Genesis · Chapter 6

And it came to pass, when the sons of men began to multiply upon the face of the earth, and daughters were born to them,

AND IT CAME TO PASS, WHEN MEN BEGAN TO MULTIPLY ON THE FACE OF THE EARTH. When Scripture mentioned Noah and his sons and wanted to begin the account of the flood, it said that as soon as men began to multiply they began to sin, and they continued their sinful ways for many years until Noah was four hundred and eighty years Twenty years before, G-d decreed the advent of the flood. (See Rashi here, Verse 3.) of age. Then the Holy One, blessed be He, decreed against them that “His spirit will not abide in them forever,” but that He will prolong their years until their measure of sin is full, for such is the way of G-d’s judgment.

"Began" (הֵחֵל) — [means] to start; it is in the hif'il conjugation. "In abundance" (לָרֹב) — a verbal noun (שֵׁם הַפֹּעַל).

that the sons of the nobles saw the daughters of men, that they were beautiful, and they took for themselves wives from all whom they desired.

בני האלהים THE SONS OF ELOHIM — The sons of princes and rulers (Genesis Rabbah 26:15). Another explanation of בני האלהים is that these were princely angels who came as messengers from God: they, too, intermingled with them (the daughters of men). Wherever the word אלהים occurs in the Scriptures it signifies authority, and the following passages prove this: (Exodus 4:16) “and thou shalt be his (אלהים) master”, and (Exodus 7:1) “See, I have made the (אלהים) a master.” כי טבת הנה THAT THEY WERE FAIR — Rabbi Judan said, “It is written here טבת, for when they were being made to appear “good” by being decked out to be taken beneath the marriage canopy one of the lords would come and carry her off first (Genesis Rabbah 26:5). מכל אשר בחרו OF ALL WHOM THEY CHOOSE — even if it were a married woman or a man or an animal (Genesis Rabbah 26:5).

BNEI HA’ELOHIM. The sons of princes and rulers. This is the language of Rashi, and so it is in Bereshith Rabbah 6:8. If so, Scripture relates that the judges whose duty it was to administer justice among them committed open violence without anyone interfering. ‘KI’ (WHEN) THEY WERE FAIR. [The meaning of the word ki here] is the same as in the verses: ‘Ki’ (when) thou seest the ass of him that hateth thee; ‘ki’ (when) a bird’s nest chance to be before thee. When the daughters of men were fair, they would take them forcibly as wives for themselves. Thus Scripture tells of the violence and mentions further, whomsoever they chose, in order to include those who were married to others. Scripture, however, did not mention the prohibition concerning them clearly, and the punishment decreed upon them was only because of the violence, because this is a reasoned concept and does not require the Torah to prohibit it.

"Sons of God" (בְּנֵי הָאֱלֹהִים) — sons of judges, who were administering divine judgment on earth. Some say that "God" (הָאֱלֹהִים) here is sacred [i.e., refers to the Holy One], and that the sons are the holy ones who are on earth, in the sense of "You are children [of Hashem your God]" (Deuteronomy 14:1). Others say that the sons of God are the descendants of Seth, and the daughters of men are the daughters of the family of Cain. What seems right to me is that the sons of God, who possessed knowledge of the Most High, chose for themselves wives whose astrological constellation corresponded, each one to each of them — and the offspring were as the offspring [of their parents in character] — and therefore mighty men came forth from them. It is also possible that they took the women by force.

בני אלהים, according to Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai,(in Bereshit Rabbah 26,5) the word אלהים here is to be understood as: “judges.” He was very angry at people who translated this expression as “sons of G-d.” The question remains why, the other Rabbis translated the word as they did? The answer given by both Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish and Rabbi Yochanan is that these people lived untroubled lives of tremendous length, so that they could easily have been confused with children whom G-d Himself had sired. מכל אשר בחרו, as they were extremely intelligent, they selected for themselves wives who were equally intelligent or almost so, so that their children would enjoy the genetic benefits of their superior intelligence and physical strength.

ויראו בני האלוהים את בנות האדם, “The sons of G’d saw the daughters of man, etc.” According to the plain meaning of the text the בני האלהים are the sons of the judges and the elite of society. which are called “elohim,” just as in Exodus 22,27 where the Torah forbids us to curse a judge by writing אלוהים לא תקלל. This is the way the Targum translates that verse. The Torah means that the very judges who should have meted out justice committed legal violence instead with the “daughters of man,” i.e. the common and therefore underprivileged people, by raping these women against their will. Sometimes these women were willing partners in illegal sexual relations. When the Torah writes inter alia in verse 4 אשר יבואו בני האלהים אל בנות האדם, “when the sons of the rulers would consort with the daughters of the common people,” these were the instances when the women were willing partners in such relationships. Such relationships usually did not come to light until these women had given birth to children from illicit sexual relations with the male elite of society. When the Torah (verse 4) speaks about the גבורים אשר מעולם אנשי שם, “the mighty men of former times who had always been very prominent,” this is a reference to the children from such unions who could be seen to be different from children produced by unions between members of the lower classes of society. The words מכל אשר בחרו, “from among all that they freely chose,” are an allusion to use of the same expression by Isaiah (Isaiah 66,3) where the prophet describes the abominations which people were guilty of in his time. A kabbalistic approach to the words בני האלוקים has been discussed by us already in connection with 5,2 and the name אדם.

ויראו בני האלוקים,” the ‘sons’ of G’d saw, etc.” The expression בני האלוקים, refers to the elite of the society in those days, the law enforcers and judges. The Torah informs us that the very people charged with maintaining the functioning of an orderly, law abiding society, were the first to take the law into their own hands whenever it suited their purpose. Abuse of power leads to anarchy.

And Hashem said: This evil generation shall not endure before Me forever, for they are flesh and their deeds are evil; an extension of one hundred and twenty years has been given to them, if they will repent.

לא ידון רוחי באדם MY SPIRIT SHALL NOT STRIVE AGAINST MAN — My Spirit shall not be in a state of discontent and shall not strive with Myself because of man. לעולם ALWAYS — for a long time. Behold, My Spirit has been contending within Me whether to destroy or whether to show mercy: such contending (deliberation) shall not be forever — meaning, for a long time. בשגם הוא בשר FOR THAT HE ALSO IS FLESH — This is the same as בְּשָׁגַּם — that is to say: because this quality is also in him viz., that he is only flesh, and yet he does not humble himself before Me; what would he do if he were of fire or of some other resisting matter! Similarly we find שַׁ for שָׁ, (Judges 5:7) עד שַׁקמתי דבורה “Until I Deborah arose”, where it is the same as שָׁקמתי; so also (Judges 6:17) שַׁאתה מדבר עמי “that it is thou who talkest with me”, where it is the same as שָׁאתה — so also here. והיו ימיו וגו THEREFORE HIS DAYS SHALL BE etc. — For 120 years I will be long-suffering with them, and if they repent not I shall bring a flood upon them. If, now, you object, saying that from the birth of Japheth until the Flood there were only 100 years, remember that there is no “earlier” or “later” in the Torah (events are not always related in chronological order) (Pesachim 6b): the decree (regarding the Flood) was issued twenty years before Noah had any children — so we find in Seder Olam. There are many Midrashic explanations of the words לא ידון but this is transparently its plain sense.

‘BESHAGAM’ (FOR THAT ALSO) HE IS FLESH. It is as if beshagam were written beshegam with a segol under the shin. And Rashi explained: “This quality is also in him, that he is only flesh, and yet he is not humble before Me. What would he do if he were made of fire or some hard substance.” This explanation has neither rhyme nor reason. Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra explained that G-d said, “My spirit will not abide in man forever because of this violence and also because man is flesh, and when he reaches a certain age he disintegrates.” Ibn Ezra thus understands the verse as if it said, gam beshehu basar (also because he is flesh). But what need is there for stating this contention when it is known that they were but flesh. and death had been decreed on them, as it says, For dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return? The correct interpretation appears to me to be that G-d said: “My spirit shall not abide in man forever because man also is flesh as all flesh that creepeth upon the earth in the forms of fowl and cattle and beast, and it is not fitting that the spirit of G-d be within him.” The purport is to state that G-d made man upright to be like the ministering angels by virtue of the soul He gave him. But he was drawn after the flesh and corporeal desires; he is like the beasts that perish, and therefore the spirit of G-d will no longer be sheathed in him for he is corporeal and not godly. However, He will prolong for them [this withdrawal of spirit] if they repent. The sense of this verse is thus similar to [the verse in Psalm 78]: So He remembered that they were but flesh, a wind that passeth away, and cometh not again.

"My spirit shall not contend" (לֹא יָדוֹן רוּחִי) — some say it is like "and his sword returned to its sheath" (1 Chronicles 21:27), for the body is to the spirit as a sheath; the proof being "my spirit was grieved" (Daniel 7:15). But it is possible that יָדוֹן has a different root, like "though his height reach to the heavens" (Job 20:6), which is a hollow-ayin verb — as is נָשָׂא and many others. Others say its form is like "and the dust returns" (Ecclesiastes 12:7), and it derives from the root דִּין [judgment], for the spirit is the judge within the body. "Because he too" (בְּשַׁגָּם) — the shin is like [the shin in] שֶׁכָּכָה, "[happy] is that people" (Psalms 144:15), and the meaning would be: My spirit shall not remain [in man], for it came from Him — and so Ecclesiastes says: "and the spirit returns to God who gave it" — only the spirit of man alone [shall not remain], on account of this violence; and further, because man is flesh and will reach a [fixed] time and then diminish, as the made [thing] overcomes its maker. "And his days shall be" — some say this sets the life-span for all mankind. If we find cases of more [years], we equally find cases of fewer; Scripture is speaking about the average. But this is not correct, for Shem lived six hundred years, and all the generations after him lived many years; in the days of Peleg the years diminished, and from the days of David until now [the span is] seventy or eighty years. The truth is what the Aramaic Targum says — that He set a term for man [to repent], in the sense of "yet forty days" (Jonah 3:4): if they repented they would be saved, and if not they would die. Do not pay attention to the count [implied by] "And Noah was five hundred years old," for there is no strict chronological sequence in the Torah. Indeed it is written "And Terah died in Haran" (Genesis 11:32), and afterwards "And Hashem said to Abram: Go from your land" — yet we know that Terah did not die until Isaac was thirty-five years old; and there are many similar cases.

לא ידון רוחי באדם לעולם בשגם הוא בשר, it is intolerable that there will continue the argument, strife before Me allowing (the angels?) to claim that although seeing that man has been endowed with divine qualities he must be punished, whereas his close ties to physical earth must be considered as excuses for his conduct, entitling him to continued mercy, and indulgence by Me. והיו ימיו, he will be given a certain length of time within which to repent his sins; מאה ועשרים שנה, during which time Noach would have time to construct the ark, and by doing so rebuking and warning people of what is in store for them. (compare Sanhedrin 108)

ויאמר השם לא ידון רוחי. G'd said: "My spirit will not abide in man permanently." This verse needs someone to explain it. Our sages have given numerous explanations to it without explaining the plain meaning of the verse. It appears that the Torah wishes to tell us that a change occurred in G'd's dealing with man. During the lifetime of Adam, Eve, Cain and Abel, G'd personally had rebuked man for any misdemeanour. When man's deeds became increasingly repulsive to G'd, He decided not to deal with them on such an intimate basis. The word רוחי in our verse therefore means "My Presence." Man had forfeited the privilege of proximity to G'd's Presence. G'd's Presence withdrew from man in direct proportion to his deeds. As long as G'd had confronted man directly whenever He had reason to rebuke them they were on the spiritual level of prophets. When man began to profane himself (meaning of החל in 6,1), he no longer enjoyed that status. In the course of time outstanding individuals, צדיקים, appeared on earth. These individuals succeeded in restoring a closer relationship between man and G'd. After the destruction of the Temple there were no more prophets; the most that remained were individuals who possessed a degree of what our sages describe as רוח הקודש, a measure of holy spirit. Ever since Israel's eyes closed, we no longer have even ריח הקודש, a holy fragrance, not to mention רוח הקודש. The absence of this line of direct communication from G'd is the greatest misfortune for those of us who thirst for at least a fragrance of the holiness of our Father in heaven in order to revive our spirits. The curse we speak about originated with the generation of the deluge. G'd supplies the reason for this in our verse. בשר בשגם הוא, man added to his abominations by adding the sin of בשר, adultery to his other sins. G'd hates sexual permissiveness more than anything else. As a result G'd resented having to communicate directly with such people. The characteristic of the righteous is that they refine the body to give it spiritual content. The characteristic of the wicked is that they do the reverse. They degrade the spirit making it the tool of the body. This leads to the destruction of the universe. G'd referred to this when He said: "My spirit will not find satisfaction in them forever more," not even in the world of eternity. This is because they have turned even their spirit into a tool of the flesh. The Talmud (Sanhedrin 108) states that the people who were destroyed by the deluge do not enjoy a life in the Hereafter. Another way of understanding our verse is based on the use of the term רוחי. Whereas G'd frequently cancels an evil decree due to considerations of His attribute of Mercy, in this case G'd announced that the decree was irrevocable. Normally, G'd applies the attribute of Mercy because He keeps in mind that man is a mixture of flesh and spirit. In this particular case G'd gave notice בשגם הוא בשר, that the decree was final although man is also flesh. Still another meaning addresses G'd's practice of paying the reward or punishment in the Hereafter, the righteous receiving his share in that world and the wicked descending to Gehinom. In this case, G'd gave notice to the wicked that they would not be judged after death but that since they had tainted their spirit as much as their flesh their spirit would also undergo the afflictions normally reserved only for the flesh. The 120 years G'd speaks about is the period needed to allow the righteous of that generation such as Methuselah to live out their allotted lifespan in full. The Zohar on Genesis 7,22 explained: "all that had a soul of living spirit in its nostrils, of all that were on dry land died," as a reference to the righteous who died on dry land, before the onset of the deluge. Another message contained in our verse is that henceforth G'd would never again apply the attribute of Mercy exclusively. The verse is introduced with G'd speaking in His capacity of the attribute of Mercy, ויאמר השם. It switches immediately to tell us that His spirit, i.e. that of mercy would not anymore abide in this world completely. G'd attributed part of the corruption in His world to His having exercised too much mercy. He had allowed man to indulge his greed too much. From now on G'd reserved more of His mercy for the Hereafter. As a result of this change of emphasis, even such a righteous man as our patriarch Jacob was not allowed to enjoy the benefits of this world in tranquillity. As soon as Jacob set out to so so, he experienced all the trouble with his favourite son Joseph (compare Rashi on Genesis 37,2).

לא ידון רוחי באדם, “My spirit will not predominate within man;” according to Rashi, the meaning of this phrase is that G-d feels that He will not continue for much longer to entertain conflicting emotions concerning the future of mankind in such conditions; we find a similar construction as here in Job:2,3 where G-d is on record as telling Satan that nowhere on earth can there be found a man as righteous Job. An alternate exegesis of this phrase: the philological background is נדן ותיק, “returning one sword to its sheath,” quoted by Ibn Ezra, but not attributed to a source that he revealed. The “sheath,” would be man’s body. In other words, man would be reduced to being a body without Divine spirit. לעולם, for an interminably long period. Compare use of the word לעולם, in Samuel I 1,22. [When Chanah made this vow concerning her son Samuel, she did not use the word as meaning: “forever,” as in: לעולם ועד. Ed.] In Exodus 21,6 where the Torah speaks of the servant who had his ear pierced continuing to serve the same master: לעולם, the meaning also could not possibly have been: “forever.” בשגם הוא בשר, seeing that he is composed only of “flesh,” i.e. a combination of components that will not endure forever. Seeing that he was not meant to live forever anyways, he might as well have his normal lifespan shortened, as longevity did not inspire him to be loyal to his Creator. On the contrary, the illusion of living forever contributed to his feeling unaccountable to Me. (G-d). והיו ימיו מאה ועשרים שנה, “and his (average) life span shall be one hundred and twenty years.” On this Rashi comments that the Torah is not restricted to report events in their chronological order. When we learned in Pessachim 6, that when the subject is a single one, the rule of the Torah not being bound to report them in chronological order does not apply, so that here we would be faced with a contradiction, this is not so. We are dealing here with two separate subjects. Consider that from the birth of Yephet until the onset of the deluge only 100 years had elapsed, seeing the Torah testified that Noach, who was 600 years old at the outbreak of the deluge, had only married and become a father at the age of five hundred. The Torah was concerned with the moral image of Noach, and so that the world would not be able to say that Noach had sired a child knowing that it would perish after he knew already that G-d would destroy the human race, (Genesis 6,7) the Torah reported Noach’s having sired Shem already before it referred to G-d’s resolve to destroy the human race. G-d’s decision to destroy mankind (bar Noach and his family) had not been revealed to anyone including Noach until 6,13. Rashi offers a similar commentary on Genesis 11,32, where the death of Avraham’s father is reported at an age of 205 years, before it reported Avram’s moving to the land of Canaan, although Terach lived on after Avram’s leaving him for another 40 years. Had his death been reported in chronological order, some people would have faulted Avram for abandoning an aged father in Charan. As it is reported, the subject of Terach had already been concluded.

לא ידון רוחי באדם לעולם, “My spirit will not contend evermore concerning Man, etc.” Actually, the word ידון is derived from נדנה, a word which we encounter in Daniel 7,15 אנא דניאל בגוא נדנה, “I, Daniel, my spirit was uneasy in its sheath;” the sheath of a sword is called either נדנה or תיק. In a similar manner the body is the sheath of the soul. What our verse means is that “My Spirit,” i.e. the soul, will not ever find a permanent home within the body of Man. The composition of Man’s body after it had become corrupt is simply not fit to be a permanent home for such a lofty intelligent spirit as the soul. בשגם הוא בשר, “since he is but flesh.” The Torah states that also Man is but flesh, just as the animals which roam the earth, be they mammals, birds, or whatever. G’d laments the fact that His spirit, the soul has, allowed itself to be enslaved by the physical aspects of life. והיו ימיו מאה ועשרים שנה, “and his life span shall be one hundred and twenty years.” G’d explains that on account of the condition of the soul within man having become dominated by worldly considerations, He will extend His patience and allow Man one hundred twenty years within which to repent before decreeing a deluge when they would perish. Rabbi David Kimchi, quoting his father, understands the word ידון as derived from מדון, “strife, contention,” and G’d would be saying: “My spirit shall not be in contention with Man forever, seeing that My spirit is not subject to the temptations of the flesh as is Man’s.” I believe that in that case the reason for the number of 120 years mentioned here is the fact that the world was created with the letter ה and G’d wants it to continue to exist He decided to wait 120 years before bringing on the deluge as the number 100 is one fifth of the distance (in terms of years of travel) which Man is removed from the tree of life. Man is to be given a period of time during which to reflect on his conduct. Similarly, the number twenty is one fifth of 100 and we have a tradition that G’d does not punish man until he has attained the age of twenty. In the distant future G’d will not punish Man until he has reached the age of one hundred as we know from Isaiah 65,20 where the prophet describes a picture of a rosy future when כי הנער בן מאה שנה ימות והחוטא בן מאה שנה יקולל “for the lad will (only) die when he has attained the age of one hundred years, and the sinner will be cursed when he is one hundred years old.” In other words, youthful immaturity in those days will last for one hundred years. We may understand the words והיו ימיו in our verse as “that his years [regarding culpability for his sins, Ed.] will be considered as if he had only just been born.” We find an allusion to such a concept in Job 33,25 where Elihu told Job רטפש בשרו מנוער, “”let his flesh become healthier than during his youth.” בשגם הוא בשר, these words contain an allusion to Moses as well as to the total number of his years (when you re-arrange the sequence of the letters). We read in Bereshit Rabbah 28,9 that Noach did not really deserve to be spared from the deluge as the Torah says (6,7) [concerning the whole of mankind] כי נחמתים כי עשיתים, “for I have reconsidered having made them.” The only reason that he and his family were spared was that Moses would become his descendant in the future and G’d did not want to forego a human being of the caliber of Moses. The numerical value of the letters in the word בשגם=345 as does the numerical value of the name משה.

בשגם הוא בשר, “seeing that he is part flesh.” According to Rashi G’d said that if man, made partially of soft issue such as flesh, did not bring himself to humble himself in His Presence, how much worse would he be if made of a hard substance or of fire? Ibn Ezra claims that G’d said: “My spirit will never prevail within man, on account of this sin (the practice of indiscriminate violence) coupled with the fact that the raw material he is made of, i.e. flesh, which will cause him to die so that only his spirit (soul) will return to Me.” [once his spirit leaves him his flesh will decompose. Ed Maimonides explains the meaning of the verse to be that G’d’s spirit will never prevail in man seeing that the fact that he too is made of flesh like all other moving creatures, ensures that he will die just as all creatures die and disintegrate. He therefore does not deserve that G’d’s spirit be at home within him. What Maimonides means is that whereas G’d had given man a divine soul such as He gave to the angels, they had chosen to prefer to emphasise the physical part of themselves, be more like the animals so that they do not deserve the gift G’d had given them.

The mighty ones were in the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of the nobles would come in to the daughters of men and they bore to them — they were the mighty ones who were from of old, men of renown.

הנפילים THE GIANTS — Thy were called נפילים because they fell (נפלו) and caused the downfall of (הפילו) the world (Genesis Rabbah 26:7). In Hebrew the giants are usually called בימים ההם.ענקים IN THOSE DAYS — In the days of the generations of Enosh and the sons of Cain (Genesis Rabbah 26:7). וגם אחרי כן AND ALSO AFTER THAT — Although they witnessed the destruction of the generation of Enosh when the Ocean rose and flooded a third part of the world, yet the generation of the Flood did not humble itself and take a lesson from them (Genesis Rabbah 26). אשר יבאו WHEN [THE SONS OF GOD] CAME IN, they (the women) bore children, giants like them (the fathers) (Genesis Rabbah 26:7). הגבורים MIGHTY — in rebellion against God. אנשי שם MEN OF RENOWN (literally, men of name) — Men who bore distinctive names: עירד, מחויאל, מתושאל being so named because these names have reference to their destruction, for they were wiped out and torn out from the world (מחוי-אל would signify “wiped-out-by-God”, מתושאל “Torn-out-by-God). Another explanation is that they were men of devastation (אנשי שם-מון) — who devastated the world (Genesis Rabbah 26:7).

