What if I told you there was one place on earth you could go, where the air is so pristine it will cure you of all your ailments and allow you to live to a ripe old age in good health; where there is such fertile land and abundance that you will never go hungry; where the climate is perfectly moderate, never too hot nor too cold; where no illness nor disease exists; no dangerous animals, reptiles, insects, bugs of any kind.
How much would you pay for real estate in a place like that? One million dollars? Ten million? It sounds too good to be true, right? Read on.
Parshat Noach is such a nice story that we teach our kids in kindergarten, right? Wrong! Noach is actually a terrifying story and certainly not one you should be telling children. In this shiur I will attempt to tell you the true story about Noach as described in the midrashim.
After Adam HaRishon sinned, the earth was cursed and every time someone sowed seeds they reaped thorns and thistles – until Noach was born. Noach, the first person to be born circumcised, was a tzaddik, and in his merit the curse was lifted.
The utopian world I was describing at the beginning of the shiur – that is the world that existed in the time of Noach. When Noach was born, G-d transformed the world into a paradise. The air was so clear and invigorating that nobody ever became sick. Everyone lived to a ripe old age – 600 years, 900 years. Back then if you were only 200 years old you were “wet behind the ears.” The land became so fertile that each time you sowed it produced such plentiful crops that they lasted for 40 years (Noach is credited with inventing the plow). The climate was perfect, no extremes in weather, like between Pesach and Shavuot, the whole year round. This was the utopian world in the time of Noach.
How did mankind repay G-d for all these blessings and abundance? Instead of thanking G-d and living according to His laws, they rebelled and became the evilest society ever to inhabit our planet.
Chazal tell us in the Midrash that the generation of the flood sinned in two areas – adultery and theft – and they go into detail. The generation of the flood were the first to experiment with genetic engineering. They would mate humans with animals and animals with other animals not of their species. Animals have no yetzer hara and would never have stooped to such a level on their own if the people had not forced them to do so.
Simply experimenting however was not enough – they institutionalized it. The institution of marriage between man and woman was no longer sacred. They legalized marriage between people of the same gender, between humans and animals. They legalized incestuous and adulterous relations within families and with other peoples’ spouses. Anyone could sleep with whoever (or whatever) they wanted, whenever they wanted – and they flaunted it without shame!
They perverted nature to such a degree that the animal kingdom and even the plant kingdom became so jumbled that dogs would mate with wolves, chickens with peacocks, snakes with birds. When they planted barley, it grew as cucumbers – the entire natural order created by G-d was muddled.
But it was not because of adultery that G-d ultimately decided to destroy the world – it was “hamas,” or theft, that was the last straw. Not only would people steal other people’s wives, they also indulged in monetary theft, but in an insidious way. They would steal things in an amount that was below the minimum to warrant court proceedings. For example, if a merchant set up his stall selling beans, the people would come and each steal one bean – only one bean! But after a thousand people, each taking one bean, there were no beans left. The merchant had no legal recourse. If the authorities confronted the thief he would say “What did I take? one bean!” This is the way their society was run, that nobody truly owned anything, it was all stolen from their neighbors.
Along comes Noach, the only tzaddik in the entire generation and G-d decides to give these wayward, evil people one last chance. He tells Noach to build an ark. It takes Noach 120 years to build this ark, not because that is how long it takes to physically build it, but because Noach had to grow the cedar trees himself for the wood to build it, because all the existing cedar trees were being grown and used for idolatry.
People passing by would see Noach building this enormous structure and they would ask – “What is this?” Noach would then tell them that it is an ark and that G-d is going to destroy the world and only those who repent and follow G-d’s commandments will be saved. In 120 years not one single person did teshuva! Quite the opposite, they ridiculed and threatened Noach, accusing him of illegally using cedar trees for a purpose other than idolatry. G-d gave them 120 years to mend their ways, but they laughed at Him!
Why did G-d decide to bring a flood? Why not an earthquake, a tornado, a solar flare? The reason for destroying them with water is because water is the source of adultery and theft. HaRav Chaim Vital in his sefer Sha’arei Kedusha says that the world is made from four basic elements – fire, wind, water, earth. Water is the source of all pleasures. Think of hotels – most hotels are located next to water – the beach, swimming pool, etc. because pleasure is associated with water. There is little difference between adultery and theft – one is stealing a man’s wife and the other is stealing his money and one eventually leads to the other.
Since the generation of the flood sinned with water, Hashem punished them with a flood.
If you examine the behavior of the generation of the flood you may wonder “Why is that the epitome of evil?” Subsequently in history there have been periods that to us may seem worse, Nazi Germany for example. In G-d’s eyes adultery, total perversion of the natural world and to top it all – theft, is evil personified and warranted destroying the world.
Am Yisrael must be the global conscience and make sure that these things never happen again.
Parshat HaShvua Trivia Question: What type of rain fell in the flood?
Answer to Last Week’s Trivia Question: Which other concepts are called Reishit? Am Yisrael, the Torah, Hafrashat Challah, Bikkurim, Truma/Maaser and … Amalek are also called Reishit.
