By Rabbi Yosef Shemtov
In this week’s Torah portion, we see that Noah and his family survived the flood after being in the boat for one year. They saw how people’s sins brought destruction. They saw not only that people perished, but also that all the animals and vegetation were wiped out. They saw how a small boat could contain so many varieties of animals and how the small amount of food they took with them was able to sustain them and the animals.
One would think that after seeing all these miracles, one would pray and thank HaShem for the rest of his life and do all of HaShem’s commandments.
However, we see that after the flood Noah is called ish h’adama, meaning an earthly man. The rabbis explain that Noah’s spiritual level became very low. The first thing he did after he went onto dry land was plant a vineyard to make wine.
We know the rest of the story – he got drunk and naked and Cham sinned with him. I think the lesson is that what pikrei avot says: “Don’t trust yourself till the last day of your life.” People can change. We have seen many boys who went to yeshiva for so many years but unfortunately their spiritual level went down when they attended college or entered the workforce.
It is very important that in every stage of life we be connected to Torah study and mussar. Seeing miracles and keeping all the mitsvot doesn’t guarantee that you will continue. We also should pray to HaShem to have merit to be his loyal soldier for the rest of our lives