THE NEPHILIM. Rashi comments: “[They were called nephilim because] they fell (naphlu) and caused the downfall (hipilu) of the world.” This is found in Bereshith Rabbah 6:7. The masters of language say that they [the Nephilim] were so called because the heart of man fell from fear of them. The same applies to the word ha’eimim. Eimah means terror. The Eimim thus induced terror into the hearts of those who saw them. IN THOSE DAYS. Rashi comments: “in the days of the generation of Enosh. AND ALSO AFTER THAT. Although they witnessed the destruction of the generation of Enosh when the ocean rose and flooded a third of the world, still they did not humble themselves and take a lesson from them.”Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra explained: “also after the flood, since the sons of Anak The giants. were of the family of bnei ha’elohim.” If so, we must say that either the wives of Noah’s sons were of their [the Nephilim’s] descendants and resembled them or that ibn Ezra will accept the statement of the Rabbi who advanced the interpretation that Og It is he, according to Rabbi Yochanan, of whom Scripture says: And there came one that had escaped (Genesis 14:13); i.e., escaped from the flood. escaped from the flood, to which Rabbi Abraham will add that others too escaped with him [since the verse states: “The ‘Nephilim’ — (in the plural) — were in the earth…and also after that”, which Ibn Ezra interprets as meaning after the flood]. The correct interpretation appears to me to be that Adam and his wife are called bnei ha’elohim because they were G-d’s handiwork and He was their father; they had no father besides Him. And he [Adam] begot many children, as it is written, And he begot sons and daughters. Now these men, first to be born of a father and mother, were of great perfection in height and strength because they were born in the likeness of their father, as it is written concerning Seth, And he [Adam] begot a son in his own likeness, after his image. And it is possible that all the children of the first generations — Adam, Seth, Enosh — were called bnei ha’elohim because these three men were in the likeness of G-d. But then the worship of idols commenced, and there came upon men a weakness and slackness. And so they said in Bereshith Rabbah:6. “This is the book of the generations of Adam. Are not the first ones toldoth (offspring)! But what are they? [They are in the image and likeness of] G-d. They raised a question before Aba Kohen Bardela: ‘Adam, Seth, Enosh?’ At first, he was silent, but then he said to them: ‘Up to here [Seth] they were in the image and likeness of G-d; after that, Kenan, vexers.’” Enosh’s son was Kenan (Above, 5:9), which name is interpreted as having the same root as the word kanteir (he who makes himself disagreeable). Now when men began to multiply and daughters were born to them, the men of these first generations were in their strength, and because of their great desire they would choose the beautiful women of tall stature and good health. Now first Scripture tells that by force they took them unto themselves as wives, and afterwards it tells that they came in a promiscuous manner to the daughters of men who were not of that high degree, and the matter was not known until they begot children for them, and everyone recognized that they were not the offspring of other people but that they had been born to these bnei ha’elohim because these children were very tall. They were, however, inferior to their fathers in height and strength, [This is the meaning of the name Nephilim — inferior ones], just as the word Nephilim is used in the expression: I am not ‘nophel’ (inferior) to you. Still they were mighty men in comparison with the rest of the people. And Scripture tells that this happened in the first generation to those who were called bnei ha’elohim because they were of absolute perfection, and it is they who caused the daughters of men to beget nephilim (inferior ones); and also after that, for the nephilim themselves begot nephilim from them. The meaning of the expression, that were of old, is that after the flood, the men, upon seeing the mighty, would remember these nephilim and say: “There have already been mightier men than these in the ages which were before us.” They were the men of renown in all generations afterward. This is a fitting explanation of this chapter. But the Midrash of Rabbi Eliezer the Great, in the chapters concerning the angels that fell from their place of holiness in heaven — as is mentioned in the Gemara of Tractate Yoma —51367b. fits into the language of the verse more than all other interpretations. But it would necessitate delving at length into the secret of this subject.

The meaning of Nephilim (נְפִילִים) is that the heart of whoever saw them would fall (יִפֹּל), being astounded at their great stature. The meaning of "and afterwards" — after the Flood. The sons of Anak, it turns out, were originally descended from the family of the sons of God.

הנפילים היו בארץ בימים ההם, these giants were not about until the last 120 years which G’d had assigned man as a grace period within which to do teshuvah וגם אחר כן, as well as thereafter, i.e. they did not repent and mend their ways at all.

הנפלים, “of outstanding stature;” the absence of the letter א in this word which we would have expected to have been spelled הנפלאים, is not unique; we find it also in Exodus 33,16: ונפלינו אני ועמך, “and we, Your people will be outstanding;” היו בארץ בימים ההם, “were prominent on earth at that time.” This is a reference to conditions discussed by the Torah previously, which had been introduced with the words: ויהי כי החל האדם in 6,1. וגם אחרי כן, “and also subsequently.” Even after G-d had expressed His anger at man’s conduct on earth, as described in: 6,3, Man had not leaned to submit to the supremacy of its Creator as testified to by verse two which described their disrespect for holy matrimony, i.e. the status of a wife as inalienably linked to her husband was completely ignored by the physically superior men wishing to possess women to whom they were attracted. אנשי השם, “men of great reputation; Rabbi Acha, in Bereshit Rabbah 26,7, contrasting our verse with Job 30,8 in which these people are described as בני נבל גם בני בלי שם נכאו מן הארץ, “scoundrels, nobodies, stricken from the earth,” queries the way the Torah here refers to these wicked people as: “somebodies;” He therefore understands the word השם in our verse as meaning that השמו: “they desecrated the world and as a result were הושמו, eliminated from it. [From the root: שמם to desolate. Ed.]

הנפילים היו בארץ, “the Nephilim were on earth at that time.” According to Rashi these creatures had fallen from heaven (in disgrace) and had in turn caused people on earth to fall from their spiritual level to a spiritually still lower level. The name נפילים corresponds to the Hebrew word ענקים, “giants.” At any rate, ordinary people were frightened of these “giants.” Other commentators simply understand the term נפילים as representing human beings who, due to their imposing stature, made everyone fall down before them in a state of fear. Rabbi Joseph Kimchi explains the word נפילים as meaning גדולים, “great men, giants.” He quotes Job 14,18 ואולם הר נופל יבול as a parallel, i.e. that even the most powerful and great phenomena (such a tall mountains) on earth will ultimately fall, collapse. בני אלוקים, “the elite of mankind.” The male children of the most outstanding members of human society. These young men would look at the daughters of their morally inferior contemporaries and be consumed with lust for them, so that they would rape them and the result would be more such physically alluring females. אשר יבאו, “who would be intimate with them.” According to Rashi the subject are the sons of the בני האלוקים Nachmanides explains that Adam and Chavah are here referred to as בני האלוקים, “the children of G’d,” as they had been the direct product of G’d’s creative activity, and they had no physical father. Adam and Chavah in turn, had many sons and daughters as the Torah reports in These children of Adam and Chavah were in a class by themselves, seeing that their father had passed on to them a great deal of the genes of the genetically perfect first man on earth. It is possible that the first pair of humans and their immediate sons were referred to as בני האלוקים, as they more than any subsequent human reflected what was called צלם אלוקים at the time when G’d created the first pair of human beings. These people never engaged in idol worship, whereas their offspring already began to see in other powers on earth deities of a kind, albeit surrogates of the Creator. In keeping with this tendency of people to deify powers of nature, their own physical dimensions and strength declined, as a form of punishment. When the human population increased on earth and there began to be competition for good looking female partners, the men of earlier generations, due to their superior prowess, overpowered their more poorly endowed competitors, and they grabbed themselves whatever they chose. Originally, they married such girls even against their will, but eventually their morals deteriorated to such a degree that they raped girls without offering marriage, and generally this did not come to light until the features of the children born from such illegal liaisons did not resemble either of their parents, but showed genetic likeness to the members of the giants. The word מעולם, normally understood as meaning “from time immemorial,” is the Torah’s way of hinting that in the future whenever a human being would for some reason be of such outsize dimensions as the giants of former times, people would speak of giants having lived prior to the deluge; the appearance of this phenomenon would trigger memories of the stories which had been handed down from generation about the existence of such a race at one time.

And Hashem saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the day.

כי רבה רעת האדם, a reference to the past, וכל יצר לב האדם, a reference to the future (when it would not improve)

וירא השם כי רבת רעת האדם, G'd saw that man's wickedness on earth kept increasing. G'd regretted that He had made man on earth. Why was the evil man did connected to "the earth?" The wording of the Torah gives the impression that man perpetrated evil deeds on the body of the earth, whereas their wickedness consisted primarily of violence and sexual perversions as per 6,11-12. While it is justified to describe the theft of land as violence and evil perpetrated on the earth, this is a mere technicality, a minor detail. Why did the Torah not simply say: "G'd regretted having made man," instead of saying that "G'd regretted having made man on earth?" This leads us to believe that if only G'd had made man elsewhere He would not now have had reason to regret it. Surely this is not what the Torah meant to tell us! How do we understand G'd's "regretting" anything? Did not Bileam describe G'd (Numbers 23,19) as not ever regretting anything! Besides, what is the point of describing G'd as "saddened?" If this feeling had to be mentioned at all, it should have been mentioned after G'd had carried out His revenge on all the rebellious human beings and had wiped them out. The Torah addresses itself to the four elements man is composed of, fire, air, water and dust. These elements differ in importance and value, the lowliest one being dust seeing it is murky, opaque. The next higher category is water, followed by fire, followed by air or spirit which is the highest ranking of these elements. Although all creatures contain all four elements, different elements predominate in different creatures. The fish are made mostly of water, the birds mostly of air; this is why they can fly and hardly need to rest on earth. The salamander is a creature in which the element of fire predominates. Man is the only creature in which the lowest of the element, dust, predominates. The Torah reported G'd as having fashioned man "dust from the earth" (2,7). This accounts for man's primary habitat being earth. Man cannot live permanently either in the air, the water, or in fire. G'd had numerous reasons for arranging things in this way, one of them being the concept of מדרגות וסולם, that the universe consists of different levels and a ladder. In order for man to rise from one level to another it is important that the ladder which is the means for that spiritual ascent be firmly planted on earth. When G'd observed that man's wickedness kept increasing, He realised that the fact that man was based on the lowest of the four elements was one of the causes. Also, his habitat was on earth which consists largely of the element of dust. This is the meaning of G'd saying that He saw that man's wickedness on earth had increased greatly. This is why G'd "regretted" not having made man primarily of a more refined element. The Torah prefaced G'd's "regret" by stating that man's thoughts were only concerned with evil all day long, and He attributed this to the fact that man was not made predominantly of one of the more refined elements. G'd's "sadness" refers to the impediments that man's raw material posed to his attaining the objectives His Creator had planned for him. This is why the Torah did not say ויתעצב בלבו, but ויתעצב אל לבו. The word אל alludes to the ambitions G'd had harboured for man when He created him G'd did not want to change the ambitions He had entertained for man for reasons best known to Him; this is why He did not redesign man from one of the other three elements but rather allowed almost the whole species to perish in order to persevere with His original plan. Man's corruption did cause a severe setback to G'd's hopes and timetable. While it is perfectly true that the term "He regretted" is not appropriate for the Creator who has foreseen everything, the Torah is entitled to use the term because of the twin attribute of Mercy and Justice that G'd manifests. When man acts in accordance with the wishes of His Creator the attribute of Justice agrees to G'd giving predominance to His attribute of Mercy. When man rebels, the reverse is the case. Our verse describes that the attribute of Mercy preferred that man had never been made instead of agreeing that man should now be judged by the attribute of Justice. G'd was "saddened" as this was not sufficient reason to consider the whole universe as a failure, a wasted effort. We may also understand the passage in connection with what Maimonides wrote in chapter 5 of his הלכות תשובה. "G'd and His knowledge are one and the same [not like man whose perceptive powers are outside his essence. Ed.]. We are unable to understand this properly, just as we lack comprehension of how G'd can know every detail of the future without such knowledge robbing man of his freedom of decision. All we know as a certainty is that G'd does not interfere with man's free choice. The ראב"ד, with characteristic lack of deference, adds that Maimonides is incorrect, that G'd's perceptions are similar to someone foretelling the future by means of a horoscope. Maimonides is surely closer to the truth as G'd's perceptions cannot be compared to man's. Who would dare suggest that G'd obtains knowledge from outside sources, through trial and error and all the other methods used by us to define the character of what we see, hear, or touch. G'd is able to deny, i.e. totally ignore and remain unaffected by knowledge He had previously acquired. It is this the רמב"ם had in mind when he wrote that man cannot comprehend the manner in which G'd perceives. When Bileam declared (Numbers 23,21) that G'd had not seen any iniquity in Jacob, he referred to exactly this ability of G'd to totally ignore something that He knew was going to occur in the future. We can therefore say that at the time G'd created man He totally excluded from His conscious mind all and any sins that man would ever commit. He did so for two reasons. 1) G'd is good and does not dwell on evil. This reason does not suffice, however, because G'd needs to know what will happen and what will be the ultimate outcome of what happens now. 2) G'd excludes such future events from His consciousness so that the wicked cannot claim they had been programmed by G'd due to His omniscience, and that therefore they are not culpable for their evil deeds. The wicked believe in what we call "self-fulfilling prophecies," and they consider G'd's foreknowledge as belonging to that category. This concept is part of the verse (1,31): "G'd looked at all He had done and here it was very good." G'd "saw" i.e. foresaw, only what was good, i.e. the deeds of the righteous. Of course you will ask: "if so how could G'd punish someone for a deed that He had not seen?" The Torah tells us that at this point in time G'd chose to look at the deeds of the wicked; what He saw caused Him to regret that He had for so long ignored these deeds in order that His knowledge would not become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

כי רבה רעת האדם, “for man’s wickedness had become very great;” it is futile to ask that seeing that G-d has foreknowledge of all that man will do, creating him had been an exercise in futility to start with; why had G-d bothered? The answer is that everything is under the control of heaven except man’s decision to live in awe of the Creator or to defy Him. Seeing that G-d had decided to create a creature equipped with free will, He had simultaneously abrogated His right to interfere as long as man’s use of his freedom did not threaten to undo His universe. The reader is reminded of Deuteronomy 10,12, where Moses tells the people that G-d “asks” the people to revere Him; he did not say that G-d had “commanded” the people to revere Him. He also quoted G-d as expressing the wish that the people could maintain their moral high, as expressed after the revelation at Mount Sinai. In other words, He Himself had restricted His freedom in matters of religious belief of His creature. (Deuteronomy 5,26) “May they always be of such mind, to revere Me, etc.”A third verse spelling out the choice before all of us is found in Deut.30,14: “see I have given before you this day, life and goodness, or death and evil.”

And God saw that man’s wickedness was great. Since they sinned through sexual immorality, and that desire constantly grows and increases and is never satisfied, as our Sages taught (Sukkah 52b): “There is a small organ in man that when he feeds it, it is hungry.” Similarly, they sinned through theft, and one who loves violence and money will never be satisfied with money; rather his desire constantly grows and increases. And every intention of his heart’s thoughts was only evil all day long means that all day long he is not satiated from his desires — there isn’t a single hour in the day when he is satiated, rather at every moment he adds to his desires.

And Hashem reconsidered in His Word that He had made man upon the earth, and He said in His Word to break their power according to His will.

וינחם ה' כי עשה AND THE LORD REPENTED THAT HE HAD MADE — (The first word is connected with that which means “comfort”) It was a consolation to Him that He had created man on earth, for had he been one of the heavenly beings he would have incited them also to rebel against God (Genesis Rabbah 27:4). ויתעצב GRIEVED HIM — means, in the mind of God man became an object to be troubled (punished): it entered God’s heart to grieve him. This is how the Targum of Onkelos understands the verse. Another explanation of verse 6: וינחם AND [THE LORD] REPENTED — The thoughts of God turned from Divine mercy to Divine justice: He considered what to do with man whom He had made on the earth. Wherever this term is used in the Scripture it means “considering what to do”. Examples are: (Numbers 18:19) “nor the son of man that He should consider (ויתנחם)”; (Deuteronomy 32:36) “and reconsider (ויתנחם) regarding His servants”; (Exodus 32:14) “and the Lord reconsidered (וינחם) regarding the evil”; (1 Samuel 15:2) “I am reconsidering (נחמתי) that I have set up Saul to be king” — all these passages denote a change of mind. ויתעצב אל לבו AND IT GRIEVED HIM AT HIS HEART— He mourned at the failure of His handiwork. Similarly (2 Samuel 19:3) ‘The king grieved (נעצב) for his son”. (Similarly here: God grieved for his (man’s) heart: that it had changed from good to bad). The following extract from the Midrash Rabbah I am writing in order that you may know how to refute the arguments of certain heretics: A gentile once asked Rabbi Joshua, the son of Korcha, saying to him, “Do you not admit that the Holy One, blessed be He, knows what is to happen in the future?” He replied, “Yes.” The gentile retorted, “But is it not written ‘and He was grieved in His heart’?” He answered: “Have you ever had a son born to you?” The reply was “Yes.” He asked (the gentile): “And what did you do?” He replied: “I rejoiced and I made others rejoice also.” The Rabbi asked him: “But did you not know that he must die?” The heathen replied: “At the time of joy, let there be joy, at the time of mourning let there be mourning”. The Rabbi then said: “Such, too, is the way of the Holy One, blessed be He: although it was clear to Him that in the end men would sin and would be destroyed, He did not refrain from creating them for the sake of the righteous men who were to issue from them” (Genesis Rabbah 27:4).

AND THE ETERNAL REPENTED… AND IT GRIEVED HIM AT HIS HEART. The Torah speaks in the language of men. The purport is that they rebelled, and grieved His holy spirit with their sins. The sense of the expression at His heart is that He did not tell this to a prophet, a messenger of G-d. This expression is also found with respect to thinking, just as: to speak to my heart, and other similar expressions. In Bereshith Rabbah 7:6. there is a significant matter concerning this, expressed by a parable which the Rabbis bring of an agent and an architect. Against whom is he to complain? Surely against the architect.” Rabbi Assi said: “It is like one who traded through an agent and suffered a loss. Whom does he blame? The agent. Here too It grieved Him at His heart.” This constitutes a great secret which is not permitted to be written down. The one who knows it will understand why here the Tetragrammaton is written while in the whole of the rest of the chapter and the account of the flood, the name Elokim is used.

"And Hashem repented" (וַיִּנָּחֶם ה') — it is well known that He is not a man that He should repent; rather the Torah spoke in the language of human beings, for one who destroys what he has made appears as though he has repented [of making it]. The meaning of "and He was grieved to His heart" is the opposite of "Hashem rejoices in His works" (Psalms 104:31), for it is good in His sight that His creatures receive His loving-kindness. Some say that וַיִּנָּחֶם here is like "who consoles himself [by planning] to kill you" (Genesis 27:42), and they interpret it as "and He bore witness" — and they say that "His heart" is the prophet. But if that were so, there would be no [need for] the word אֶל ["to"] after "was grieved." And where do we find that a prophet is called a heart?

ויתעצב אל לבו, seeing that G’d does not want even the guilty to die instead of finding their way back. The opposite “emotion” of G’d to the one expressed here is found in Psalms 104,31 ישמח ה' במעשיו, “the Lord ‘enjoys’ the deeds of His creatures.”

וינחם ה, the expression: נחם, נחמה is used in three different contexts; 1) deliberate failure to fulfill a vow, such as when it could not be fulfilled as the person who had made it does not have the means to do so. 2) He has simply changed his mind. 3) It is used repeatedly in connection with G-d having second thoughts about something He had done. G-d’s having second thoughts works in two directions as we know from: רגע אדבר על גוי לנתוש ולנתוץ ושב הגוי מרעתו ונחמתי על הטובה,“at one moment I may decree that a nation or a kingdom shall be uprooted and pulled down and destroyed; but if that nation against which I had made the decree, turns back from its wickedness, I change My mind concerning the punishment I planned to bring on it. (Jeremiah 18,79) [I am sure all my readers are familiar with the story of Jonah and the whale, and how G-d changed His mind about the fate of Nineveh when He observed how they repented. Ed.] There is no need here to repeated how G-d “repented” the decree He had issued against the Jewish people after they had made the golden calf and had danced around it calling it a deity. G-d had “regretted” allowing Shaul to have been crowned king, and He ordered Samuel to anoint his successor. (Samuel I 15,11 and subsequent.)at one moment I may decree that a nation or a kingdom shall be uprooted and pulled down and destroyed; but if that nation against which I had made the decree, turns back from its wickedness, I change My mind concerning the punishment I planned to bring on it. (Jeremiah 18,79) [I am sure all my readers are familiar with the story of Jonah and the whale, and how G-d changed His mind about the fate of Nineveh when He observed how they repented. Ed.] There is no need here to repeated how G-d “repented” the decree He had issued against the Jewish people after they had made the golden calf and had danced around it calling it a deity. G-d had “regretted” allowing Shaul to have been crowned king, and He ordered Samuel to anoint his successor. (Samuel I 15,11 and subsequent.) As to the statement by Bileam in Numbers 23,21, that what distinguishes the Jewish G-d from other deities is that: ובן אדם כי יתנחם “neither is He like a human being who changes his mind,” there the word is used in the reflexive mode, i.e. the human being who initiates his own change of mind, whereas when changing G-d’s mind is the issue, this was always forced upon G-d from the outside. He does not allow Himself the luxury of changing His mind as an act of pique, completely unprovoked. ויתעצב אל לבו, “He was saddened to have listened to the advice to create man;”A different exegesis: the words: אל לבו refer to the heart of man; G-d felt saddened on account of man’s heart, i.e. the constantly evil thoughts that he entertained. We find a similar construction in Samuel I 20,34 כי נעצב אל דוד כי הכלמו אביו, “he was saddened on account that his father had humiliated him.” (Yonathan about his father the King, humiliating his bosom fried David) Still another exegesis of our verse: Whenever the root עצב occurs it refers to mourning or something akin to it. Example: כי נעצב המלך על בנו, “for the king mourned over the los of his son.” (Samuel II 19,3, about the death of Avshalom) In our verse the Torah describes G-d as mourning the world He had created and which He now had to completely restructure. If you were to ask how it is possible to mourn people who had not died yet, this rule applies only to mortal human beings who cannot be sure of any event in the future until it materializes; G-d Who foresees developments clearly, can be saddened and in a state of mourning even before the actual event has taken place. Still another interpretation of our verse; the human race had become something only worthy of sadness and distaste.

