Noach
Genesis 6:9 – 11:32
God sees that human wickedness has filled the earth and resolves to bring a great flood, sparing only the righteous Noah, his family, and pairs of every living creature aboard an ark. After the waters recede, God establishes a covenant with Noah, setting the rainbow as its sign and promising never again to destroy the earth by flood. The parasha concludes with the Tower of Babel, where humanity's hubris leads God to scatter the nations and confuse their languages, and with the genealogy leading to Abram.
Key figures
- Noah — Righteous man in his generation, builds the ark, saved from the flood
- Shem — Son of Noah, ancestor of the Semitic peoples and of Abraham
- Ham — Son of Noah, father of Canaan, sees his father's nakedness
- Japheth (Yefet) — Son of Noah, covers his father's nakedness with Shem
- Nimrod — Mighty hunter, associated with Babel and the founding of kingdoms
Famous verses
- 6:9 These are the generations of Noah. Noah was in his generations a man righteous and wholehearted; Noah walked with God.
- 9:13 I have set My bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between Me and the earth.
Haftarah: {'ref': 'Isaiah 54:1-55:5', 'connection': "Isaiah refers explicitly to 'the waters of Noah,' comparing God's promise never to flood the earth again to His enduring covenant of peace with Israel."}
Total gematria 477,911 is divisible by 7, the number of completion.