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זה ספר תולדות אדם THIS IS THE BOOK OF THE GENERATIONS OF ADAM — This is the record (or, enumeration) of the generations of Adam. There are however, many Midrashic observations on this verse

THIS IS THE BOOK OF THE GENERATIONS OF ADAM. These are the children He will mention in the chapter.⁴⁷³So Rashi and Ibn Ezra. In my opinion, this alludes to the entire Torah, for the entire Torah is the book of the generations of Adam. Therefore, He says here “book” and does not say, “And these are the generations of Adam,” as He says in other places, e.g. And these are the generations of Ishmael;⁴⁷⁴Genesis 25:12. And these are the generations of Isaac,⁴⁷⁵Ibid., Verse 19. and so in all such cases.

זה ספר תולדות אדם, thus begins the story of human history, and events worth recording for all posterity.

זה ספר תולדות אדם. This is the book (record) of Adam's descendants. The Torah uses the word ספר to allude to a story, סיפור. Which story is meant? Why does the Torah give the impression that the דמות אלוקים, the likeness of G'd that man was created in, existed only on the day he was created? Besides, seeing that the Torah had already mentioned this distinction of man when it first reported his creation, why did the Torah repeat it here once more? Why did the Torah repeat once more that man was created male and female? Why did the Torah repeat the words ביום הבראם, "on the day they were created," at the end of the verse?

זה ספר, the word ספר here does not mean “book,” but is derived from the verb ספור, “to count.” The Torah introduces an account of events, providing numbers in order to make these events more intelligible. The objective is to provide us with the knowledge of how many years elapsed from the creation of Adam to the deluge. Kayin and Hevel are not mentioned again. Hevel is not mentioned seeing he left no offspring, whereas Kayin is not mentioned because none of his offspring survived the deluge. Mankind is therefore traced back only to Sheth.
ביום ברא אלוקים אדם בדמות אלוקים עשה אותו, the Torah reminds us that on the day G’d created man He made him possessing divine qualities like the angels, i.e. He implanted in man a soul of celestial proportions. If man degraded himself by not observing his Creator’s commandments, the blame cannot be laid at the doorstep of his Creator. The emphasis on man being created male and female (verse 2) is to allude to the fact that the female had seduced Adam not to obey his Creator.

The happenings of one's life are called "generations" in several places. But in this place it is different, for it is written, " this Book". The meaning is that the verse is recounting how it was with him at the moment he was born and on that same day, and the changes that befell him from the moment he was born until the end of the day are like an entire book, for such changes as these [normally] take many years. All of this comes to teach us wisdom - how it is that a person can become corrupted in just a single day. And such we find stated in the Torat Kohanim Parshat Kedoshim, wherein Ben Azzai states that this verse is the major principle of the Torah.

זה ספר תולדות אדם, “this is a record of human history.” This is a reference to the various children mentioned in the remainder of the chapter. Beyond this, it is reasonable to consider the entire Torah a record of mankind’s history (up to the end of Moses’ life) and this is the reason why the Torah here did not choose to write אלה תולדות אדם, as it did on other occasions.

ספר תולדות אדם, “the book relating the descendants of man.” According to Nachmanides this is an allusion to the entire Torah which is perceived as the ספר תולדות אדם. If it were not so, the Torah should not have used the expression ספר, “book,” but should simply have written אלה תולדות אדם, just as we find in Genesis 25,12 when the descendants of Ishmael are enumerated, or in Genesis 25,19 where the descendants of Yitzchak are listed.
Maybe the meaning of the word ספר in this instance is חכמה, “wisdom,” just as we find it in the ספר יצירה where the expression is ספר וספור as we already mentioned on a previous occasion. The “wisdom” referred to is not ordinary human wisdom but celestial wisdom, a wisdom which would have been man’s had he not sinned. The thrust of our verse then would be: “this book contains the wisdom which should have been an integral part of every human being.” The true descendants of man are not his biological children but his accomplishments in the field of Torah knowledge. The tasks that need to be performed on earth which require a human population could be carried out by someone other than man if need be. This is what Ben Azzai had in mind when he explained that he would not preoccupy himself with marrying and begetting children as his longing was concentrated solely on Torah (Yevamot 63). The complete verse therefore means: “for this book which represents the celestial wisdom, something that ought to belong to every human being seeing he had been created בדמות אלוקים עשה אותו, in the likeness of G’d He made him on the very day that G’d created man.” You will now understand why the Torah saw fit to mention the word אדם twice in this verse.