וינחם ה' כי עשה את האדם בארץ, “G-d reconsidered having made man on earth, etc.” The word עשה refers to the צורה, the divine image G-d had fused with the “golem,” the inarticulate body of Man. This צורה was none other than the צלם, “the divine image” the Torah had mentioned when it reported the creation of the first human being.(1,27) whereas in the report commencing with the words זה ספר תולדות אדם, the expression used was בדמות אלוקים עשה אותו, “in the likeness of G-d He had made him.” In respect of בריאה, the initial stage of the creation of Man, the Torah used the expression צלם or צורה, respectively. In respect of Man’s robot-like body, inarticulate Man, the Torah used the expression דמות as if to tell us that once the צורה became part of the “golem,” it was no longer a צלם אלוקים but merely דמות אלוקים. Seeing that the word דמות does not describe something integral but something external, just as when we speak of עבד אלוקים we mean that the “G-d-serving person” is nonetheless not an integral part of G-d but is “outside” of G-d, G-d reconsidered this part of the arrangement. saying it would have been better if the צורה, the divine aspect of Man, had not become integral to the body. Our sages illustrated this brilliantly when they said in Eruvin 13 נח לו לאדם שלא נברא, “it would have been more comfortable for man if at the initial stage of his creation he had not been fused with the body.” In our verse the Torah did not say וינחם ה' כי עשה את האדם על הארץ, “G-d reconsidered having made man on the earth,” but וינחם ה' כי עשה את האדם בארץ, “G-d reconsidered having made Man composed of integral earthly desires.” Consider a statement by Solomon in Kohelet 4,2-3 ושבח אני את המתים שכבר מתו מן החיים אשר המה חיים עדנה. וטוב משניהם את אשר עדן לא היה. “So I consider more fortunate the dead who have already died, than the living who are still alive; but better than either of them is he who has not yet been.” Philosophers described the statements made by Solomon in these two verses as referring to the three different stages we may encounter the צורה, the divine image, as undergoing at different times. The first stage, and in Solomon’s view preferable the preferable one, is when it had not yet been introduced into the body of mortal man; and he praised that condition of man (at the end of the second verse). The second and relatively tolerable condition of the צורה occurs after it has been removed from man when his body has died. This is a stage which Solomon describes as משבח אני את המתים “I praise the dead.” The third and least tolerable situation he considers the state of the צורה while it is imprisoned within man’s body. The philosophers describe this in terms of three parables. 1) A king who sits in his palace. 2) A king who has recently been released from prison. 3) A king who is still serving a sentence in prison. There can hardly be a question that the king in the first parable enjoys greater stature than any of the other two. In view of all these clever comments why then did the Torah describe the completion by G-d of His handiwork at the end of the sixth day in such glowing terms, i.e. וירא אלוקים את כל אשר עשה והנה טוב מאד, “and G-d saw all that He had made and here it was very good?” Did not that praise also include the fact that G-d had fused body, i.e. “golem” to soul, צורה, when He made Man? Not only that, but how could Solomon come hundreds of years after Moses and praise the Lord for not having fused body and soul when Moses gave G-d “excellent marks” when He praised Him for having fused the two. The answer is that although the original condition of the צורה prior to its having become fused to a body is superior to the other two conditions listed, seeing it had not yet been fused to a body and had not suffered pain or damage, once it had been fused to a body and had accomplished its mission and left that body in a state of purity, it would be far superior to what it had been prior to being fused to a body. At that point such a צורה will have made a name for itself that sparkles like pure gold. This is the reason that the souls of the righteous are forever anxious to return to their holy origins. Seeing that Moses had presupposed that the צורה would accomplish its mission within the body he saw fit to praise the Creator for having placed such a soul within man and he described G-d’s reaction to His handiwork as “very good. The proper interpretation of our verse then is exactly what the text says: האדם בארץ, “man,” while he is still attached to earth in an integral manner.” G-d reconsidered the status of such a human being seeing that this arrangement had resulted in sinfulness as the צורה had allowed itself to be dominated by the body. We find an analogous use of the expression בארץ in Isaiah 62,7 עד יכונן ועד ישים את ירושלים תהלה בארץ, “until He establishes Jerusalem and make her renowned on earth.” What the prophet meant was: “until He will make the glory of Jerusalem which is on earth manifest.” [as opposed to the Jerusalem in the celestial regions.] Another verse which spells out the meaning of the word בארץ even more clearly is found in Psalms 122,3 כעיר שחוברה לה יחדו. The psalmist speaks about the Jerusalem on earth and the Jerusalem in the celestial regions which have been fused together. A kabbalistic approach understands the words וינחם ה', כי עשה את האדם בארץ as: “G-d’s attribute י-ה-ו-ה reconsidered.” The reason this attribute of G-d reconsidered was related to ארץ, “earth;” it was the cause G-d had to reconsider having employed this attribute when making man. The word י-ה-ו-ה in our verse is a reference to the first of the 13 attributes listed in Exodus 34,6. In other words, it was not “man” who was responsible for any reconsideration by G-d of having created him but something connected with “earth.” ויתעצב אל לבו, “and His heart felt sadness.” In terms of the plain meaning of the words the term “heart” when applied to G-d is, of course, only a figure of speech. The same is true whenever the Torah speaks of other organs and appears to attribute them to G-d Who is totally abstract, devoid of any such organs. The reason that the Torah nonetheless employs such terms is to convey to us that our actions may or may not please G-d, may even elicit reactions that if they had been observed in humans would be described as “joy, anger, frustration, happiness and the like.” Such reactions when expressed by human beings usually involve human organs also. When the psalmist (Psalms 104,31) speaks about ישמח ה' במעשיו, “G-d rejoices in His works,” on the one hand, and in this instance we read ויתעצב ה' אל לבו, ”G-d was saddened in His heart,” both descriptions are of necessity anthropomorphisms, i.e. approximations of G-d’s reactions in terms which we humans can understand. They do not reflect the objective reactions of Someone Whose Essence we have not been privileged to understand It follows that when the Torah wishes to give us an inkling of G-d’s reaction to man’s behavior it uses the word “heart” in order to help us understand. Seeing that the human heart is a major vessel in his thinking process, the Torah chose to attribute G-d’s feelings in reaction to human aberrations as reactions by “His heart.” You find that if a person wants to concentrate he isolates himself and bends his head so as to exclude distracting intrusions into his thinking. The reason for this is that the brain, i.e. the head is where his ability to form thoughts originates. This thought process is then relayed to the heart. Granted, that this metaphor sounds somewhat far-fetched, the fact remains that ideas, thoughts travel in a downward direction from the brain to the heart. When the Bible speaks about a messenger from G-d, such a messenger is usually described as פי ה', the “mouth” or “mouthpiece” of G-d (compare Isaiah 34,16) כי פי הוא צוה, “for My mouth (He) has commanded.” The prophet describes himself as G-d’s messenger (agent, or angel) who acts as G-d’s mouthpiece. The spirit of G-d is described as פי the spirit of the angel known as פי,“my,” resp “His mouth.” Yonathan ben Uziel therefore translates our verse here not as “G-d was saddened to His heart,” but as “His angel was saddened to his heart.” [Our editions of Yonathan ben Uziel do not have this wording; Ed.] According to our author the אורים ותומים, the parchment with the Holy name of G-d inside the breastplate of the High Priest which served as a source of communication from G-d to him, was also known as פי ה’, “the mouth of G-d, i.e. as an angel named “mouth of G-d.” Another example of such a reference to פי ה' is found in Joshua 9,14 where the acceptance of the Gibeonites as allies of the Jewish people is described. The failure of consulting G-d on that issue is described there as ואת פי ה' לא שאלו, “they did not consult ‘the mouth of G-d.” When we read in Numbers 11,1 ויהי העם כמתאוננים, רע באזני ה', “the people were as if looking for something to complain about, it was evil in the ears of G-d;” here to the word “in the ears” may be understood as the “ear” in question being one of G-d’s angels. Whenever the function of G-d’s angel is passive, i.e. he is to be an instrument of receiving G-d’s instructions, such a function of the angel is described as his being the “ears” of G-d. When he is supposed to be active in a supervisory manner, he is called “the eyes of G-d.” A very interesting example of this approach is found in Zechariah 3,9 where the prophet describes G-d’s supervision of the Jewish people in revolutionary terms, saying על אבן אחת שבעה עינים, “a single stone enjoying a variety of no less than seven supervisory “eyes,” i.e. agents of G-d.” When David speaks of אזנים כרית לי, “You assigned an ear [in order to listen to You ] “to me” [rather than the commandment to offer sacrifices, Ed.], he refers to his ear as the organ, or in this case G-d’s instrument, which helps to make him tune in to G-d’s “wavelength.” Whenever the term “ear or ears” is used for celestial beings the meaning is that these ”ears” are listening to Israel’s prayers. When G-d dispatches an angel to fight against Israel’s adversaries such an angel is usually described as יד ה' “the hand of G-d,” i.e. His executive arm. One of the examples of such a meaning of the term יד ה' is found in Samuel I 5,11 כבדה מאד יד האלוקים שם, “for the hand of the Lord had been very heavy there.” There are, of course, numerous similar quotations in Exodus when the Torah describes the plagues G-d inflicted upon Pharaoh and the Egyptians. When G-d’s agents are about to reveal a previously unknown manifestation of the Lord, the angel performing this task is often described as “the feet of G-d.” We find an example of this in Zechariah 14,4 ועמדו רגליו ביום ההוא על הר זיתים, “and on that day His feet will stand on Mount Olives, etc.” The prophet refers to G-d’s “soldiers.” There are numerous other examples of that nature. From a Midrashic-homiletical aspect we may approach the words ויתעצב אל לבו, “His heart was saddened,” as follows: Rabbi Ami (Bereshit Rabbah 27,6) told the parable of a king who built a palace having employed an architect. When the palace was completed the king was not satisfied with it. Who should the king be angry at if not the architect? Rabbi Ami related another parable illustrating this when he told about a king who had entrusted a sum of money to a broker instructing him to invest this on his behalf. The broker failed and the king lost his money. Who would the king be angry at if not at the broker? We have to understand why Rabbi Ami saw the need to illustrate our verse by means of two parables. In the parable with the architect it was possible to err and to conclude that there are two separate prime causes in this world People might have said that granted the king is king and wields authority, nonetheless he employed the architect seeing the architect’s wisdom was superior to his own. It follows that there are things in this world which are beyond the “king,“ read “G-d.” This conclusion would be totally mistaken, of course. However, in order to forestall such a mistaken conclusion Rabbi Ami related the second parable. In that parable he spoke about a broker who did not own anything at all and was simply an agent of the king. In both parables Rabbi Ami wanted to emphasise that the role of the broker and the architect are interchangeable. None is privy to any knowledge or power not possessed by their employer, i.e. G-d. The “architect” is none other than a sub-contractor, and we find that the Targum translates the words בוני שלמה, “Solomon’s builders,” (Kings I 5,32) as אדריכלי שלמה, “Solomon’s architects.” A kabbalistic approach to the words ויתעצב אל לבו, understands the subject of “He was saddened” to be the very “architect” or the “broker” mentioned in Rabbi Ami’s parables. The conversation described in the Torah reflects what G-d said to the architect. When He said: אמחה את האדם אשר בראתי... כי נחמתי כי עשיתם, we must pay attention to the switch between the word בראתי at the beginning of the verse and the word עשיתם at the end of that same verse. [G-d was never saddened about the בריאה aspect of man only about the עשיה aspect, i.e. that He had completed the creation of man by fusing earth to spiritual matter. Ed.] Moreover, we must also pay attention to האדם בארץ, in verse five and in verse six. In the first verse the words האדם בארץ refer to what was written immediately before that, i.e. רבה רעת, “the great amount of evil,” whereas in the second verse the words האדם בארץ refer to what follows, i.e. ויתעצב אל לבו. so that the word ויתעצב refers back to האדם, to “man.” It is a reference to the concept of “Man the glorious,” the reason why G-d created the entire universe (ארץ) as we explained already in connection with the word בראשית, very first word of the Torah. Unfortunately, it had now become “ארץ” which had become responsible for this sad state of the universe. The meaning of the full verse in its profounder meaning is: G-d reconsidered having made man not because of man, but because of the earth, i.e. the architect and the broker who had not carried out the assignment G-d had entrusted to them. The reason that the Torah mentions such “feelings” as ויתעצב, “He was saddened,” is only because at the time of the completion of His handiwork at the end of the sixth day the Torah had seen fit to describe G-d’s “joy” when it stated that “G-d saw all that He had done and it was very good,” i.e. “He was very pleased.” You should not be bothered by the fact that at this point the Torah speaks abou ”G-d experiencing sadness;” nor should you be bothered by such statements as ויקרא א-דני אלוקים צבאות ביום ההוא לבכי ולמספד “on that day My Lord of Hosts called for weeping and lamenting, etc.” The Talmud in Chagigah 5,2 [in response to the statement of Rabbi Papa that no sentiments of sadness are to be attributed to G-d, Ed.] explained that what is meant is הא בבתי גוואי והא בבתי בראי, that although we distinguish between externally visible manifestations of sadness and only internal manifestations of such feelings. When it comes to the destruction of the Temple, even angels were allowed to display such sentiments. [The impending destruction of mankind certainly also warranted a display of such sentiments. Ed.] The term בתי בראי “an external house,” i.e. a manifestation that is visible to outsiders refers to emanations from גבורה closer to מלכות, whereas the term בתי גוואי refers to emanations from the emanation גבורה “upwards.” When the Torah speaks here about a visible display of G-d’s sadness as occurring in internal terms, i.e. “G-d was saddened to His heart,” we find the equivalent of this a few chapters later after Noach had presented an offering of thanksgiving (8,21) when the Torah describes G-d’s reaction as “G-d said to His heart, I will not continue to curse the earth for the sake of man.”

And the Lord regretted that He made man on earth. [This refers to man] in combination with the earth, as I explained in the name of the Ramban on the verse, Let us make man — myself and the earth — because the earth provided him with coarse and thick material. The matter of this regret and the concept of He was saddened to His heart is an extremely deep exposition — who can fathom it? All the scholars have extensively discussed it according to their understanding, this one saying one thing and that one saying another, and it is as if they are prophesying. Similarly, there are many matters in the Torah that are sealed and closed, regarding all of which my heart tells me not to elaborate on these expositions, for the human intellect becomes weary trying to grasp them. All these uncertainties come to us because we attempt to compare His blessed knowledge to our knowledge, but Scripture says the opposite: For My thoughts are not your thoughts (Isaiah 55:8). How can we possibly comprehend His blessed thoughts which are unknown to us, and we do not have the ability to evaluate them?

וינחם ה' ויתעצב אל לבו, “G’d reconsidered and was saddened right to His heart.” The Torah employs the syntax used by human beings when they regret something they have done. Basically, the Torah writes that the conduct of the humans, their insurrection against the Creator’s basic rules, resulted in their causing G’d’s Holy Spirit to reconsider if they deserved to continue living.

And Hashem said: I will blot out the people whom I have created from upon the face of the earth — from man to beast, to creeping thing and to the birds of the sky — for I have reconsidered in My Word that I made them.

ויאמר ה' אמחה את האדם AND GOD SAID I WILL BLOT OUT THE MAN — He is dust and I shall bring water upon him and blot him out: that is why this root מחה is used (it expresses the idea of sponging out by means of wet or dampness) (Genesis Rabbah 28:2). מאדם ועד בהמה — FROM MAN, TO BEAST — These also corrupted their way (Genesis Rabbah 28:8). Another explanation is: All things were created on man’s account; when he ceases to be, what need of them? (Sanhedrin 108a) כי נחמתי כי עשיתים means for I have thought out what to do because I have made them. (Cf. this with Rashi’s second explanation of וינחם 5:6).

"And He said" — [this refers to speech] within His heart, or speech to the angels. Some say [He spoke] to Noah. What seems correct to me is that it is connected to "His heart" written above (Genesis 6:6).

ויאמר השם אמחה את האדם. G'd said: I will wipe out man. G'd had to repeat here once more that He "regretted" having made man so that we would understand that G'd's regret expressed in the previous verse was not because of man's deeds, but concerned man's creation per se. Had G'd wanted to wipe out mankind only because of their deeds, anyone who had not committed a serious sin would not have been affected by the decree to wipe out man. This would comprise all the people under twenty years of age. If the decree was due to G'd's regret at having made man at all, everybody would be included in the decree. In view of the fact that the Torah tells us through the repeated use of the word נחמתי that every human being was included in the decree, the Torah had to continue immediately and tell us that there was one single exception, namely Noach. The Torah tells us that Noach "found favour in the eyes of G'd," i.e. not on account of his deeds. Once G'd had decided that He "regretted" having made man Noach's good deeds would have had no impact on his fate. He needed an act of grace by G'd to save him. The fact that G'd granted Noach grace does not mean that he did not deserve to survive based on his good deeds. There are certain categories of מצות, good deeds, which secure a person grace in the eyes of G'd. G'd has deliberately refrained from telling us which מצות fall into that category because otherwise everybody would merely concentrate on performing those commandments.

אמחה את האדם, “I shall wipe out the human race;” when G-d had created the human He had not prefaced this with the singular mode: אעשה, “I shall make,” but He had said: נעשה, “let us make,” as He had consulted with the angels about that project. As soon as He had created them the angels had belittled this creature, saying: מה אנוש כי תזכרנו, “what is so special about the human race that You, G-d, should devote so much time and effort to its creation?” (Psalms 8,5) This is why He did not consult them about wiping out the human race. A few hundred years later, when man had built the Tower, G-d once more consulted with the angels about what punishment to administer to these people who had developed such arrogance. (compare Genesis 11,7: הבה נרדה ובבלה שפתם, “let us descend and confuse their language.” כי נחמתי כי עשיתי, this is how G-d referred to sinful man; but when man was loyal and G-d fearing, He boasted with their loyalty, lauding them for their steadfastness and refusal to regret having accepted the Torah; (compare Numbers 23,21, לא איש אל ויכזב ובן אדם כי יתנחם, “I am not disappointed in this people. It does not cause Me any regrets.” (loosely translated by this Editor) We find in that verse another allusion that change in attitude always first occurs in G-d’s creature, never in G-d, so that what appears as G-d changing course is really only His reaction to man’s perversity.

But Noah found compassion before Hashem.

BUT NOAH FOUND GRACE IN THE EYES OF THE ETERNAL. The meaning thereof is that all his deeds were pleasing and sweet before Him. Similarly: For thou hast found grace in My sight, and I know thee by name. This is like the verses: And He gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison; And Esther obtained favor in the sight of all of them that looked upon her. Scripture mentions this in contrast to what it said concerning his [Noah’s] generation, namely, that all their deeds brought grief before Him, blessed be He. But of Noah it says that he found grace in His eyes, and afterwards it tells why he was pleasing before G-d: because he was a perfectly righteous man. Noach.

"Grace" (חֵן) — derived from the root meaning compassion, and from it comes תְּחִנָּה, supplication (Joshua 11:20; or: 1 Kings 8:38); its pattern is that of קֵץ, and both are from verbs of doubled roots. The meaning of "finding grace" is like "no eye took pity on you" (Ezekiel 16:5).

But Noach found favor (chen). Chen implies groundless favor. Because Noach did not actively spread knowledge of Hashem he was not worthy that others should be saved on his account. Thus it was an act of groundless favor to him that his sons and daughters-in-law were spared.

ונח מצא חן בעיני ה', “and Noach had found favor in the eyes of the Lord.” This means simply that the wicked deserved to be wiped out whereas righteous Noach deserved to be saved as he had found favour in the eyes of G-d All the Torah does here was to explain the principle of reward and punishment. This is also what Solomon had in mind when he said in Proverbs 22,1 נבחר שם מעושר רב מכסף ומזהב חן טוב, “A good name is to be chosen rather than riches, grace is better than silver or gold.”

ונח מצא חן, “but Noach had found favour, etc.” Bereshit Rabbah 28,9 points out that even Noach, strictly speaking, had not deserved that G’d perform miracles for him to save him, but as he was fortunate in finding favour in G’d’s eyes, [either because he had fathered Shem, and eventually an Avraham was born to that family, or that in accordance with the dictum that the attribute of justice is always tempered with the application of the attribute of mercy, he was the one to whom the attribute of mercy could be applied. The entire statement has as its basis the letter ו in the word ונח, which suggests that actually he too was included in the previous statement נחמתי כי עשיתם, “I am sorry that I have made them” Ed.]

These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, perfect was he in his generations; in the fear of Hashem Noah walked.

אלה תולדת נח נח איש צדיק THESE ARE THE PROGENY OF NOAH: NOAH WAS A RIGHTEOUS MAN — Since the text mentions him it sings his praise, in accordance with what is said, (Proverbs 10:7) “The mention of the righteous shall be for a blessing.” Another explanation is: since after stating “These are the progeny of Noah”, it does not at once mention the names of his children but declares that he “was a righteous man”, Scripture thereby teaches you that the real progeny of righteous people are their good deeds (Genesis Rabbah 30:6). בדורותיו IN HIS GENERATIONS — Some of our Rabbis explain it (this word) to his credit: he was righteous even in his generation; it follows that had he lived in a generation of righteous people he would have been even more righteous owing to the force of good example. Others, however, explain it to his discredit: in comparison with his own generation he was accounted righteous, but had he lived in the generation of Abraham he would have been accounted as of no importance (cf. Sanhedrin 108a). את האלהים התהלך נח NOAH WALKED WITH GOD — In the case of Abraham Scripture says, (Genesis 24:40) ‘‘[God] before whom I walked”; Noah needed God’s support to uphold him in righteousness, Abraham drew his moral strength from himself and walked in his righteousness by his own effort (Genesis Rabbah 30:10). התהלך HE WALKED — This word is in the past tense. The following is the usage of this verbal form: in the “heavy” (כבד) conjugation one grammatical form is used both as future (i. e. the imperative, since the imperative calls for on action to be done in the future relative to the time when the command is given) and as past tense e. g., (13:17) קום התהלך “arise walk” is future (i. e. imperative); התהלך נח “Noah walked” (in this passage) is past; (1 Samuel 12:19) התפלל בעד עבדיך “Pray for thy servants” is future (i. e. imperative) and (1 Kings 8:42) ובא והתפלל אל הבית הזה “When he shall come and shall pray toward this house” is past, only that the ו at the beginning of the word changes the tense into the future (it is Vav conversive).

