When Hashem destroyed the world through the Mabul, He left one giant alive. Not the largest or the strongest—but Og, the smallest of all the Nephilim. Why would Hashem preserve a living remnant of a corrupt generation? Because Og was meant to be a walking testimony, a concrete witness to Hashem's power for all future generations.

The Midrash teaches that Og survived by sitting atop Noach's ark during the flood. He was enormous—yet still the smallest giant of his generation. The Nephilim before the Mabul were so massive that the tallest trees were like grass beneath their feet. Yet Hashem destroyed them all. Og remained specifically so that the people born after the flood would see him and understand: if Hashem destroyed giants far larger than this, then His power is truly beyond measure.

This was not merely a historical curiosity. Og was meant to travel among the survivors and say, "I was there. Hashem destroyed people much bigger than me. I am the smallest of all the giants that existed. If He could destroy those far greater than me, you can understand who Hashem really is."

The Purpose of Tangible Testimony

The purpose was clear: tangible emunah. People struggle with abstract concepts. But when you see a twenty-foot giant standing before you, telling you in his own words that he witnessed the destruction of beings twice his size, suddenly Hashem's power becomes real. It moves from theory to fact, from belief to knowledge.

Yet even this living testimony was not enough. Approximately 350 years after the Mabul, the generation of the Tower of Babel tried to wage war against Hashem Himself. They saw Og. They heard his testimony. They knew what Hashem had done. But they still rebelled. This teaches us something painful but necessary: emunah is not merely about seeing miracles or hearing testimony. Emunah requires an inner decision to accept what we see and to change how we live.

When Og later informed Avraham Avinu that his nephew Lot had been kidnapped, he earned the merit to live even longer. His intention was corrupt—he hoped Avraham would die in battle so he could take Sarah—but Hashem used even his flawed motives for a higher purpose. Eventually, when Moshe Rabbeinu fought Og at the end of the forty years in the desert, Hashem said, "Don't be afraid of him. I will place him in your hand just as I placed the other giants in your hand." Og's enormous size, his long life, his survival of the Mabul—none of it could save him when Hashem decreed his end.

Witnesses in Our Own Lives

What is the lesson for us today? Hashem still places living witnesses in our lives. These are not always people. Sometimes they are events we have lived through. Sometimes they are older relatives who remember what Hashem did for our families in the past. Sometimes they are our own survival of situations that should have destroyed us.

The question is: do we pay attention? Do we listen to the testimony? Or do we, like the generation of the Tower of Babel, see the evidence and still turn away?

Every Jew has experienced moments when the natural order should have failed them, but Hashem intervened. A business that should have collapsed but somehow survived. A medical diagnosis that somehow reversed. A danger that somehow missed you. These are your witnesses. Hashem does not place them in your life so you can ignore them or call them coincidence. He places them there to build your emunah, to give you something concrete to hold onto when doubt arrives.

Og's testimony was meant to create yirat Shamayim—fear and awe of Heaven. The same is true of the witnesses Hashem gives you. When you recognize them, when you stop and acknowledge them, your emunah stops being theoretical. It becomes lived reality.

The Giant Falls

The Gemara recounts that Moshe Rabbeinu himself was ten amot tall—approximately twenty feet—and could jump another ten amot into the air. His staff was another ten amot. Yet when he struck Og, he only reached the bone of Og's ankle. That was enough. Hashem made Og fall, and the mountain Og had tried to throw upon the Jewish people crushed him instead. This teaches us that no matter how large the obstacle, no matter how impossible the enemy appears, if Hashem is with you, the fight is already decided.

Your responsibility is not to measure the size of the giant. Your responsibility is to remember who destroyed the giants before, and to trust that He can do it again.

Hashem preserved Og so that people would never forget. He preserves witnesses in your life for the same reason. Do not let them go to waste.