That on the same day that he was created he begot. [Rashi knows this] because it is written, “This is the book of the generations of man on the day...” implying that on the day he was created he had offspring. Accordingly, “On the day,” is attached to “generations of man,” rather than to “He made him in the likeness of Hashem” which follows. For otherwise, why does it say, “On the day Elohim created?” The Torah should have simply written, “The generations of man, in the image of Hashem He made them,” and that would suffice. Perforce, “This is the book of the generations of man” refers back to (4:1), “The man knew his wife, Chavah” and she gave birth to Kayin and Hevel.

(1-2). זה ספר תולדת אדם. Dieser Satz, mit welchem eine neue Periode in der Erziehungsgeschichte der Menschheit eingeleitet wird, hat entschieden Ähnlichkeit mit jenem Satze אלה תולדות השמים והארץ בהבראם וגוי, mit welchem oben 2, 4. die Geschichte der Weltentwicklung eingeführt wurde. So wie dort gesagt wurde, dass alle folgenden Erscheinungen nichts als die natürlichen Entwicklungen des Himmels und der Erde seien, und sie alle ihren Grund בהבראם, in den Gesetzen haben, die der Schöpfer bei ihrer Entstehung schon in Himmel und Erde gelegt: so wird ein Ähnliches hier an der Spitze der Menschenentwicklung ausgesagt, dass alle die verschieden- artigsten Erscheinungen der Menschheit nichts als die natürlichen Entwick- lungen des von Gott zu seinem ebenbildlichen Adam Geschaffenen seien. — סֵפֶר von ספר, zählen, d.i. zusammensummieren verschiedener Dinge unter einen Hauptbegriff. Möglich, dass ספר mit שבר verwandt ist, welches das Zerlegen eines Ganzen in einzelne Teile bedeutet, während ספר eben diese Einheiten wieder zusammenfasst. Vielleicht daher auch das Chaldäische שפר schön, d.i. die Einheit in der Mannigfaltigkeit. סַפֵר während ספר die Dinge nur nach ihrer äußerlichen Gleichartigkeit zusammenfasst, fasst סַפֵר sie nach ihrer innerlichen, kausalen Verknüpfung zusammen, also: pragmatisches Aufnehmen zusammengehörender Begebenheiten nach Ursache und Wirkung. Und ebenso ist סֵפֶר: eine einheitliche Zusammenstellung von Lehren etc, die in einem großen systematischen Zusammenhang zueinander stehen, so: ספר תורה. Hier steht סֵפֶר durch den trennenden Akzent absolut, also die Summe alles folgenden. Da es nicht זה הספר, sondern זה ספר heißt, so ist ספר allerdings stat. constr., aber nicht zu תולדות, sondern, wie häufig wo stat. constr. ohne beigefügten Genitiv steht, zu einem hinzugedachten Kollektivbegriff. Hier: aller ferneren Ereignisse etc. Diese ganze Menschengeschichte mit ihren tiefsten Tiefen und ihren höchsten Höhen, in und auf welchen sie uns die Menschheit zeigt, die mannigfaltigsten Erscheinungen, die in der Geschichte des Menschengeschlechts hervortreten, sie bilden ein Ganzes, es lebt und verwirklicht sich Ein Gedanke in ihnen, sie sind alle, trotz ihrer auffallenden Gegensätze, nichts als Entwicklungen des einen gottebenbildlichen Adam. Der Mensch könnte nicht "Adam" sein, wenn sich nicht alles dies aus ihm hätte entwickeln können. Soll er — durch seine Freiheit — mehr als Engel sein, so muß er auch eben durch diese Freiheit schlechter sein können — um mit den Menschen zu sprechen — als der Teufel. Die Möglichkeit der tiefsten Entartung war von vornherein im Adam vorgesehen. Nicht etwa ist Gott seine Welt, ist Gott seine Menschheit missraten. Alle jene Erscheinungen sind nichts als die eine große Entwicklung des Adam-Gedankens. Ist dies, so begreifen wir die Sätze: R. Akiba lehrte ואהבת לרעך כמוך, liebe deinen Nächsten wie dich selbst, sei ein כלל גדול בתורה, sei ein großer, umfassender Satz in der Lehre. Gibts ja auch im Grunde nur eine עברה: die Selbstsucht, den Egoismus. In dem Augenblick, in welchem der Mensch vollständig dem anderen dieselbe Stelle wie sich selbst einräumt und sich damit vollständig alles Egoismus entkleidet, hat er sich auf die Höhe des Standpunktes erhoben, von welchem aus alle seine Lebensaufgaben, alle מצות gelöst sein wollen. Ben Asai aber meinte, der Satz זה ספר תולדת אדם sei ein noch größerer, umfassenderer Satz. Hier ist eine noch viel größere, höhere Einheit des Menschengeschlechtes gegeben. Den größten Verbrecher, die größte Entartung, die größte Vertiefung, alle fasst dieser Satz als תולדת אדם, als Entwicklung aus dem einen gottebenbildlichen Adam ohne Unterschied zusammen in das große Weltbuch Gottes, in welchem Er die Menschheit verzeichnet. חסר ,תולדת, auch die mangelhaften Erzeugnisse der Menschheit doch תולדת אדם!

