructed to build an ark to save himself, his family, and pairs of every creature. Noach and his family followed Hashem’s commands and started to build an ark. He gathered a male and female of every unclean animal and seven of every clean creature, just as Hashem instructed.
After many years of hard work following Hashem’s commands, Noach’s ark was complete. Then it started to rain, and the ground opened up, and water came up out of it.
When the waters started to rise, Noach brought his family and all the animals into the ark, and once they were all inside, Hashem closed the door to the ark. The waters above and below came together for forty days, flooding the entire earth. Every land creature and person outside the ark died.
After the rain stopped, Noach sent out a dove three times to see if the waters had receded. The first time the dove was sent out, the dove returned with nothing because it could not find any place to rest. The second time, it returned with a broken olive leaf, meaning the land was starting to dry up. The third time the dove was sent out, it never returned because it found a home to live in permanently on Earth. Finally, the ark rested on the mountains of Ararat. Noach and his family left the ark and started a new era on the new earth.
Upon leaving the ark, Noach built an altar and sacrificed one of every clean animal and bird on it to thank Hashem. Hashem saw Noach’s love and promised never to flood the earth again. He put a rainbow in the sky to remind us after every big storm.
The Tower of Babel
Hashem commanded Noach’s family to spread out across the land. After many generations, they became a large group of people who all spoke the same language and refused to spread out. They decided to make a name for themselves by building a large tower that ascended to the heavens. They called it the Tower of Babel.
Hashem saw what they were doing and knew they intended to establish themselves as gods and in doing so, they would forget what is good and evil. So Hashem made the different families speak 70 languages.
Suddenly, the people couldn’t communicate with one another. They spoke different languages and couldn’t understand what the others were saying. The tower remained unfinished, and the people scattered all over the world.
Noach to Avram
Noach’s son, Shem, had many grandchildren and great-grandchildren. One of his descendants was Terah. Two of Terah’s sons were Avram and Haran. Haran and Avram grew older and married wives, and Haran became the father of Lot. Terah took his son Avram, Avram’s wife Sarai, and Lot (Terah’s grandson). They set out from their home to go to Canaan, but when they got to the land of Harran, they settled there instead.
Comments