Parshat Noach 5779-To destroy or not destroy-that’s the question.

The Torah clearly spells out the reason for the flood in ch.6 v.5-6 of Bereshit:

ה  וַיַּרְא יְהוָה, כִּי רַבָּה רָעַת הָאָדָם בָּאָרֶץ, וְכָל-יֵצֶר מַחְשְׁבֹת לִבּוֹ, רַק רַע כָּל-הַיּוֹם.

5 And the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

ו  וַיִּנָּחֶם יְהוָה, כִּי-עָשָׂה אֶת-הָאָדָם בָּאָרֶץ; וַיִּתְעַצֵּב, אֶל-לִבּוֹ.

6 And it repented the LORD that He had made man on the earth, and it grieved Him at His hear

However, after the flood a different pronouncement is made:

כא  וַיָּרַח יְהוָה, אֶת-רֵיחַ הַנִּיחֹחַ, וַיֹּאמֶר יְהוָה אֶל-לִבּוֹ לֹא-אֹסִף לְקַלֵּל עוֹד אֶת-הָאֲדָמָה בַּעֲבוּר הָאָדָם, כִּי יֵצֶר לֵב הָאָדָם רַע מִנְּעֻרָיו; וְלֹא-אֹסִף עוֹד לְהַכּוֹת אֶת-כָּל-חַי, כַּאֲשֶׁר עָשִׂיתִי.

21 And the LORD smelled the sweet savour; and the LORD said in His heart: 'I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake; for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done.

The same reason('mans' evil inclination) for destroying the world becomes the reason for not destroying the world. How are we meant to understand this?

Another more general question comes from our basic understanding of the nature of God and how He functions in this world. We believe that God knows the future (Isaiah 41:4-‘He sees the events of all generations from before’), and therefore we can ask about God judging the ‘beinonim’ on Yom Kippur, based on their attempts to do teshuva. If God already knows if they will do teshuva or not, why not judge them already on Rosh Hashana? The answer is found in the famous statement of ‘all is from Heaven except fear of Heaven’ (TB Berachot 33b) and God grants man independence in matters of teshuva and does not interfere until Yom Kippur, to allow teshuva to take place. However in terms of the generation of the flood, God already knew they were a ‘bad ‘group of people, so how can we say before the flood that ‘it grieved Him’ concerning the original creation of man, when He already knew that the world would be flooded because of these evil acts? Why create man in the first place? Also, if man has become evil and this is recognized after the flood as a reason not to destroy him, what has happened to change this attitude of God from before the flood when ‘man’s evil disposition’ was exactly the reason for man’s destruction?

Rav Shlomo Goren zal gives us a great insight into the whole parsha of the flood and answers these philosophical and general questions. He explains that the first 2000 years of the history of the world is known as the days of ‘tohu’-complete emptiness and disconnect from God. If so, on what basis did the world survive for these first 2000 years? We believe that it is only in the merit of Torah being received by Israel that the period of ‘Torah’-(-second 2000 years of the world) lasted. What ‘Torah’ merit gave the world its ability to continue during the first 2000 years of ‘tohu’? We may argue that Adam did have a few mitzvot to keep but we know he failed in his task and the main bulk of the 7 Noachide laws only became relevant once Noach received them (TB Sanhedrin 56b). Rav Goren explains that the receiving of the 7 Noachide laws had a special significance, almost akin to the receiving of the Torah by the Jews on Mt.Sinai in later generations. It is the acceptance of the 7 Noachide laws which gave the world enough of a spiritual strength to survive the 2000 years of ‘tohu. How was this done?

In the end of the 2000 years of ‘tohu’ the world had become so disconnected from God and spiritual matters that the flood and subsequent destruction of the world became an inevitable event. Without the ‘soul’ the body cannot function, and so it is with the physical world around us. Even though Adam had accepted some basic mitzvot (TB Sanhedrin 56b, which shows that Adam received 6 of the 7 Noachide laws), man's performance became very lacking and eventually the world’s spiritual strength became almost extinct (this is the concept of ‘God grieving’ as we mentioned above). Also there was no formal acceptance by Adam of these basic mitzvot and there is an enormous change that happened with Noach, after the flood had taken place.

After the flood, when Noach emerges with his family, the ark becomes compared to the holy ‘aron’-‘ark’ as found later in the Temple. The source for this statement is found in the Zohar (Bereshit:vol 1 59b), where the Zohar compares the ark of Noach to the ‘aron hakodesh’ in the Temple. The Temple aron is called the’ark of the Brit/covenant, which is based on the verse in Bereshit(6:18).

וַהֲקִמֹתִי אֶת-בְּרִיתִי, אִתָּךְ; וּבָאתָ, אֶל-הַתֵּבָה--אַתָּה, וּבָנֶיךָ וְאִשְׁתְּךָ וּנְשֵׁי-בָנֶיךָ אִתָּךְ.

18 But I will establish My covenant with thee; and thou shalt come into the ark, thou, and thy sons, and thy wife, and thy sons' wives with thee.

In this verse the ark of Noach is linked to the concept of ‘covenant’, and until this covenant was made, Noach did not enter the ark. The ark is the substitute for Mt.Sinai, as seen in the Ramban’s comments on the above verse. The chiddush of Rav Goren’s approach is to say that once the family of Noach left the ark, an acceptance of the 7 Noachide laws took place in front of the ark, which became like the acceptance of Torah in later years on Mt Sinai. This renewal of the covenant made before entering the ark, gave a new spiritual force to the world to ensure that no further complete destruction would ever take place again. The 7 mitzvot of Noach would sustain the world until the acceptance of the Torah by the Jews on Mt Sinai. These laws were studied by the descendants of Noach in the yeshiva of Shem and Ever and the family of Noach now made the 7 Mitzvot totally obligatory upon themselves after the flood.

The 7 Noachide laws are now to be seen in a completely different light, as they partially provided the original spiritual input to have kept the world going during the 2000 years of tohu, as shown by Adam’s attempts to observe some of these precepts. Now they provide total spiritual strength for the world to go forward after the flood. Even if man’s inclination is still evil, no further flood can take place after the covenant is reinforced and this explains the change from ch.6 to ch. 8 as seen above.

As I hope to have shown, Rav Goren’s approach to the basic issues of these parshiot is  very novel and is worthy of our attention. May our learning be a merit for him in the month of his yahrzeit (Cheshvan) and  may we merit the true redemption speedily in our days, which Rav Goren was always trying to hasten, in his work in the army and as Chief Rabbi of Israel. May his memory be for a blessing.

Rabbi Ian Shaffer                    SCW/Cherry Hill NJ                 Oct 2018