mei Noach

 You have in this week's haftarah

 כִּֽי־מֵ֥י נֹ֙חַ֙ זֹ֣את לִ֔י אֲשֶׁ֣ר נִשְׁבַּ֗עְתִּי מֵעֲבֹ֥ר מֵי־נֹ֛חַ ע֖וֹד עַל־הָאָ֑רֶץ כֵּ֥ן נִשְׁבַּ֛עְתִּי מִקְּצֹ֥ף עָלַ֖יִךְ וּמִגְּעׇר־בָּֽךְ׃

Hashem tells us that the churban ha'bayis was like the Noach's flood.  Hashem promises that He will never again bring upon Bnei Yisrael such an act of destruction.

1) What's the comparison?  The flood destroyed the entire world.  The churban and ensuing galus is our problem, not the whole world's problem?  

When you lose someone dear to you and close to you, it's like your whole world is gone.  Hashem is telling us that when he has to give such a big punishment to us, for whom He created the whole world, it's like that whole world is gone.

2) Everybody knows the derasha that it's called מֵ֥י נֹ֙חַ֙ because Noach is held responsible for the flood.  He could have davened and done something to avert the disaster, and is assigned blame for not having done so.  

If Chazal want to teach us who is to blame for the flood, why here?  Why stick this in a pasuk in the middle of Yeshayahu and not somewhere in parshas Noach or elsewhere?

R' Tzadok haKohen (Pri Tzadik 12) quotes the gemara (Yoma 86) תניא היה ר"מ אומר גדולה תשובה שבשביל יחיד שעשה תשובה מוחלין לכל העולם כולו שנא' ארפא משובתם אוהבם נדבה כי שב אפי ממנו מהם לא נאמר אלא ממנו .  All it takes is one person doing teshuvah and the whole world can be uplifted and be granted mechila and kapara. 

Chazal are telling us about the flood because it's a lesson for us.  We had a churban ha'bayis and we are sitting in galus for 2000 years already and Hashem comes and tells us that it's like מֵ֥י נֹ֙חַ֙ because all it takes is one person to do teshuvah, all it takes is one Noach willing to beg Hashem to forgive Klal Yisrael, and the whole world changes, everything can be different.

3) There is a machlokes whether מֵ֥י נֹ֙חַ֙  is one word or two (see Radak).  If you read it as two words, it means "the waters of Noach," like I explained above.  If it is one word, then it means "like the days of Noach," k=like+ y'mei=days.  

Abarbanel explains:

שכמו מה שקרה לישראל בחטאתיהם וגאולתם ותשועתם כן קרה לדור המבול שנתרבו על פני כל הארץ והשחית כל בשר את דרכו ונתן השם להם זמן לשוב בתשובה ולא שבו ונתחייבו כליה ונשארו מהם מעט מהרבה נח ובניו והם נעשו לגוי גדול ומאלה נפצה כל הארץ ונשבע ה׳ בזרוע קדשו שלא להביא עוד מבול לשחת כל בשר כן ישראל פרו ורבו ותמלא הארץ אותם ומלאה הארץ חמס מפניהם ונתן השם להם מקום לשוב בתשובה ולא שבו עדין, ומפני זה שבלת מים שטפתם זרם מים רבים שהוא הגלות האמנם ישארו מהם אחד מעיר ושנים ממשפחה כאותם שניצולו בתיבה והם יהיו לראש פנה וירבו ויעצמו בארץ וישבע השם שלא להביא עוד עליהם גלות 

Just like in the days of the flood there was a long window of opportunity of teshuvah that no one took advantage of, and then Hashem finally brought the flood to wipe out the world and only Noach and his small family was spared, so too, before the churban Hashem sent warnings, there was a window of opportunity for teshuvah, but once that passed Hashem brought us into galus, which, like the flood, wiped out everyone except for small pockets here and there.  

If you live in the 5T like I do, or some other frum neighborhood, you live in a little bubble and you think the Jewish world is booming.  The latest census data shows that the fastest growing neighborhoods in NY/NJ are those areas where Orthodox Jews live -- we have lots of kids and so the population grows.  In my area we have kosher restaurants aplenty, we have multiple yeshivos to choose from, plenty of minyanim to choose where you want to daven and where you won't step foot.  But all this is an illusion.  Your little island may have gotten a little bigger in the last census count, it may have better restaurants and more schools than the next little island, but sach ha'kol, it's still just a little island surrounded by the vast ocean of the flood, and those waters and closing in more rapidly than you think.  The vast majority of American Jews are underwater already or barely holding their head above water Jewishly, as intermarriage, assimilation, ignorance, and apathy take their toll.  These is מים רבים שהוא הגלות that the Abarbanel is referring to.  We can only hope that we are among the אמנם ישארו מהם אחד מעיר ושנים ממשפחה כאותם שניצולו בתיבה those who can make it to the finish line and witness Hashem's promise that days like those of Noach, whether the flood of rain or the flood of galus, never repeat themselves again.