“The lessons to be learned from Parashat Noach are timeless. Moreover, the solution to the dilemma that is facing mankind is still the same—the mercy and providence of HaShem. In our last parashah, B’resheet, we learned how the Adversary tricked our first parents into “running to the tree” that God commanded them to stay away from. By their disobedience, death and sin have been introduced into the world, and as a result of that disobedience, all men are slaves to sin. But in this current portion, we find a glimmer of hope, one righteous man, of whom it is spoken,

”Noach walked with God...” (6:9)

The interesting fact about the Hebrew word translated as “walked,” is that it belongs to the causative, reflexive “hithpa’el” family of verbs. The root word “halakh,” is the same one that we get the word “halakhah,” meaning “the way in which to walk,” from. Essentially what the verse is saying to us is that Noach, because of his being found righteous, was found to be “walking” with God. What did Noach do which merited him such righteousness? Our answer is hinted at in the closing verse of last week’s portion...”