Parshat Noach

‘And Noah built an altar to G-d…And G-d smelt the sweet smell; and He said in His heart, I will not continue to curse the earth because of man, because the inclination of man’s heart is bad from his youth…’ (Bereishit 8:20-21)

Many issues arise from this verse. Here are just a few. In what way does G-d have the power of smell? Why does G-d speak in His heart? What is the meaning of not continuing to curse? What are the implications of the inclination of man’s heart? Why does Noah build an altar?

Let us look at the last of these. After Noah and his family leave the Ark following the flood, the first thing that Noah does is to build an altar and offer sacrifices to G-d, using animals that were designated as tahor, ‘pure’.

In his book entitled ‘Divrei Agada’, Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv, a leading contemporary scholar in Jerusalem, lauds Noah for taking care of communal matters before his own individual concerns, despite the tough times Noah experienced on the Ark. Not only did Noah have to live in the Ark but he also cared for the animals as well.

Rabbi Elyashiv notes that Noah used pure animals for his sacrifices to signify his pure intentions to play his part in building a new society which would be purer than unacceptable society which existed at the time of the flood. Quoting the homiletical source, Midrash Yalkut Shimoni, Rabbi Elyashiv notes that in this spirit we recall Noah’s pure intentions at the end of each Amida prayer when we pray, ‘ve’areva laShem minchat…kimei olam’, that our prayer and offering should be fragrant to G-d as in days of old.

Noah’s intentions are particularly praiseworthy given the apparent qualification over his righteousness at the beginning of the Sidra (Bereishit 6:9) and the Talmud’s comment (Succah 52b) that the phrase, ‘the inclination of man’s heart is bad’, is a reference to the yetzer hara, the inclination for bad which exists in us. Our task throughout life is to subdue this urge and use it for the good. Noah’s offerings showed success in this respect.