Summary of parashat Noah
God commands Noah, the only righteous person in a world consumed by violence and corruption, to build a teivah ("Ark"), covered with pitch inside and out. A great flood, God says, will wipe out all life from the face of the earth; but the ark will float on the water, protecting Noah and his family, along with two members (male and female) of every animal species.
Rain falls for 40 days and nights, and the waters flow for another 150 days before beginning to recede. The ark comes to rest on Mount Ararat, and from its window, Noah sends out a raven, and then a flock of doves, "to see if the waters have receded from the face of the earth." When the earth has completely dried, exactly one solar year (365 days) after the beginning of the Flood, God commands Noah to come out of the ark and repopulate the earth.
Noah builds an altar and offers sacrifices to God. God vows never again to destroy all of humanity because of their actions, and establishes the rainbow as a testament to His new covenant with humankind. God instructs Noah on the sanctity of life; murder is a capital crime, and while humans are permitted to eat the flesh of animals, they are forbidden to eat meat or drink blood taken from a live animal.
Noah plants a vineyard and becomes intoxicated with its fruit. Two of his sons, Shem and Japheth, are blessed for covering their father's nakedness, while his third son, Ham, is cursed for taking advantage of his misfortune.
Noah's descendants remained as one people, sharing a common language and culture for ten generations. Then they defied their Creator by building a great tower symbolizing their invincibility; God confused their language so that "one cannot understand another's language," causing them to abandon their project and scatter across the earth, separating into seventy nations.
The section on Noah concludes with the chronology of the ten generations from Noah to Avram (later Avraham), and his journeys from his birthplace in Ur of Casdim to Haran, on the way to the Land of Canaan.
