Kommentar zu Bereschit 11:5

'וירד ה לראות AND THE LORD CAME DOWN TO SEE — He really did not need to do this, but Scripture intends to teach the judges that they should not proclaim a defendant guilty before they have seen the case and thoroughly understand the matter in question. This is to be found in Midrash of R. Tanchuma.

וירד ה' לראות, The Torah uses the expression “G’d descended to see, etc.,” only when the sins committed by the people concerned were not yet ripe for severe punishment but would become so if left unchecked. Retribution which results from G’d “descending,” must be viewed as a kind of preventive medicine, designed to avoid the need for more drastic action at a later stage. One well known example of G’d’s preventive retribution is the בן סורר ומורה, a thirteen year old who stole a little meat and wine from his parents, and whose punishment is execution if the parents brought him to court as an unmanageable teenager (Deut. 21,18, see Rashi, and Sanhedrin 72 on this). In the case of Sodom, where G’d is also reported as “descending,” (Genesis 18,21) this also occurred at a time when their sin had not yet been greater than that of other surrounding nations, so that only these cities had to be singled out for punishment at that time. What distinguished the Sodomites was only the cruelty with which they committed the same kind of sins as those committed by other nations. This would eventually have led to such a corrupt world that the need for G’d to intervene on a global rather than a local basis, would have become unavoidable. Ezekiel 16,49 also describes the sin of the Sodomites in such terms when he wrote הנה זה היה עון סדום אחותך...ויד עני ואביון לא החזיקה”This was the sin of Sodom your sister…..but the hand of the poor and the needy she did not support.” Similarly, the punishment of the Israelites when they were exiled was brought forward out of concern that something worse might become their fate if G’d did not intervene at that time and exile them so that He would not eventually have to punish them even more harshly. (Deut 32,20) “I can see what would be their ultimate end.”

'וירד ה, When G’d, from time to time, takes a closer look at what His creatures on earth are doing, such an activity is generally introduced by the expression וירד ה', “G’d descended.” Relative to G’d’s stature, His involving Himself with the problems of sinful men is below what His dignity could command. [a venerable Torah sage is exempt from involving himself with the taking home of lost property and looking for its owner. If this is so out of consideration for the scholar’s dignity, how much more could we expect that G’d does not bother with us? Ed. (compare Deut. 22,4)]

Während bei dem דור המבול der Name אלקים auftritt, erscheint hier, wie schon רמבן bemerkt, nur der שם הויה. Leibliche und sittliche Entartung wie beim sündflutlichen Geschlecht ist nicht bloß menschengesellschaftliche Gefährdung, die ganze Natur ist dadurch in ihrer vom Schöpfer gesetzten Ordnung bedroht. Die Verirrung des דור הפלגה war aber keine geschöpfliche, ja sie war scheinbar zunächst nicht einmal eine soziale, es war noch Friede und Einheit vorhanden, aber die Zukunft der Menschheit, die durch die unveräußerliche Würde und sittliche Bedeutung des einzelnen bedingt ist, war durch die Absicht, die die Lenker dabei hatten, im höchsten Grade gefährdet. Deshalb wird das Einschreiten als das Werk ׳ד, der die Heileszukunst der Menschheit herbeiführenden göttlichen Waltung, bezeichnet.

בני האדם THE CHILDREN OF MAN (ADAM) — But whose children could they have been (except the children of man, i.e. human beings) — perhaps the children of donkeys or camels? But it means the children of Adam Harishon who proved himself ungrateful when he said, (Genesis 3:12) “The woman whom Thou gavest to be with me, [she gave me of the tree etc.]”. These people, also, were ungrateful, rebelling against the One who had showered kindness upon them and had rescued them from the Flood (Genesis Rabbah 38:9).

לראות, we encounter the same term when G’d “descended to see” if the reports which had reached Him about the wickedness of the people of Sodom were as serious as He had heard. (Genesis 18,21) Onkelos distinguishes between the meaning of the words here and in Genesis 18, describing His action here as לאיתפרעא, “retribution,” and the action of G’d vis a vis the Sodomites as דין, “justice.”

וירד kommt hier zum erstenmale vor. Bedenken wir, dass קר שכינה בתחתונים sei, so bezeichnet וירד stets einen solchen Wendepunkt in der Entwicklung, wo Gottes Eingreifen die Vergrößerung der Kluft zwischen Erde und Himmel verhindert, und einen Schritt zu dem Ziele näher führt, dass seine שכינה wieder בתחתונים weilen könne. Hier aber tritt dieses וירד noch viel prägnanter hervor. Die Gesamtheit will dem einzelnen keinen anderen Oberherrn als sich lassen. Wie dies aber ein Angriff auf den ewig unveräußerlichen Wert jedes einzelnen Menschen ist, der ihm nicht erst durch die Würde der Gesamtheit übertragen wird, und dessen Wert nie aufgehen kann in einen Ziegel, und sei dieser Ziegel auch ein Teil zum Ruhmesbau der Gesamtheit: so war dies auch zugleich ein Angriff auf ד׳, der jeden Menschen unmittelbar in Seinen Dienst beruft, den Menschen eben damit frei, und Fürst und Sklave gleich macht. Der Name ד׳ duldet keine Sklaven! In dem Augenblick nun, da die Menschheit, statt in ihrer Gesamtheit jeden einzelnen בשם ד׳ aufzurufen, ihren Namen an die Slelle des göttlichen setzte, da וירד ד׳ steigt Gott hernieder, lässt die Erde nicht fahren, stieg herab, um den Gesamtbau der Menschen zu sehen, somit in der Absicht, um die Zwecke desselben zu prüfen. — (Über Anthropomorphismen siehe zu Kapitel 6, 6.)

אשר בנו, which they had commenced building; [they never got to finish it. Ed.]

בני האדם, they are appropriately referred to as בני האדם, “children of Adam,” having followed their own instincts and inclinations instead of heeding G’d’s instructions, just as their forefather Adam had done. G’d had wanted them to populate the earth, and they had chosen to concentrate in a miniscule part of the earth. It is interesting that before G’d brought on the deluge, the Torah did not describe Him as “descending” as it did here or in connection with the Sodomites. Instead, the Torah there spoke about what G’d had seen, i.e. ראיה, instead of ירידה. (Genesis 6,5) The reason is that the deluge was something everybody knew about, seeing it was experienced by everybody. The whole point of G’d “descending,” is in order to examine a state of affairs which is not so widely known, so that it needs investigation. Something known to everybody does not require examination to determine if it is true. Concerning all these expressions, the bottom line is that the Torah uses a syntax familiar to people on earth, even if it does not accurately reflect G’d’s thoughts and feelings.