THESE ARE ‘TOLDOTH’ NOAH. Commentators These commentators felt the difficulty in explaining toldoth to mean “progeny” or “generations” since it further states, And Noah begot three sons. have explained the word toldoth to mean “his experiences” [or “his events”] much the same as the sense of: what a day ‘yeiled’ (may bring forth). In this way the word toldoth refers to the entire section [since all the events of the flood are occurrences in the life of Noah]. But this does not appear to me to be correct since the external events in the life of a person, [over which he has no control], are not his toldoth. The correct interpretation is that the word toldoth here retains its literal meaning of “progeny,” just as, These are ‘toldoth’ (the progeny of) the sons of Noah; And these are ‘toldoth’ (the progeny of) Ishmael. Thus Scripture is saying, “These are the progeny of Noah: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.”Scripture however repeats, And Noah begot three sons, because [at the end of the first verse] it interrupted by saying, Noah was a righteous man, and whole-hearted, in order to inform us why He commanded him concerning the ark. And even though Scripture has already stated above, And Noah was five hundred years old; and Noah begot Shem, Ham, and Japheth, it returns to mention them a second time in order to relate that Noah was unlike all his ancestors who begot daughters and sons. This is the meaning of the words, three sons; Scripture mentions their number in order to say that these three alone were his progeny, and they were saved by his merit, and by them was the whole earth overspread. HE WAS A RIGHTEOUS MAN AND WHOLE-HEARTED. Scripture mentions that he was guiltless and perfect in his righteousness in order to inform us that he was worthy to be saved from the flood without any punishment whatever since he was whole-hearted in righteousness. For a tzadik (a righteous person) is one who is found guiltless in judgment as opposed to the wicked person, as Scripture says, And they come unto judgment, and the judges judge them, by justifying the righteous, and condemning the wicked; and also, For Thou art just in all that has come upon us, for Thou hast dealt truly; similarly, In righteousness shalt thou judge thy neighbor. But in the case of Abraham, concerning whom it says, that he will command his children to do ‘tz’dakah’ and ‘mishpat,’ Scripture praises him for righteousness which is synonymous with judgment, and for mercy which is synonymous with tz’dakah. ”And Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra said, “Righteous in deeds; whole-hearted in his heart.” However, it is written, Thou art whole-hearted in thy ways; [the term “whole-hearted” is thus used in connection with “ways” and not with matters of the heart]. Now after Scripture said that Noah was a righteous man, meaning that he was neither a man of violence nor one who perverted his ways as did the guilty ones of his generation, it further said that he walked with the glorious Name, fearing Him alone. He was not enticed by the astrologers, enchanters and soothsayers, and surely not by idolatry, and he paid no heed to them at all; to G-d alone he did always cleave, and he walked in the way G-d chose or taught him for he was a prophet. This is analogous in meaning to the verse, After the Eternal your G-d shall ye walk, and Him shall ye fear, which is stated in connection with the removal of him who prophesies to encourage the worship of idols and gives a sign or wonder to verify his words, as I will explain. I will again mention this in connection with the verse, Walk before Me, and be thou whole-hearted, if He Who is perfect in knowledge will be with me. Now since Noah was a righteous man and undeserving of punishment, it was fitting that his sons and his household be saved by his merit for if his sons were to perish, it would have been a punishment upon him. Or it may be said that he was a perfectly righteous man, and his sons and household were also righteous since he taught them; this is analogous to that which is written concerning Abraham: For I have known him, to the end that he may command his children and his household. IN HIS GENERATIONS. Some of our Rabbis explained it to his credit, [i.e., he was righteous despite his generation]; it follows all the more had he lived in a generation of righteous people. Others explain it to his discredit. [In comparison with his own generation he was considered righteous, but had he lived in the generation of Abraham he would not have been considered of any consequence.] Thus the language of Rashi. The correct interpretation according to the plain meaning of Scripture appears to be that he alone was a righteous man in those generations, there being no righteous or whole-hearted men except him in those generations. In a similar sense is the verse, For thee I have seen righteous before Me in this generation, meaning that there is no other in the generation worthy of being saved. Scripture says, in his generations —[using the plural form]— because many generations passed since the time men had become corrupted, and there was no righteous man besides him. Let not the word of our Rabbis concerning Methuselah, [which said that he was a righteous man], cause you difficulty for Scripture tells only that there was no righteous man worthy of being saved from the flood in all those generations except Noah.

תולדות נח, a reference to his history, commencing with his own life and continuing with that of his offspring. צדיק, in his deeds, תמים, in his attitudes, בדורותיו, according to the generations during which he lived. They included part of the generation of Metushelach, of Lemech, and those during the 600 years preceding the deluge. את האלוקים התהלך נח, he walked in G’d’s way trying to be helpful to others, and to instruct and if necessary to rebuke them, as our sages pointed out. This is also in accordance with what the historian Berussi Hacaldaii (3rd century B.C.) wrote about him.

אלה תולדת נח, Theses are the generations of Noach. When the Torah uses the term "these," it usually intends to exclude something, i.e. "these generations and not any others." In this instance there was no need for the Torah to use the term "these," as we already know that all the generations were doomed. For this reason the sages understand the word to teach us that the principal "generations," i.e. descendants of a person, are man's good deeds. They therefore read the verse as if there were no comma between the words נח, נח to indicate that Noach's descendants were his good deeds (Bereshit Rabbah 30,6). The Midrash was careful to say that the "principal" descendants of the righteous are their good deeds; naturally they also have other descendants. When the good deeds of Noach are described by the word אלה, this is only in contrast with those of the word תולדת at the beginning of chapter 5. Another meaning of the sequence נח נח, is illustrated in an imaginary conversation between Moses and Noach reported in Devarim Rabbah 11,3. In that conversation Noach claimed to have been greater than Moses because he was saved during the deluge. Moses retorted that Noach had not been able to save anyone other than himself, whereas he had saved his generation after the sin of the golden calf. The word אלה accordingly describes the limited value of Noach's good deeds. They sufficed only to save himself. The additional word בדורתיו further underlines that Noach did not succeed to make penitents out of his peers. His sons who were considered as his "branches" are therefore included in the name Noach. The Torah accords Noach a compliment which it did not accord to righteous people who had lived before his time. Noach's righteous predecessors all had other righteous people to model themselves after, something that did not apply to Noach. He grew up surrounded only by wicked people. The word אלה therefore also has a positive connotation in that it sets Noach's pious conduct apart from all those who had preceded him. There is another message contained in this verse which is commented upon in Bereshit Rabbah 25,2. The Midrash discusses whether Noach's name was in itself blissful, or whether in view of Noach's righteous way of life the blessings he conferred on earth were subsequently reflected in his name. Here is some of the discussion: "When G'd created Adam He invested him with a full range of authority. The cow obeyed the ploughman, the furrow co-operated with the plough. As soon as Adam sinned, the cow no longer responded to its owner, nor did the earth respond to the plough. This situation continued until the time of Noach. Once Noach appeared on earth the situation changed in man's favour. Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish added that until Noach the waters would flood the earth, something that stopped during Noach's time. At any rate, the name Noach is repeated in our verse to indicate the beneficial effect his existence had on the well being of his peers. The repetition of the word תולדת and the use of the word איש are an allusion to the fact that Noach was איש האדמה, an outstanding farmer (as is stated explicitly after the deluge (9,20). Our sages (Tanchuma Bereshit 11) find Noach's successful impact on farming alluded to in 5,29 where his father Lemech predicts that his son Noach will provide relief for עצבון ידינו, "the painful labour of our hands." The fact that Noach was born without a foreskin gave rise to these hopes. Apparently Noach invented a usable plough. The word צדיק hints that the righteous is the foundation of the universe, that without a righteous person the universe would forfeit its reason for existence. But for Noach the earth would have perished at the time of the deluge. The word חמים should be understood in the same vein as the Talmud Avodah Zarah 10 explains it. The Talmud understands the word צדיק as a reference to Noach's deeds, whereas the word תמים is a reference to Noach's lifestyle, his attitudes [as opposed to understanding the word as an adjective describing his righteousness. Ed.] All of this is additional praise for Noach who was able to perfect his personality in the face of such wicked contemporaries. Noach did far more than could have been expected of him. Our sages call such conduct לפנים משורת הדין. According to Samuel II, 22,27 G'd acts loyally with the loyal, whereas He uses wile in dealing with the perverse. According to this yardstick Noach would have been free to do likewise, but he chose to be more considerate than required by law. When the Torah describes Noach's perfection as בדורותיו this means that his goodness was recognised even by the people of his time. The plural in the expression בדורותיו reminds us that the average person's lifespan involves three generations. He lives during part of his father's generation, his contemporaries, and during part of his children's generation. Noach was unique during all these three generations; the only righteous member of a former generation that he shared time on earth with was his grandfather Methuselah. When the Torah tells us את האלוקים התהלך נח, that Noach walked with G'd, this means that even vis a vis G'd Noach's conduct was very constructive. Our sages tell us in connection with Noach's offering after the deluge (8,21) וירח השם את ריח הניחוח, that Noach's name is alluded to in the word ניחוח. The reason the Torah repeats the name Noach at the beginning is to refer to this second dimension of Noach's beneficial effect on mankind, when G'd decided not to bring another deluge ever, due to Noach's gratitude. The reason the Torah uses the verb הלך when describing Noach's conduct vis-a-vis G'd is because G'd describes a desirable conduct by man in those terms in Deut. 28,9. When the Torah here employs the reflexive התהלך, this merely emphasises that Noach kept walking with G'd. He provided pleasure to His Creator all the time, something which found its ultimate expression in his sacrifice after the deluge.

אלה תולדות נח, “These are the descendants of Noach;” according to Bereshit Rabbah 30,3, whenever a paragraph commences with the word: אלה, this is equivalent to dissociating what occurs from then on with what had been discussed previously; Noach, was not a continuation of the history of mankind up until now, but represents a 180 degree turn from that history. Whereas the generations prior to him progressed toward their destruction, he represented a new beginning for mankind. He founded a new type of human being. תולדות נח, the word תולדות, refers to happenings and their causes. For instance: Proverbs 27,1 כי לא תדע מה ילד היום, “for you do not know what the day will bring.” Rashi offers the same interpretation concerning the line: אלה תולדות יעקב, יוסף, “these are the descendants of Yaakov, Joseph.” (Genesis 37,2). The Torah now readies itself to record the history of mankind as if it had commenced with Noach, and it attributes events that will be described as the direct or indirect result of Noach’s influence on them. It sums up the difference by describing Noach as a righteous man, when compared with his ancestors. It attributes the demise of his ancestors as basically due to their wickedness, [even though a few individuals in each generation had not been wicked. Ed.] איש צדיק, תמים היה, “a righteous man, basically perfect.” This is the reason why Noach had found favour in the eyes of his Creator. תמים, according to bar Chataya in Bereshit 30,8, the meaning of this word is that the people named all lived a number of years which divide into the number 7. Noach lived 350 years after being called תמים, i.e. 50 times seven, Avraham 175, i.e. 25 times seven, etc. [The commentators on Midrash Rabbah elaborate on that strange sounding definition of תמים. Ed.] היה, anyone in the Holy Scriptures of whom it is said: היה, experienced a new world, i.e. radical changes in the world. In the case of Noach, he was a witness to the destruction of earth and its inhabitants during the year he spent in the ark, only to become a witness to its renewal after he emerged from the ark. Joseph at one time was a lowly second rate shepherd with his brothers, יוסף היה רועה את אחיו, and became the second most powerful man in Egypt, whose population he saved from starvation. Moses was a shepherd for his fatherinlaw, ומשה היה רועה, yesterday he had had to flee for his life, and subsequently he rose to lead his people into freedom and greatness. Job started out as a wealthy man, איש היה בארץ עוץ איוב שמו, was reduced to absolute misery and destitution, only to rise again to be even greater than originally. (Job 42,10)

מתהלך בתומו צדיק, אשרי בניו אחריו, “The righteous man walks in his integrity; happy are the children who come after him.” (Proverbs 20,7) Solomon told us in this verse that a person cannot be considered as righteous until he has walked in integrity when serving the Lord. What is this “integrity” which Solomon talks about here? It means that one performs G-d’s commandments because of love and reverence for Him, not because one hopes to benefit by this in the eyes of one’s peers and by attaining honour in their eyes. It is appropriate for man to perform good and kind deeds to the best of his ability without bragging about them. In fact he should endeavour to refrain from even mentioning that he has perfomed such deeds. Anyone who does tell about this and claims credit for such good deeds is actually considered as a sinner. If one does claim credit for such good deeds this is liable to result in two kinds of negative fallout. 1) Firstly, he enhances his own standing compared to others in the eyes of those who believe him when he tells them about his deeds of piety. 2) He puts to shame and embarasses those who have been the recipients of his kindness. It is the mark of a righteous person who walks in integrity with his G-d that he does not boast about his virtues and the good deeds he has performed. Such a person is described as איש אמונים, “a man of true integrity.” Solomon connects the verse we have quoted with the one immediately prior to it in which he said רב אדם יקרא איש חסדו, ואיש אמונים מי ימצא”he calls most people ‘true friend,” but who can find a loyal man?” In mentioning איש אמונים, “a loyal man,” Solomon took his cue from Proverbs 11,13 where such a “loyal” person is described as ונאמן רוח מכסה דבר, “a faithful spirit keeps his confidence.” In fact, Solomon discusses the same theme also in another context (Proverbs 10,8) where he said חכם לב יקח מצות, ואויל שפתים ילבט, “the wise in heart will accept the commandments, whereas the one who speaks foolishly will be afflicted.” What Solomon meant was that the person who is truly wise gets hold of G-d’s commandments with his hands and performs them without speaking about this with his lips. The foolish persion is the exact reverse of the wise man. Not only does he not endeavour to perform the commandments which he has a chance to perform, but even when he violates the commandments he makes a point of talking about this. This is why is referred to primarily as a ”fool.” So we are faced with two totally opposite behaviour patterns. The one type of person hides the fact that he actually does perform G-d’s commandments, whereas the other person makes a point of broadcasting the fact that he does not. Concerning the latter type of individual Solomon says ילבט, meaning he will become troubled by his words. The word ילבט is found in Hoseah 4,14 where it means “he will fail.” Yonathan ben Uziel translates the word as וסכלא בשפוושיה מתאחד “and the fool will become enmeshed by his own words.” As to the second half of the verse in Proverbs 20,7 which we quoted in our introduction, אשרי בניו אחריו, “happy are the children who come after him,” Solomon refers to the ability of parents to confer merits on their children after them. This is analogous to G-d saying in Exodus 20,6 ועושה חסד לאלפים, that “He (G-d) will perform kindness to thousands of generations of descendants of the righteous.” This is applicable in the event that their ancestors performed the commandments from a sense of love for G-d, whereas a different statement in Deut 7,10 in which G-d is portrayed as extending such kindness to one thousand generations refers to ancestors who performed G-d’s commandments only out of a sense of awe and fear of the consequences if they would fail to do so. The basis for this interpretation is the fact that the word לאוהביו “to those who love Him,” is written next to the words לאלפים, “for thousands of generations,” whereas the word s לאלף דור “for one thousand generations” appears next to the words ומשלם לשונאיו “and He repays those who hate Him“ in Deut.7,10. Solomon has explained this in a similar fashion in Proverbs 14,26 where he said: ביראת ה' מבטח עז ולבניו יהיה מחסה, “through his reverence for G-d man has a fortress; his children will have a place of refuge.” In other words: “the accumulated merits of the fathers are a source of benefit for their children in the eyes of G-d.” It is entirely possible that the opening verses in our portion are intended to praise Noach in three stages, each stage being superior to the preceding one. The Torah mentions last that Noach “walked with G-d.” This virtue of walking with G-d is a very great virtue indeed, a virtue which is superior to what is called תמימות, “perfection.” The virtue תמימות, on the other hand, is superior to the virtue described as צדיק; the Torah reports that Noach had attained these three levels of moral achievements progressively until he had qualified for the description את האלוקים התהלך נח, “Noach walked with G-d.” אלה תולדת נח, נח איש צדיק, תמים היה בדורותיו את האלוקים התהלך נח. “These are the generations of Noach; Noach was a righteous man, perfect in his generations; Noach walked with G-d.” The word תולדות refers to “happenings” (compare the comments by Ibn Ezra and David Kimchi); it is what is described in Proverbs 27,1 as כי לא תדע מה ילד היום, “for you do not know what the day will bring.” The explanation of these commentators is based on the verse following in which Noach is described as ויולד נח, “Noach begot.” These words are read as belonging to what the first verse told us i.e. the three virtues which Noach practiced as opposed to his peers. Being a צדיק, a righteous person, meant not engaging in violent means to gain one’s objectives. The Torah reported in verse 11 that his generation was guilty of random violence. His second virtue was that he was תמים, “perfect,” that he was consistent and thorough in the way he practiced his virtues. The Torah applies the term תמים to the red heifer, i.e. a cow that has uniformly red hair. Even two hairs of a different colour disqualify such an animal from fulfilling its designated purpose. In other words, an animal אשר אין בה מום,”which is without blemish” (Numbers 19,2). In the case of human beings, the term מום describes a character defect. This is why the Torah describes Noach as תמים “free from blemish.” Psalms 119,1 lauds such people by referring to them as אשרי תמימי דרך,”hail to those whose way is blameless.” In order to contrast Noach’s virtues with those of his contemporaries the Torah writes כי השחית כל בשר על הארץ, “for all flesh had corrupted its way upon the earth.” Noach’s third virtue is described by the words את האלוקים התהלך נח, “Noach walked with G-d.” This virtue of “walking with G-d” is something so exceptional that we find it mentioned only very rarely. Nonetheless, it is one of the imperatives G-d (Moses) commanded the Jewish people (Deut. 13,5) when He said: אחרי ה' אלוקיכם תלכו, “You shall follow the Lord your G-d, etc.” Interestingly, in our verse the Torah does not describe Noach as having walked behind G-d, i.e. אחרי האלוקים, nor does it use the normal conjugation kal i.e. הלך when describing Noach’s relationship to G-d. The Torah uses the reflexive conjugation התהלך, “he made himself walk.” This was not a construction that can be applied to an entire nation and this is why Moses did not phrase his imperative as אחרי ה' אלוקיכם התהלכו,”make yourselves follow (in the footsteps of) the Lord your G-d.” Only select individuals ever attain such a lofty spiritual level and only after having become outstandingly righteous people. (in the words of our author “people who have attained the levels of the sun and the various forces of energy in outer space and who are familiar with how these forces of energy influence what goes on in our terrestrial world.”) The very attainment of that level of comprehension of the forces at work in our universe reveals that the person who commands it has an appreciation of G-d and His Majesty. This is what David meant when he said (Psalms 19,2) השמים מספרים כבוד א-ל ומעשה ידיו מגיד הרקיע, “the heavens declare the glory of G-d, the sky proclaims His handiwok.” This is also why our sages (Shabbat 75) have said: “anyone who knows how to calculate the various seasons and horoscopes correctly and fails to use his ability is the subject of the verse (Isaiah 5,12) “and he fails to take note of what He is designing.” We have another scriptural verse (Psalms 82,5) לא ידעו ולא יבינו בחשכה יתהלכו, “they neither knew nor understood, they make themselves walk in darkness;” this verse too describes people who, though able to comprehend the mysteries of nature, fail to pay attention to this and to draw the appropriate conclusions regarding their conduct on earth. In order to highlight Noach’s achievements in this sphere the Torah testifies to this with the words את האלוקים התהלך נח, that “Noach indeed walked with G-d.” This “walking with G-d,” meant that after he had gained insight into the existence and supervisory activity of G-d through his study of astronomy enhanced by his virtuous lifestyle, he drew the proper conclusions. He did not believe in astrology, i.e.he knew that all these phenomena do not represent independent forces in the universe. In this way he was poles apart from his peers who all believed in the sun, i.e. the solar system as a supreme cause. When the Torah speaks about the corruptness of mankind, this is a refernce to idolatry. In Sanhedrin 57 the term השחתה is used to describe paganism and sexual licentiousness based on Exodus 32, 7 where G-d informed Moses with the words שחת עמך, “your people has become corrupt,” that the Israelites had made for themselves a golden calf. This is also why the idolater Jerobam is called איש משחית “a man causing corruption” (based on Proverbs 28,24). The Talmud describes this corruption as taking place לפני האלוקים, something which corresponds to the basic prohibition of idolatry in Exodus 20,3. where the Torah writes לא יהיה לך אלוהים אחרים על פני, “You shall not have other deities in My presence.” The first person who is credited with having attained this level of perfection was Chanoch, and the Torah wrote of him (Genesis 5,24) ויתהלך חנך את האלוקים, “Chanoch walked with the Lord.” This was remarkable because he lived during a time when Enosh had introduced idolatry and all the people of his time had begun to worship the sun and other planetary constellations. Chanoch investigated the laws of nature and concluded that there must be a primary cause which is responsible for the regular orbits of the stars, the sun, etc. The very fact that he is descrbed a having spent 365 years on earth, a number which corresponds to the number of days in the sun’s orbit, is the Torah’s way of hinting to us something about the nature of his superior knowledge. As a result of his investigations of nature Chanoch cleaved to G-d, i.e. to the primary Cause. The next time we find the Torah mentioning the concept of “walking with” or in front of” G-d, is in connection with Avraham in Genesis 17,1. There too the expression התהלך לפני, “walk in front of Me,” is followed by the words והיה תמים “and become perfect,” to show that walking with G-d is an indication of one’s “perfection.” From all we know Avraham was constantly engaged in religious disputes, trying to convince people that there was only one G-d and that He supervises the fates of every individual on earth. He engaged in arguments with the powers of his time concerning the laws of the states. People confronted him trying to prove that the sun was a deity. Avraham did not deny the powers of the sun and its direct influence on what goes on in our world. However, he tried to convince the people of his time that the sun was only an instrument wielded by G-d just as certain tools with which an artisan fashions wonderful furniture is not a deity as it could not produce anything unless the hand of the craftsman guided it. This is why he was prepared to die for his belief when he chose to be thrown into Nimrod’s furnace rather than to deny his true beliefs. The Torah referred to this in Genesis 15,7: “I am the Lord who has taken you out (saved you) from the fire of the Chaldaens.” בדורותיו, “in his generations.” We would have expected the Torah to write בדורו, “in his generation” (sing). However, at the beginning of the deluge Noach was six hundred years old and he had already survived members of several generations. By writing בדורותיו, the Torah wanted to inform us that all those generations had been corrupt already and that there was no individual amongst them that merited saving. According to the plain meaning of the text the reason that Noach’s name is mentioned three times in this verse is because of the three levels of perfection he had attained, i.e. he was righteous, perfect, and he walked with G-d.

These are the generations of Noah — Noah was a righteous man, etc. Rashi explains that since the Torah mentioned him, it records his praise. According to this explanation, it should have recorded his praise at the end of Genesis, since he is also mentioned there. However, since it says here, These are the generations, and wherever it says “these” it excludes what came before, this comes to tell you that all the previous generations are not called [true] generations because their memory would be erased in the flood and they would be as if they never existed. But these are called lasting generations. Therefore, here it needed to give a good reason why these remained more than others — because Noah was a righteous and perfect man, etc. Therefore, all his generations went on to eternal life while all the previous generations went to eternal shame and contempt. And according to another explanation that Rashi gives — to teach you that the main “offspring” of the righteous are their good deeds — the word these comes to exclude ordinary offspring, telling you that these [good deeds] are his main generations. This is mentioned here because God restrained his fountain and he didn’t have many sons and daughters. Perhaps Noah was distressed about this, therefore it says that besides this, he had many generations of good deeds, which are better than sons and daughters. A righteous and perfect man he was in his generations. Since the generation of the flood corrupted and acted abominably in three types of corruptions that are mentioned in the Torah portion — namely idolatry, sexual immorality, and theft — therefore the Torah prefaces by saying that Noah fenced himself off from all three of these. For [when it says] righteous man — this means that he did not steal from others; perfect was he in his generations — this means that he fenced himself off from sexual immorality, as he was born circumcised and was perfect. Noah walked with God — he did not turn to other gods. However, the generation of the flood breached the boundaries of all three of these.

