Noah נח
the righteous man of his generation, who preserved life in the ark
Noach was born in the year 1056. The Torah calls him "a righteous man, whole in his generations", and the sages argue over that qualifier: some say he would have been nobody in Avraham's generation, others that righteousness amid universal violence is worth more than righteousness in good company.
Given the verdict on the world and 120 years of delay, he builds the ark slowly and in plain sight, so that people would ask and perhaps reconsider. None did. In 1656 the Flood begins; for a year and ten days the ark carries eight people and the animals.
On dry land he offers a sacrifice, receives the rainbow as a sign of a permanent promise, and the seven commandments binding on all humanity. He plants the first vineyard, and the episode of his drunkenness shapes the futures of Shem, Cham and Yefet. He died in 2006, aged 950—overlapping Avraham's life by 58 years.
On the timeline
Related
Sources
Tanakh
- Bereishit 5:28–9:29 — the ark, the Flood, the rainbow, and the seven commandments
Chazal: Mishnah, Talmud, midrash, Zohar
- Bereishit Rabbah 30–36 — “righteous in his generations” — the midrash’s dispute
- Sanhedrin 108a — the generation of the Flood and its sentence
- Seder Olam Rabbah 1 — the dates of the Flood and of Noach’s death
Basis: stated in the Tanakh.