This week's Torah portion, Noach,

This week's Torah portion, Noach, recounts in detail the story of Noah, G-d's command to him to build and ark, and the ensuing Flood that destroyed much of the world. The Torah, however, is not just a book of "Bible" stories, nor is it a mere historical account of a certain period of time. Rather, it contains daily lessons for us in how to conduct our lives.In a book of Jewish mysticism titled Torah Or, it is explained that the Flood was not simply the punishment for a totally corrupt world. For, to destroy the world, G-d could have chosen any number of different methods to this end. The Flood was also an act of purification, which is why the deluge lasted for forty days. The number forty corresponds to the forty seah (a liquid measurement) in a mikva (ritual bath).
Further on in the same text, it is explained that worries and troubles concerning one's livelihood are called symbolically "many waters." And, in fact, they have the same effect as the waters of the Flood; they rinse the undesirable elements off a person.
The relationship between worries about livelihood, the Flood, and mikva, can be seen as follows. The esoteric purpose of using a mikva is the concept of self negation. That is why a mikva requires forty seahs, an amount sufficient to cover the whole body. Also, the Hebrew letters of the word "tevila" (immersion) are identical to those of the word "habitul" (the nullification). This means that the act of self negation, of stepping out of one's ego, elevates man so that he may become a 'receptacle' for holiness.
This is the intended purpose for anxieties about livelihood befalling a person. Though they temporarily disturb and confuse, they cause a person to be crushed within himself thus stepping out of his ego thereby rendering him a vessel for holiness.
The ultimate intent, then, is not to punish the person, but to rinse and cleanse him of all impure matters. Obviously, this can be achieved very quickly, even instantaneously, as one perceives this inner meaning and intent thereby effecting within himself that which the events seek to accomplish.
Adapted from the works of the Lubavitcher Rebbe.