זה ספר תולדת אדם, “this is the book of the history of mankind.” G–d even gave Adam an outline of the family trees of future generations. Some of this is reflected by the interpretations given by famous sages to the verse in Leviticus 19,18: ואהבת לרעך כמוך, (normally translated as “love your fellow man as yourself). In Torat Kohanim Rabbi Akiva is quoted as saying that that verse teaches us “a great rule, an all inclusive concept,” (a variation of Hillel who summed up the essence of Judaism as don’t do to others what you would not have do them to you.) Ben Azzai understands the words as applying to the end of the verse, i.e. אני ה', “I am the Lord,” a reminder that all human beings have been created in the image of the Lord, so that no race can feel superior to another race, [regardless of the colour of their skin. Ed.] He applies the verse even to people who due to their humility have a low esteem of their own value as not being allowed to forget that we are all descended from the same origin. Everyone must respect his fellow man’s dignity and honour, regardless of how unassuming he himself happens to be. He must look at the likeness of his fellow man seeing that he cannot look at himself objectively. [We are not speaking of mirror images. Ed.] It follows that our verse is more far-reaching in meaning than the verse quoted from the Book of Leviticus.

זה ספר תולדות אדם, “this is the book recording the history of mankind;” the Torah refers to the history of the strain of human beings that survived the deluge, i.e. the descendants of Sheth, through Noach and his children. It therefore commences once more with the founding member of mankind, Adam.

‘ביום ברא וגו IN THE DAY THAT [GOD] CREATED etc. — This states that on the day when he was created he begot progeny (Genesis Rabbah 24:7).

בדמות אלוקים עשה אותו, a reference to man’s free will. It is in this respect that man is like G’d. This is why when different generations of man angered G’d they were punished, [i.e. they had not been programmed to do evil. Ed.]

The Torah wished to demonstrate that all of G'd's ways are designed to ensure that life continues. When the Torah recorded some history for both obvious and hidden reasons, it became necessary to mention the death of Adam and his descendants. G'd began the report by stressing that as far as He was concerned none of this tragedy needed to have happened. People should not accuse G'd as having toyed with creating living beings only in order to destroy them whenever He felt like it. After all, why would G'd bother to create at all if not for the benefit of His creatures? This being the case, why would He destroy the very finest of His products? G'd therefore wanted to go on record that if the descendants of Adam were mostly doomed it was because of their תולדות their own developments, i.e. their own inadequacies, not G'd's. The word תולדות then predominantly refers to man's deeds. Rashi has already told us in connection with Genesis 6,9: אלה תולדות נח, נח, that the principal descendants of the righteous are their good deeds. In our verse the Torah stresses the reverse. When G'd created man He created him in G'd's likeness. His תולדות, developments, however, all tended to run counter to G'd's will. Ever since the day he was created man developed away from G'd's likeness. David expressed this more eloquently when he paraphrased G'd as saying (Psalms 82,6-7) "I had taken you for divine beings…but you shall die as humans."

