Rabbi Asher Vaknin on Parashat Noach: Build an “Ark” Inside the Home

Rabbi Asher Vaknin—who leads the youth minyan at Forest Hills’ Kanisoi Kalon synagogue, according to the congregation’s Simchat Torah coverage—published an English Parashat Noach parenting column in The Bukharian Times on Oct. 15, 2026.

Writing for community readers, Vaknin opens with a child’s question to a busy father—“When was the last time you spent ten minutes with me without looking at your phone?”—and argues that Parashat Noach teaches parents to build an “ark” of protection, warmth, faith, and love inside the home when the outside world feels like a flood.

He lists seven practical lessons drawn from the Torah text: prepare relationships before a crisis; set loving screen boundaries; give children light and encouragement, not only instructions; honor each child’s different “compartment”; lead by personal example; keep the door open after mistakes; and raise children to leave the ark ready to illuminate the world, not merely to hide from it.

“Noach saved his family from the flood with an ark made of wood. We can protect our children from today’s flood by building an ark of love, faith, healthy boundaries and personal example,” Vaknin wrote.

The column closes with a Shabbat suggestion: look children in the eye and say, “I believe in you.” For Bukharian Queens families who know Vaknin from Kanisoi Kalon’s youth minyan, the piece lands as a rabbi’s pastoral blog rather than generic advice.

Sources: The Bukharian Times column; Kanisoi Kalon Hotoni report (Vaknin role).