Flooding can be a big problem, it can be a terrible, devastating thing. It can ruin basements, carry away cars or entire homes, and worse, it can be life-threatening. Yes, water is life-giving, it’s a key ingredient of life and we can’t live without it, but when it gets out of hand, when it goes beyond its borders, it can be very destructive. The biblical flood was an example of utter and total destruction. The flood in Texas this July 2025 was devastating to those communities and families and all the loss and heartbreak it sowed in its path.
Closer to our time, the so-named “Al-Aqsa Flood” of the October 7th Hamas terrorist invasion of Israel – and all the “Flood” mentions in the protests that erupted around the world, evokes death, violence, hurt and loss. Flood in this context is a very triggering and highly sensitive word for Israelis and Jewish people around the world.
There’s a Song of Songs verse (8:7) that says “The many turbulent waters will not extinguish the love!” In that sense, too, the waters are a negative, they are a challenge to be overcome.
But Chassidic thought often seeks and finds a positive twist, a figurative meaning, a deeper (pardon the flood pun) dimension. While the literal physical biblical flood was no doubt destructive and devastating to all forms of life in its wake, the Alter Rebbe in Torah Ohr teaches us that the waters of the flood also acted as a purifying refreshing Mikvah. The 40 days and 40 nights, says the Alter Rebbe, correspond to the 40 Seah minimum measurement of a Mikvah, the flood was also (in a deeper sense) seen as a purifying force, a cleanser, a refresher.
And there’s also the verse from Isaiah (11:9) “for the world will be filled with the knowledge of G-d as waters fill the seas.” Rambam/Maimonides uses this Isaiah verse to close/climax his entire work of Mishne Torah, all 14 volumes end with this line!
There’s a Mishna in Avot in which R’ Yochanon ben Zakkai extols (in the intellectual study sense of) of his student R’ Elazar ben Arach as an “ever-increasing/strengthening spring/fountain of water/ideas.” Not a trickle, not a drip-drop, not a steady flow, but something rushing forth, ever-strengthening!
Perhaps one figurative response to all this devastating and ruinous flooding would be an effort to counter-flood with life-giving good! To drown out negativity to the best of our ability, to overwhelm (to the extent we can) loss and despair with encouragement and hope, to shower others (and ourselves) with generosity, blessing, personal investment.