Question: My daughter, who is in first grade, has a difficult time understanding why all the animals died in the flood during the time of Noah., as well as the children. Can you give me an answer for her?

Answer: The subject is really a long and deep discussion, but I will try to be concise.

In the days of Noah, part of the reason that the world was destroyed was because the animals were used in sexual acts. Now, this is not the discussion to have with a young child, but you can discuss the concept that everything was created to do G-d’s will. When people and animals are involved in activities that are contradictory to G-d’s will, their purpose is put into question.

In terms of the people, G-d gave the people of that time a tremendous amount of time to repent. What about people who had no choice? The society had become so horrific and corrupt that G-d needed to start over.

Also, we have a concept in our religion that a soul is placed in this world for exactly the right amount of time. If, for some reason, a life is removed from this world quickly, then we should have a sense of happiness for that soul—it has reached a level of perfection. You can tell your daughter that when young people are taken away from this world with no choice to sin, it is not for what they have done. Their soul was placed in such a body because they needed to come back for a short amount of time, but after that amount of time they go back to their Creator. Again, this is a very complicated idea that takes much study, but this is the basic idea.

I hope that this helps.

Be Well,

Rabbi Litt