אלה תולדות נח, “these are the offspring of Noach.” Some commentators understand the word תולדות as referring to important events in the life of Noach, similar to Genesis 10,1 ואלה תולדת בני נח, or אלה תולדות השמים in Genesis The fact that the Torah repeated the words ויולד נח וגו', that Noach begat 3 sons, information we had been told already in Genesis 5,32 is due to the interruption of the Torah’s narrative by telling us that Noach was a righteous man and that this accounted for his and his family being spared during the deluge. Seeing that Noach begat only three sons, as opposed to most of his contemporaries, the Torah wishes to emphasise this point. Even during the 350 years which he lived on after the deluge he sired no more children. These three sons alone were his biological offspring and they were saved because of that (not their own merit). איש צדיק תמים היה, “he was a perfectly righteous man.” The meaning of the expression צדיק תמים is that he was a righteous man among other righteous men, i.e. had been found righteous when coming up for judgment. When a person such as Noach is found righteous, his erstwhile sins, potential causes for punishment, are converted into righteousness. This is the meaning of the verse (Deut. 25,1) והצדיקו את הצדיק והרשיעו את הרשע, “they (the judges) will exonerate the righteous (totally) and condemn the wicked.” In the case of Avraham, of whom G’d said that He knows him to be practicing and teaching צדקה ומשפט, (Genesis 18,18) He bestowed two kinds of praise upon him, צדקה, a practicing צדיק, and משפט, the meting out of משפט by tempering it with mercy, רחמים. Ibn Ezra understands the word צדיק as referring to Noach’s deeds, and תמים as referring to his motivation. [his righteousness was not prompted by self-serving considerations. Ed.] When the Torah continues that Noach walked with G’d, ויתהלך נח את האלוקים, this means that he did not even allow himself to be guided by astrology and similar considerations, but followed directly in the paths of G’d to the extent that they had been revealed. He certainly did not practice any form of idolatry. Alternatively, the Torah describes Noach here as a prophet, seeing that the formulation אחרי ה' תלכו ואותו תיראו”follow the Lord and remain in awe of Him,” is used by the Torah to describe the prophet who distances himself from idolatry. בדורותיו, “in his generations.” According to Rashi some commentators consider this word a compliment to Noach, whereas others see in it a veiled criticism. [relative righteousness compared to his contemporaries. Ed.] Nachmanides explains the word as meaning what any reader would assume, i.e. that during the generations Noach lived he was the only one who was righteous and wholehearted in his relations with his Creator. He explains the line (Genesis 7,1) “כי אותך ראיתי צדיק בדור הזה, “for you I have seen righteous in this generation” in he same vein, i.e. no one else is worth saving from the oncoming deluge. The reason the Torah uses the plural mode for the word בדורותיו is the fact that Noach’s life time spanned several generations during all of which mankind had become successively more corrupt. Do not raise the question that Methuselah who died only few days before the onset of the deluge (according to our sages) was also a righteous man. The Torah did not deny that he was righteous, but only states that there was no other righteous man whom G’d deemed worth saving at the time in question. According to yet other commentators the word בדורותיו refers to the generation preceding the deluge as well as to those following it.

And Noah fathered three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

SHEM, HAM, AND JAPHETH. It appears to me that Japheth was the oldest, as it is said, the brother of Japheth the elder, and so in counting their generations, Scripture mentions the children of Japheth first. Ham was the youngest of all, as it is said, And [Noah] knew what his youngest son had done unto him. Here, however, Scripture mentions Shem first because of his superiority and then Ham, for they were born in that order. Thus Japheth is left at the end. But Scripture did not want to say, “Shem and Japheth and Ham,” because in that case all of them would have been mentioned out of the order of their birth, and Japheth had no outstanding quality to merit that the order of birth be dispensed with on his account. Shem, however, is mentioned here first because of his superiority even though in the account of the generations he is last. Similarly, [we find the verses]: The sons of Abraham: Isaac and Ishmael; Here too Isaac is mentioned first because of his superiority although Ishmael was older. And I gave to Isaac Jacob and Esau. This also is similar to the above case.

ויולד נח, as soon as he began to rebuke his fellowmen he was granted children.

ויולד נח שלשה בנים. Noach fathered three sons. Why did the Torah have to repeat here that Noach fathered three sons when we have been told this already in 5,32? The mention of the number "three" seems quite superfluous in view of the fact that the Torah tells us the name of each son. Surely we can count up to three! Why did Noach's name have to be repeated? No one else is the subject here! The word בנים, sons, also seems superfluous. All the Torah had to write was: "Noach fathered Shem, Cham, and Yephet." Why did the Torah add the word את in front of each of the names? In view of our explanation that the Torah considered Noach's good deeds his principal descendants, and that it was on that account that Noach had found favour in the eyes of G'd, our verse is necessary. Had the Torah failed to repeat the information contained in 5,32, we would not have considered his three sons as a positive accomplishment on Noach's part. The Torah does not report anything positive or negative about these sons. We would have thought these three sons as unfit either on account of their own poor characters or because Noach had not fathered them in order to fulfil G'd's commandment. The Torah therefore lists the birth of these three sons immediately after the list of Noach's good deeds so as to include them in that list. I have found in the Midrash that Noach foresaw that his sons would anger G'd and as a result he decided there was no point in siring children during the first five hundred years of his life. At that point G'd commanded Noach to marry and to have children. He had children in order to keep alive the human species. I believe that this Midrash interpreted the words את האלוקים התהלך נח to mean that Noach thought he was approaching death; therefore he sired children before it was too late. Another meaning of these words could be that Noach realised he would soon be judged by the attribute of Justice for failing to have sired children. This is why he hastened to get married and to sire children to rectify his sin of omission. Another reason for Noach's tardiness in marrying and raising a family (according to several Midrashim) is that G'd commanded Noach to build the ark when he was 480 years old. The deluge would occur in another 120 years. In those days children were not held accountable for their sins until they were one hundred years old. Noach wanted to insure that when the deluge came his children deserved to be saved because they had not reached the age when G'd held them responsible for their deeds. Hence he waited until he was 500 years old before he sired any children (Compare Bereshit Rabbah 26,2 based on Isaiah 65,20). Accordingly, Noach's eldest son would be under 100 years old at the beginning of the deluge. The reason Noach's name is mentioned once more a) is to demonstrate again that he brought a new-found מנוחה rest or satisfaction to life on earth, b) to remind us that were it not for their father, these sons would not have been saved. Surely there were many youngsters below the age of one hundred at the time the deluge started and none of those were spared. I refer the reader to my comment on the words: "I have seen you to be a righteous person in this generation (7,1)." The three times את which appeared at first glance as superfluous refer to the wives of Noach's sons who were also saved only on account of Noach. If the sons of Noach per se did not warrant saving, why did G'd consider it necessary to repeat the report of the three sons that were born to Noach prior to the deluge? We have to fall back on Sanhedrin 69 where the Talmud proves that the list of Noach's sons presented by the Torah is not according to their seniority but is based on the sons' relative intelligence. Shem is mentioned first as he was the most intelligent. If this were not so he could not have been described as one hundred years old when he sired Arpachshad two years after the deluge (11,10). If the Torah had not mentioned the extra word בנים, but had merely given their names, we would have concluded that the list of their names was according to the order of their births.

ויולד נח שלשה בנים, “Noach fathered three sons;” the Torah repeated this, having told us this already in 5,32, as it wanted to tell us that Noach was righteous in the generations prior to the deluge and after the deluge.

את שם, את חם, ואת יפת, “Shem, Cham and Yaphet.” Yaphet appears to have been the eldest of the three brothers seeing that in 10,21 the Torah refers to אחי יפת הגדול, ”brother of the senior, Yaphet.” Cham appears to have been the youngest seeing the Torah writes in 9,24 וידע את אשר עשה לו בנו הקטן, “and he became aware of what his younger son had done to him.” The reason the Torah mentions Shem first was because he was the most outstanding of Noach’s children. This is why Yaphet had to be mentioned only after Shem.

את שם, את חם, ואת יפת, “Sem, Cham and Yaphet.” Yaphet was the oldest. We know this because the Torah writes יפת הגדול, (Genesis 10,21) The reason why here the Torah mentions Sem first is because he was the spiritually outstanding one of Noach’s sons, whereas Cham was the spiritually most inferior, and he is mentioned immediately after Sem, as he followed him in the order of their birth. Had the Torah listed them in the order: Sem, Yaphet, Cham, not even one of them would have been mentioned in the order of their births. Yaphet did not possess a special distinction which would have justified changing the order of their names on that account.

And the earth was corrupted before Hashem, and the earth was filled with robbery.

ותשחת [THE EARTH] WAS CORRUPT — It means lewdness and idolatry, as (Deuteronomy 4:16) פן תשחיתון “lest ye deal corruptly” (the following words show that this refers to idolatry) and as ‘כי השחית כל בשר וגו “for all flesh had corrupted etc.” (in next verse of this chapter where Rashi states that this has reference to lewdness) (Sanhedrin 57a). ותמלא הארץ חמס AND THE EARTH WAS FILLED WITH VIOLENCE — means robbery.

"The earth was corrupt" — the sense is: the inhabitants of the earth, as in "a land that sins against Me" (Ezekiel 14:13) and "all the earth came" (Genesis 41:57). Some say that the meaning of "before God" is: openly, in public. Others say the meaning is that they were corrupted in secret and in hidden matters known to no one but Hashem. What seems closer to me is that the Torah spoke in human language, in a way that the listeners would understand — like a servant who sins before his master without fearing him. Those who say that "God" (הָאֱלֹהִים) here is not sacred have said nothing of substance. "Violence" (חָמָס) — refers to robbery and oppression, and the taking of women by force.

ותשחת הארץ. The earth had become corrupt. This entire verse is superfluous in view of 6,5. If the Torah only wanted to spell out details of man's sins, this too had been spelled out in greater detail in the previous passage. If the Torah wanted to add the element of violence perpetrated by man on earth, that is all that needed mentioning here. Besides, why did the Torah switch to the use of the name אלוקים, the attribute of Justice, whereas in 6,5 G'd's attribute of Mercy is used? What do the words לפני האלוקים in our verse add to our understanding? Why does the Torah repeat once more in 6,12 that "G'd saw, etc.?" The Torah certainly did not need to tell us that G'd had become aware of man's sins, as we all know that He is aware of all this? We must understand the passage along the lines of the Mishnah Avot 4,11 that when a person violates a single commandment he acquires one accuser for himself. The "accuser" is to be understood as a destructive power (angel). This destructive power is not unleashed until the Supreme Judge of the whole universe has given a verdict concerning the person guilty of a misdemeanour. This is the deeper meaning of every time the Torah speaks about a sinner "carrying his guilt" (Leviticus 5,17 et al). Once G'd has pronounced judgment, He unleashes these accumulated destructive forces. When the prophet Jeremiah 2,19 says: תיסרך רעתך, "your wickedness will discipline you," he refers to these destructive forces which our sins have created and which G'd unleashes after having judged us. We have to appreciate that although G'd holds the accuser in check so that he cannot yet harm us, this applies only as long as our sins are relatively few or minor. If our sins keep accumulating, they exert pressure on the Heavenly Court so that the perpetrator of the sin may find himself the victim of some of these accusers even before final judgment has been decreed upon him. When the Torah speaks of "the earth had become corrupted before G'd," this means that before G'd had completed judging everyone individually, the collective total of the destructive powers created by man's sins was such that the destructive forces already dominated the earth. The reason the Torah speaks about הארץ is to tell us that the corruption had penetrated earth itself. The Torah said in the previous verse: "the earth had become full of this corruption in the form of violence." Why did the Torah reverse this sequence? It should first have stated what G'd saw, and afterwards the extent of the corruption. As it is, the Torah tells us of the effect before telling us of the cause! The inverted method of reporting is to emphasise that even after the earth had already become full of corruption, all of which is subsumed under the heading "violence," man added further abominations to those already perpetrated. Although it is G'd's virtue to forgive or suspend punishment (נושא עון) until the time He sits in judgment, the sins of this generation were such that G'd could no longer practice this virtue. It was somewhat similar to when Cain had said to G'd that he found his penalty too hard to bear. He had used the term גדול עוני מנשוא, "is my guilt too great to forgive (4,13)?" Alternatively, the words ותשחת הארץ refer to the actual deeds, which caused the earth to become full of destructive agents all of which are described as חמס. G'd informed Noach (6,13) of this when He told him that קץ כל בשר בא לפני, that "the end for all flesh is approaching." According to the Zohar this means that the destructive forces created by man's sins which are called קץ have appeared before G'd demanding the speedy destruction of the perpetrators of all this evil. The Torah tells us for how long G'd restrained the attribute of Justice. This is why we have repeated references to G'd's awareness of man's wickedness ever since 6,5. When the Torah here finally uses the word אלוקים to describe G'd, it is to give notice that the attribute of Mercy itself had turned into one demanding that justice be done. ותמלא הארץ חמס. The earth was filled with violence. There is a Midrash which illustrates the violence perpetrated by describing how people each helped themselves to a lupine out of a bowl that was set on the table. The Rabbis could not understand why the example mentioned shows that mankind was exterminated for a robbery involving such a minute amount. According to halachah theft of an amount worth less than a פרוטה, a certain small coin, is not subject to prosecution! I believe that the Midrash wanted to demonstrate that not only were the people of that generation guilty of violating all the seven Noachide commandments, but of something additional. They were sophisticated enough to engage in the kind of theft that was not subject to prosecution because the stolen goods came into their possession indirectly. According to Maimonides chapter nine of Hilchot Melachim even merely withholding wages from a labourer was subject to the death penalty in those days. Nonetheless the people of that generation were astute enough to borrow, i.e. to secure themselves credit and to draw on these credits in amounts of less than the value of the coin mentioned. This did not make them subject to prosecution if they failed to repay the credits. According to others it did not constitute robbery as long as the object was given to them willingly by its owner. Here in our verse the Torah may have alluded to all these kinds of robbery.

ותשחת הארץ לפני האלוהים, the words: לפני האלוקים at first glance appear unnecessary; however these words are providing the clue to the moral disintegration of mankind. It started at the top, because the בני האלוהים, high ranking individuals, mentioned in Genesis 2,6, had set an example of depravity; it did not take long for them to be copied by the people at large. Noach was the only one who “swam against the stream.” בארץ, they raped women against their will. ותמלא הארץ חמס, there is a discussion between the sages as to the difference in meaning between the word: חמס (violence) and the word גזל (robbery) when used in the Holy Scriptures. According to Rabbi Chaninah, the difference is m erely in the amount m isappropriated by violent m eans. If the object one robs is worth more than a certain ancient copper coin, known as p’rutah, the term חמס is used, whereas if it is worth less than that, the Torah refers to it as גזל. The people of the generation of the deluge devised a nefarious scheme of avoiding to become guilty of having misappropriated at one time more than the worth of a prutah. When someone brought a basket full of fruit to market offering to sell it, he would be mobbed by people each of whom helped himself to less than the value of that coin. By using this subterfuge, the party helping himself to fruit without paying for it, escaped being cited before a judge, who did not entertain claims below that amount. How did G-d outwit these people? He would deprive them of the excess wealth they had accumulated by such means at the times they died. (This is how Ibn Ezra interprets Job 4,21 which he explains as G-d depriving such “robbers” of the excess money they had accumulated at the time they died, so that they would be punished by not having benefited by Torah knowledge (according to our author).[If I understand the author correctly, he means that when people use their Torah knowledge in order to escape their responsibilities, then instead of getting credit for their Torah studies, they will find that their abuse of Torah had been counterproductive; they will be worse off than if they had not studied Torah. Ed.] Another interpretation understands the word as indulging in sexual misconduct, basing itself on Jeremiah 51,35: חמסי ושארי על בבל, “let the violence done to me and my kindred be visited upon Babylon.”A third interpretation understands the word חמס as an alternate for idolatry, quoting Ezekiel 8,17: כי מלאו את הארץ חמס להכעיסני, “that they must fill the land with the abominations in order to anger Me;” (these have been described in the verses preceding this one)? Lastly, some commentators understand the word חמס as applying to shedding innocent blood, basing itself on Joel 4,19: מחמס בני יהודה אשר שפכו דם נקי בארצם, “from the חמס of the inhabitants of the Kingdom of Yehudah who spilled innocent blood in their land.”

“And the earth was corrupted before God [Elohim], etc.” The word “Elohim” here refers to the judges, for people would steal less than the value of a perutah [minimum monetary value for legal proceedings], which cannot be pursued in court. The judges’ eyes would see this, but they were powerless to save the tears of the oppressed. Therefore it says before Elohim — literally before them [the judges]. And because of this the earth was filled with violence. This connects to what we find in the Yalkut on Psalms: Happy is the man — this refers to Noah, etc., [leading to] Therefore the wicked shall not stand in judgment — this refers to the generation of the flood. What indicates that this verse speaks about the generation of the flood? It appears to be connected to the beginning of the matter: Not so are the wicked; rather they are like chaff that the wind drives away. Meaning, Not so — they were not honest and truthful in their actions, because they cunningly stole little by little, like this chaff that is worth less than a perutah, which the wind drives away — referring to the judges who have God’s spirit within them. Therefore, the wicked shall not stand in judgment because the judges were unable to bring them to justice, as judges cannot deal with cases involving less than a perutah. Because of this, even when a sinner stood in the assembly of the righteous and said “I am as righteous as you,” this is what it means by and sinners in the congregation of the righteous — that they both had the audacity to say “I am like you, and you are like me.” And even though they concealed their wickedness from people, nevertheless, before the Holy One, Blessed be He, it was revealed who was righteous and who was wicked. This is what is meant by For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked shall perish.

And Hashem looked upon the earth, and behold, it was corrupted, for all flesh, man, had corrupted his way upon the earth.

כי השחית כל בשר FOR ALL FLESH HAD CORRUPTED — even cattle, beasts and fowl did not consort with their own species (Genesis Rabbah 28:8).

FOR ALL FLESH HAD CORRUPTED THEIR WAY. If we were to explain all flesh in its usual sense and thus say that even cattle, beasts and fowl corrupted their way by consorting with other species, as Rashi has explained, we must then say that the expression, for the earth is filled with violence through them, does not mean “because of all of them” but only because of some of them [since “violence” does not apply to beasts and cattle], and Scripture tells of the punishment of man alone [even though all flesh corrupted their way]. Or we may say that the cattle, beasts, and fowl also did not follow their natural instincts, and all cattle seized prey and all fowl became birds of prey; thus they too committed violence. By way of the simple meaning of Scripture, all flesh means “all men.” Further on Scripture says explicitly: all flesh wherein is the breath of life; and of every living thing of all flesh, meaning all living bodies. But here it says all flesh, meaning all people. Similarly [we find the verses]: All flesh shall come to worship before Me, [meaning “all people”]; Or when the flesh hath in the skin thereof, [where again reference is only to people].

What our early Sages of blessed memory said — that the meaning of "all flesh had corrupted its way" is that every living creature failed to keep the path of its [natural] kind and perverted the established, well-known course [of nature] — is correct. And how worthy is the interpretation they expounded: that they had corrupted [through] water, and Hashem judged them by water; and just as their [corrupting] waters were from above and below, so the waters by which He judged them came from above and below.

והנה נשחתה, without external influences, as a natural consequence, not due to man’s ecologically criminal behaviour. Although on the surface, there appeared to be no connection, man’s corruption resulted in the corruption of his habitat. The language used here by the Torah is comparable to Isaiah 47,2 וטחני קמח, “and grind meal.” One does not grind flour, but one grinds grain into flour. The prophet spoke about the end product. The Torah also spoke about the end product of man’s corruption bringing in its wake, though invisibly, the destruction of the earth’s crust.

כי השחית כל בשר את דרכו, “for all flesh had corrupted its behaviour on earth. This is a reference to sexual perversions as in Proverbs 30,19, ודרך גבר בעלמה, “and the way of a man with a virgin.” Mankind had already been commanded since the 6th day of creation: תוצא הארץ נפש חיה למינה. בהמה ורמש וחיתו ארץ למינה, “let the earth produce living creatures each according to its kind; cattle, creeping things, and wild beasts, each according to its kind. This made it clear that bestiality, homosexuality, lesbianism and all other kinds of unnatural sexual behaviour is considered by the Lord as an abomination, and had been so since creation. “When I will now destroy man I am only applying the same yardstick man applied when indulging in unnatural sexual practices which do not result in populating My earth. ”כל בשר, “all flesh,” excluding the fish; seeing that fish had not become corrupted, they were spared; this is why the Torah emphasised that כל אשר בחרבה מתו, that “all the creatures whose habitat was the dry land had died.” (Genesis 8,22).

וירא אלוקים את הארץ, ”G-d saw the earth, etc.” At this point the Torah reverts to G-d’s name אלוקים to indicate that the attribute of Justice enters the picture at this stage. Seeing that the sins of that generation were so great the attribute of Justice was poised over them. והנה נשחתה, “and here it had become corrupt, etc.” What precisely did this “corruption” consist of? כי השחית כל בשר את דרכו על הארץ, “for all flesh had corrupted its way upon the earth.” They were all destroying their own seed. They did not want to procreate and used sexual union for pleasure only. This is what is meant by Isaiah 57,5 שוחטי הילדים, “the ones who slaughter the children.” Our sages (Niddah 13) comment on this that a preferable reading to the word שוחטי would be סוחטי, i.e. they squeezed out their semen before impregnating their wives. Seeing that they had become guilty of destroying semen which becomes a fetus after forty days, they were punished with a deluge which poured rain on them for forty days (based on Pirke de Rabbi Eliezer chapter 22). Actually, the people of that time were guilty of four sins: 1) idolatry; 2) sexual licentiousness including incest; 3) murder; 4) gratuitous violence. The reason for the forty days of rain may be broken down as follows: thirty days of continuous rain descended because of their idolatry, i.e. the worshiped the sun for thirty days; however seeing the sun’s influence on earth commences already five days before it becomes visible to us and it continues for five days after it has ceased to be visible, it was proper that they be punished on account of sun-worship for forty days. Whatever is true of the visible effect of the sun as well as its invisible effect, applies equally to the stars so that in respect of every form of worship of celestial constellations the number forty represented מדה כנגד מדה, “the punishment fitted the crime.” Similar considerations apply to the sin of sexual licentiousness and murder as in both instances the gestation period of the human being was forty days before it became a real fetus. As to the violence, their fourth sin, the number forty is appropriate for the duration of the days of rain as the Torah containing this legislation was given to Moses after he had spent forty days on Mount Sinai. This sin of corruption did not only include human beings but it had also corrupted the behaviour of the animals. This is why our sages (Sanhedrin 108) explained ברותחין קלקלו וברותחין נדונו, “the ones who had become guilty of wasting hot semen were punished by a deluge of hot water.” This fact is based on a similarity of the words וחמת המלך שככה, and the king’s anger “cooled off,” and the words used at the end of the deluge in 8,1 וישכו המים, “and the waters cooled off.” As to the line ותשחת הארץ לפני האלוקים, “the earth had become corrupt in the presence of G-d,” this is a reference to the idolatry practiced by man. The Torah alluded to then fact that the sins of mankind included both trespasses against G-d as well as trespasses against society. They corrupted religion and they corrupted the basics of procreation. These latter sins also included indiscriminate robbery amongst the people. The Torah refers to this by writing ותמלא הארץ, “the earth became filled with violence,” and the repetition כי מלאה הארץ חמס. Seeing that the Torah reports G-d’s decision to bring on the deluge in connection with the report of the violence it is clear that this sin weighed most heavily and that the decree to destroy mankind was not sealed until G-d had reviewed the indiscriminate violence on earth (compare Sanhedrin 108). We find support for this view in two verses in the Book of Isaiah. In Isaiah 54,14 we read רחקי מעושק כי לא תיראי וממחתה כי לא תקרב אליך. “You shall keep away from oppression (do not engage in it) and you shall have no fear, and from ruin and it shall not come near you.” The same prophet had said a few verses earlier (verse 9) כי מי נח זאת לי, “that this is like the deluge to Me, etc.” In other words the prophet (in the name of G-d) warns the people that the deluge had been due to the violence and oppression practiced by people against each other. The reason that this was the “straw that broke the camel’s back,” i.e. the most critical sin was that it is a trespass against common sense. If there were no G-d at all, mankind would have to legislate laws controlling violence as otherwise civilisation would collapse of its own. A society which did not even observe such a code flaws could not expect to endure. The very occurrence of the deluge is proof positive that the universe was a creation and that a Creator presides over it and watches it; it proves that the same Creator punishes those who are guilty and saves the ones who deserve to be saved such as Noach and his family. It proves further that G-d’s supervision is not limited to the celestial spheres but that it extends to our “lower” world also. Just as Adam was the ancestor of all human beings after him, so Noach became the ancestor of all human beings after the deluge. Just as Adam had three sons, Kayin, Hevel, and Sheth, so Noach had three sons, Shem, Cham, and Yaphet. Just as two of Adam’s sons were his mainstay whereas the third one was cursed, so you find that one of Noach’s sons was cursed. Just as Adam’s third son was the one who became the link to posterity so Noach’s third son is the true link to posterity as only the descendants of Shem are the ones who will qualify for resurrection. [According to Rashi, Shem was indeed the third, i.e. the youngest son of Noach. Ed.]

