D'var for Noach

In this week's parsha, Noach, God tells Noah to build an ark for him, his family, and two of every kind of animal (technically he brought seven of the "clean"/kosher animals) so that they would not die in the flood that God was going to bring to wipe out the wicked world that he had created. They stay in the ark for forty days and forty nights, until the rain finally stops and the ark comes to rest on top of Mount Ararat.
To determine if the world is safe, Noah first sends out a Raven, who comes back without anything, not having found a single dry place it can stand. Noah waits a week, and then sends out a dove, who returns with an olive branch. Noah sends out another dove who does not return at all, letting those in the ark know that the world is safe.
God creates a rainbow in the sky. God tells Noah that it is a symbol of God keeping the promise that God will never destroy the world again. There is a tradition to, when we see a rainbow, say the blessing: Blessed are You, Lord our G‑d, King of the universe, who remembers the covenant, and is faithful to His covenant, and keeps His promise," which originates from this story.
At the beginning, the parsha has a gloomy, end-of-the world connotation, but it can also be read as a message of hope for the future, that even though things are bad now, they don't always have to be. The rainbow represents that hope, however because God has promised not to destroy the world in such a fashion again, we can harness that hope and use it to help God repair the world through Tikun Olam.

D'var for Breishit

This week's parsha is Breishit, which is the first parsha in the Torah. G-d creates the world in seven days. On the first day, G-d separates light and darkness. G-d continues to separate heavens and the earth on the second day, and then land and water on the third day. On the fourth day, G-d creates the sun, the moon and the stars, and then on the fifth day, G-d creates the animals on the land, sky, and sea. On the sixth day, G-d creates humankind in G-d's image. On the seventh day, rests and creates Shabbat. The parsha then tells the story of Adam and Eve as they are expelled from the Garden of Eden, the story of Cain and Abel and the first murder, and continues for the ten generations until the time of Noah.