Commentaire sur La Genèse 6:5

כי רבה רעת האדם, a reference to the past,

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!

'וירא ה, seeing that the time G’d had allocated to the people to improve their ways had elapsed, G’d saw that nothing had changed. רק רע כל היום, the words וכל יצר, refer to both man’s urges, the urge to do good, and the urge to do evil. The urge to do good had succumbed to the evil urge, completely. The Torah here calls the planning of wicked deeds based on impulses יצר לב, the urge of the heart. The reason is that the heart is perceived as the origin of all impulses be they good or be they evil in nature. The reason why G’d gave them 120 years extension, although He was well aware that they would not do teshuvah, was only in order for man to learn from G’d’s attributes, and to adopt this attribute for himself. Just as G’d allowed man plenty of time to improve his ways, so man, when dealing with his fellow, should also not be impatient, but allow enough time for people to rethink their evil attitudes.
When G’d created the human race He wanted it to be good completely, or at least predominantly. If mankind would turn to be completely evil it could not endure, seeing that G’d had chosen the good. When He saw that the generation preceding the deluge was thoroughly evil, especially in their inter-personal relations, their use of violence as a legitimate tool to gain their ends, their deeds threatened to undermine the foundations upon which G’d had built His universe. He therefore decided to destroy all those who were evil and to save only the few good ones, so that these survivors could form the nucleus of a better human race after the deluge. G’d had found Noach, his sons, and their wives to be good and they were chosen to provide the seed for future generations. Lemech, Noach’s father had died already 5 years prior to the deluge, and Metushelach, Noach’s grandfather, another good man, had lived his life to the full before the onset of the deluge. As a result of these two men having died, there were no righteous people left on earth other than Noach and his family.

Adonoy saw. Hashem saw that even reducing their life spans to 120 years did not cause them to repent. This was because their sins were the result of ideology as well as appetite.

Im רע liegt der Begriff des Bruches im Gegensatz zum שלם und תמים. Nicht ohne Grund heißt es wohl בארץ, nicht bloß באדמה, der Trägerin des Menschenwirkens. Gott hat die Erdwelt geschaffen und den Menschen als seinen Stellvertreter in sie gesetzt. Allein durch das Bisherige war ein "großer Bruch" in die Harmonie der Erdwelt gebracht. Es ist die Frage, ob רעת האדם die Schlechtigkeit oder das Unheil (Un-Heil, heil: ganz, ebenso wie רע) bezeichnet, das der Mensch in die Erdwelt brachte. Wir glauben, das letztere. Als Gott herniederblickte, war durch den Menschen bereits das größte Unheil auf die Erde gebracht, die Gegenwart war also schon über alle Maßen schlecht, und für die Zukunft: כל יֵצֶר מחשבות לבו רק רע כל היום.

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.”

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

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.

יֵצֶר In unglückseliger Weise hat man dieses Wort durch "Trieb" übersetzt, als ob es im Menschen eine Gewalt gebe, die ihn zum Bösen treibe. Daraus hat sich sodann jene trostlose Anschauung gestaltet, auf welcher eine große "religiöse" Genossenschaft beruht, jene Anschauung von der Gewalt des Bösen, in dessen Macht der Mensch angeblich ruht und aus der er erst durch einen gewissen Glauben gerettet werden könne. Aus diesem Wörtchen יֵצֶר ward somit ein fester Strick gedreht, der die Menschheit knebelt, und doch ist nichts ferner von dieser Vorstellung als eben dieses Wort.

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.

Schon in der Wurzel יצר liegt ja durchaus nichts Zwingendes, sondern Bildendes. Allein die Form יֵצֶר ist ja gar nicht aktiv, sondern passiv, es heißt ja nicht das Bildende, sondern das Gebildete, und wollte man יצר mit: treiben übersetzen, so wäre es ja nicht: was den Menschen treibt, sondern: was der Mensch treibt! יֵצֶר steht ja offenbar dem יוצֵר wie das Geschöpf dem Schöpfer, das Werk dem Bildner gegenüber: ויֵצֶר אמר ליוֹצְרו (Jes. 29, 16). יֵצֶר ist somit wie Stoff, כחמר ביד היוצר. dem יֵצֶר untergeordnet, und יֵצֶר מחשבות; ist: das Gebilde unserer Gedanken.

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.

Unsere Seele ist ein חושב, ein Weber (חשב Grundbedeutung: verbinden, kombinieren, חשב האפור), der Stoff ist ihr gegeben. Als gefügiger Stoff liegen alle Anlagen in ihrer Hand, gute und böse; die Seele hat sie zu verbinden, Gestalten daraus zu machen, צורות: unsere Ideale, und diese צורות sind: יֵצֶר das Gebilde unserer webenden Seele. Aus dem gegebenen Stoff können wir machen was wir wollen. Gott hat uns aber zugleich die "Muster" gegeben, nach denen wir weben sollen. Tun wir dies, so ist alles gut. Der חושב kann keines Fadens, keiner Farbe entbehren. An angewiesener Stelle und in vorgewiesener Weise ist alles gut. יֵצֶר, die Idee, die Vorstellung dessen, was wir erreichen können, lockt uns allerdings, es zu erreichen, allein dies ,יֵצֶר selbst haben wir gemacht. Ist die von uns gebildete "Idee" (ja buchstäblich יֵצֶר Ιδέα, das Gestaltete, das Bild) eine gute, so streben wir zum Guten, und umgekehrt. So heißen die Bilder, die Vorstellungen der Seele in Job in ausgeprägter passiver Form ja geradezu ויצֻרַי כצל כולם :יְעצורים (Job 17. 8), meine Vorstellungen, die Bilder, die ich in meinem Innern konstruiere, sind wie ein Schatten. So nannte David die freudige Hingebung an Gott, die שמחה להתנרב, die das Volk bei den Spenden zum Tempelbau bewährte: יצר מחשבות לבב העם, und betete: שמרה זאת, d.i. die שמחה להתנדב, bewahre diese freudige Hingebung für immer zur Idee der Gedanken des Herzens deines Volkes, d. h. mache, dass die Gedanken des Herzens deines Volkes zu allen Zeiten den Entschluss zu einer solchen Hingebung bilden mögen. (Chron. 1. 29, 18).

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 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.

Hier heißt es also: schon in der Gegenwart war das durch den Menschen in die Welt gebrachte Unheil groß, und hinsichtlich dessen, was noch von ihm zu erwarten, was jetzt nur noch als Gedankenbild in ihm wohnte, war "jedes Gebilde der Gedanken seines Herzens nur schlecht den ganzen Tag, oder alle Tage". Schon der Ausdruck כל יצר beweist, dass hier nicht von dem sogenannten bösen Triebe die Rede sein kann. Von ihm, der nur einer ist, lässt sich nicht sagen, jeder, wohl aber von den Ideen und Vorstellungen; ebenso ist nur bei diesen das: רק an seinem Platze. Jedes Ideal, das sie anstrebten, hatte auch nicht eine einzige gute Seite, und diese, nur das Schlechte anstrebende Richtung war zu jeder Zeit, somit also in allen Lebensbeziehungen, dieselbe.