Kommentar zu Bereschit 6:7

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).

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.

'ויאמר ה, G’d either said this to Himself, or to Noach.

They, too, perverted. This raises a question: Why did the verse not [equate them and] write, “Man and beast”? Thus Rashi offered the alternate explanation, which raises another question: Why did the verse not [make the beasts secondary and] say: “Man, and beast as well”? Thus Rashi offered the first explanation [as both are needed]. (Maharshal)

הי dieselbe Barmherzigkeit, die den Menschen dahingestellt hatte, sprach jetzt den Beschluss seiner Vernichtung aus. Die Entartung war eine so große, dass die Vertilgung selbst ein Akt der Barmherzigkeit war. Selbst in dem Augenblicke der Vernichtung spricht sich die Größe des Menschen aus, indem seine Vernichtung die Vernichtung der ganzen lebenden Erdwelt nach sich zieht. Die Erde wohl nicht, aber פני האדמה, die Oberfläche gehört als Boden seiner Bestimmung dem Menschen. Kein bloß physisches Band verknüpft den Menschen mit den Dingen. Es besteht auch eine moralische Beziehung zwischen ihnen. Wenn der Mensch sinkt, trauert und welkt die Erde. Diese Tatsache geht durch alle Bücher תנך^. Es heißt ferner nicht אמחה את האדם absolut, sondern mit dem Beisatz: מעל פני האדמה. Es ist damit die Möglichkeit nicht ausgeschlossen, dass selbst diese Vernichtung nur eine relative gewesen, Entfernung von der Erdwelt. Ob aber nicht selbst da das Göttliche im Menschen noch aufbewahrt, für andere Räume, andere Verhältnisse, das wagen wir nur fragend anzudeuten. Der Wortausdruck bezeichnet jedenfalls nur eine relative Vernichtung.—

אמחה את האדם “I’ll dissolve the human species;” according to Rashi we must understand this as the human species consisting of earth and therefore subject to annihilation by water. G–d said that He would use water to bring about the dissolution of the human race. The expression used by the Torah according to Rashi to illustrate this is therefore מחוי, “dissolution,” instead of other words for destruction such as השמדה or כליה.

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.”

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)

אמחה את האדם אשר בראתי, the prefix ה before the word אדם is meant to tell us that G’d did not mean to wipe out the human species, אדם, but only האדם, seeing that some humans were allowed to survive. In supplying a rationale why the means used to wipe out all these people was the water, Rabbi Berechyah in Bereshit Rabbah 28,2 describes G’d as saying to Himself, that seeing He had made man out of earth, the only element (of the four that man is made of) which could neutralise earth is water. The words מאדם עד בהמה, included the free roaming beasts on earth, חיה, whereas the word רמש refers to the small creatures as we explained already on 1,25-26. Why were all these creatures wiped out also? What had they done to deserve this? They had only been created for the sake of man. If there was no purpose for man on earth, neither was there a purpose for all of these living creatures. Furthermore, seeing that the waters would cover the habitat of all these creatures they would die unless saved by a special miracle. The concern of G’d for all those creatures does not extend to each of them individually, but only to the survival of each of their species. G’d ensured that the species would survive by commanding Noach to take them into the ark with him, or at least to accept all those that came to the ark voluntarily, in pairs. If you were to ask why the deluge had to cover the entire surface of the earth and not only the areas inhabited by man, if G’d had done this, man could have escaped to uninhabited regions and survived thus foiling G’d’s plan. This is why even the highest mountains had to be covered by the waters to prevent anyone from escaping to the mountain peaks. Some of our sages (Sanhedrin 108) claim that the animals had become corrupt, copying man’s corrupt ways, so that they too deserved to die in their own right. They had become guilty of mating with species not their own, thus frustrating G’d’s plan that each species remain pure. Other sages (on the same folio) agree with the first opinion we offered, i.e. that in the absence of man on earth there was no purpose in the earth being populated by animals.

Die Weisen geben im Midrasch zu מחה einen Aufschluss, der nicht von geringer Bedeutung sein dürfte. מחה heißt nach ihnen eine völlige Auflösung. Vielleicht ist מחה verwandt mit מהה, wovon nur noch מה vorkommt, das Formlose, nicht für die Erkenntnis Dastehende. Also nicht bloß Tod und Verwesung der Muskeln wird verhängt, sondern auch der Gebeine, ja selbst der sonst nach den Weisen nie verwesende Teil der Gebeine wird hier gänzlich aufgelöst. Bei dieser völligen Auflösung ist es denn um so weniger auffallend, warum sich keine, oder nach der allerneuesten Annahme, warum sich so wenig Reste der vorsündflutlichen Menschheit vorfinden sollen. Ohnehin hat nach der Ansicht der Weisen Leidenschaftlichkeit Einfluss auf raschere Verwesung der Gebeine (Sabbat 152 b), und kann dies bei der Verderbnis dieses Geschlechtes in noch höherem Maße der Fall gewesen sein.

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.

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).

Während so ein ganzes Menschengeschlecht zu Grabe ging, heißt es: