Parasha Summary - Noach

Hashem decides to bring a flood to destroy Earth's corrupt & immoral inhabitants, other than righteous Noach, his family, & enough animals to re-populate the world. Noach takes 120 years to build an Ark.

After 40 days of rain, the flood covers the earth. After 150 days, the water starts to recede & the Ark rests on Mt. Ararat. Noach sends out a raven, then a dove, to see if the waters have abated. The dove returns with an olive leaf. Noach sends the dove out again, & it does not return. Noach leaves the Ark & brings offerings to G-d, who vows never to flood the world again. The rainbow is a sign of this promise.

Noach & descendants are granted permission to eat meat & given 7 Universal Laws, prohibiting idolatry, theft, adultery, blasphemy, murder & eating the meat of a living animal; & setting up a legal system.

Noach plants a vineyard & gets drunk. His son Cham crudely delights seeing his father naked, but Shem & Yafet cover their father respectfully. The Torah then records the incident of the Tower of Babel, after which G-d fragments communication into many languages & disperses the nations. The Sedra ends with the genealogy of Noach to Avram