נח - על גבולות ובחירה מנטור

(2) "In his generation..." - (Sanhedrin 109) Some of our rabbis interpret this as praise, meaning, all the more so, if he had been in a generation filled with righteous people, he would have been even more righteous. And there are those who interpret it as criticism, meaning, if he had been in Abraham's generation, he would not have been thought of as anything special.

(2) "Before the flood waters..." - Even Noah had little faith. He believed and didn't believe that the flood would come, and he didn't enter the ark until the water was pushing him in.

he made himself profane, for he should first have engaged in a different sort of planting.

(15) And wine that maketh glad the heart of man, Making the face brighter than oil, And bread that stayeth man's heart.

(12) The third deterrent to Watchfulness is evil companionship, that is, the companionship of fools and sinners, as Scripture states (Proverbs 13:20), "And the friend of fools will be broken." Very often we see that even after the truth of a man's responsibility for Divine service and Watchfulness has impressed itself upon a person, he weakens or commits certain trespasses in order not to be mocked by his friends or to be able to mix freely with them.... If there are among his companions those who subject him to ridicule, he should not take it to heart, but, to the contrary, should ridicule them and shame them. Let him consider whether, if he had the opportunity of acquiring a great deal of money, he would keep from undertaking what such acquisition entailed so as to avoid the ridicule of his companions. How much more averse should he be to losing his soul for the sake of sparing himself ridicule.