Save Your Noach

In reference to the verse “God remembered Noah”, the verse in Proverbs says: “A righteous man knows his animal’s soul”. It is human nature, that when a state rebels against its king, the king sends his troops against them, and the good men are killed along with the evil ones, since he does not know who is rebellious and who is faithful. But it is not so with the Holy One, Blessed Is He. Even if the entire generation angers Him, and there is only a single righteous man, He will spare him. (Midrash Tanchuma, Noach #7)
We often tend to completely delete something, because one of its components bothers us. We will disregard a book if a single line displeases us, we will condemn an entire organization because we disagree with one of their policies, we will strike someone out of our lives because of one mistake.

But more than that, we will sever a part of ourselves because one of its elements has proven to be destructive. We will abandon dreams we have had, because we have been disappointed, we will bury our creative side, because it has led us astray, we will break up an existing relationship or shy away from a new one, because we have been hurt.
And “the good men are killed along with the evil ones”.

However, God singled out what could be salvaged, rescued what could be redeemed. He saved Noah and made a whole new world out of him.

Before tossing it all out, let us examine what has truly been destructive. If we can recognize the good we were about to carelessly destroy as “collateral damage”, if we can build our own little arch and save our own personal Noah, then we will have emulated our Creator in a very powerful way.