Parshas Noach - Did Noach believe or not?

Good erev Shabbos, Parshas Noach. Noach recently is more famous than ever before with song Noach was a big Tzadik! At same time chazal seem to be critical of Noach. Mei Mabul? So who was noach? Hashem felt that the world had reached a point where it had to be destroyed. The value of family and the value of possessions had been corrupted. The gifts that Hashem gave humanity had been used wrongly. Therefore the world had to be destroyed. Noach and his family were kept alive. Noach Ish Tzadik. Still Chazal say On the words of “ויבא נח” Rashi says מפני מי המבול. אף נח מקטני אמנה היה, מאמין ואינו מאמין שיבא המבול ולא נכנס לתבה עד שדחקוהו המים: נח came to the door of the תיבה. The times arrives, begins to rain slightly. So he has Emunah b/c he is standing up, but couldn’t go in because he wasn’t enough of a מאמין until it started to rain. How could he not believe that Hashem would bring a Mabul? He had been building a Teiva for 120 years?! Says R’ Chaim Shmulevitz zt”l Noach couldn’t believe that Hashem would go ahead and destroy all of humanity. He understood that he was building the תיבה for humanity to do תשובה. They would see him build it and change their ways. The time got closer and he brought in every animal, rodent and every insect. Everything until the last second he did. Still he thought, would Hashem really follow through on his threat to destroy the world? Only when it started to pour he realised that it was starting to happen. חז"ל call this קטני אמונה. There are a lot of things that we don't understand. There are difficult פרשיות in the torah for example the תוכחה, do we really understand it in the Torah It’s hard for us to understand how Hashem who is all good – גומל חסדים טובים – that is all He does is good Then you learn our history and you don't get it. That is קטני אמונה. We want to tell ourselves that Hashem will never do it because it just doesn’t make sense. We are bothered by the questions. That’s b/c e don't know what good is. Hashem expects of us to be able to accept that Hashem is all good and that good is sometimes painful. We need to trust that Hashem knows what He is doing and more then that – that He knows what טוב is. There is a Story of students sitting and discussing with a Rabbi how if they were G-d what they would do differently, e.g. no illness, no divorce, no war etc. then asked Rabbi what he would do…Rabbi said “I would keep the world exactly as it is”! The challenges Hashem gives us, are perfect for us, and made only for us to grow and work on ourselves. נח because of his צידקות couldn’t see Hashem carrying out His threats. He did everything until the point he was standing next to the תיבה but to go inside and really believe that Hashem will carry out his threats that he didn’t believe. This is how a Yid is supposed to arrive at Shabbos , this is how one is supposed to feel. Bo Shabbos, Bo Menucha, Shabbos you are u supposed to be totality at peace. In love with hashem and feel totally secure. Why all weeks are we not tranquil? b/c there is so much going on. So many worries. Finances health, relationships, we are so overburdened with everything. Comes Shabbos we remember we don’t run the world. He runes the world. He loves us. And although all week we must worry about everything ourselves. The truth is He runs the world anyway. Rav Berkovits says “Let go. Let go and stop worrying. Let go and stop your mind racing” Feel peace, the tranquility. This is the commandment, that is what Shabbos is He knows what he is doing. Enjoy a tranquil Shabbos. Enjoy this Island in Time. Good Shabbos.