Pensamiento judío sobre Génesis 5:29

The genealogy starts with Adam, Shet etc, since this is the line that survived the deluge, and since with the advent of Enosh religion was at least being preached again. If, as the Midrash says, Adam began to desire Chavah physically not only when he was in her presence, but even when he was away from her, this poses the question why, despite advancing years, his desire grew stronger rather than weaker. The meaning of the Midrash then may be that after the conversation with Lemech's wives, Adam became more interested in the abstract. In his imagination, spiritual values began to assume more concrete forms, just as his being drawn to his wife no longer depended on her physical presence. That this tendency was present in a reinforced version in Enosh, is documented by the words "then one began to proclaim the name of the Eternal," who of course, was and remains invisible, abstract. This trend became still stronger until in Chanoch we find a person whose withdrawal from the material and physical became absolute. Similarly, Methuselah, his son Lemech and Noach after him, were good people. The fact that Lemech wished for his son Noach to rescue mankind from its enslavement to the soil (Genesis 5,29), "This one shall comfort us from our work and from the suffering of our hands," clearly indicates that he was aware of the inherent problem of making human existence meaningful and therefore joyous. "Then one began to proclaim the name of the Lord." It is quite possible that this action by the few was a reaction to the general corruption of the concept of monotheism, and that it unfortunately had become necessary to proclaim truths which had formerly been so self-evident that nobody had needed to belabor the point. The chapter commencing with the words,"These are the generations of man," concludes with the birth of Shet. He represented the third and last type of human being, one who saw in the development of his spiritual faculties his primary function, and who superseded the totally earth oriented Cain as well as the politically oriented Abel. The latter, after all, had employed his intellect only in the service of transient values. It is true that a lifetime of over nine hundred years is difficult for us to view as something "transient." Since we know that most children take after their mother's brother, the corruption of the descendants of Shet is explained by the fact that they took as their wives offspring from the descendants of Cain, and that even Noach married Naamah. Thus it is easy to account for what happened. Only a small minority of humans forms the spiritual elite, and so, 1556 years after the creation of Adam, we come to the moment of truth, the deluge. The fact that we are told about man taking several wives, is necessary for two reasons. In order to populate the earth, more girls than boys had been born. Already Hevel is supposed to have had two twin sisters. On the other hand, the abundant supply of women led to immodesty, harlotry etc., hastening the corruption of nearly the entire species.