פירוש על בראשית 6:8

BUT NOAH FOUND GRACE IN THE EYES OF THE ETERNAL. The meaning thereof is that all his deeds were pleasing and sweet before Him. Similarly: For thou hast found grace in My sight, and I know thee by name.⁵¹⁸Exodus 33:17. This is like the verses: And He gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison;⁵¹⁹Genesis 39:21. And Esther obtained favor in the sight of all of them that looked upon her.⁵²⁰Esther 2:15. Scripture mentions this in contrast to what it said concerning his [Noah’s] generation, namely, that all their deeds brought grief before Him, blessed be He. But of Noah it says that he found grace in His eyes, and afterwards it tells⁵²¹In the following Seder Noach. why he was pleasing before G-d: because he was a perfectly righteous man.
Noach

But Noach found favor (chen). Chen implies groundless favor. Because Noach did not actively spread knowledge of Hashem he was not worthy that others should be saved on his account. Thus it was an act of groundless favor to him that his sons and daughters-in-law were spared.

'ונח מצא חן בעיני ה, he found favour due to good deeds performed by him. The Torah uses the same expression in Exodus 33,17 when G’d tells Moses that he had found favour in His eyes. His deeds had been pleasing to G’d. In Bereshit Rabbah 28,9, Rabbi Acha son of Kahana expresses surprise at the words ונח מצא חן בעיני ה', saying that the wording implies that Noach, in his own right, could not have claimed the right of survival, except for the circumstance that he “found favour in the eyes of the Lord, i.e. G’d had to search for a reason to let him survive. [He bases himself on the whole verse being superfluous, as Noach’s merits are discussed in the following verses. Rabbi Einhorn’s comment on that Midrash. Ed.]