The Israelites said Shirah on seeing the wicked Egyptians drowning.
Did Noah act in a similar way, praising God for saving him and his immediate family and seeing millions of wicked humans drowning in (boiling?) flood?
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1Did he see it? Were there windows looking down?– rosendsOct 26, 2020 at 18:51
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@rosends sideways maybe– Al BerkoOct 26, 2020 at 18:58
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2@rosends there are those who explain the disagreement about the tzoar, whether a window or a precious stone, based on the differing opinions if Noach was truly righteous, and would deserve to see the people drowningthrough a widow, or if he was only righteous compared to his generation, and thereby did not deserve a window, so he had the precious stone. But in either case, he wasn't saved from the people drowning and so he would not have said a shir, akin to the angels by the yam suf.– user6591Oct 26, 2020 at 18:58
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@user6591 A good point, maybe post it as an answer, I liked it. You're saying that the Shirah is said specifically on own salvation and not simply God's judgment.– Al BerkoOct 26, 2020 at 19:00
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2Considering the interpretation of some that he got drunk after the flood to attempt to forget his sorrow and survivor's guilt, it seems unlikely. Also, arguably, many of these people were relatives.– Harel13Oct 26, 2020 at 19:33
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3 Answers
Noach did not say Shira when they drowned.
The Malochim were criticized for saying Shira when the Egyptians were drowning.
Klal Yisroel was not criticized because the Egyptians had been their tormenters who had been running after them so they were also thanking Hashem over their salvation.Noach was not being chased after by the people of his generation.
Chazal discuss the opposite question. Why didn't Noach daven for his generation? He is even criticized by them not having done so. But he clearly didn't say Shira upon their destruction.
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Thank you. 1. Do you have sources, or are those your speculations? 2. When one person is saved out of millions I would see it appropriate to praise God or something. 3. Extermination or the punishment of the Egyptians was prophesied long before, so the drowning wasn't so surprising, after all.– Al BerkoOct 26, 2020 at 22:52
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The Melochim being told not to say Shira when the Egyptians were drowning is a Gemara Megillah 10B. I no longer remember where the other sources are– SchmerelOct 26, 2020 at 23:07
On the contrary. Rav Chaim Friedlander זצ"ל in his שפתי חיים על פרשת נח, brings from the זוהר (השמטות בראשית רנד) that when נח came out of the תיבה and saw the destruction, he cried out to ד' asking why He hadn't had mercy on the people
כשיצא מן התיבה וראה את העולם חרב והתחיל לבכות לפניו ואמר רבש"ע נקראת רחום, היה לך לרחם על בריותיך! השיבו הקב"ה ואמר רעיא שטיא, השתא אמרת דא? למה לא אמרת בשעתא דאמרית לך כי אותך ראיתי צדיק לפני וכו ואח"כ עשה לך תבת עצי גופר וכו לא עאל בלבך למבעי רחמין על ישובא עלמא?
On the other hand, Rav Dovid Kviat זצ"ל in his סוכת דוד suggests, in order to explain a מדרש, that the קרבן which נח brought after the מבול was not just to thank G'd for saving him, but also out of recognition that everything G'd does is fair, even a destruction brought about by Him.
There is a machlokess if the tzohar is a window or a precious jewel. The darshanim say as follows: There is also a machlokess if tamim haya be'dorosav means that only in his generation, but had he been in the generation of Avraham then he would have been considered as naught. Others say that all the more so had he been in the generation of Avraham he would have been considered to be a great man. The darshanim say that according to the opinion that he was truly great, then he was allowed to see the downfall of his generation and the tzohar was a window. However if you say he was not truly great then the tzohar was a jewel, as he was not allowed to look out at the downfall of his generation.
I don't think that either way he would have said shirah, as per @Schmerel.
