Parshat Noach5 min read

Noah Warned of the Flood While the Crowd Planned an Iron Roof

For one hundred twenty years Noah warned of water. The crowds mocked and boasted they would roof the earth with iron if fountains burst from below.

Curated by Arthur · Told by Maggid ·
Table of Contents
  1. The Sea That Learned Manners
  2. One Hundred Twenty Years of Mockery
  3. Only at His Bidding
  4. What Could Have Abrogated the Decree
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The Sea That Learned Manners

Before Noah was born, the legends say, the sea flooded the land twice a day and licked at graves as if the dead were a shoreline. At his birth the water drew back into its borders and stayed. A famine from the days of Lamech, counted among the great famines destined for the world, eased when the child arrived like a hinge in weather. As he grew he walked the path of Methuselah, righteous against the grain. The rest of humankind walked the other way, and the blood of the giants born from the Watchers cried upward until the archangels themselves filed accusation before God in a court that needed no human witnesses.

Uriel was sent to Noah with warning and craft, how to build and how to live when the world would not listen. Raphael bound Azazel under sharp stones in the desert of Dudael, darkness until judgment. Gabriel drove the bastard offspring of angels and women into mutual slaughter, a brutal end for a brutal birth. Michael pinned Shemhazai's line under hills for seventy generations, forced to watch their children die before the binding. The flood would not be only rain on roofs. It would be the closing of a case already argued in heaven while men below still planned banquets.

One Hundred Twenty Years of Mockery

Even after the decree that the world had become too corrupt to continue, mercy spoke last. Noah preached for one hundred twenty years while he built, a walking billboard of warning. He held the coming water over their heads like a bell and pleaded for turning. They laughed with the confidence of people who have never seen a map fail. "What sort of flood are you expecting, old man? If fire comes, we know how to protect ourselves. If water bubbles from the earth, we will cover the fountains with iron rods. If water falls from above, we have a remedy for that too." They had answers for every direction except the direction of repentance.

The ark rose in public, a ridiculous mountain of wood and pitch, and still no one boarded who was not commanded by name. Arrogance treated carpentry as theater and prophecy as entertainment between meals. Noah hammered. They joked. Children learned mockery as a local sport. The door stayed open long enough for a generation's worth of teshuvah (repentance, the turn back to God) that never arrived, while iron rods were discussed as if heaven could be roofed like a cistern.

Only at His Bidding

When the waters finally ceased and the mountains remembered air, when the raven and the dove had done their work and the world smelled of wet stone, Noah refused to leave on his own schedule. Midrash Tanchuma remembers his stubborn obedience with clarity. He had entered at the bidding of the Holy One when the word was "Come, you and your household, into the ark." He would not depart except at the same quality of bidding. God had to speak again into the quiet. Go forth from the ark. The man who had endured a century of mockery would not take one unauthorized step onto a washed world, as if free will had learned a new caution.

Outside lay silence where markets had been, and bones where boasts had been. The generation that planned iron roofs against heaven was gone, and their rods had not held back a single cubit. Noah stepped onto mud that had been a courtroom and a grave, wife and sons and animals breathing the first unpunished air in months.

What Could Have Abrogated the Decree

Tanchuma places beside the flood a teaching that three things abrogate a harsh decree, repentance, prayer, and charity, and some add a changed name and the performance of good deeds. The Holy One had hoped the flood generation would repent while the ark's ribs still showed. They did not. Extermination followed, not because heaven lacked patience, but because patience had been answered with engineering jokes. The ark was not a prize for cleverness or for bloodline alone. It was what remained when a world refused every softer door and every louder warning.

Noah's birth had calmed a rude sea. His preaching could not calm rude hearts that preferred iron fantasies to bowed heads. Between those two facts the rain began, the fountains of the deep broke, and the only roof that mattered was the one they had mocked while it was still under construction, drop by drop, year by year, until the jokes ran out of air.

NoahFloodWatchersArkUri elRepentanceMethuselahWarningJudgmentGenesisTargum Pseudo Jonathan
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From the tradition

Sources

3 sources

The texts behind this telling. Some cards carry a translation of the source; others are our own retelling of it, and each card says which. Every card links out to the original.

Legends of the Jews 4:9Legends of the Jews

Retold in our words. Read the original at the link below.The Legends of the Jews by Louis Ginzberg (1909) · Public Domain

Before we get to the ark and the flood, let's rewind a bit. According to Legends of the Jews, a collection of stories compiled by Rabbi Louis Ginzberg, Noah’s arrival on the scene was Before he was born, the sea was a bit… unruly. Ginzberg writes that it flooded the land twice a day, reaching the graves! But the moment Noah entered the world, the sea calmed down, staying within its boundaries. And that's not all. There was a terrible famine during the time of Lamech, Noah's father, one of ten great famines destined to plague the world. But with Noah’s birth, the famine ended.

As Noah grew into a man, he followed in the righteous footsteps of his grandfather Methuselah. The rest of humanity? Not so much. They rejected Noah's pious ways and embraced their evil inclinations. What was driving this wickedness?

