Noah found favour – No’ach
17th century depiction of Noah with the plans for the ark
When the flood came, Noah was worthy of being saved from destruction because, as the opening verses of this week’s Torah portion tell us, he was more ethical than the other people of the time and was the tzaddik of his age. He “walked with God”.
Walking with God is halachah in Hebrew, and Noah was a man of halachah. Nonetheless Abraham was superior to Noah, say the sages, because he “walked before God” (Gen. 24:40). That is because he lived in a more righteous age and God trusted him to walk ahead without needing to hold his hand.
It seems paradoxical that God saw Noah as “righteous before Me in this generation” (Gen. 7:1) but the commentators Ramban and Sforno say that this only indicates a quality in Noah himself that was lacking in his family.
