Chessed, our lifeline

At the airport, as Rav Moshe Feinstein's aron was being brought to Eretz Yisrael, one woman was crying harder than anyone, and a relative went over to ask who she was. Her answer says something about what Parshas Noach is really asking. Of all the sins of the Dor HaMabul, idolatry included, why does the Gemara in Sanhedrin say it was stealing that sealed their fate? And what did Hashem remember about Noach inside the teivah that finally calmed the waters? Chessed turns out to be a lifeline in a very literal sense.