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“Sure I am that this day we are masters of our fate, that the task which has been set before us is not above our strength; that its pangs and toils are not beyond our endurance. As long as we have faith in our own cause and an unconquerable will to win, salvation will not be denied us (Winston Churchill; 1942 Speech to Joint Session of Congress).”

Was this not God’s message to Noah when He commanded him to build the Ark? I hear God telling Noah that he is the master of his fate, but Noah did not discern the same point. He spent 120 years building the Ark and still did not sense that he was master of his fate. “And Noah did according to everything that God commanded him (Genesis 7:5).” Rashi explains that the Torah is teaching us that Noah entered the Ark as God commanded him. Noah built the Ark, made extensive preparations for all the animals, and he still needed God to command him to enter the Ark! A few verses later, the Torah informs us, “Noah, with his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives with him, went into the Ark because of the waters of the flood (7:7).” Rashi comments that Noah’s faith was less than perfect because he entered the Ark only when the rising water forced him to seek refuge. What was Noah doing outside if he entered earlier in verse 5? Unless, he exited the Ark after his first entry, and reentered only “because of the waters of the flood”!

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Noah was not the only one to leave after his first entrance: “Two by two they came to Noah into the Ark, male and female, as God had commanded Noah (7:9).” Yet, again the Torah repeats the point, “They came to Noah into the Ark…as God had commanded him (Verses 15-16).” The text informs us that the animals entered twice, something possible only if they left after their first entrance! No wonder it says, “And God shut it for him (16);” God sealed the Ark to stop Noah and the animals from leaving!

I understand why Mr & Mrs Elephant would leave after seeing their accommodations; they were more claustrophobic than a zoo display. Why would Noah leave the Ark?

Noah, as Rashi said, was lacking in faith, but it was not his faith in God that was weak; it was his faith in himself. He refused to believe that he was master of his fate. He was willing to follow all of God’s instructions, do exactly what he was told, but no more. God knew that Noah did not believe that he would succeed, so He said, “It is you I have seen to be righteous before Me in this generation (7:1),” you have earned the right to survive, and you can build the new world just as you built the Ark! Noah rejected the idea that, “the task which has been set before us is not above our strength; that its pangs and toils are not beyond our endurance.” He did not believe that he would succeed in rebuilding the post-Flood world. Noah, the man who saved the world, had no more vision than the animals he saved! He entered the Ark only as did the animals, “As God commanded.”

Noah stepped out of the Ark into a pristine world, made an offering to God and then waited for instructions. God responded by changing an instruction into a blessing: “God blessed Noah and his sons, and He said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the land’ (9:1).” The first commandment, “Be fruitful and multiply,” was now offered as a blessing. God did not want to function as The Instructor, but as The Blesser. The blessing fell on deaf ears, those of a man who refused to believe that he could take advantage of the blessing to live as master of his fate. God had to wait for Abraham who, “Walked before God (17:1),” using his blessings to forge his own path, rather than Noah who only knew how to, “Walk with God (6:9),” with specific instructions for each step.

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Rabbi Simcha L. Weinberg, is founder and President of the leading Torah website, The Foundation Stone. Rav Simcha is an internationally known teacher of Torah and has etablished yeshivot on several continents.