Noah's Flood

Once, many years after Adam and Eve, the world was full of people, but things were not going well. People had become cruel, violent, and corrupt. They stole from one another, hurt each other, and no longer followed Hashem’s ways. It got so bad that even the animals were affected by the people's bad behavior. The earth was filled with sin, and Hashem saw that something had to change.

Hashem decided to send a great flood to wash away all the wickedness and start again. It was a massive flood, and G-d told a man named Noah to build a big boat called an ark. G-d told Noah and his family along to gather up animals and go into ark. Then the flood came, and to this day, we call it "Noah's Flood".

Why do we call it Noah’s Flood? After all, the flood was sent by Hashem to cleanse the world of wickedness. Why name it after Noah, the righteous man who was saved?

The answer lies in a deeper understanding of Noah’s role. Noah was indeed righteous—he followed Hashem’s commandments and lived a good life. But, according to the sages, Noah missed an important opportunity: he didn’t try hard enough to save the people around him.

Imagine this: it’s a freezing cold night, and two people are outside. One person wraps himself in a warm coat and is comfortable. He stays warm, but he hasn’t done anything to help the cold situation itself. The other person, instead of wrapping himself up, builds a fire. The fire warms not only him but also everyone around him.

In Yiddish, there’s a saying: “Tzaddik in peltz,” which means “a righteous person in a fur coat.” This describes someone who takes care of his own needs but doesn’t try to help others. When someone is cold they could do two things; they could build a fire which keeps everyone around them warm, or they could just put on a fur coat which only keeps them warm.

Noah is compared to a “tzaddik in peltz.” He was righteous, but he didn’t do enough to inspire others or try to change the world around him. He built his ark, saved himself and his family, but didn’t plead with Hashem to save the rest of humanity the way other righteous figures like Abraham or Moses would later do.

Hashem wanted Noah to try harder to influence the people, to help them do teshuvah (repentance), and to return to the right path. But Noah focused more on protecting himself than on trying to bring others back to goodness. Because of this, the flood is called “Noah’s Flood”—it reminds us that while Noah was a good man, he could have done more to save the world.

Noah’s story teaches us that it’s not enough just to be righteous on our own. We have a responsibility to help others too. If we see people going down the wrong path, we should try to inspire them to change for the better. Hashem wants us to care not just about ourselves, but about the whole world.

Like the person who builds a fire to warm everyone, we should try to bring warmth and goodness to the people around us. We can’t just put on a warm coat and ignore the world’s problems. We need to be the fire that spreads light, helping others grow closer to Hashem and live better lives.

Noah was a tzaddik (a righteous person), but his story is a reminder that we can’t just focus on ourselves. Hashem wants us to be the kind of people who bring light and warmth to others, not just keeping it for ourselves. We should always try to help those around us find their way back to goodness, because true righteousness is about lifting everyone up, not just ourselves.