Why did the Mabul take so long - A Moment with Rabbi Avigdor Miller Zt"l #834

Why was the mabul so long? A year before they went back to the land.

Now I'm not able to tell all the things, but I'll tell you one reason. One reason for the mabul was — they should discover how good it is to get back to dry land. What a great thing it is, Roka ha'aretz al hamayim! You make a brocho every morning, but you don't even know what you're saying. What a pleasure it is to walk.

As you walk on the street, LaHashem ha'aretz. Boruch Hashem, we have a place to walk. You should pay, as I said, always. On every block, you should drop a quarter into a toll to walk through the next block. It's worth a quarter to walk on the block. Walk on the street, look at the trees, look at the sky. Beautiful to walk on the street.

And as they were in that teivah, they were longing to get back to dry land — once more, like sailors waiting to get back to land. And finally, when the day came, and they walked back on land again, they made a big brocha, roka ha'aretz al hamayim.

So in the first few days, they were very happy with walking on the land. I'm sure more than that. And we have to recapture that experience, that feeling, how good it is to be able to walk around on dry land.

Good Shabbos to all!