Noach (parsha) of every man's and beast's life-blood, and whoever shed the blood of man would have his blood shed by man, for in God's image did God make man. God told them to be fertile and increase. The fourth reading (, "aliyah") and a closed portion (, "setumah") end here. In the fifth reading (, "aliyah"), God made a covenant with Noah, his sons, and every living thing that never again would a flood destroy the earth. God set the rainbow in the clouds as the sign of God's covenant with earth, so that when the bow appeared in the clouds,
Noah in rabbinic literature art merciful; why hast Thou not pitied Thy children?" God answered him: "Foolish shepherd! Now thou implorest My clemency. Hadst thou done so when I announced to thee the Flood it would not have come to pass. Thou knewest that thou wouldest be rescued, and therefore didst not care for others; now thou prayest." Noah acknowledged his fault, and offered sacrifices in expiation of it ("Zohar hadash", p. 42a, b). It was because Noah neglected to pray for his contemporaries that he was punished with lameness and that his son Ham abused him (ib. p. 43a). The planting of a