God says to Noach, “Go into the teivah (ark).” Okay, he gets an invitation: “Go into the teivah.” “You know why I want you to go into the teivah? Because I see that you’re a tzadik (righteous person). You’re a tzadik in this generation.” Well, isn’t that obvious? The beginning of the Torah told us that Noach is a tzadik, tamim (blameless). He’s not going under the teivah because he’s not a tzadik. Why does God even have to explain why he’s going under the teivah? He built the teivah for 120 years. Go under the teivah.
The explanation is: “Noach, go under the teivah because I need to save you—not only for you, but for who’s going to come out of you. Because in many generations from you, Noach, there’s going to be a tzadik born. Because I see from you a tzadik lefanai.” A tzadik ahead of me, which means a tzadik in front of you. Somebody’s going to come out of you. And you know who that tzadik is? He’s Moshe. And you know how many generations Moshe Rabbeinu was from Noach? I counted before I came. That’s why I was a few minutes late: 17 generations.
So you say, okay, 17 generations. And that’s why God tells Noach, “I see a tzadik in front of me in the generation hazeh.” If you take the word hazeh, heh is 5 and zayin is 7. Hazeh equals 17. I see a tzadik in front of me in that generation. And who’s that tzadik in front of me in the generation hazeh? Moshe. And when Moshe Rabbeinu was born, what does the pasuk (verse) say? His mother was so happy because it says that when he was born, the whole room was filled with light. Every mother thinks that when her child is born. But it’s not so. It’s not so. I mean, when Moshe Rabbeinu was born, it was true. Moshe Rabbeinu was radiating.
So the pasuk says, his mother is talking: “This is a good child. He’s good.” And then it says she hit him and put him in a teivah. Now, all due respect, how does a mother know if the child is tov when he’s just born? If he’s just born, it’s a good baby. What makes a good baby? You need a couple of days to know if it’s a good baby or not. And maybe a good baby becomes not a good baby. The explanation, according to the mekubalim (Kabbalists), is that the numerical value of tov is 17. Vatere oto ki tov (And she saw him, that he was good). She saw ki tov (that it was good). This is the 17th. This is what God was telling Noach: there’s going to be a tzadik in the 17th generation. This is it. And therefore, she put him in a teivah because he was in generation 17 from Noach. And therefore, he’s the continuation of Noach. And what Noach was supposed to do—but the generation wasn’t worthy of it—would now happen in the times of Moshe. So you see, the story of Moshe is the completion of Parashat Noach.