Our relationship with objects

Rashi says Hashem held back Noach's children until he was 500, so that he wouldn't have to build more arks for righteous sons or watch wicked ones die. But wouldn't Noach have wanted the help? And why did the ark take 120 years to build? Rav Chaim Shmulevitz answers both. A Gemara in Yoma about Nikanor, a ship in a storm and two heavy gates makes his idea concrete. The things in our homes, and the people closest to us, are part of it.