Also alle Menschen sind Menschen, das ׳צלם אלקי geht nie gänzlich verloren, dies ist die erste Wahrheit, die an der Spitze der Menschengeschichte steht.

The reason the Torah repeats that man was created both male and female is to make it clear that though Eve became a separate person only subsequently, the דמות אלוקים, the likeness of G'd, applied to her just as much as it did to Adam. At the same time the Torah wanted to stress an essential difference between G'd and man. Whereas G'd does not procreate, man and woman, though G'd-like in some respects, were meant to procreate. The Torah continues to repeat that G'd had blessed mankind and called their combined name ADAM, to show that He had equipped man with all the advantages possible. Having repeated all this information, the Torah then reports the lifespan of Adam and subseqent generations. Their deaths were due to their own actions.

Die zweite Wahrheit lautet: ביום ברא אלקי׳ אדם בדמות אלקי׳ עשה אתו, an dem Tage, als Gott den Menschen schuf, hat er ihn in Ähnlichkeit Gottes gebildet. Nicht der oft fast an Tierheit grenzende, geistig und sittlich beschränkte Zustand der Wilden, in dem man den "Naturzustand" der Menschen erblickt, ist der wirkliche Urzustand des Menschen; und nicht ist die Gottähnlichkeit etwas Übernatürliches, um dessentwillen etwa der Mensch seine natürlichen irdischen Verhältnisse aufgeben müßte, ist auch nicht etwas Unnatürliches, das dem Menschen etwa durch Kultur erst angebildet werden müsste; vielmehr ist jener geistig und sittlich beschränkte sogenannte "Naturzustand" eben das Unnatürliche, Entartete, zu dem der Mensch hinabsank, je mehr er den Namen ׳ד vergessen. Sein wahrer Naturzustand ist die Gottähnlichkeit, in seinem wahren Naturzustande ist er geistig wach und sittlich rein Gott ähnlich, es blüht um ihn die Erde als Paradies und er hört die Stimme Gottes wandelnd im Garten; denn "am Tage, als Gott den Menschen geschaffen hatte, da war er göttlich und rein und zu Gott aufstrebend".

Nicht umsonst stehen daher hier selbst nach dem sogenannten "Sündenfall", ja, nachdem die Zeit schon den Charakter אנוש trug, noch einmal alle jene Begriffe und Merkmale, an denen der Mensch als ׳צלם אלקי zu erkennen ist, und höchst bedeutsam heißt es ׳ביום ברא אלקי und nicht ׳ברא ד, um eben die Gottähnlichkeit des Menschen so als in seiner Natur und mit derselben gegeben zu bezeichnen, zu lehren: dass wie der "Schöpfer" den Wurm zum Wurm, so habe er den Menschen zum Menschen ge- schaffen.

זכר ונקבה בראם. Es ist ebenso unwahr, dass die Teilung der Aufgabe zwischen Mann und Weib etwas Willkürliches sei. Von vornherein hat Gott den "Menschen" männlich und weiblich geschaffen, beide gleich göttlich, gleich würdig, keines Gott ebenbildlicher als das andere, beide gesegnet, beide zusammen: "Adam" ברכה und אדם, ,"Segen und Gott ähnliche, Gott nahe Humanität" das ist der natü- liche Zustand des Menschen — עיקר שכינה בתחתונים — und die Rückkehr zu diesem Segen und dieser Gottesnähe, zu diesem "Naturzustand" aus der Entartung, ist das Ziel aller Menschengeschichte. —

AND HE BLESSED THEM. This means that He gave them the power of procreation, to be blessed forever with very many sons and daughters. The intent is to state that begetting offspring comes as a blessing of G-d, for Adam and Eve were not born but were created from nothing and they were blessed to do so [to beget offspring].

זכר ונקבה...ויברך אותם, the blessing, mentioned already in 1,28 consisted of his ability to reproduce, fill the earth and conquer it. If man was equipped to conquer others, he must certainly be able to conquer the evil urge within himself.

