Zohar, Noach 24

1R. Judah further said: ‘When the sinners were destroyed in the time of Noah, God was very anxious for the preservation of the world, but could see no one who might save it from His wrath; for the whole efforts of Noah were required to save himself and to repeople the world. So it is written: FOR THEE HAVE I SEEN RIGHTEOUS BEFORE ME IN THIS GENERATION, i.e. he was righteous only by comparison with his contemporaries.’

2R. Jose said: ‘The words “in this generation” are a tribute to Noah, as much as to say, surrounded as he was by that wicked generation, he yet remained as righteous and perfect a man as if he had lived in the generation of Moses. But he could not save the world, for the reason that there were not to be found ten righteous men in it (similarly we read of Sodom, “peradventure ten shall be found there”, Gen. 18, 32), but only Noah and his three sons with their womenfolk.’

3R. Eleazar asked R. Simeon, his father: ‘We have been taught that when the world becomes full of sin and is doomed to destruction, woe is then to the righteous man who is found in it, for he is first made answerable for its sins. How, then, was Noah able to escape the general doom?’ His father replied: ‘It has already been said that the Holy One, blessed be He, desired to people the world anew through him when he should issue from the ark. And further, the general doom could not reach him because he was securely stored away in the ark and concealed from sight,

4thus fulfilling the verse, “Seek righteousness, seek humility, it may be ye shall be hid in the day of the Lord’s anger” (Zeph. 2, 3). Because Noah sought righteousness, he was permitted to enter the ark, and thus “was hid in the day of the Lord’s anger”, and was placed beyond the reach of the Adversary.’

5The word vayimahu (and they were blotted out) contains a hint to the “saints of the Most High” of the secret power of the sacred letters of the alphabet, and their destructive potency when used in the reverse order.