Make yourself an ark of gopher wood… (Bereishis 6:14)

Many of the meforshim ask why did Hashem require Noach to build the ark? There were many means besides an ark that Hashem could have used to save Noach and his family while destroying the world. For example, He could have just moved Noach to Eretz Yisrael where – according to many meforshim – there was no flood.

The obvious answer is that part of Noach’s job during the building was to admonish people and remind them that Hashem will soon destroy them if they do not repent – similar to the job of Yonah in the city of Ninveh. However, Chazal tell us that he was not successful at getting anyone to repent, so at the end of the day, why was it necessary for Noach to suffer – and as the medrash tells us, Noach indeed suffered greatly in the ark.

Rav Aharon of Karlin answers this question based on the fact that we see that Noach was lacking certain important middos. Though he was a righteous man, and better than the rest of the population of the entire world, yet Noach also needed purification. This purification was accomplished through his difficult experiences in the ark.

Many times in our own lives we meet people who went through difficult times and those situations cause them to be more insightful and caring. As painful as those experiences were, they were a positive force in building their character, and allow them to empathize and help others in similar predicaments. Those who did not have to go through those trials sometimes are insensitive because they never felt those hardships in their lives. The Noach who left the ark was a survivor; not merely someone who was saved, but one who had to struggle and work hard in order to pull through.

I believe there are many parents who try to coddle their own children and protect them from the “school of hard knocks”. They do not realize that the school is actually a place for these children to gain the tools they will need to survive in life. I am sure that many of you are aware of this regarding your children, but tend to forget that this applies to us in our own lives as well.

I ponder: It seems from Chazal that though Noach’s children were all adults at the time of the flood, not all of them behaved properly in the ark (see Sanhedrin 108b). Chazal do not mention this as a fault of Noach. I would like to explain a possible reason. Just as Noach was not successful in his kiruv attempts before the flood, so too he was unable to give over to his children his commitment to serving Hashem. Rav Moshe Feinstein said that the downfall of many religious families who moved to America at the beginning of the 1900’s was that they told their children “It is hard to be Shomer Shabbos!” What these parents really meant to say was, “Even though it is difficult to be Shomer Shabbos, it is definitely worthwhile.” The children, unfortunately, just picked up the negativity, and were not as committed to shemiras Shabbos as their parents were, because they didn’t want the “hard” life. Possibly, this is the reason his actions did not influence his children to the maximum.

I have heard many times that when people are asked, “How are you?” they respond, “Baruch Hashem for what Hashem gives me, but from my vantage point I am really in a difficult situation.” What these people are trying to say is that not all that Hashem gives us is sweet, but we recognize that it is for our own good in the long run.

Noach too, through the difficult time he had in the ark (see Pirkei D’Rebbe Elazar 23), absorbed this lesson. He was able to create a cleaner world, with a greater chance of success than the world which was destroyed.

May we merit to use our hardships as new tools for our growth.