זכר ונקבה בראם, “He created them male and female.” The words “male and female” refer to the שכל, intelligence, and נפש, emotional life-force, respectively. These two components are major factors in the acquisition of wisdom, the body is quite peripheral, serving only as receptacle, a repository for the former.

ויקרא את שמם אדם, He named them: “Adam.” G-d called them by the name by which Adam had described himself when asked by G-d how he would name himself. (Compare Torah Sh’leymah for source) In the Midrash socher tov, a conversation during which G-d asks Adam how he would like to be named, he answered that he would like to be called אדם to reflect the fact that the raw material his body was made of was the earth. When G-d continued by asking him how he viewed Him, he answered that He should be refereed to as “Master, Lord” (אדון) as He is the Master of the universe. G-d accepted this suggestion when He declared in Isaiah 42,8: אני ה',הוא שמי, “I am the Lord, this is My name as Adam called Me thus.” [He added there that this is the reason why no other phenomenon must ever be called by His name; Ed.]. The reason why this paragraph has been inserted here is in order to teach us the origins of some names.

AND HE CALLED THEIR NAME ADAM. Since the name Adam (man) is a generic name for the whole human species, Scripture mentions that G-d called the first pair by that name because all generations were potentially in him. It is with reference to them that Scripture says, This is the book of the generations of Adam.⁴⁷⁶Verse 1.
Rabbeinu Sherira Gaon⁴⁷⁷A famous Gaon of the academy of Pumbeditha who flourished in the second half of the tenth century. He is the author of the letter to the Jews of Kairwan giving a historical account of how the Mishna was written and how the traditions were transmitted through the generations following the era of the Mishna. He was the father of Rav Hai Gaon, the last of the Gaonim. wrote⁴⁷⁸See my Kitvei Haramban, I, p. 161. that the Sages transmitted to one another [the principles of knowledge concerning] “the recognition of faces” and the arrangements of the lines in the face. Some of these principles are stated in the order of the words of the verse, This is the book of the generations of Adam,⁴⁷⁶Verse 1. and some in the order of the following verse, Male and female He created them.⁴⁷⁹Verse 2. But the secrets and mysteries of the Torah are transmitted only to those in whom we see signs indicating that he is worthy of it. These are the words of the Gaon, but we have not merited to understand them.

ויקרא את שמם ארם ביום הבראם, a reference to 1,26 when G’d had announced His intention to create Adam, saying נעשה אדם בצלמנו, G’d’s purpose in creating him was that he be an אדם, and not another species of בהמה or חיה. Woman too, is included in the description and definition of the word אדם. Proof that woman was included in that term אדם is the plural mode of G’d’s original announcement, uttered before Chavah had been separated from Adam’s body (1,26) וירדו בדגת הים וגו', “they shall rule over the fish of the sea, etc.” This name אדם distinguishes the human species from all other mammals, for, although his body too has been formed from the earth, he possesses a divine soul which originated in heaven. If he allows himself to be drawn by the spiritually negative gravitational pull exerted by the material part his body consists of, he is considered as if no better than אדמה, as if the spiritual soul inside of him had been neutralised. This is exactly what the descendants of Kayin had become guilty of, and this is why the Torah does not bother to enumerate them in this chapter.

שלשים ומאת שנה A HUNDRED AND THIRTY YEARS — Until then he lived apart from his wife (Genesis Rabbah 24:6).

AND HE BEGOT A SON IN HIS OWN LIKENESS, AFTER HIS IMAGE. It is known that all who are born from the living are in the likeness and in the image of those who give birth to them, [so why was this verse necessary?] However, because Adam was elevated in his likeness and image in that Scripture said of him, In the likeness of G-d He made him,⁴⁷⁶Verse 1. Scripture explains that his offspring were also in this ennobled likeness. Scripture did not state this concerning Cain and Abel for it did not want to prolong the discussion of them. It explains it, however, in the case of Seth because the world was founded from him, [Noah being his direct descendant]. Or it may be that because Adam was created with absolutely perfect form, Scripture relates concerning Seth that he was like him [Adam] in strength and beauty.

