When the World Floods, Build an Ark

Last week, we began the Torah again with Parashat B’reishit. The story starts in chaos — tohu va’vohu — the earth unformed and void, with God’s spirit hovering over the deep. Creation begins when God brings order: separating light from darkness, water from land. God doesn’t erase chaos, but shapes it into something that can sustain life. As the Midrash teaches, even God “created and destroyed worlds before creating this one and saying, ‘This one pleases Me.’” (Bereshit Rabbah 3:7). Order is something that takes time to build — and commitment to maintain.

This week, in Parashat Noach, that order falls apart. The Torah says that the world has become filled with hamas— violence and corruption. In response to the chaos of humanity, God releases the chaos of nature. The waters that once gave life now threaten to destroy it.

Noah has to confront both. First, he lives among people who have lost their moral bearings. The sages teach, “In a place where there are no human beings, strive to be a human being” (Pirkei Avot 2:6). Noah does exactly that. He stands apart from the corruption around him. That’s one kind of strength. But then he faces the chaos of the flood itself — forces beyond his control. His answer is different this time: he builds an ark. Moral courage in one storm, steadfastness in another.

We live in a world that often feels chaotic too. Sometimes the challenge is moral — staying kind, honest, and grounded when anger and cynicism seem easier. Other times it’s the flood itself — the noise, the pace, the pressure of it all. Like Noah, we need both forms of strength. To be righteous, we turn to Torah and its wisdom about living well. To build our arks, we carve out spaces of order: Shabbat, holidays, time with family and community.

Chaos has always been part of the world. The work of faith is learning how to live within it — to bring a little more order, a little more light, and to keep the flood from carrying us away.