Evan Almighty (in real life)

ט  אֵלֶּה, תּוֹלְדֹת נֹחַ--נֹחַ אִישׁ צַדִּיק תָּמִים הָיָה, בְּדֹרֹתָיו:  אֶת-הָאֱלֹהִים, הִתְהַלֶּךְ-נֹחַ.	9 These are the generations of Noah. Noah was in his generations a man righteous and whole-hearted; Noah walked with God.

Why does it say Noah twice? This isn't a typo.  

Let's make a connection. In בראשית 

כו  וַיֹּאמֶר אֱלֹהִים, נַעֲשֶׂה אָדָם בְּצַלְמֵנוּ כִּדְמוּתֵנוּ; וְיִרְדּוּ בִדְגַת הַיָּם וּבְעוֹף הַשָּׁמַיִם, וּבַבְּהֵמָה וּבְכָל-הָאָרֶץ, וּבְכָל-הָרֶמֶשׂ, הָרֹמֵשׂ עַל-הָאָרֶץ.

26 And God said: 'Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.'

  We can see Hashem's humbleness here. The inderlined, bolded, and italicized word נעשה it saying LETS make, me and you together. Let's make a man (mentch) together. Hashem is talking to Adam here. Together, we will create you. Okay so what does this have to do with anything? 

Well back to our original question, why does it say Noah twice? Because he made a man out of himself! The pasuk goes on to say that he was righteous and whole hearted (see above)- he was a great guy. Every one of us has to be made into the personality that we are, and it's up to us to do this. 

בְּדֹרֹתָיו- why does it say "in his generation?" Why do we need this word? We need to emphasize that even though this guy was surrounded by רשעים, he was able to strive and be the man he is.  

Some say: He was a צדיק compared to all of the people in his time. So now it's relative? Just compared to everyone else he was righteous? But come on! Hashem doesn't compare people. You're judged on how much you did of what Hashem expected you to do. So what is it? It's that Noah looked out at all of the people of his generation that thought he can do better. I'm comparing myself to myself. He looked at himself in the mirror and said hey, I have a long way to go. It's not the rabbis talking גנאי about him (the relativity aspect), it's Noah working on himself.

Personally, the two different interpratations were bothering me. Thankfully, Rav Teller (my teacher) sent out this helpful Dvar Torah idea 

http://midreshetmoriah.com/torah/view.asp?id=791

It's really short just read it!

I made this in my dorm room with some friends. The girls. DEVOURED it. It's the tevah and the mizbeach and rainbow. 

Have a great one! 

Shabbat shalom