This week’s parsha tells us about an epic event: the flood that God sends to destroy the earth. But we never stop to ask... why did God decide to send a flood, of all things?

Interestingly, only last week, in the story of the creation of the world, we talked about all these same elements – deep waters, winds of God, and more. For some reason, the flood’s aftermath, the recreation of the world, mirrors the original creation in the Torah – but why? What is it we’re meant to learn from the flood??

The intriguing repetitions may change the entire way we think about the story of Noah and why God decided to flood the earth.

Watch more: Genesis Unveiled

Or wooly mammoths? Or other prehistoric creatures? If we’re trusting the Torah to tell us the story of creation, how could it leave out such a large (pun intended) part of history? Does this mean Torah and science are at odds?  Rabbi Fohrman argues that if we’re asking this question, it means we’re misunderstanding something fundamental about the nature of the Torah. Watch this video to learn what the Torah is – and what it isn’t.

After the flood, God put a rainbow in the sky and made a covenant with Noah to never destroy the earth with water again. It sure sounds nice… but there’s actually something very strange about God's promise.

God had brought the flood because humanity had become sinful beyond repair. So what if that ever happens again? What if we, Noah’s descendants, become just as sinful as our predecessors? Will God keep His promise not to flood the earth again? And if so, why? These are the questions that David and Imu tackle in this video.

In their search for an answer, they uncover a series of stunning textual parallels between the story of the flood and another earlier account in the Torah. This video may well change the way that you understand how God relates to humankind, and how that has changed from Noah’s generation to ours.

Dig Deeper:

• For more on Noach, click here.

• For more on Noah and the flood, click here.

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