My mother recently found buried in one of her bookshelves a notebook of mine from 7th grade. Looking through it, I found the following question, with no answer written down. For all I know, its very obvious, but I’m not sure what the answer is.
The Pasuk says that Hashem smelled Noach’s korban and was so pleased that he promised never to bring a mabul again. Why did Noach get such a reward for a simple korban? Hevel, Kayin, and Adam also brought korbanos, but they didn’t get such a promise. What was different about Noach’s korban?
Verbiage 
October 27, 2006 at 1:13 pm
Interestingly, I think it’s the Medrash Tanchuma that says that when Noach was exiting the ark, a lion bit him, and he became a ba’al mum and could therefore no longer give sacrifices. Therefore, his son Shem sacrificed for him. I read somewhere that this was midah kneged midah because of the fact that he didn’t daven for Bnei Yisroel before the Mabul (Davening = avodah).
October 27, 2006 at 2:51 pm
AlanLaz: that doesn’t answer Aishel’s question. Why was this korban (his or Shem’s) accepted in this manner?
October 27, 2006 at 2:57 pm
This is an even stronger question if you keep your dvar torah in mind where Noach was only a ‘regular guy’ compared to other people from different generations.
October 29, 2006 at 12:41 am
Another dvar torah about Noach vs. Adam (that I heard at Twersky this shabbas)
Why are we called Bnei Adam and not Bnei Noach if Adam is famous for sinning vs. Noach, the one rightetous man is his generation? Post Mabul, Noach comes out of the teivah, is depressed, drinks wine becomes drunk and spends the rest of his life in this deppresive state.
Adam, on the other hand, even though he “screwed up” on the ONE thing he was tested with, left Gan Eden, and went onto work and have children and make generations. This is the story of the Jew. Even when we are driven out of lands, and go through hard times, we continue to work hard and build ourselves up once again, and so we are called Bnai Adam.