We meet Noah at the end of Parashat Bereshit, but his introduction is unique. For everyone else the Torah simply says and he begot... followed at once by the child's name.

But for Noah it is different. The Torah first says Lamech lived and begot a son, and only afterwards: and he called his name Noah. This slight shift in wording prepares us to sense that there is something very special about this child.

The Midrash reveals a secret. When Adam sinned the earth was cursed, and everyone born after him was born with fingers stuck together, like mittens with no separated fingers. For ten generations, from Adam to Noah, every baby was born this way. Noah was the first to be born with separated fingers: the sign that he would be able to wield tools, work the land, and at last relieve humanity of the curse.

The word עצבון (itsavon, toil) echoes the עצב of the curse: by toil (בעצבון) you shall eat it. Until Noah they plowed with bound hands; now, with separated fingers, work becomes possible.

The Sages compare Noah to two great figures: Moses and Abraham. The link with Abraham is striking. Noah is born in year 1056 of Creation and dies at 950, in year 2006. Abraham is born in 1948. The difference, 2006 minus 1948, is 58 years of shared life.

Abraham was exactly 58 when Noah died, and 58 is the gematria of נח. This is no accident: Hashem shows us that these two giants overlapped in time. Ten generations separate Adam from Noah, and ten generations separate Noah from Abraham, who begins the repair (tikkun) that Noah did not complete.

Why speak of Noah during Sukkot? Because a deep bond joins the Sukkah and Noah's Ark. The Sukkot piyut teaches that the Name as written (יהוה = 26) and as read (אדני = 65) totals 91, exactly the gematria of סוכה (Sukkah = 91).

The Arizal reveals more: if we multiply יהוה by אדני, letter by letter, we obtain the very dimensions of the ark. י×א = 10, ה×ד = 20, ו×נ = 300, ה×י = 50.

A mysterious thread links the serpent of the Garden of Eden, the land of Goshen in Egypt, and our parasha. The gematria reveals it: נחש (serpent) = 50 + 8 + 300 = 358, and גשנה (Goshnah) = 3 + 300 + 50 + 5 = 358.

In Parashat Vayigash, Jacob, descending to Egypt, sends Judah ahead goshnah, to Goshen, to establish houses of study. According to the Arizal the Egyptian exile was not a punishment: its purpose was to recover the holy sparks scattered after Adam's sin, the sin of the serpent. These sparks had concentrated in Egypt, the nakedness of the land.

What happens when Torah and holiness are planted in the serpent's mouth? It cannot bear holiness and must vomit up all the sparks it swallowed. Israel then gathers them and brings them out of Egypt at the Redemption. As the ark saved humanity from the waters of judgment, the houses of study in Goshen saved the holy sparks: Noah began the comforting, Abraham and his descendants completed it.