Noach

After Noach and his family were saved from the flood that nearly destroyed the world, the posuk tells us ויבן נח מזבח לה that Noach built an altar and sacrificed animals to 'ה.

The next posuk says that 'ה smelled the wonderful aroma and  said to himself, “I will no longer curse the land because of man, for the heart of man is bad from his youth, nor will I wipe out all living things as I have done.”

This needs explanation; what was so great about Noach bringing sacrifices that 'ה said he would never destroy the world again because of that?
Also, what does man having desire for bad have to do with 'ה not destroying the world? The opposite should be true.

Later, the parsha says ויחל נח איש האדמה ויטע כרם  Noach, the man of the earth, debased himself and planted a vineyard.  However, the posuk uses a strange terminology and says ויחל נח , Noach debased himself.  

Rashi explains that he made himself חולין , profane, for he should have first planted something else and not something that's intoxicating whose effects could be harmful.

The sefer זכרון מאיר gives a little insight as to why Noach would plant the grape vine first. He did it not because he wanted to get drunk, but rather he had a promise from 'ה that He would be with him as he starts to rebuild a desolate destroyed world. We know that אין שכינה שורה אלא מתוך שמחה, that 'ה will only be in a place of happiness; therefore, in order to be able to start building the world over, he had to be בשמחה and being that יין משמח לבב אנוש, wine gladdens the heart of man, he went and planted a vineyard to be in the right frame of mind to start rebuilding.

If that's the case then why do we degrade him? What did he do wrong?

R' Dovid Feinstein repeated to me the gemara in Avoda Zara that tells a story of ר' חנינה and ר' יונתן who were walking on the road. They came to a fork where one way passed a house of ill repute while the other a house of idol worship. They debated which one they should take; one said, “let's go by the way of idol worship for that yetzer hara is gone already” while the other said, “no, let's go past the house of ill repute and test ourselves to see if we have control for then we'll get reward.” As they walked by the house of ill repute, the ladies that were there took a look at them and quietly walked back inside, not even trying to seduce them. How did he know that there wouldn't be any trouble? He quoted a posuk that says, מזמה תשמר עליך תבונה תנצרכה that their Torah will protect them.

In our generation, too, we can see this concept as can be illustrated by the following story. R' Dovid once took his father, R’ Moshe, to the dentist for some pain and it turned out he needed a cleaning too. R' Moshe was sitting in the dentist chair when the girl went in to do the cleaning. Two minutes later, the girl, a young shiksa, not dressed very modestly, came out to the dentist and said "I can't touch that rabbi; he's too holy, you do the cleaning".  

R' Dovid said this shows you that when one is pure, 'ה will make sure he stays that way and no sin, even unintentional, will come to him.  

Maybe that's why it calls Noach  איש האדמה; for when we’re just regular down-to-earth guys, we don't have that protection. We can't do anything that takes a chance, for we can't risk it. That's why Noach, even with his good intentions, shouldn't have planted the vineyard.

However, says R' Dovid, when Noach came out of the taiva to rebuild the world, he brought korbanos with pure intentions, to start the world anew with purity and with the hope that the world would go in 'ה's ways. When 'ה saw his pure intentions and desire, He decided that's what he wanted from man;  even though man is inclined by nature to do bad, his intentions are nonetheless good and pure.

This teaches us that even though, at times, we may be inclined to do things that might be wrong, if our intentions are really good, 'ה will look past the mistakes and our actions, too, will be pleasing to 'ה!