ויולד כדמותו כצלמו, Sheth was more righteous than either of his brothers, seeing that even Hevel had only offered his gift to G’d after Kayin had preceded him.

ויולד בדמותו כצלמו. He reproduced in his likeness and in his form. The Torah stressed this positive development, seeing that neither Cain nor Abel represented ideal offspring, both of them dying either almost immediately or their offspring during the deluge. During the 130 years between the birth of Cain and Abel and that of Sheth most of the pollutant Eve absorbed from the serpent had been expelled making it easier for a promising human being to emerge from her womb. We have a tradition that the third son is the most saintly, a tradition that proved itself with both Levi and Moses. It probably originated with the birth of Sheth.

ויחי ארם, after Adam had lived on earth for 130 years, he begat a son in his image and in his form, as we have explained already. (1,26 where this term has been explained) This was possible now, since Adam, after having completed his penitence had become a thoroughly good person. It is possible to understand the word כדמותו as referring to Adam’s body reflecting the quality of his soul, whereas the meaning of the word בצלמו refers to his intellectual qualities. After he had done תשובה, Adam’s intellectual qualities also had fully recovered from the negative fallout they had experienced as a result of his sin. It is also possible that he did not recover these faculties to the full until the last tenth of his life on earth, seeing that the prophet Isaiah 65,20 describes people in the times of the Messiah as remaining adolescent until they attain the age of 100. Adam’s offspring also might have been in an adolescent state until they came of age at about 100 years old, and that is why they did not marry until then. Once they had matured both physically and mentally, they could be expected to reproduce so that their children could be described as being בצלמיהם בדמותיהם, reflecting the good qualities of their respective parents.
Our sages (Eyruvin 18) say that during all these 130 years that Adam had lived the life of a bachelor he was generating all kinds of spirits, demons, and the like, (whenever he had a nocturnal seminal emission, these emissions did not go to waste). The sages derive this from the emphasis in our verse that finally Adam “begat in his image in his form,” i.e. up until then he had involuntarily begotten inferior beings. [the Talmud implies criticism of Adam, who, though he flagellated himself in this manner, did not fulfill the commandment to be fruitful during those years. Rabbeinu Nissim, in the name of Rabbi Sherirah gaon, writes G’d had indicated to him at the time of his sin that henceforth his children, if any, would not be true reproductions, i.e. that he just like women sometimes who suffer from giving birth to malformed beings, would produce such malformed creatures. The matter is discussed in Niddah 24. Rabbi Yehudah in the name of Shemuel says that when a woman gives birth to a malformed being with wings, she is still considered as ritually as impure as if she had given birth to a normal human being.
While Adam was in a state of disgrace he was unable to sire regular human beings, but grotesque looking creatures with ugly faces, resembling demons. We know that people are in the habit of referring to such malformed human specimens as demons and ghosts. When Adam regained his former good standing in the eyes of G’d, and He lifted the curse from him, he was once more able to father children that could be described as בדמותו כצלמו, in his image.

ויולד בדמותו, בצלמו, “he begat in his likeness and in his image.” It is a well known fact that all the children born to man resemble their parents in large measure. So what did the Torah tell us here that we did not already know? The fact is that first man, not born of woman had been fashioned by G’d and been described by Him as being בצלם אלוקים. We might have thought that this distinction applied only to the first human being, the one who was the direct product of G’d’s handiwork. The Torah tells us here that this distinction was passed on throughout the generations. No mention was made of this distinction when Kayin and Hevel were born, as the Torah did not want to dwell on these two (whose descendants ceased at the time of the deluge) Seeing that Noach and his family were descendants of Sheth, it was important to inform us that their exteriors also reflected their G’dliness. According to the Midrash, the Torah mentions the fact that Adam reproduced in his own image to alert us to the fact that seminal emissions during the one hundred and thirty years before the birth of Sheth had resulted in the formation of שדים ומזיקים, spiritually and physically harmful creatures.

Until now he had separated from his wife. Rashi is answering the question: On the day he was created he had children. If so, why did he not have [more] children until now, [one hundred and thirty years later]?

