Noach: Noach’s Hesitation; Reflecting on Our Avodat Hashem

By Mordy Blau

When was the last time you took a moment to reflect on your avodat Hashem? How strong is your connection to Hashem, and how is it reflected in your life? By learning a powerful message from Parshat Noach, I believe we can begin to answer these questions.

The Torah writes:

"וַיָּבֹא נֹחַ וּבָנָיו וְאִשְׁתּוֹ וּנְשֵׁי־בָנָיו אִתּוֹ אֶל־הַתֵּבָה מִפְּנֵי מֵי הַמַּבּוּל” (בראשית ז':ז').

At first glance, the words “מִפְּנֵי מֵי הַמַּבּוּל” seem unnecessary. Hashem had told Noach that He would make water pour down from the heavens and that the entire world was about to be destroyed. Why does the Torah then need to add that he went into the teivah because of the waters?

The mepharshim are bothered by the implication. It seems that Noach waited until the waters filled the earth to enter the ark. But how could this be? We know the Torah describes Noach as

"אִישׁ צַדִּיק תָּמִים הָיָה בְּדֹרֹתָיו" (בראשית ו’:ט’),

someone who walked with Hashem. Shouldn’t he have been motivated to enter the ark because of the Divine commandment? Even if one wanted to argue he wasn’t the greatest tzaddik, you would still expect him to listen to Hashem.

Rashi explains that Noach was “מַאֲמִין וְאֵינוֹ מַאֲמִין.” The mainstream explanation of this phrase is that Noach was a man of shaky faith — he wavered in his belief in Hashem and His prediction of the flood. Therefore he waited until the world began to flood. However, Rabbi Norman Lamm Z”L offers a deeper insight.

Rabbi Lamm explains that Noach invested 120 years in building the ark despite those around him saying the flood would never come. He must have believed in Hashem and the flood. So what did he not believe in?

He didn’t believe in himself. Noach was at fault for having too much faith in one sense, and too little in another. Rabbi Lamm suggests that Noach might have been thinking: “I have been spared for so long; I will be spared longer. If I am really such a righteous man — such a ‘tzaddik tamim’ — then nothing bad will happen to me now.” At the same time, he was also an eino ma’amin; he lacked faith in himself. He probably thought: “I am doomed with the rest of the world.

There is nothing in me that is worthy of being saved while the rest of the world drowns. I am helpless and hopeless.” When someone has these extreme, opposite ways of thinking, it represents the lack of faith he has in God that He will always look over us.

Parshat Noach reminds us that being an eved Hashem is more than mere obedience. It invites a deeper transformation: a shift from acting because we must, to acting because we want; from waiting until the waters rise, to stepping forward while the sky is still clear. In our avodat Hashem, we must not only believe in Hashem and that He wants the best for us, but in ourselves — to recognize that we can respond, that our small actions matter, and that our faith is revealed not just in what we believe, but in how we live.

As we reflect on our lives and ask what our avodat Hashem means, we must pose these questions: First, do we appreciate the fact that Hashem loves us and wants that connection? Second, do we believe in ourselves enough to make that connection meaningful?