Noah the Righteous Tree of Life Who Fed Every Creature

"These are the generations of Noah." Thus did R. Tanchuma bar Abba open in the study house: It is written, "The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life" (Proverbs 11:30). R. Judah ha-Levi bar Shalom said: When a righteous person departs from the world without children, he is distressed and weeps. The Holy One, blessed be He, says to him: For what reason are you distressed and weeping? Because you did not raise up the fruit of children? In this world I have fruit more beautiful than children. And he says before Him: Master of the Universe, what is that fruit? The Holy One, blessed be He, says to him: This is the Torah in which you labored, for thus it is written, "The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life," and "tree of life" is nothing other than Torah, as it is said, "She is a tree of life to those who hold fast to her" (Proverbs 3:18). Who is this? This is Noah. Our Rabbis said: Noah did not die until he had seen the whole world in its settlement, until he had seen the fortress of Sepphoris, and until he had seen seventy nations going out from his loins; and of them all, only his righteousness was mentioned, as it is said, "These are the generations of Noah, Noah was a righteous man, blameless." Shem, Ham, and Japheth are not written here, but rather his righteousness, as it is said, "Noah was a righteous man." Know for yourself that this verse speaks about Noah, for it is written at its end, "and a wise one captures souls" (Proverbs 11:30). This was Noah, who captured souls, and he sustained them and fed them. And what did he feed them? R. Akiva says: He fed fig-cake to all of them — cattle, human, beast, and fowl — as it is said, "and it shall be food for you and for them" (Genesis 6:21). And what is the thing that human beings eat, and the cattle, and the beast, and the fowl? You must say: this is fig-cake. But the Rabbis say: No. Rather, each and every species ate according to what it was accustomed to: the camel, straw; the donkey, barley; the elephant, vine-wood; the ostrich, glass. You must say: "and a wise one captures souls."