בדמותו כצלמו. Oben heißt es: בצלמנו כדמותנו, wir wollen einen Träger unserer שכינה auf Erden machen in einer leiblichen Hülle, wie sie demjenigen entspricht, der uns geistig ähnlich sein soll. Hier heißt es umgekehrt ברמותו כצלמו, in seiner geistigen Ähnlichkeit wie seine leibliche Gestalt. Offenbar erscheint hier die geistige Ähnlichkeit, דמות, größer, als die leibliche, צלם. Vielleicht sind sich geistig alle Menschen gleich, ist das רמות in dem unsterblichen, ewigen Geiste in allen gleich, und entsteht die Verschiedenheit nur durch die größere oder geringere Vollkommenheit seines Werkzeugs, des Leibes. Adam vererbte die volle Ebenbildlichkeit; leiblich wurden die Geschlechter schwächer, schon der nächste Sohn war nur כצלמו. Daher, sodann, der große Wert, den die תורה auf טהרה, auf Reinheit des Leibes legt. Daher dann חקים die Grundbedingung aller Zukunftshoffnung. Je reiner der Leib, desto klarer wird das ׳צלם אלקי in ihm zur Verwirklichung kommen; nur er ordnet sich dem Geiste unter. חקים stehen in der Regel den משפטים voran; denn nur einem nach dieser Diät des leiblichen Daseins gezeugten und genährten Volke kann die Erfüllung der משפטים zugemutet werden. Seth war also כצלמו, "in einer schon abgeschwächten Stufe des leiblichen Ebenbildes gezeugt". ויקרא, er nannte; wie dies schon vorher von Chawa geschehen war, so betrachtete ihn auch Adam.

ויולד בדמותו כצלמו, “he begot a son in his likeness in his image;” the emphasis on this is to show us that anything he begot during the previous 129 years were only creatures that did not reflect his likeness or image, i.e. disembodied spirits, mostly מזיקים, injurious, destructive spirits. (Compare 3,20)

AND THE DAYS OF ADAM AFTER HE BEGOT SETH WERE EIGHT HUNDRED YEARS. Because of the long lives of these first men, Scripture states their ages before they begot children and also afterwards, and then sums them all up in the end until the generations which followed the flood.
The reason for their longevity is that the first man, the handiwork of the Holy One, blessed be He, was made in absolute perfection as regards beauty, strength, and height. Even after it was decreed upon him that he be mortal, it was in his nature to live a long time. But when the flood came upon the earth, the atmosphere became tainted, and as a result their days kept on decreasing. Until the flood, their days were about the length of Adam’s; some even lived longer than Adam.⁴⁸⁰Jered lived 962 years (Verse 20), and Methuselah lived 969 (Verse 27) while Adam lived 930 years (Verse 5). And Shem [Noah’s son], who was born before the flood, lived six hundred years;⁴⁸¹Genesis, 11:10-11. he benefitted from his innate strength, but the tainted air after the flood caused him harm, [hence he died at a younger age than that attained by the preceding generations]. The days of his sons who were born after the flood were still more shortened until they came down to four hundred years.⁴⁸²Ibid., Verses 10-17. You can see that this degree of longevity remained with them until the generation of the Dispersion, when the change of climates caused by the Dispersion affected them, and their days were again shortened. Thus you find that the life of Peleg, in whose days the earth was divided,⁴⁸³Ibid., 10:25. came down to half their days, i.e., two hundred years.⁴⁸⁴Ibid., 11:19.
It would appear that in the generations of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, people lived seventy and eighty years, just as Moses, our teacher, mentioned in his prayer.⁴⁸⁵Psalms 90:10. The days of our years are threescore years and ten, or even by reason of strength fourscore years. But as for the righteous ones in their generations, The fear of the Eternal prolongeth days⁴⁸⁶Proverbs 10:27. for them. For Pharaoh wondered about Jacob’s old age, and Jacob in turn spoke to him about the long days of his fathers, even as he said, And they have not attained unto the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their sojournings.⁴⁸⁷Genesis 47:9.
Now what the Rabbi⁴⁸⁸Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon (Rambam). See above, Note 139. has written in the Moreh Nebuchim⁴⁸⁹II, 47. does not seem right to me, namely, that the longevity was only in those individuals mentioned, while the rest of the people in those generations lived lives of ordinary natural length. He further said that this exception was due to the mode of living and food of such people or by way of a miracle. But these are words without substance. Why should this miracle have happened to them since they were neither prophets nor righteous, nor worthy that a miracle be done for them, especially for generation after generation. And how could a proper mode of living and proper food prolong their years to the extent that they are so many times greater than that of the entire generation? It is possible that there were also others who observed such a mode of living, in which case all or most of them should have attained similar longevity. And how did it happen that enough of the wisdom concerning this good mode of living did not come down to just one of all the sons of Noah after the flood [to enable him to match the longevity of his ancestors], for there was among them a little wisdom of their ancestors even though it steadily decreased from generation to generation?