And God saw the earth and behold it was corrupted. This refers to idolatry, which no one can see except God alone, because denial is primarily in the heart. For this reason, regarding idolatry it says in order to seize the house of Israel by their heart (Ezekiel 14:5), because the essence of faith is in the heart. For all flesh had corrupted its way — this refers to sexual immorality, which is called “its way” as in the way of a man with a maiden. According to our Sages (Genesis Rabbah 26:4), they sinned by wasting seed, which is why it says on the earth similar to what is said he would spill it on the earth (Genesis 38:9). The characteristics of the righteous and perfect one will be further explained soon in the verse for I have seen you as righteous before Me. And regarding what is said Behold, I will destroy them with the earth, indicating that the earth too was corrupted — this will be explained, God willing, in Parshat Acharei Mot (Leviticus 18:25) in the verse and the land became defiled and I remembered its sin upon it, showing that the earth itself was involved in the matter.

כי השחית כל בשר, “for all flesh has become corrupt.” According to Rashi the use of the transitive mode השחית, tells us that the animal kingdom copied man and became corrupt also, seeing that man had defied the G’d given laws of nature and substituted a mode of conduct of his own making. This was most manifest in their mating habits including indiscriminate mating with other species. Nachmanides writes that according to Rashi the line כי מלאה הארץ חמס מפניהם, “for the earth has become filled with violence on their account,” cannot apply to the animals but only to man. Violence is not a form of corruption when practiced by the beasts. (Genesis 6,13) Alternatively, the verse does apply to both man and beast, and the beasts and birds had learned to become predators after observing the conduct of man. According to the plain meaning of the text, the words כל בשר apply only to human beings, just as they do in verse 17 לשחת כל בשר אשר בו רוח חיים, “to destroy all flesh which possesses the spirit of life (a soul).” When the Torah uses the words כל בשר again in verse 19 where the creatures to be brought into the ark are listed, the expression refers exclusively to members of the animal kingdom.

And Hashem said to Noah: The end of all flesh has come before Me, for the earth is filled with robbery because of their evil deeds, and behold, I am about to destroy them together with the earth.

קץ כל בשר THE END OF ALL FLESH — Wherever you find lewdness and idolatry, punishment of an indiscriminate character comes upon the world killing good and bad alike (Genesis Rabbah 26:5). כי מלאה הארץ חמס FOR THE EARTH IS FILLED WITH VIOLENCE — Their fate was sealed only on account of their sin of robbery (Sanhedrin 108a). את הארץ [I WILL DESTROY THEM] WITH THE EARTH — It is similar to מן הארץ "from the earth”; other examples of this use of את are: (Exodus 9:29) בצאתי ‘‘when I go forth” את העיר which means מן העיר “from the city” and (1 Kings 15:23) חלה ‘‘he suffered” את רגליו which means מן רגליו ‘‘from his feet”. Another explanation of את הארץ is: “together with the earth” — for the earth was blotted out and washed away to the depth of a furrow of three handbreadths (Genesis Rabbah 31:7).

VIOLENCE, that is, robbery and oppression. Now G-d gave Noah the explanation [that the flood was due to the fact that the “the earth is filled with] violence” and did not mention “the corruption of the way” [recorded in the preceding verse] because violence is a sin that is known and widely publicized. Our Rabbis have said that it was on account of the sin of violence that their fate was sealed. The reason for it is that the prohibition against violence is a rational commandment, See also Yehudah Halevi’s Al Khazari, II, 48, that “the rational laws are the basis and preamble of the divine law, preceding it in character and time, and being indispensable in the administration of every human society.” (Hirschfeld’s translation.) there being no need for a prophet to admonish them against it. Besides, it is evil committed against both heaven and mankind. Thus He informed Noah of the sin for which the end is come — the doom is reached. AND BEHOLD, I WILL DESTROY THEM ‘ETH’ THE EARTH. This is similar to saying “from the earth.” So also: When I go forth ‘eth’ the city, [meaning “from the city”]; he suffered ‘eth’ his feet, [meaning “from his feet”]. Another interpretation is that eth ha’aretz means “with the earth” for even the land was blotted out to the depth of a furrow of three handbreadths. Thus the language of Rashi quoting Bereshith Rabbah 1:7. And Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra said that the word mashchitham (destroy them) draws along with it a similar word, [meaning it is as if the verb “destroy” appears twice in the verse], thus stating, “And behold, I will destroy them and destroy the earth.”By way of the truth [the mystic teaching of the Cabala], this is like the verse, eth hashamayim ve’eth ha’aretz (the heaven and the earth), thus intimating that “the earth” ” will be destroyed, and with the destruction of the earth they too will be destroyed and thus they will be blotted out from the World to Come, just as is intimated in the verse: and it grieved Him at His heart. See Ramban there. It is to this that the Rabbis alluded in Bereshith Rabbah:7. “This is like a master’s son who had a wet-nurse; whenever he would commit an offense the wet-nurse would be punished.”41“So, said the Holy One, blessed be He: ‘I will destroy them and destroy the earth with them.’” (Bereshith Rabbah.)

"And He said. The end of all flesh" — [the word] "flesh" [here] means the body. The meaning of "has come" is that their doom has arrived. "The earth" (אֶת הָאָרֶץ) — [means] from the earth, as in "when I go out of the city" [lit. "from the city"] (Exodus 9:29). Or [אֶת means] "together with," as in "together with Jacob, each man and his household" (Exodus 1:1). What seems correct to me is that the word "destroying them" (מַשְׁחִיתָם) draws itself and another word along with it — as in "God of Hosts" [where two nouns share one construct relationship], or "Your throne, O God" (Psalms 45:7). And so the meaning here is: "And behold, I am destroying them and destroying the earth."

The end of all flesh. That is, the end of their 120 year reprieve. בא לפני, this period has now expired. The earth is filled with violent crime. A landlord would steal openly from his tenant farmer while the tenant farmer stole surreptitiously from the landlord in return. Thus all the earth’s bounty went to thieves. והנני משחיתם את הארץ, so that now I will destroy them together with the earth. I will destroy the climate which could support life on earth by interfering with the sun’s orbit and rearranging it from the beginning of the deluge for the entire future. We find that G’d explained this to Job In Job 38, 4-15. This accounts for the lifespan of man having been drastically reduced after the deluge. The climate of the earth changed, there were greater extremes of heat and cold, the produce of the earth was considerably less capable of supporting a long lifespan. As a by-product of this deterioration in the quality of the vegetable products, man was allowed to eat meat as a compensation.

ויאמר אלוקים קץ כל בשר, G'd said: "The end of all flesh, etc." If we accept the sages' interpretation that the "violence" mentioned here comprised such sins as bloodshed, incest, and idolatry, we can understand the harshness of the retribution. If however, the word חמס refers to robbery with violence (compare Rashi based on Sanhedrin 108), why would the victims of the robbery suffer the same fate as the perpetrators of the crime? Although one might answer that everybody indulged in robbery, each one according to what he thought he could get away with, our sages (Vayikra Rabbah 23,9) have explained the matter differently when they said that in any society in which sexual licentiousness abounds retribution will strike both the wicked and the good people. Therefore we must understand our verse as saying that though the decree to destroy mankind was sealed because of the prevalence of robbery with violence, the fact that amongst all the sins there were many instances of sexual licentiousness and promiscuity resulted in the retribution including also those who were innocent of robbery. You may ask that all these people could have saved themselves from Divine retribution by each one forgiving the other? As a result of this G'd would not have sealed the evil decree! Perhaps G'd did not want to reveal the effectiveness of mutual forgiveness to anyone but Noach. Noach in turn was not able to reveal this secret to his contemporaries seeing that unless G'd tells a person to communicate revelations made to him to others, such revelations are confidential communications from G'd. One of the reasons G'd did not want this secret revealed to Noach's contemporaries may have been that they all remained guilty of having committed robbery. The sin of robbery cannot be atoned for by simply offering the sinner your forgiveness without making restitution. Although the Midrash mentioned types of robbery which are not subject to prosecution, these types of robbery were not the only ones perpetrated by the people of Noach's time. The people of that generation indulged in every form of robbery. Whenever they confronted someone stronger than themselves they resorted to the kind of trickery described by the Midrash. Otherwise they had no qualms about simply grabbing what they fancied. The reason G'd explained to Noach exactly what sins prompted Him to decree destruction of the species was to motivate him to build the ark so that all living creatures could be preserved until after the deluge. Next we must explain what prompted Noach not to ask G'd to have mercy on the people of his time (as did Abraham when G'd told him He would destroy Sodom). It appears that Abraham learned from Noach not to bother to ask that G'd spare a city when there were fewer than ten good people in it. Unless he had learned this from Noach, who told Abraham that it would be futile to pray for the survival of a city which contained fewer than ten righteous people? Noach became convinced from what G'd told him that any prayer of his would be futile, that the fate of these people had been sealed beyond reprieve. All of this is contained in the words: "the end of all flesh has come before Me, here I am about to destroy them." When G'd told Abraham (Genesis 18,20-21) about the sinful nature of the people of Sodom He did not use such kind of language at all. On the contrary, He told Abraham that He was going to examine if what had come to His attention was indeed so, etc. While it is true that in the case of Sodom G'd carried out His decree as soon as He had confirmed the true state of affairs, G'd wanted to demonstrate to Abraham that He does not exercise His power arbitrarily. We have explained in that connection that G'd spoke to Abraham in a manner that invited him to pray on behalf of the doomed cities. Something similar occurred during the episode of the golden calf when G'd proclaimed His intent to wipe out the Jewish people in such a way that Moses saw an opening for his prayer. None of these openings were provided for Noach. One cannot argue that if G'd did not want Noach to pray for his contemporaries, He did not have to tell Noach what He was going to do and why. G'd needed to tell Noach in order that the latter build the ark. This commandment alone convinced Noach that it would be useless to pray on behalf of the people. Abraham concluded from the fact that Noach and his family were not enough to save the earth from the deluge that fewer than ten good people could not save a town from destruction.

את הארץ, the word את, at the end of the verse, includes all the previously not spelled out creatures on earth. An example of such indirect references is: Exodus 19,5: כי לי כל הארץ, “for the entire earth is Mine,” where the word כל substitutes for: “all the creatures on.”

“The end of all flesh has come before Me.” The day of death is called the end of all flesh, it comes before Me and complains that it has no remembrance among all living beings, and no one remembers it. For this reason, the Holy One, Blessed be He, waited seven days of mourning for Methuselah, for the wise see that they will die (Psalms 49:11), and perhaps the living will take to heart that this is the desired purpose of mourning and eulogy. For the one who robs and accumulates wealth unjustly — if he would remember the day of death, that in the midst of his days he will abandon it, he would not steal from others. But certainly he thinks that prosperity is forever, as it is said: Their inner thought is that their houses are forever (Psalms 49:12). And here comes a wonderful explanation of the entire psalm that speaks about those who accumulate wealth and their error. Since I did not come in this composition to elaborate on matters that are not related to the weekly portion, I will not mention it here, but only this verse that says Their inner thought is that their houses are forever, their dwelling places for generation after generation (Psalms 49:12). First it says their houses, and then their dwelling places first it says forever and then “for generation after generation. The correct interpretation of this is that the wicked person who builds for himself in this world a strong building and spacious upper chambers of marble — certainly their inner thought is that their houses will stand forever, meaning their thought is that the house of stone will stand forever. And if you ask what pleasure does he have in this, that the house will stand forever after he will not dwell in it forever — does he not know that his end is death? To this it says their dwelling places for generation after generation (Psalms 49:12) — that he gives himself a peaceful blessing that even if he will not dwell in it, nevertheless his children and grandchildren will dwell in it for generations. And if you say, what profit is there for its owner if his children dwell in it while he dwells in the grave? To this it says They call their lands after their own names (Psalms 49:12) — that he goes in a great error saying that when his children name their sons and daughters after them, then the name of the dead will be called upon his inheritance and will not be cut off, and it seems to him as if he is alive, and the concept of levirate marriage proves this. Because of this error, even the day of death will not return them to proper behavior, therefore the end of all flesh comes and complains before Me, as stated. And there are those who say: The end of all flesh refers to the Angel of Death who destroys and consumes from soul to flesh, and brings near its end. And he comes before [God] requesting to be given into his hands those destined for death. The Holy One, Blessed be He, said: “If I give permission to the destroyer, he will not distinguish between the righteous and the wicked. Therefore, Behold, I will destroy them — I Myself [will do it].” And in order that Noah would not be included in the destruction, therefore [God said] Make for yourself an ark, etc. A hint to this matter: [the phrase] the end of all flesh — the final letters of the words kol basar [all flesh] add up numerically to 231, the same numerical value as “Malach Samael” [the Angel Samael], along with the eight letters contained in these two words.

כי מלאה הארץ חמס, “for the earth has become saturated with violence.” The Torah states here that the decree to destroy mankind was not finalized until the anarchy, i.e. indiscriminate violence, had made the establishment of a civilized society a utopian dream. Robbery is a basic commandment of the seven universally applicable prohibitions given to mankind, a commandment which any group of people would have invented for themselves had such laws not been formulated by the Creator Himself and been conveyed by one of His prophets. Non-observance of such basic laws leads to the destruction of mankind. והנני משחיתם את הארץ, “and I am about to destroy them together with the earth.” According to Rashi the word את is to be understood as מן from, i.e. “I will destroy them from the face of the earth.” According to Ibn Ezra the word משחיתם drags the next word with it, i.e. G’d will destroy the earth together with man [as an earth without man has no purpose. Ed.]

Make for yourself an ark of cedar wood; compartments shall you make in the ark, and you shall coat it inside and outside with pitch.

עשה לך תבת MAKE THEE AN ARK — There are numerous ways by which God could have saved Noah; why, then, did he burden him with this construction of the Ark? So that the men of the generation of the Flood might see him employed on it for 120 years and might ask him, “What do you need this for”? and so that he might answer them, “The Holy One, blessed be He, is about to bring a flood upon the world” — perhaps they might repent (Sanhedrin 108b). (literally, return to God). עצי גופר GOPHER WOOD — Thus is its name. Why of this species (גפר)? Because of the (גפרית) “sulphur” by which it was decreed that they were to be blotted out. קנים ROOMS — Separate cabins for each kind of cattle and beast. בכפר WITH כפר — This is an Aramaic term for the Hebrew זפת “pitch’’, and in the Talmud (Shabbat 67a) we find the noun כופרא “pitch”. In the case of the ark (cradle) in which Moses was placed, since the waters were not rapid it sufficed that it should be daubed with slime inside and with pitch outside; and a further reason for this was that this righteous person (Moses) should not smell the bad odour of the pitch (Sotah 12a). Here, however, because of the rough waters he had to cover it with pitch inside as well as outside.

Gopher (גֹּפֶר) — a species of tree, light upon the water, with no parallel in all of Scripture. "Compartments" (קִנִּים) — so that each animal, bird, and beast [would have a place], each one male with its female. The text uses the word תֵּבָה [ark] and not סְפִינָה [ship], because it was not built in the form of a vessel and had no oars. "And you shall cover it [with pitch]" (וְכָפַרְתָּ אֹתָהּ) — some say this word derives from the root of כַּפֹּרֶת [cover]; the meaning would be a covering applied by smearing. Others say that כֹּפֶר is similar to pitch (זֶפֶת). Others say there is a certain clay in the earth derived from soil, which adheres and holds like pitch. Still others say it is what is called in Arabic, with the kaf exchanged for a qof. What seems correct to me is that the word וְכָפַרְתָּ derives from the noun כֹּפֶר [pitch]. "From within" (מִבַּיִת) — meaning the same as לְפָנִים [inside].

עשה לך תבת וגו, during the period allocated to them, in order to remind them to do teshuvah.

עשה לך תבת עצי גפר. Make for yourself an ark of gopher wood. In order to understand this verse fully we must refer to Ezekiel 14,14 where the prophet speaks of three men, i.e. Noach, Daniel, and Job who managed to save their own lives due to their personal piety. The prophet there claims that G'd had told him that even if all these three pious men were alive in Jerusalem at that time they could not save the city from disaster though they personally would be saved. The reason all three of these pious men are mentioned is to teach us that even two of them together would not suffice to save themselves at that time in Jerusalem. Some of the earlier commentators wondered that in view of the many pious people who perished during the destruction of the Temple (compare Psalms 79,2 "they have left Your servants' corpses etc."), how was it that if three pious people could have saved themselves that the far more numerous number of pious people who died during the destruction of the city did not manage to save themselves? One of the answers given is that each pious person may have been scattered amongst many sinners, whereas if three pious persons had stuck together they would certainly have been saved by their merits. This may have been the reason that Noach could only be saved after building the ark, i.e. providing a separate environment for himself. As long as he had been surrounded by his compatriots without a מחיצה, dividing wall, he would have been swept away together with them. If Noach had had a few more pious people with him, he and they would have been saved without the need to construct their own environment. Under such circumstances the verse in Psalms 94,15 עד צדק ישוב משפט, that under certain circumstances righteousness could have reversed judgment, would have been applicable. From the fact that Noach was required to build an ark we learn that his sons did not match him in piety. Had they done so, Noach would not have needed to construct the ark but would have been saved in his own habitat. We need to reconcile this with the words of our sages which I have quoted earlier, and according to which Abraham learned from Noach that it was futile to pray for a city with fewer than ten righteous people to be saved. If Noach was the only righteous man in his generation what could Abraham have learned from this? We must therefore assume that though Noach's sons were righteous they were not perfectly righteous people such as their father. When Abraham prayed about righteous people being able to save a town he meant perfectly righteous people, not those whose good deeds barely outweighed their sins. This is the reason that Ezekiel listed the names of outstandingly righteous men such as Noach, Daniel, and Job. He did not refer to three average type צדיקים. We learn from Ezekiel that once the destructive agents have been given permission by G'd to carry out their function, who and under what circumstances someone can restrain them.

עשה לך תיבת, “make an ark for yourself etc;” Rashi comments on this by asking the rhetorical question that “seeing that G-d has unlimited space at His disposal, why did He choose such a compact little ark in which to coop up all the creatures He meant to save?” His answer is that if mankind would constantly see that Noach was totally preoccupied with the construction of this ark as a means to ride out the deluge, perhaps they would take this to heart and become penitents. (Based on Tanchuma) Our author finds this difficult, seeing that G-d had known His hopes would be disappointed, and that was hardly a reason to make life in the ark so uncomfortable for all the creatures in it. He therefore prefers to answer the question in a different manner. He claims that G-d wanted to show the attribute of Mercy that He had done all in His power to encourage people to stave off disaster when they saw how seriously Noach took G-d’s warning. In 7,12 Rashi himself mentions this attempt by G-d to stave off disaster by G-d initially allowing rain which was not accompanied by storms and subterranean sluices opening, to serve as an a additional warning. G-d did all this to convince the attribute of Mercy that further delay was quite useless. עצי גופר, “gopher wood;” this is the wood the resin of which yields sulfur. It is not soluble in water, and G-d chose it to remind those who watched it. [Noach included according to this interpretation, as it had taken an act of mercy by G-d to save him and his family Ed.] being used that they deserved to be judged by sulfur. (The material used to destroy Sodom some 400 years later. Compare Genesis 19,24) וכפרת אותו מבית ומחוץ בכופר, “you are to seal it from the inside as well as from the outside with pitch;” our sages (Sanhedrin 108) comment on this that seeing mankind had sinned with “boiling water,” they were punished by means of boiling water. [The expression is used in the Talmud to describe ejaculation of heated semen in sexually forbidden intercourse. Ed.] If you were to query that in our experience pitch does not withstand boiling water but dissolves in it, this was another miracle [to show that G-d can use even such material to help save the innocent. Ed.] A different exegesis: The water surrounding the immediate proximity remained cool, whereas the waters further away were bubbling hot. If this were not the correct interpretation, how could we explain that Gog, Sichon and his brothers had survived the deluge? (Compare Talmud Niddah 61, according to the opinion in the Talmud that the deluge had also inundated the land of Israel)

עשה לך תבת עצי גופר,“make for yourself an Ark of gopher wood, etc.” “Gopher” is an especially light-weight kind of wood, known as kadros according to David Kimchi. Onkelos translates the word as דאעין-דקדרוס, a kind of cedar-wood. G-d instructed Noach to make for himself an Ark out of this well-known wood and to bring into it two specimens (male and female) of all the domestic and free-roaming animals in order to keep these species alive as well as seven pairs of each of the pure species of birds in order for some to serve as sacrifices after the deluge. G-d informed Noach beforehand that he was going to bring the deluge in order to wipe out all flesh on earth which had the breath of life in it. At this point, an intelligent child must surely ask how it is possible that a man whom the Torah described in the most glowing terms as a righteous and perfect individual did not turn to G-d in prayer in order to help save the members of his generation and give them a chance to repent and rehabilitate themselves? Why did he not engage G-d in a dialogue as Avraham did after him when G-d had informed him that He was going to destroy the city of Sodom and its inhabitants? Avraham had prayed repeatedly and almost insistently as we know from the report of the Torah in Genesis chapter 18. The answer to this question is that Noach did not “neglect” to pray for his contemporaries either because he did not care or felt that they deserved to perish. He knew that there was a need for only ten righteous people in order to ensure the survival of the world as it was. He based this tradition on the ten directives G-d employed to create the universe. He reasoned that if there were indeed ten righteous people alive at that time G-d would not have instructed him to prepare for the deluge by building the Ark. Under the prevailing circumstances, only eight people had been commanded to enter the Ark, (Noach and his wife, his three sons and their respective wives) i.e. proof that at that time there were already no ten righteous people left on earth. [Avraham had also stopped praying when he realised that there were fewer than ten good people in Sodom. Ed.] Seeing there were no ten good people left on earth it was clear to him that the generation did not merit survival on account of the remaining eight good people. Under the circumstances, the most that G-d was willing to do was to save Noach seeing he was the first member of the tenth generation of mankind. G-d accommodated Noach by also saving his immediate family. The fact that Avraham himself did not bother to implore G-d to save the city of Sodom for the sake of fewer than ten righteous people proves that Noach cannot be faulted for not having prayed when told to take only seven additional human beings into the Ark with him. In fact, Noach was not even allowed to pray when he knew there were fewer than ten good people. In addition, as opposed to the people of Sodom, the people at the time of Noach had been given 120 years warning The people of Sodom had not been given any kind of warning by G-d prior to Avraham being informed of their impending doom. G-d is not in the habit of decreeing doom unless the potential victims had been warned (Yuma 81).

