Hey everyone!

Hope you all had a great week. This week’s parsha is Parshat Noach. Noach was a great person, and here is his story:

–          The parsha starts off setting the scene. The people in the world were wicked and dishonest, so Hashem wanted to destroy them. The only righteous in the world were those in the family of Noach, and Hashem wanted to save them. He told Noach that He planned on flooding the world, so Noach should build a large boat and take his family, 2 of every non-kosher animal and 7 of every kosher animal on board with him.

–          Noach took 120 days to build his boat. After that, Noach boarded his crew and the flood began.

–          The flood lasted 40 days and nights. Noach’s boat landed on Mount Ararat. He sent out a raven to see if there was dry land, but the raven never came back. So Noach sent out a dove, which came back after some time with an olive branch in its beak. Noach then knew that the land was dry, and Hashem told him to come out of the boat. Hashem also showed him a rainbow in the sky as a promise that He would never destroy the whole world again.

Why did it take Noach 120 days to build his boat? Don’t you think that is a little too much?

The reason it took Noach so long is because Hashem still wanted to give people a chance to do teshuvah (repent). When people asked Noach what he was doing, he answered, “I am building a boat because Hashem is going to flood the world, because people are wicked.” Yet no one believed him and no one repented. Rather, they laughed at him and thought he was making things up.

So what do we learn from this? Two things: 1) We should always give someone a second chance to say sorry and correct the wrong they have done.

2) Even if people laugh at us for doing what is right, we should not listen to them, and keep doing what we are doing. For example, some people think it is funny that Jewish girls wear tznius (modest) clothing, such as long sleeves and long skirts. But does that mean we should not be tznius? No. We should do what is right.

Have you even stood up to someone who laughed at you for doing what’s right? Comment about it!

Have a great shabbos!

<3 Tamar