Shabbat Parashat Noach - 5782

Shabbat Parashat Noach - 5782

Rabbi Hal Miller

And the earth had become corrupt before God, and the earth had become filled

with robbery. [Bereishit 6:11]

Our verse and the two following seem to indicate that it was the earth itself that was

corrupt, leading to the destruction by Flood. How could the earth, an inanimate

object, be corrupt?

Going back to parashat Bereishit and the famous verse, "Let Us make man", there

are those who explain there that the Torah was referring to the fact that a few verses

prior to that one, God had directed the earth to bring forth vegetation, etc., and thus

the "let Us" verse means God asked the earth to join Him in creating man. If so,

perhaps there's more to the earth than just an inanimate body, but could it become

corrupt? What exactly is the corruption, and why was the generation of the Flood

destroyed but the generation of the Tower of Bavel only dispersed?

Rabbi Eliezer Shach notes that most commentators say that our verse means only

that people were corrupt, not the earth itself, then says, "But when interpreted literally,

the verse reveals a deep secret of Creation. The earth itself was corrupted...People

exert such a powerful influence over creation that when they behave corruptly, their

malignant influence corrupts all of Creation." Although perhaps not a source of

corruption, the earth as a victim is still corrupted.

The next verse [6:12] is what those other commentators cite. It specifies that the

earth "was corrupted, for all flesh had corrupted its way upon the earth." Onkelos

addresses whether it was the earth itself or the inhabitants that were corrupt: "God

saw how corrupt the earth was for all human flesh had corrupted its ways on earth."

This gets us to humans as the corrupt entities, to which we would then ask, how

about the other animal and plant life that got destroyed? How were they corrupt?

Thus we must address the meaning of corruption.

The word is va'tishacheit, literally, "and it will be destroyed". The vov changes

future to past tense, so "and it was destroyed". The word shachat usually refers to

slaughtered or destroyed, but here, Rashi says, "corrupt, an expression of sexual

immorality and idolatry." Most commentators follow Rashi in this. Rav Hirsch, for

example, says, "There was a corruption of morals, sins that they imagined did not

affect general civic life." This is the key--people felt that if they did something

"behind closed doors", it was okay, that they were allowed to override Torah laws

if it "did not hurt anybody".

Kol Dodi crushes this argument. "The wording of this verse, 'corrupt before God'

implies that only in God's eyes was the world corrupt. In the eyes of men, seemingly,

everything was proper. The word shachat refers to immorality and idolatry. For

humans, it is easy to imagine that these are not crimes at all. Who is hurt? Who is

affected by the 'private' lives of consenting adults? God knows otherwise." It was not

a situation of people not believing in God, rather they decided to overrule Him based

on their own desires.

The generation of the dispersion had a failure of belief. The generation of the Flood

had a failure of morals. Those of the Tower of Bavel were punished, certainly, but

they lived on. Those of the Flood were destroyed, with no portion in the World to

Come. People who lack belief can be saved, people without morals cannot be.