עצי גופר, “gopher wood.” A word reminiscent of גפרית, sulphur, a means of destroying by fire, the fate which mankind was guilty of experiencing. Compare the fate of Sodom and Gomorrha which were destroyed by sulphur and fire. מבית ומחוץ בכופר, “overlay it with tar both from the inside and the outside.” According to Rashi כופר is identical with זפת, pitch. The purpose of the pitch was to protect the wooden structure against the waters which would have penetrated and made it disintegrate in a few days. Some commentators understand the word זפת as a generic term for any insulating material which adheres firmly to the surface to which it is applied.

And this is how you shall make it: three hundred cubits shall be the length of the ark, fifty cubits its width, and thirty cubits its height.

"And this is how you shall make it" — the meaning is: this is the measurement [of dimensions] according to which you shall make it. Its height is one-tenth of its length, so that it will float on the surface of the water and not be overturned by the wind.

וזה אשר תעשה אותה, “and this is how you shall construct it, etc.” G-d commanded Noach the measurements of the Ark. When one considers the many types of species Noach had been asked to bring into the Ark, these measurements appear to be totally insufficient. In fact, according to the number of species of animals and birds in our world today, even ten times as many Arks of that size would not be able to accommodate them all. There can therefore be no doubt that the entire operation was possible only by means of G-d’s miraculous intervention. G-d demonstrated to Noach and his family that even a physically small space can accommodate a great number of creatures when G-d so decrees it. You may be inclined to ask that seeing G-d was able to save all these people and animals by working a miracle, why did He bother to command Noach to spend 120 years of his life to build the Ark altogether? Surely, G-d had a number of other alternatives once He had decided to invoke miracles! For instance, He could have enabled the people and animals who were meant to survive to walk on water, or some other miracle not involving 120 years of Noach’s time. The answer to such questions is that the Torah always instructs man to do all in his power to achieve his objective by natural means. If, for reasons beyond his control, man cannot complete his task, G-d will supply the amount of miracle needed to bring man’s deserving endeavor to a successful conclusion. If you will examine other miracles reported in the Torah you will always find that though G-d intervened in the most miraculous manner, there were always elements in what happened which were based on the laws of nature being made full use of. For instance, when the Torah commanded the two and a half tribes of Reuven, Gad, and Menashe to join their brethren in war by donning arms and uniforms and marching at their head (Numbers 32,27), this was not because they did the actual fighting. The actual fighting was done by G-d. Nonetheless, man has to do or to appear to do whatever is within his power to try and achieve the task set for him by G-d. Similarly, we find in Joshua 8,2 that G-d commanded Joshua to set an ambush against the city of Ai and take with him his entire army although G-d Himself says “here I have already given the King of Ai and his people and his city into your hands.” Seeing that all the wars fought by the Israelites on their march from Egypt to the Holy Land were won by means of miracles you would be justified in asking why they needed to be recruited as an army at all? The reason is, as we have stated, that G-d does not intervene by means of a miracle until man has done his duty by trying to help himself. In our situation, i.e. the building of the Ark, there was an additional reason why G-d had commanded Noach to build it. He had hoped that when people would watch the vast amount of time and energy which Noach (and his sons) put into constructing this huge Ark that he must have known what he was doing, and that at least some people would take his warning of the impending deluge to heart to repent and change their lifestyle. If they would nonetheless ignore such warnings they were obviously irredeemable sinners and would deserve whatever G-d decreed for them.

Three hundred cubits shall be the length of the ark. The text specifies for us the measurements of its length, width, and height for two reasons. First, to inform us of the magnitude of the miracle that a small space contained much, as there were large creatures there such as elephants and re’emim [wild oxen]. Second, to inform us that the primary cause of the flood waters was due to sexual immorality, as it is written The sons of God saw the daughters of man, etc., and as our Sages said (Sanhedrin 108a), “With much they sinned, and with much they were judged.” The reason for this is that through sexual immorality, they desecrated the holiness of God’s name “Yah” [yud-heh] which mediates between man and woman. When the letters yud and heh are removed from them [ish and ishah, man and woman], what remains is “esh” and “esh” [fire and fire], as it is written For it is a fire consuming unto destruction (Job 31:12). This is what our Sages meant when they said (Sanhedrin 108b), “With hot liquid they sinned, and with hot liquid they were judged,” for they themselves ignited the fire. Similarly, we find in this passage the number 15 in several places: it states that the waters rose 15 cubits above [the mountains]. Also, the waters prevailed for 150 days, which is 15 tens. The measurements of the ark’s length, width, and height also indicate the number 15, for 300 cubits in length by 50 cubits in width means that the cubits of surface area were 15,000 square cubits. The height was 30 cubits, and it had three levels, thus 10 cubits for each level, as it had lower, second, and third decks, all equal in size. This results in 150,000 cubic cubits for each level. Thus, the 15,000 cubits in each surface area corresponds to the 15 cubits that the waters rose above the mountains. And the 150,000 cubits in each level corresponds to the 150 days that the waters prevailed, which is 15 tens. All these occurrences of the number 15 indicate that although their final judgment was sealed due to robbery, nevertheless, the primary cause was sexual immorality and the desecration of God’s name “Yah,” which has the numerical value of 15. And so we find regarding Hezekiah, that he was initially punished for not engaging in procreation (Berakhot 10), and the prophet said to him Put your house in order, for you shall die and not live (Isaiah 38:1). Our Sages interpreted there that you shall die refers to this world, and not live refers to the World to Come. What is the reason for this great anger, that for the sin of neglecting procreation, he would be punished both in this world and the next? Rather, it is because it is written For in Yah, the Lord is the Rock of Worlds (Isaiah 26:4), and from this we learn that this world was created with the letter heh and the World to Come with the letter yod. And because he did not engage in procreation, he caused the divine name of yod-heh to be removed from man and woman, and it is as if he destroyed both worlds, whose existence depends on the name of yod-heh, for the Name would depart from all creatures and ascend to heaven. Therefore, his judgment was to be banished from both worlds. Similarly, the generation of the flood, because they profaned the name of yod-heh, their judgment was also definitively to be banished from both this world and the World to Come, as is found in chapter Chelek (Sanhedrin 107b) that the generation of the flood has no portion in the World to Come. Therefore, in contrast, it is stated I shall not die but live (Psalms 118:16) — I shall not die in this world, for I shall live also in the World to Come, and I will recount the works of Yah, for in Yah the Lord is the Rock of Worlds, as both worlds are the work of Yah. Therefore, when Hezekiah repented and accepted upon himself to engage in procreation and restored the name of yod-heh to its place, it was consequently said to him Behold, I will add fifteen years to your life (Isaiah 38:5), corresponding to the name yod-heh. And it says Hineni yosif [Behold, I will add] — an unusual grammatical construction, for it should have said “Hineni mosif,” but this is because Hineni yosif has the initial letters yod-heh, indicating that it was in the merit of the name yod-heh that he merited this addition. This is what is concluded in Tractate Sukkah in Chapter HaChalil (53a): When David dug the foundations [of the Temple], the depths threatened to flood the world… until David recited the fifteen Songs of Ascent and the waters subsided. For David knew that the Generation of the Flood was punished through the great depths for the sin of promiscuity, because the waters of the depths are hidden waters, and regarding promiscuity, Solomon called it stolen waters (Proverbs 5:15) — meaning hidden waters, in contrast to what is said drink water from your cistern (Proverbs 9:17). Therefore, when David needed to raise the depths, he was afraid that perhaps by raising it, it would flood the world as happened to the Generation of the Flood. Thus, he recited the fifteen Songs of Ascent to hint that in the merit of Israel fencing themselves off from forbidden relations, with God’s name [Yah] mediating between them, they would be saved from the great depths. This is what is concluded in those fifteen Songs of Ascent: Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine (Psalms 128:3). The word your wife [ishtekha] has the letter alef marked with a segol vowel [made up of three dots], indicating that it speaks of a time when there are three partners in creating a person — father, mother, and the Holy One Blessed be He. And when the Holy One Blessed be He is a partner in the matter, then God’s name [Yah] mediates between them. Therefore, it says poriah“ [fruitful] with the addition of the letters yud-heh. And so our Sages said (Sukkah 51b): Between the men’s court and the women’s court there were fifteen steps. All this indicates that the number fifteen always mediates between man and woman, as all this stems from the holiness of God’s name Yah. Therefore, all these measurements of the ark were always close to the number fifteen, as mentioned.

A window shall you make for the ark, and to a cubit shall you complete it from above; and the door of the ark you shall set in its side; lower, second, and third decks shall you make in it.

צהר A LIGHT — Some say this was a window; others say that it was a precious stone that gave light to them (Genesis Rabbah 31:11). ואל אמה תכלנה מלמעלה AND TO A CUBIT SHALT THOU FINISH IT UPWARD — Its covering (roof) slanted upwards so that it narrowed at the top to a cubit, in order that the water should run off on both sides. בצדה תשים THOU SHALT SET [THE DOOR] IN THE SIDE THEREOF — in order that the rain might not penetrate. תחתים שנים ושלישים WITH LOWER, SECOND AND THIRD STORIES — Three stories one above the other: the top rooms for the human beings, the middle ones as cabins for the cattle, and the bottom was for the refuse (Sanhedrin 108b).

"A skylight" (צֹהַר) — an opening through which light enters, and it derives from the root of צָהֳרַיִם [noon, bright midday]. It was made at the top, as is customary. Since it was one cubit high at the top, it was a sixth of a cubit in width. The ark would thus be shaped like a triangle with a pointed top and pointed corners, and so it would not overturn. The door was in one side, and [Noah] would ascend to it by a ladder. We know that the ark was very large, and it is also possible that Noah's stature was greater than ours, since a cubit is measured by one's own [forearm] length. It is also possible that, when divided into three [storeys], the height of the lowest level would be ten cubits. Some say there were many [skylights], and Scripture uses an abbreviated form of expression. "Lower" (תַּחְתִּיִּים) — an adjective, as are also "second" (שְׁנִיִּים) and "third" (שְׁלִשִּׁים). To those who ask: why does the text not say שְׁלִישִׁיִּים? — they have eyes and do not see. Do they not see סֹלֵחַ [forgiving], קֶשֶׁת [bow], גַּנָּב [thief] — each an adjective? And נָגִיד, פָּקִיד, חָסִיד, חָכָם, נָבוֹן — all are adjectives. Every word follows its own pattern and structure. The pattern of שְׁלִשִּׁים is like that of נְגִידִים, חֲסִידִים, for the singular is שָׁלִישׁ just as [the singular of חֲסִידִים] is חָסִיד. Or it is possible that the yod of שְׁנִיִּים serves double duty — for itself and for the word שְׁלִשִּׁים alongside it. Perhaps this will satisfy those who raise the question.

בצדה תשים, on the side which is wide, for that is the side called צד. The long side is referred to as צלע. תחתיים, the lower deck in ships; as in any other ship, the customary lower deck. שניים ושלשים, they are similar, parallel to the lower deck.

צהר תעשה לתיבה “you are to provide means of illumination for the ark.” According to most opinions this is a reference to the window that Noach used later on to dispatch the raven and the turtle dove. During the period that this “window” was kept closed he suspended in that area a jewel which sparkled and provided interior lighting. When we understand this in this manner, our sages, some of whom spoke only of the jewel and others only of the “window,” are both correct, except that neither of them gave us the full explanation. When the Torah told Noach to provide interior lighting it was because during most of days of the deluge illumination from the sky was totally absent, neither sun, nor moon or stars being visible. Noach had to use his ingenuity to provide for interior lighting. ואל אמה תכלנה מלמעלה, this phrase describes more detail about the expression צהר. It instructs Noach to affix the lighting near the top end of the ark. The “lamp” was supposed to be fuelled by oil, as hinted at by the letters in the word צהר which are the same as יצהר, “pure oil.” Both the words חלון and צהר are used in Scripture in the masculine and feminine mode. Compare Kings I 6,4. Interestingly enough, the word חלון, window is used both in the masculine and feminine mode, presumably as a reminder that windows can be used both in order to look out or in order to look in, or to allow light to come in. ופתח התיבה בצדה תשים “and you are to position the entrance to the ark sideways.” Contrary to what we might think the entrance was not to be in the middle of the broadside of the ark, but at the corner where it would be least exposed to the elements. An alternate interpretation of the word: בצדה; on the third level (from the bottom) of the ark. תחתיים שניים, ושלישים, the third floor (deck) was intended for the human beings inhabiting the ark, as well as for the storage of the entire food supply.

Lower, second, and third [decks]. One must contemplate: If it was necessary to divide each level according to its purpose — upper levels for humans, middle levels for dwelling, and lower levels for waste — why then didn’t He command to make them on a single plane? And why were they specifically made one on top of the other? This hints at how these three levels were analogous to the three worlds, for during the flood all the worlds were damaged and the celestial bodies ceased to function entirely. Therefore, the ark was constructed in this formation to indicate their [eventual] restoration. Regarding what is written it shall come together to one cubit at its top — according to this interpretation, the roof at the top was only one cubit wide, below it two cubits, continuing to widen like any sloped structure. This alludes to how only He, blessed be He, is the ultimate unity, and the closer something approaches to the First Cause, blessed be He, the greater portion of unity it contains. For the angels who are close to Him, blessed be He, although they have multiple types — as this one was created from fire, this from water, and this from winds — nevertheless, they don’t have the composition of four elements, rather each one is made from a single simple element without combination. The middle world, beyond having multiple types, has in each of its components a combination of two elements, as the heavens were created from fire and water. Beyond these are the lower beings which have a combination of all four elements. Thus, the entire structure slopes upward until it stands at the top on one cubit, indicating that He, blessed be He, rides upon these three worlds — lower, second, and third [levels]. This design was given to Noah to indicate that all the worlds would return to their original state in the merit of the righteous one, the foundation of the world.

צוהר, “a light,” according to some commentators this source of light was a gem stone which refracted whatever light was available in all directions. Others believe that the reference is to some kind of window (transparent material) Our sages question that seeing that the sun and moon did not operate during the duration of the flood, what good would a window have done? The answer provided is that it would enable the people inside the ark to calculate when 12 months would have passed. This is not a satisfactory answer either; however we know that a window had functions other than the admitting of light from the outside, namely it served as a means to dispatch the raven and the dove, as we will learn later on. [disposal of garbage could also be achieved by that means. Ed.]

And I — behold, I am bringing the flood waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh in which there is the breath of life from under the heavens; everything that is in the earth shall perish.

ואני הנני מביא AND I, BEHOLD, I DO BRING — God says, “Now I am prepared to agree with those angels who cautioned Me and long ago said to Me (when I was about to create man), (Psalms 8:5) “What is man that thou art mindful of him” (Genesis Rabbah 31:12). מבול A FLOOD — so called because it ruined (בלה) everything; because it cast everything into confusion (בלל), and because it brought (הוביל from root יבל) everything down from the heights to a lower level. And this last explanation underlies the translation of Onkelos who translates it by טופנא (Ar. טוף = Heb. צוף) because the Flood caused everything to float about and brought it (the Ark) to Babel which is a low-lying district. That is the reason why it (Babylon) is called, also, Shinar (שנער): because all those who died through the Flood were shaken out (ננערו) into it (Shabbat 113b).

AND, BEHOLD, I DO BRING THE FLOOD. “Now I agree with those angels who long ago said to Me [when I was about to create man], What is man that Thou art mindful of him.” Thus the words of Rashi quoting Bereshith Rabbah 1:15. But I wonder: in what way did He “agree” with them since He left man a remnant for a great deliverance through Noah and his sons and all living things to increase their seed as the sand! Perhaps this agreement with their opinion signified [His intent which was to come to fruition] when He would show them no mercy. [However, when the Divine quality of mercy was introduced, it resulted in the deliverance of mankind through Noah.]By way of the truth [the mystic lore of the Cabala], va’ani (And I) is similar to: And I also will chastise you; The word va’ani (And I) thus intimates the attribute of judgment. so also, I am He! behold, My covenant is with thee; And as for Me, this is My covenant. The verse here thus states: “I also will have My hand on them for having destroyed the earth.” This is why He said [after the flood]: This is the token of the covenant which I make. — He maketh sore, and He bindeth up. The learned student [in the mystic lore of the Cabala] will understand.

"And I" — regarding the word מַבּוּל [flood]: some say the dagesh under the nun is absorbed [i.e., assimilated into the following letter], as in מַבּוּעַ [spring] (Ecclesiastes 12:6), and it derives from the root of "the earth languishes, it withers" (Isaiah 24:4, reading אָבְלָה נָבְלָה). Others say it derives from the root of בְּלוּלָה בַּשֶּׁמֶן ["mixed with oil"] (Leviticus 2:5), and it should by rights follow the pattern of מְסִלּוּל [highway] (Isaiah 35:8). Similar to it is הַמַּשּׂוֹר [the saw], where the ḥolam and the shuruq are interchangeable. The phrase "the flood of water" (מַבּוּל מָיִם) is an abbreviated expression; its full form would be: the flood — a flood of water — and similarly "from the day it was founded" (Exodus 9:18) means "from the day, the very day, it was founded."

ואני הנני מביא את המבול, G’d is saying, that Noach’s task is to build the ark, whereas He, when the time expires, will bring on the deluge He had threatened as soon as the ark would be completed. The word מבול is a variant of מפלה, referring to something lost as in Deut. 14,21 כל נבלה, a carcass being a life lost. The definitive article ה in המבול refers to the destruction, the nature of which had not previously been spelled out. [my paraphrasing. Ed.]

ואני הנני מביא את המבול. As far as I am concerned, here I shall bring on a deluge. It is difficult to justify the extra word ואני. Rashi explains it to mean: "I am prepared to concur with those angels who have considered man as not worth preserving." According to my own approach it simply means that the stage had been reached for G'd to give permission to the destructive agents which had readied themselves to carry out their design. Although the verse specifies only rain, the Zohar has elaborated on the meaning of the word מבול which would not have been needed had the Torah referred only to rain. This word alludes to the deadly power of the angel of death.

ואני הנני, Rashi interprets these two words as: “and I have agreed,” i.e. “against the pleas of the attribute of Mercy which acted as advocate for sinful mankind.”

And behold, I am bringing the flood waters. [This verse provides] the reason for the judgment of the Generation of the Flood, for they sinned through idolatry, sexual immorality, and theft. Regarding idolatry, it is written They have forsaken Me, the source of living waters, to dig for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water (Jeremiah 2:13). Regarding the sin of sexual immorality, for one who commits adultery with a married woman, his death penalty is by strangulation, and our Sages said (Ketubot 30a) that although the four death penalties of the court were abolished, the four death penalties themselves were not abolished — one who deserves strangulation either drowns in a river, etc. Thus, the Generation of the Flood who stumbled with married women, whose punishment is strangulation, it is fitting that they should drown in water. And as it is written For this shall every righteous person pray to You at a time when You may be found (Psalms 32:6), which our Sages interpreted as referring to [finding] a wife, and adjacent to this it states surely the flood of great waters shall not reach him — implying that in the absence of a wife, since he will not be saved from transgression, the flood of great waters will reach him. Regarding the sin of theft, since every thief enters his neighbor’s domain, it is therefore fitting to bring upon them a flood of great waters, for then each drop touches its neighbor and enters its boundary. For regarding blessed rains it is said Who has divided a watercourse for the overflowing of waters? (Job 38:25). From here we learn (Bava Batra 16a) that each drop has its own mold, and there is a hair’s breadth between each drop so that one should not enter the boundary of another. And this person who steals and enters his neighbor’s domain — it is fitting that the blessed rains should be transformed for him into a flood, for then all the drops mix together. On this, [the Talmud] concludes in Tractate Taanit (7a): Rabbi Ami said, “Rain is withheld only because of the sin of theft,” as it is said He covers the light with His hands (Job 36:32). This is because when using the general term “rain,” it refers to blessed rain, as Rashi explained: First it states and the rain was upon the earth, and afterward it states and the flood was, indicating that when He first brought it down, He did so with mercy, [hoping] perhaps they would repent, and then it would be blessed rain. This resolves [an otherwise problematic implication of the verse] such that we don’t need to say that Noah was of little faith, as the simple meaning doesn’t suggest this. In any case, he was uncertain about the flood’s arrival because perhaps they would repent, just as the prophet Jonah was uncertain about the prophesied punishment for the people of Nineveh. This is why it says because of the flood waters but while they were still [regular] rains, he didn’t enter the ark because perhaps they would repent and they would become blessed rains. Therefore, he said that rain — meaning blessed rain — is withheld only because of the sin of theft, because it is not right that one who steals and encroaches on their neighbor’s boundary should receive blessed rain, as no raindrop enters the boundary of another. It seems likely to me that Rabbi Ami was speaking about the generation of the flood, and his proof demonstrates this. One should examine the verse He covers the light with His hands — why does it call theft “hands” and why does it call rain “light”? Rather, he must have interpreted this verse in connection with what follows, For by them He judges peoples. This implies it’s speaking about the generation of the flood who were judged with water. He spoke about the theft “in hands” because the Holy One created each finger for its specific purpose, as mentioned in the Talmud (Ketubot 7b), and the Holy One wanted no finger to encroach on another’s boundary. This thief desecrates the holiness of their hands, therefore they were judged with the flood. Then the clouds covered the sun’s light, as the clouds were so thick and dense that the sun’s rays couldn’t penetrate them, for the luminaries didn’t function throughout the flood. Due to the thickness of the clouds, they brought down the flood waters with overflowing wrath, and the blessed rains were withheld while the flood came upon them. This is what the verse means by He covers the light with His hands, and this matter is very precious [profound].

ואני הנני מביא את המבול, as for Me, I am ready to bring on the deluge, etc.” According to Rashi the word הנני signals that at this time G’d found Himself in agreement with the angels who had opposed the creation of man to begin with, saying מה אנוש כי תזכרנו, “what is man (the species) that You should concern Yourself with him?” (Psalms 8,5). Nachmanides queries such an interpretation, seeing that G’d went to some lengths to ensure that the species was not wiped out, but that Noach and family would survive the deluge. Perhaps Rashi meant to say that G’d agreed with the angels who argued that man was not entitled to forgiveness anymore.

And I will establish My covenant with you; and you shall enter the ark — you, and your sons, and your wife, and the wives of your sons with you.