Ginzberg tells us that much of the blame rested on the shoulders of Watchers and their giant offspring. These giants were spilling so much blood that it cried out to heaven. It got the attention of the archangels, who accused the Watchers and their sons before God. This wasn’t just a minor infraction; it was a cosmic crisis demanding divine intervention.

So, what did God do? He sent the archangels on a mission, each with a specific task. Uriel was dispatched to Noah himself, to warn him about the impending flood and to teach him how to save his life.

Then there was Raphael. His mission? To deal with the Watcher Azazel. Raphael was instructed to chain Azazel and throw him into a pit of sharp stones in the desert of Dudael. This wasn't a gentle punishment; it was a harsh confinement in darkness until the great day of judgment, when Azazel would be cast into the fiery pit of hell. The idea was that by removing Azazel, the earth could be healed of the corruption he had brought.

Gabriel had a grim task as well. He was sent to deal with the bastard children, the offspring of the angels and human women. in the story, Gabriel was charged to plunge them into deadly conflicts with one another, a brutal solution to a brutal problem.

And finally, Michael. He was given responsibility for Shemhazai's descendants. Michael forced them to watch their own children die in bloody combat, and then he bound them and pinned them under the hills of the earth. There they would remain for seventy generations, until the day of judgment, when they too would be cast into the fiery pit of hell.

It's a pretty intense story. It speaks to the idea that sometimes, drastic measures are taken to restore balance to the world. But it also raises some tough questions. Was this divine intervention just? Was it fair? And what does it say about the nature of good and evil?

These are questions that Jewish tradition has grappled with for centuries. And as we continue to explore these ancient stories, perhaps we can find new ways to understand ourselves and the world around us.

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Legends of the Jews 4:25Legends of the Jews

Retold in our words. Read the original at the link below.The Legends of the Jews by Louis Ginzberg (1909) · Public Domain

That’s essentially Noah's predicament in the lead-up to the Flood.

In Legends of the Jews, even after God decided, with a heavy heart, that the world had become too corrupt to continue, He still gave humanity one last chance. Mercy, it seems, always gets a final word. So, He sent Noah.

For 120 years, Noah became a walking, talking, preaching billboard. He warned them, pleaded with them, trying to turn them away from their wicked ways. He held the threat of the coming flood over their heads, hoping to shock them into repentance.

How did they respond? They mocked him. Noah, diligently working on this massive ark, surrounded by jeering crowds. "Hey Noah, whatcha building?" "Going on a cruise, old man?" They just didn't take him seriously. Not one bit.

Their arrogance is almost unbelievable. They saw Noah building the ark, this gigantic vessel, and instead of being afraid, they were… defiant. "What’s with the ark, Noah?" they’d ask, their voices dripping with sarcasm. "What sort of flood are you expecting?"

And their hubris just escalates from there. "If He sends a fire flood," they bragged, "we know how to protect ourselves." They had a solution for everything, or so they thought. According to Ginzberg's retelling, they were convinced they could handle anything God threw at them.

And what about a flood of water? No problem! "If the waters bubble up from the earth," they declared, "we will cover them with iron rods!" They thought they could simply barricade themselves against divine judgment. And if the water came from above? "We know a remedy against that, too!" They had answers for everything, except, of course, for genuine remorse.

How easily we can become convinced of our own invincibility, how deaf we can become to warnings, even when they're shouted from the rooftops – or, in this case, from the deck of a giant, half-finished ark. What warnings are we dismissing, confident in our own solutions, while the storm clouds gather on the horizon?

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Midrash Tanchuma, Noach 8Midrash Tanchuma

Retold in our words. Read the original at the link below.Townsend 1989 translation of Midrash Tanhuma, S. Buber Recension · CC-BY

And God spoke to Noah, saying: “Go forth from the ark” (Gen. 8:15). May our master instruct us whether one is permitted to place saliva upon an ailing eye on the Sabbath. R. Hiyya the son of Abba stated in the name of R. Levi: It is forbidden to place saliva on an ailing eye on the Sabbath, for that would be equivalent to healing on the Sabbath. Come and see that there is no ailment in all the world for which there is no cure. What is the cure for an act resulting from the evil inclination? Repentance.

R. Judah the son of R. Shalum explained in the name of R. Eleazar that three things abrogate a harsh decree: repentance, prayer, and charity. R. Yosé added: Changing one’s name and the performance of good deeds. The Holy One, blessed be He, had hoped that the generation of the flood would repent, but when they failed to do so, He exterminated all living beings. Only Noah survived in the ark. When the waters ceased to flow, and the time arrived for Noah to leave the ark, he declared: I entered at the bidding of the Holy One, blessed be He, when He told me, “Come, you and your household, into the ark,” and I shall not depart except at His bidding. Thereupon God revealed Himself unto Noah, as it is said: And God spoke to Noah, saying, “Go forth from the ark.”

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