Parshat Noach is guiding us on how to deal with our life today. Within the first few verses of the parsha, the Torah says, “וַתִּשָּׁחֵ֥ת הָאָ֖רֶץ לִפְנֵ֣י הָֽאֱלֹקים וַתִּמָּלֵ֥א הָאָ֖רֶץ חָמָֽס, the earth was filled with corruption in front of Hashem and the land was filled with evil-doing/robbery— hamas.”

When Hashem sees this evil in the land, He tells Noach, you are different, I am going to save you. Hashem tells Noach to make a boat and place himself, his family, and kosher and nonkosher animals in it. Once this was done, Hashem planned to flood the world. But how does this help us find a solution? Hashem is telling us when evil strikes, we should flood the world and take animals in?!

Yes, in a time of hamas, evil, we must take everyone in. We must take the kosher animals and the nonkosher animals—which I believe are the Jews and non-Jews—even Jews who have a dislike toward other Jews— and come together to live in peace. When we are united and don’t the little things—like where we came from, our politics—get in the way, that is when those who are evil get destroyed.

Next, we should have a flood. While that sounds crazy, water symbolizes the Torah. While we don’t want the world to be washed away by Hashem creating a real flood, we should flood the world with Torah. Hashem has seen that we were fighting over meaningless things which kept us from respecting one another, but now during this evil time, we must spread the light and Torah. It is only once we do that and the Torah has seeped into the land, that an olive branch can be sent, and we can live in peace.

May we all learn Torah, inspire those around us and see the good in others, making us united. The only way we can be Am Yisrael is if we are an am echad (one nation) and stand together with our faith and belief in the Torah, mitzvot and Hashem.