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By Rabbi Shloimie Lindenbaum
וירא אלקים את הארץ והנה נשחתה כי השחית כל בשר את דרכו על הארץ (פרק ו פסוק יב)
The Torah explains the reason that Hashem had to bring a מבול, flood, and destroy the world, in a seemingly repetitive way. It says, “Hashem saw the land and behold it was corrupted, for all flesh had corrupted its way upon the land.” What is the difference in the two halves of the verse? The כתב סופר explains based on an idea of the רמב”ם in שמנה פרקים. The רמב”ם says that there are two types of mitzvos, those that are sensible and are necessary for society and personal development, and those that we listen to without understanding, just because Hashem told us to. The רמב”ם says that there is a difference in how we are meant to approach the two. The understandable mitzvos are supposed to inculcate within us a mindset and set of values. When the Torah says not to steal, it also wants us to have a moral aversion to theft. The mitzvos that we follow out of pure listening, without understanding, are not providing us with a value system. We can desire to eat non-kosher food, and yet still listen to Hashem’s command of pushing it away. In fact, in a way it is better when we desire it and yet still listen to Hashem, because that means that we are following Hashem’s Will totally for His sake. The generation of the מבול was not only punished for stealing and being corrupt, but also for their values and desires being corrupt. They developed a society where corruption was an ideal and people had a natural leaning in their hearts, not only their actions, towards theft and corruption. The כתב סופר explains that this is the two halves of the verse, Hashem saw that their actions were corrupted, and everyone had corrupted “their way”, that is, their values and ideals. A society such as that could not last.
וישת מן היין וישכר (פרק ט פסוק כא)
After Noach left the תיבה, the ark, he planted grapes, made wine, and became heavily drunk. Why did he become so drunk from this drinking? Surely Noach would not do such a thing intentionally? It is said in the name of the שפת אמת that the world became a weaker place after the מבול, and although Noach could have easily held that amount of wine before the מבול, he didn’t realize that the world, along with the resilience of people, was diminished. R’ Berel Soloveitchik offered an alternative approach. The Medrash says that the same day the Noach planted the seeds, they grew and already made wine. Even though Noach saw the miracle of the seeds growing and producing grapes that very same day, perhaps he thought the miracle ended there. Once he squeezed the grapes he assumed that he would get grape juice, he didn’t realize that part of the miracle was that it was immediately wine!
