If you were G-d – and you wanted to save Noah and his family and rebuild the world – how would you have done it?
Why does G-d bring a flood and tell Noah to build an Ark? It wasn’t easy, took 120 years of back breaking labour. G-d could have simply pressed the undo button, an epidemic, a meteor strike? You name it G-d can done it.
Furthermore, G-d then brings all the animals in to ark. Noah has worked for 120 years, there is a flood outside, humanity has been erased – let him have break, muster his strength to face the post deluge world. Why did he have work to tend to all the animals,? Why couldn't G-d have miraculously provided for the animals, rather than giving the responsibility to Noah?
The answer to both these question is that G-d wanted to make certain that when Noah and his family emerged from the ark and undertook the task of rebuilding the world, they would be fortified with the ability to rebuild the world in the way G-d wanted.
A special unity binds together the members of the Jewish nation. At Mount Sinai, when the nation gathered to receive the Torah, the people are described as being “As one man, with one heart.” This unity, in which every individual of the nation is considered to be an individual limb of a single body, obligates us with a special responsibility: To care for our fellow, just as we care for our own selves. The most basic expressions of this responsibility are the acts of charity and kindness that we are commanded to perform. "On a deeper level, our care for others must extend beyond just their physical wellbeing. We must ensure our friends receive support when we see them making mistakes, or slipping up. This fundamental principle of the Torah, as expressed in the Talmud is that "All of Israel is responsible for one another", a responsibilty that is beyond the superficial."
In the ark, Noah and his family had to care for all the animals that were with the,; grueling labour consuming them day and night. yet through this labour they, and humanity after them learned the meaning of chessed – reaching out with acts of loving kindness – one of the pillars upon which G-d built the world.
