by Rav Moshe Leib HaCohen Halbershtadt, Founder and Director of YORU Jewish Leadership, yeshiva.org.il, translated by Hillel Fendel.
The Generation of the Flood was quite evil, and was gravely punished with total destruction in the form of the Great Flood. Our Sages ask: What was their primary sin that led to such a fate?
The Torah tells us:
"Now the earth was corrupt before God, and the earth became full of hamas [all sorts of crime, often translated as "robbery"]. God saw the earth, and behold it had become corrupted…. and God said to Noah, "The end of all flesh has come before Me, for the earth has become full of hamas because of them, and behold, I am destroying them from the earth." (B'reshit 6,11-13)
The Talmud tells us: "Come and see the power of robbery: The Generation of the Flood violated every type of crime, yet the decree against them was not sealed until they extended their hands to robbery, as is written [in the above verses]."
This tells us that that generation violated even the worst sins, even those about which the Sages ruled that one must never violate even at the expense of his life: murder, incest and adultery with a married woman, and idol-worship. Still and all, the sin that capped it all off, the absolute last straw, was only robbery! After all, robbery is much less grave than murder; the stolen money can be returned, and certainly one need not die in order to avoid violating it. Why, then, was robbery that which sealed the generation's fate?
Let us turn our attention to the evil city of S'dom. When G-d saw that their sins were so great that they deserved to be destroyed, our Patriarch Avraham stood before Him and prayed: "Will you destroy even the righteous together with the wicked? Perhaps there are 50 righteous people in the city – would You not spare the place for the sake of the those 50?" (B'reshit 18,23-24)
Notice that Avraham does not ask simply that the 50 righteous people, if they exist, be spared; he asks that the entire city be spared on their account! How can this be? The S'domites are wicked people who believe in and actualize corrupt and murderous ideologies – and Avraham prays for them?! This great man who is a pillar of chessed (kindness), to whom the Prophet Micha ascribes the attribute of Divine loving-kindness (Micha 7,20) – does he not see in his mind's eye the tears of all those who were murdered and oppressed by the cruel people of S'dom? What type of kindness is it to ask G-d to spare these evil people and thus enable them to continue to spread ruthless wickedness in the world?
The answer is that Avraham certainly would not have prayed for them had he been sure that they would continue their evil ways. Rather, his prayer for them was that they would be saved by the very presence of tzaddikim in the city. He knew that as long as there were some righteous people in the city – ten, at the very least, as we see later on in his prayer – there was a chance that they would have a positive influence on their neighbors and bring about their repentance and return to ethical life. But, in the end, when Avraham saw that the city did not even have ten such righteous people, he realized that there was no chance for city-wide repentance, and he stopped praying – for in such a case, the true kindness for the world is that such evil should be totally eradicated.
Too Late
The Thirteen Attributes of Divine Mercy include "merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness..." (Sh'mot 34,6). We also know that "G-d is good to all, and His compassion is over all His creatures" (Tehillim 145,9). G-d waits patiently for people to mend their ways and return to Him; He does not immediately seal their judgment for punishment. The Flood did not occur while there was even a shred of a chance that the generation would reform. Only when they reached a point of no return, where the corruption became absolute and a chance for change no longer existed, only then did "all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened" (B'reshit 7,11) for the rains of the Flood.
This explains the difference between idol worship and incest, on the one hand, and robbery. The first two are quite grave, as we stated - but they are the result of human lusts, which are difficult to control and can fool a person into thinking that the sins they lead to are not so bad. Only upon careful consideration will a person see how bad they truly are. But robbery is different. Any minimally intelligent person knows that robbery and the like have no place in a functioning society. If everyone simply grabs what he likes from someone else, society is doomed.
And therefore: As long as the simple, logical mitzvot are observed, there is a chance that the society will continue to employ their logic to fulfill all the mitzvot. But once "all flesh had perverted its way on the earth" (6,12), and even robbery had become rampant, and there were no tzaddikim who could have a positive influence – the decree was sealed.
Noach's Influence
One approach in understanding the first verse in this week's Torah portion is that Noach was truly a righteous person (not just relative to his generation). Since G-d is so patient and forbearing, and waits patiently for his creations to repent of their sins, he gave Noach 120 years (!) to build the Ark, in the hope that people would see him and ask him what he was doing. Noach used these opportunities to answer, "G-d is planning a great flood because of all our sins! Let us do t'shuvah and live ethically!" But after 120 years of this with no results, and after no one raised the gauntlet and all hope was lost, Noach completes the Ark – and the Flood is brought upon the earth.
The Lesson
The Torah is teaching us a critically important fundamental for our own personal lives. Even when we see around us people who committing grave crimes, let us not rush to assume that they are all evil, and "flood" them with criticism and cynicism. We must always look for the good points in each person. Let us seek out the good people wherever they are – and perhaps from them the salvation will sprout. Maybe they will enhance the goodness in the world, and the situation will begin to be reversed for the best.
The same is true in our relationships. Even if your spouse does things that anger you and that you feel are the worst – don't rush to the "flood' of divorce. Like all floods, it is very hard for the partners, and for their children and others, to recuperate from it. There are many steps to be taken before the final, most drastic one is implemented – beginning with seeing what things you do that might upset your spouse as least as much as those s/he does to you!
In addition, just as G-d saw the beautiful colors of the "rainbow in the cloud" (9,13-17), and decided never again to bring such a punishment upon mankind, we too must always remember the beautiful colors of our marriages, even when clouds sometimes cover them, and focus on them, and on how we – each spouse individually – can continue to enhance them. And then, with G-d's help, "never again will there will be floodwaters to destroy all flesh" (9,11).
