Rabbi Yaakov Raskin | Noah and the ARK

WHAT DO Montego Bay’s Hip Strip, Ziggy Marley and Noah’s ark all have in common?

In 2017, Jamaica got its first Kosher not-for-profit restaurant, the ‘Hot Spot’. Located in the heart of the ‘hip strip’, this vegetarian restaurant not only serves delicious Kosher food, but also acts as the weekday welcome centre for Chabad Jamaica, where we greet people of all religions who come to visit our beautiful island and share our message of love and peace.

Recently, the Hot Spot underwent a name change. Starting in 2025, it has been known as ‘The Ark’. This new name comes from the story of Noah’s Ark, found in Genesis 6-11. Synagogues around the world read this story on Saturday as part of the weekly Torah portion, and it has tremendous importance. The story discusses Noah, the “righteous man in his generation”, a generation which was consumed by violence, disorder, theft, idolatry, and incest.

Scripture tells us that God came to Noah and told him he would cleanse the earth of mankind’s corrupt ways. He instructed him to build a wooden ark approximately 135 metres long, 23 metres wide, and 14 metres high that would shield himself and his family in an upcoming great deluge that would destroy all life on Earth. Noah took his family aboard the ark, along with two members of each animal species and seven animals of certain “pure” species.

For 40 days and nights, storm waters flooded the earth, which remained submerged for another 150 days. Noah then dispatched a raven and then a dove, “to see if the waters had abated from the face of the earth”. The first birds returned with nothing but, on the third attempt, the dove returned to the ark with an olive leaf in its beak – a sign that it was safe to disembark. This is the origin of the ubiquitous dove and an olive branch symbol signifying peace and harmony.

Noah then builds an altar and God swears to never again destroy mankind because of their misdeeds. A rainbow serves as a testimony of this covenant.

While most people are familiar with some version of this story, its impact on the modern day is underappreciated.

As part of this pact between God and Noah, a series of laws were given to Noah and his descendants to foster peace and harmony going forward on Earth. These include the prohibitions against murdering, stealing, adultery and sexual impropriety, and several other positive commandments such as establishing courts of justice and giving charity to our neighbours.

Looking at the world today, these seem more important than ever. When we conduct ourselves in accord with God’s blueprint for moral living, it’s like living in a metaphorical ark that can lift us above the negativity that is so prevalent in our world. These principles offer us timeless instructions that protect and shelter us from the proverbial storms and ethical dilemmas we encounter every day.

Our centre’s name is a reference to Noah’s vessel, but is also an acronym that stands for ‘Acts of Routine Kindness’. My spiritual mentor and teacher, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, taught that doing regular acts of kindness will actually hasten humanity’s ultimate redemption. In 1991, he told a CNN reporter that the Messiah is ready to come, but it is on us to do “something additional in the realms of goodness and kindness” to tip the scales. If each person did just a little more, he said, then the redemption would come immediately.

That’s why each guest who comes to the ARK Center takes home a small yellow box shaped just like Noah’s ark. These boxes work like piggy banks, where one inserts a coin on a daily or weekly basis until it gets filled up. But, instead of saving the money for a big purchase, when the ark is full, you donate it to someone in need. This simple device not only uplifts those around us, but also strengthens our identity as givers with each act of routine kindness.

Since we began the project, thousands of ARK boxes have been distributed across Jamaica – to children at schools, to tourists in vacation resorts, and even to the governor general’s office. When Ziggy Marley visited Jamaica last year, Chabad gifted him an ARK box, which he really loved. Just like Ziggy’s powerful music, the ARKs represent the vision of creating a world where God, love and light are all felt universally.

We welcome anyone who’d like to participate in the ARK initiative to visit our centre on the hip strip. You can take home an ARK for yourself and share them with your friends and family. Our vision is that soon all 2.8 million people living in Jamaica will have their own ARK box which will act as a daily reminder to take a few moments each day to do something positive for someone else.

That is the ultimate goal of the charity boxes and the Chabad House. Just like Noah, we too can live lives of kindness and righteousness. Through every action we take – every coin we put in the ARK – we transform ourselves and the world around us, preparing it for a time where humanity will live in true harmony and God’s divine presence will be felt in a revealed and open way. Let’s pray for that day, and do our part to make it happen.