והקמתי את בריתי BUT I WILL ESTABLISH MY COVENANT — A covenant was necessary for the sake of the fruits that they should not rot or decay; and also that the wicked people of that generation should not kill him (Genesis Rabbah 31:12) אתה ובניך ואשתך THOU, AND THY SONS AND THY WIFE — Males separately and females separately. From this one may infer that they were not permitted to live together in the Ark as man and wife (Sanhedrin 108b).

AND I WILL ESTABLISH MY COVENANT. Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra said that this is a sign that G-d had sworn to Noah that during the flood, neither he nor his children would die even though it is not clearly written at first. This is similar to what we find in Deuteronomy: And ye came near unto me every one of you, and said: Let us send men before us, that they may search the land for us. This account, narrated by Moses, is not explicitly stated in Numbers, Chapter 13, which begins with G-d saying: Send thou men… Ramban cites this as another case where the first account lacks some of the details of the later account. The meaning of V’hakimothi (And I will establish) is “I will fulfill My oath.” It appears likely to me that this covenant mentioned here refers to the rainbow, [Thus G-d hinted to Noah that after the flood He will make a covenant with him if he will fulfill the commandment concerning the making of the ark.] The meaning of the word b’rith (covenant) is an agreement and accord which two have chosen, stemming from the root, ‘b’ru’ (choose) you. And the word b’rith takes the same form in construct and in separateness. A similar case is [the word sh’vith, captivity]: ‘sh’vith’ (the captivity of) Jacob; Here the word sh’vith is in construct. And his daughters ‘bash’vith’ (in captivity). Here the word bash’vith is separate. And some say that the word b’rith means the establishment of a boundary [to which each party to the covenant should adhere]. All these are Abraham ibn Ezra’s words.A more correct explanation in line with the simple meaning of Scripture is that the purport of the expression, And I will establish My covenant, is, “At the time of the coming of the flood, My covenant will be established with you so that you and your family and two of all flesh will come into the ark to remain alive, that is to say, so that you will live there and maintain yourself in order to go forth from there alive.” And b’rith (covenant) means G-d’s word when He decrees something without any condition and residuary and fulfills it. Now He mentions the b’rith and mentions that it will be fulfilled, [which, according to the present interpretation is an apparent redundancy], just as we find the verse, The Jews ordained and took upon them, and upon their seed, meaning they accepted upon themselves a matter which was to exist. [Thus our verse is to be explained in a similar way, i.e., He established an unconditional covenant.]By way of the truth, [the mystic lore of the Cabala], the b’rith is everlasting, the word being derived from. In the beginning G-d ‘bara’ (created). Thus brithi (My covenant) is similar to b’riyothi (My creation), and the word is alike in construct form because it is adjoined to the times there were before us. He thus commanded that the b’rith exist and be with the righteous one [Noah]. In a similar sense are the verses: As for Me, behold, I establish My covenant with you; My covenant was with him. The learned student [in the mystic lore of the Cabala] will understand.

"And I will establish My covenant" — as a sign that Hashem swore to him that he and his sons would not die in the Flood; and even if the explicit oath was not stated at the outset, it is like what we find in Deuteronomy [that something is mentioned later as if already known]: "Send men ahead of us" (Deuteronomy 1:22). The word וַהֲקִמֹתִי means: I will uphold My oath. What seems closer to me is that this covenant is an allusion to the rainbow. The meaning of בְּרִית [covenant] is an agreement and a matter that two parties have chosen together, and it derives from the root of "choose for yourselves a man" (1 Samuel 17:8). The word is the same in the construct and in the absolute form, as in "the restoration of Jacob" (שְׁבִית יַעֲקֹב, Psalms 85:2) and "her daughters in captivity" (וּבְנֹתֶיהָ בַשְּׁבִית, Numbers 21:29). Others say that בְּרִית means a boundary that has been cut [כָּרוּת].

והקימותי את בריתי, a reference to the covenant G’d made with Noach after the deluge.

והקימותי את בריתי. I shall fulfil My covenant. Why did G'd not first tell Noach to enter the ark seeing that his survival depended on that? Our sages (Bereshit Rabbah 31,12) say that the covenant in question was merely that Noach's peers would not kill him when he would enter the ark. In that event it is quite appropriate that the Torah first mentioned G'd as maintaining His covenant with Noach. An additional meaning maybe that G'd was afraid that Noach would not consider his salvation as a permanent one. He might feel that what was about to occur now might occur again some generations later if mankind did not improve. G'd therefore already hinted to him what He would spell out in more detail after Noach's thanks-giving offering in 8,21. In the meantime Noach had to enter the ark to escape the destruction that would kill all flesh. G'd may also have wanted to reassure Noach prior to his entering the ark that He would not abandon him during the time it took to sit out the deluge in the ark. Noach should not worry that the ark itself would prove a death trap. This assurance helped Noach as we know from 8,1 where the Torah mentions that G'd remembered Noach during all that time. After this G'd commanded Noach to enter the ark under the protection of this covenant. Although the covenant is not mentioned again in connection with 7,1, G'd relied on His previous assurance to Noach in this regard. The covenant is alluded to again in 8,1 where G'd is reported as "remembering" all those in the ark. Even though Rashi understands G'd as "remembering" Noach's good deeds and the animals refraining from mating while in the ark, this is homiletics and not the plain meaning of the verse.

והקימותי את בריתי אתך, “I will maintain My covenant with you.” The reference is to the covenant that Noach’s descendants will not be wiped out during the deluge.

והקימותי את בריתי עמך, “and I will maintain My covenant with you, etc.” The covenant G-d speaks about is the one he now concludes that He would wipe out life on earth and would save only Noach and those in the Ark with him. Alternatively, G-d may have been speaking about the covenant involving the rainbow, the details of which appear later on in our portion (view of Ibn Ezra). Nachmanides writes that based on Kabbalah the covenant G-d speaks about here is not one G-d concluded with Noach at all, but it s a covenant G-d made with mankind or the universe at the time of creation. The word ברית, “covenant,” is actually derived from the word בראשית, the time when G-d began the work of creation. You may read the word בריתי as if it had been spelled ברייתי, related to “My creation,” i.e. the Hebrew word בריתי is similar to a possessive form of the word or words בראשית עולם, “at the beginning of the universe.” Accordingly, G-d stated that this original covenant would be maintained with the righteous of all generations, at this point with Noach. Nachmanides quotes Genesis 9,9 ואני הנני מקים את בריתי אתכם, “and here I will keep My covenant with you,” as an example of what he has in mind. Another example he quotes is Malachi 2, 5 בריתי היתה אתו, “My covenant has been with him.” [that G-d always maintained His covenant with the tribe of Levi.] The intelligent will understand what I refer to. Thus far Nachmanides To summarize what he meant: The covenant which has existed and extended from on high to man on earth is that G-d employs His attribute of Mercy as the guiding principle in His relation to human beings. This covenant will endure and the partner to G-d in this covenant is the righteous f each generation seeing the righteous is the foundation upon which the universe id founded. Due to this covenant man is the recipient of G-d’s bounty. This is the real meaning of the word אתכם ”with you” (pl) in 9,9.

And I will establish My covenant with you. A covenant was needed regarding the produce so that it would not rot and [to ensure] that the wicked people of the generation would not kill him — this is Rashi’s language, and it has support from the verse, as it states And I will establish My covenant with you and you shall come into the ark. This implies that this covenant was that he would be able to enter the ark without hindrance. And [the protection from] rotting produce is learned from what is said with you — for did He establish the covenant with him alone? Was not the covenant also established with his wife and children? Rather, this alludes to the covenant of circumcision which was already with you, and this represents a measure-for-measure relationship: For the removal of the foreskin means the removal of excess blood that causes decay, and similarly, the rotting of produce comes from waste material that brings decay and rot. Furthermore, the foreskin is called a “disgrace” as it is said for it is a disgrace… to give our sister to a man who has a foreskin (Genesis 34:14). And hunger is also called a “disgrace” as it is said and you shall no longer bear the disgrace of famine among the nations (Ezekiel 36:30). Thus through the removal of the disgrace of the foreskin, the disgrace of hunger would be removed. And this matter we learn from Joseph, for when the Egyptians said to him that they had gathered produce and it rotted, Joseph commanded them to circumcise themselves, and Pharaoh agreed to this through him.

והקימותי את בריתי אתך, “but I will maintain My covenant with you.” According to Rashi the covenant was needed to prevent the produce in the ark that was to serve its inhabitants as food from rotting, during the year it would remain inside. Ibn Ezra suggests that this was an oath by G’d to Noach that neither he nor members of his family would die while in the ark during the deluge, even though the Torah does not spell it out as a specific promise. We explained this (Tur)) in connection with Deut. 1,22 on the line נשלחה אנשים לפנינו, “let us send some men ahead.” [in that verse too the Torah refrains from spelling out that the request was for spies and not simply scouts. Ed.] The word והקימותי refers to “keeping a promise, an oath.” It is most likely that this is a veiled hint of the rainbow, which will become the symbol of G’d’s oath later on in our portion. The word ברית, meaning “a solemn and mutual undertaking,” is derived from the expression ברו לכם, (Samuel I 17,8) where it means “choose for yourselves.” Nachmanides writes, more in line with the plain meaning of the text, that G’d promised Noach that when the moment came for the deluge to commence, he and his family would enter the ark safely, unharmed and the requisite pairs of animals would all show up ready to enter the ark to spend the time within safely. The special significance of the word (concept) ברית is that it is a binding promise not subject to additional clauses which could invalidate it.

And of every living thing of all flesh, two of each shall you bring into the ark, to keep alive with you; male and female they shall be.

ומכל החי AND OF EVERY LIVING THING — Even of demons (Genesis Rabbah 31:13). שנים מכל TWO OF EVERY SORT — Even of the least numerous amongst them there were not less than two—one male, the other female.

OF ALL FLESH. It is known that there are a great many beasts, and some of them — such as elephants, rams and others — are very large; likewise, the creeping things upon the earth are very many. Of the fowl of the heaven there are also innumerably many kinds, just as our Rabbis have said: However, instead of 120 kinds, the figure mentioned there is 100. “There are one hundred and twenty kinds of unclean birds in the east, and all of them belong to the species of ayah (kite).” Clean fowl are innumerable. Noah was thus obligated to bring all of them into the ark in order that they may beget their like. If you would gather a full year’s supply of food for all of them, [you would find] that this ark and ten others like it could not hold it! But this was a miracle of a small space containing a great quantity. And in case you suppose that he should have made it [the ark] very small and rely on this miracle, the answer is that the Holy One, blessed be He, saw fit to make it large so that the people of his generation should see it, wonder at it, converse about it, and speak of the subject of the flood and the gathering of the cattle, beast, and fowl into it so that perhaps they would repent. Furthermore, he made it large in order to reduce the miracle for such is the way with all miracles in the Torah or in the Prophets: whatever is humanly possible is done, with the balance left to Heaven. Now be not persuaded to say as Ibn Ezra that the three hundred cubits [of the length of the ark were measured] in cubits of a man like Noah, who was unusually tall. If so, the other people were also tall, and the beasts and fowl of those generations were also tall until the world was struck by the flood! Moreover, the cubits here are the standard cubits of the Torah. THOU SHALT BRING INTO THE ARK, TO KEEP THEM ALIVE WITH THEE. G-d thus commanded Noah that he concern himself with and help them in their entering the ark and that he strive on behalf of their existence even as he would for his own life.

After saying "two," Scripture clarifies that they shall be male and female. And after stating the general principle — "of all living things, of all flesh" — it then specifies: "of the birds according to their kind, of the animals according to their kind, and of every creeping thing of the ground" — this being the general category for wild animals. [The command covers] the small and the large, those born from a male and female [union]. Excluded are all creatures that come into being without the joining of two, and likewise the creatures of the water — since fish too is called "flesh" [the proof text shows this]. The proof is when Moses said: "You have said, 'I will give them flesh' — shall flocks and herds be slaughtered for them, or all the fish of the sea?" (Numbers 11:21). The phrase "you shall bring into the ark" is a command to Noah not to abandon them, but to bring them with him to keep alive the seed of every species. The phrase "they shall come to you" means they will come of their own accord, so that he would not have to labor to seek them on islands and trap every species of bird. And He commanded that he prepare kinds of food for all of them. Confused reasoners will ask: what did every bird of prey and every beast such as the lion eat, since they can only survive on flesh? But this is not a question at all, for one who cannot find flesh will eat grass and the fruit of the tree when hungry. Similarly, the rabbinic interpretation that among the animals there is a great creature that grazes on a thousand mountains — that is good for the hearing of the ears [i.e., it carries an inner meaning]. And likewise the bird that covers the sun's light with its wings has a secret meaning and is not to be taken literally. Hashem commanded Noah to build the ark many days before the Flood came. And when the days drew near, the glorious God commanded that Noah and his household should go into the ark. And because sacrifices would be needed, the glorious God commanded that he take from the clean animals and from the clean birds seven males and seven females.

ומכל החי, “and of all living creatures, etc.” according to Rabbi Yehudah, the fully grown animal known as reem did not enter the ark as it was too tall, whereas not fully developed specimens, did enter. (Compare Matnot kehunah on Bereshit Rabbah 31,13. According to Rabbi Nechemyah, the mature pair of reems was tied by Noach to the outside of the ark. He bases himself on a verse in Job 39,10, which hints at the length of the legs of this kind of animal.

מכל החי, “and from all living creatures, etc.” Our sages in Bereshit Rabbah 31,13 explain this expression is meant to include demons (disembodied spirits). G-d commanded them to enter the Ark [Noach would not be able to locate them on his own. Ed.] It is possible to explain this strange phenomenon by recalling that these spirits might not have been able to remain in their regular habitat, i.e. the atmosphere, due to the changes in the earth’s atmosphere during the period of the deluge when even the atmosphere underwent radical changes. The reason for this can be seen from the wording of G-d’s decree לשחת כל בשר אשר בו רוח חיים,”to destroy all flesh which has the spirit of life in it.” The emphasis appears to be on the words “spirit of life.” According to this wording the decree that living creatures would perish applied to all moving creatures including disembodied spirits. It was necessary therefore to bring these demons or spirits into the Ark as they too would have perished during the forty days of hot rain. When the Torah speaks about Noach (personally) bringing all these creatures into the Ark, i.e. תביא אל התבה, this need not be understood literally. After all, we find in the very next verse that the Torah writes יבואו אליך להחיות, “they will come to you in order to survive.” Surely this means that they will come of their own accord. What then did the Torah mean in our verse where it writes “bring to you into the Ark?” The meaning of these words is that Noach was to assist these animals once they had come to him and to provide them with suitable accommodation. He was to make every effort to ensure their survival. This was a commandment. Where do we actually find a mention of the fact that the demons came to join Noach in the Ark together with all the other species of living creatures? The Torah writes some apparently superfluous words in verse fourteen where the Torah writes וכל העוף למינהו כל צפור כל כנף, “and every bird after its kind and every bird of any kind of wing.” The words כל העוף למינהו, refer to the impure birds; the words כל צפור, refer to the pure birds; the additional words כל כנף “any kind of wing,” refer to the demons. They fly through the air. These words are followed immediately by the statement ויבואו אל נח אל התבה, “they came to Noach to the Ark.”

ומכל החי מכל בשר, “and from all living creatures, all flesh, etc.” Nachmanides writes that it is a well known fact that the beasts are many and that there are innumerable sub-species to be found among them, not only huge creatures such as elephants, but millions of varieties of creepers, insects, etc. The need to bring specimens of each into the ark and to feed them all once they were inside, was a seemingly superhuman task. Clearly, the ark was not large enough to contain them all, except if G’d invoked some miracle. Although G’d could have reduced the size of these creatures for the duration of their stay in the ark, He wanted them to continue to live normally, so as to impress this and subsequent generations with the miracles G’d performed as part of Noach’s survival, so as to inspire later generations to choose the path of repentance once they had become guilty of sins. Furthermore, it is a principle of G’d’s intervention in laws of nature, that miracles are restricted to what could not be accomplished without them. Man is thus encouraged to do whatever he can to survive without relying on G’d’s intervention. by means of miracles.

Of the birds according to their kinds, and of the cattle according to their kind, and of every creeping thing of the earth according to its kind — two of each shall come to you, to be kept alive.

מהעוף למינהו OF THE FOWLS AFTER THEIR KIND— those that had kept to their own species and had not corrupted their way (taking the words to mean, “of the fowls that had kept to their own kind”). All these came of their own accord, but only those which the Ark was allowing to pass in did Noah permit to enter (Sanhedrin 108b).

TWO OF EVERY SORT SHALL COME UNTO THEE, TO KEEP THEM ALIVE. G-d thus informed Noah that two of every sort would come of their own accord, and he would not find it necessary to hunt for them in the mountains and distant lands, and he would bring them into the ark after that. At the actual narration [of their coming, Scripture] explains that they came male and female; this is implied here. After that, He commanded him to take seven and seven of every clean beast. Concerning these, G-d did not say that they would come of their own accord but that Noah should take them. Noah brought sacrifices after the flood from the clean beasts and fowl. (See Chapter 8, Verse 20.) The reason for this is that those who came to be saved and to keep their seed alive, Verse 3. did come of their own accord, but for those who were to be sacrificed as whole offerings, G-d did not decree that they come of their own accord to be slaughtered. Rather, Noah took them since the purpose of the command to take seven and seven was that Noah bring a sacrifice from them after the flood. The meaning of the word “clean” is that the Holy One, blessed be He, explained to Noah the signs of ritual cleanliness for beast and fowl. Scripture, however, refers to it briefly by saying, “clean,” in accordance with the Torah. But Rashi wrote: “Clean, meaning that which in the future will be permitted to Israel as clean; we thus learn that Noah studied the Torah.”From here we derive that the sacrifices of the sons of Noah must also be only of the clean beast and the clean fowl. So also it is said of the sacrifice of Abel: of the first-born of his flock and of the fat thereof. However, all clean species are permissible for them to bring as sacrifices as it is written: And he took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt-offerings on the altar. [Later, when the Torah was given, G-d] added a commandment to Israel that all their sacrifices be only of the beasts and of the herd, of the turtledoves and of the young pigeons. Of the fowl also of the heaven, seven and seven — this means the clean fowl for the verse is a continuation of the verse above: [Of every ‘clean’ beast shalt thou take to thee seven and seven].

מהעוף למינהו. From the birds according to their kind. It is peculiar that the birds are mentioned before the mammals in this list. If the list is in order of their respective importance, the mammals should have been mentioned first; if the list is in an ascending order the crawling creatures should have been mentioned first. Why does the Torah use this peculiar order? Perhaps the birds enjoy a certain distinction over the mammals because they multiply so profusely. It is interesting that only the "pure" birds multiply so profusely; the 24 categories of "impure" birds which are not fit for consumption by Jews do not multiply as profusely. We have a tradition (Chulin 63?) according to which 120 varieties of birds were found on the Temple Mount, all of which are sub-categories of the איה, the falcon. At any rate these birds are greatly outnumbered by the "pure" birds. The Torah lists only ten categories of mammals which may be consumed by Jews. Presumably this is the reason the Torah commanded Noach to have the birds enter the ark ahead of the mammals. The difference in the description of the birds as למינהו, and the mammals as למינה, indicates that there were more categories and sub-categories of birds (compare Rashi). The Torah lists the respective categories of creatures, i.e. birds, mammals, and crawling creatures according to their relative mobility.

מהעוף למינהו ומן הבהמה למינה “including the feathered birds according to their various species and according to the fourlegged beasts according to each specific species.” Seeing that the birds had been created on the fifth day of creation and the mammals on the sixth day, they are listed here in that order.

שנים מכל יבואו אליך,”two of each species will come to you, etc.” According to Nachmanides G’d tells Noach that these creatures will present themselves before Noach of their own volition, so that he did not have to go chasing after them in order to save their lives. When the Torah later on reports about the arrival of these beasts, it adds that they all came as a pair, male and female. (7,9) We need to resolve why, in the previous verse, G’d instructed Noach “to bring the beasts to him,” seeing they were going to come of their own volition. The instruction in verse 19 became operative only after the animals had presented themselves before Noach. Now he was to bring them into the ark and to assign to them their respective quarters. Moreover, the animals that were to have their lives saved came of their own volition. But the seven pairs of the pure animals that were to serve as sacrifices after the deluge did not come by themselves, but Noach was instructed to take them and bring them into the ark. (compare 7,2)

And you, take for yourself of all food that is eaten, and gather it to yourself, and it shall be for you and for them for food.

ואתה קח לך מכל מאכל, different menus for different species of creatures.

מכל מאכל, “from every category of food;” seeing that the ark contained all the living creatures that consumed food, Noach had to store the kind of food that was eaten by all these various creatures. The reason was that some creatures refused to touch food that other creatures enjoyed eating.

Take for yourself from all food, etc. The word for yourself implies from your own [possessions] and not from others’, similar to [the interpretation of] for yourselves mentioned regarding the four species [on Sukkot]. This was so that Noah would not think, “They will all die today or tomorrow and their property will be destroyed, so it should be permitted to take from their possessions.” Therefore, Scripture states take for yourself — specifically from your own. This was to magnify the miracle, for even though naturally it would only suffice for you alone — as Noah certainly did not have excess — nevertheless, miraculously, “God will send blessing to your storehouses,” and it would be sufficient food for both you and them [the animals]. Similarly, [regarding] make for yourself an ark — which naturally would only contain you alone, yet miraculously it would hold all the animals, even elephants and re’emim [ancient large wild oxen].

And Noah did according to all that Hashem had commanded him; so he did.

ויעש נח THUS DID NOAH — This refers to the building of the Ark (Genesis Rabbah 31:14).

AND NOAH DID THUS; ACCORDING TO ALL THAT G-D HAD COMMANDED HIM, meaning that he constructed the ark and gathered the food. Scripture’s intent in saying, And Noah did… so did he, is to explain that he did not omit a thing from all that G-d had commanded him.

כן עשה, “so he did.” This is a reference to bringing all these various kinds of food inside the ark.

ויעש נח, “Noach did, etc.” These words refer to Noach constructing the Ark. The next words i.e. כן עשה, “so he did,” refer to Noach bringing in the various species in pairs as well as stocking the Ark with the necessary food supply, the appropriate food for each species.

Just as God commanded him, so he did: Since this passage begins with the name “Elohim” [the name of God representing strict judgment], as it is written And God said to Noah, “The end of all flesh has come…” (Genesis 6:13) and it was the attribute of judgment that spoke thus, therefore the passage concludes with the name Elohim. However, the second passage begins And the Lord said to Noah, “Come, you…” (Genesis 7:1) and it was the attribute of mercy that spoke thus regarding Noah’s salvation, therefore it also concludes with the name of mercy, as it is written And Noah did according to all that the Lord commanded him (Genesis 7:5). And also what is said in this passage For in another seven days I will bring rain (Genesis 7:4) speaks also of salvation, waiting for them in case they might repent.

ויעש נח ככל אשר צוה אותו אלוקים, “Noach carried out all the instructions G’d had given him.” He constructed the ark, collected the food supplies, etc. The reason why the Torah appears to repeat itself in 7,5 where it again mentions that Noach had carried out his instructions, is to make us aware that he did not skip performing any part of G’d’s instructions to him.