[Avodah] Noach's Mazal Tov

[Zvi Lampel]

A guest we had for Shabbos amazed me with the following observation regarding Noach.

(For lack of time, I’m leaving out some relevant sources; but the facts are familiar to us all, I’m sure.)

We know Noach was 600 years old when he finished the work on the Ark and the Flood began (Breishis 7:6). We know he was told to build it 120 years earlier. Calculation: Noach was therefore commanded to build the Ark, plus  take his wife and married children into it, when he was (600-120=) 480 years old.

But he first had his children 20 years later, when he was 500 years old (Breishis 5:32)!*

Amazing conclusion: When Hashem told Noach that the rest of the world’s population will be destroyed by the Flood, He was in fact also informing the childness Noach that he would eventually father children (who would have wives!) at an advanced (even for his times) age!

Problem: Torah and Chazal do not seem to make a point of this (as opposed to, say, with Avraham Avinu). If they do, where? If they don't, why not? 

* Incidentally, since "Noach begat Shem, Cham and Yafess" when he was 500 years old, does that mean they were triplets? Or does it mean he then started to have sons at 500 years old, but two of them were really born when Noach was older? I don’t think it could mean that at 500 is when he finished begetting the three--Chazal point out that Hashem, knowing that Shem Cham and Yafess themselves would not be worthy enough to be saved from the Flood on their own account, kept Noach from having children earlier, so that they would be young enough at the Flood to be saved on his account. (And it would be difficult to say that the "500-year" figure is a rounded figure, and Noach really had the sons before his 480th year, because a number of the ages the Torah gives at which children were born are not approximations. Among them are 105, 187, and 182.)

Zvi Lampel
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