Shem's Report from the Ark
Years after the Flood, Shem told Eliezer how his family cared for every creature in the teivah, and how one quiet bird earned his father's blessing.
The Gemara relates that Eliezer, the servant of Avraham, once asked Shem the Great a question. The Torah says the animals left the teivah "by their families," each kind in its place. "Where were you," Eliezer asked, "and what did you do for them all that time?"
"We had great trouble in the teivah," Shem answered. "A creature that eats by day, we fed by day. A creature that eats by night, we fed by night." There was the chameleon, he said, and his father did not know what it ate. One day Noach sat peeling a pomegranate, and a worm fell out of it, and the chameleon ate it. From then on Noach would knead bran with water, and when worms grew in it, he fed them to the chameleon. As for the lion, a fever kept it going, and it did not need to eat.
Then Shem told of the bird called the avarshina. His father found it lying quietly in its corner of the teivah. "Don't you want food?" Noach asked. "I saw that you were busy," the bird answered, "so I said to myself, I will not trouble you."
Noach was moved. "May it be Hashem's will," he said, "that you never die." Chazal say that this blessing came true, and they read in it the words of Iyov: "I shall multiply my days like the chol."
Source: Gemara, Sanhedrin 108b (Talmud Bavli); English: The William Davidson Talmud (Koren–Steinsaltz translation), Sanhedrin 108b.
Shem remembered the bird that asked for nothing because his father was so busy. In your home, office or shul there is probably someone like that: the person who never asks, so no one thinks to offer. This week, find that person and ask one simple question, "Can I bring you something?" or "How are you managing?" And if you are the quiet one, know that your consideration is seen, and that it can draw a blessing.