ויהיו ימי אדם, it appears that all the people mentioned prior to Noach, whose lifespan is given by the Torah, were included in the ones described as being born בדמותו כצלמו, as reflecting the qualities expected of a human being in the true sense of the word, whereas their brothers and sisters did not. This is why they were wiped out during the deluge. It is possible that the long lives of the people mentioned in this list was a standard set by G’d at the time, and shared by their contemporaries, their siblings. On the other hand, it is possible that only the select list mentioned by the Torah enjoyed such an exceedingly long life on earth. Perhaps the reason G’d granted those generations such long lives may have been to enable them to study phenomena over a long period of time and to record the results of their observations for posterity. A lifespan of 70 years as we know it today is simply not long enough to accumulate this type of knowledge. Once these basic data had become known and recorded, later generations could study them out of books, making it unnecessary for them to live for so many years. The outstanding scholar Rabbi Moses Maimonides wrote in his Moreh Nevuchim 2,47 that only the men mentioned by name in our chapter lived to such an old age. He goes on to write that exceptional sizes, years, and numbers mentioned in the Bible are all just that i.e. exceptional. They do not purport to describe the norms in the time or environment during which such exceptions occurred. There were varying sets of circumstances which accounted for these exceptions.

ויהיו ימי אדם, “Adam’s lifespan amounted to, etc.” Seeing these early generations lived for so many years when compared to the lifespan of man in times after the deluge, the Torah adopted a method of telling us about their inordinately longs life spans immediately after reporting that these people fathered their first children at an age when most of us nowadays have long been buried already. By choosing the method adopted here, the Torah explains why these people married (relatively speaking) so late and did not start a family sooner. Seeing that original man had been fashioned by the Creator Himself, he had been endowed with a more perfect body, enabling him and the first few generations after him, to live longer than usual lives in spite of death having been decreed for the species as a whole. Due to the gradual spiritual corruption of mankind, their bodies were affected negatively also, so that immediately after the deluge the average life span had already shrunk to less that half of what it had been prior to the deluge. After the dispersal as a result of the building of the Tower, the life expectancy shrank further, not least because suddenly man had to adjust to climactic changes during the year in the locations to which they had been dispersed. It would seem that the lifetime of people other than the patriarchs had already shrunk to an average of seventy years, (the immediate offspring of Avraham, Yitzchok and Yaakov excepted) We know this from Moses’ prayer recorded in the Book of Psalms, 90,10, where he describes this number as a “normal.” lifespan. The fact that Pharaoh was dumbfounded when Yaakov told him that he was already 130 years old, seems to support this theory. (Genesis 47,9) Maimonides writes that all the people mentioned in the Torah as having attained such longevity were exceptions and that is why their individual life spans have been mentioned. He credits their exceptional longevity to their having been very careful with their diets, foregoing foods which are basically life-shortening. Anyone not mentioned specifically lived a normal lifespan. Nachmanides already questions Maimonides’ opinion, citing the fact that the people mentioned as having lived for so long were not prophets so that G’d should have performed a miracle [I might add that Chanoch, (5,23) whom the Torah described as loyal to G’d, ”walking with Him,” (5,24) lived far fewer years than his not so righteous contemporaries Ed.] Also, why, according to Maimonides, would the נפילים, corrupt individuals, be granted such long lives as the Torah testified that the spies in Moses’ time had encountered?

(4-28) Es folgt nun eine ganze Reihe von Geschlechtern bis auf למך, wie beim kainitischen Geschlechte. Wir wagen auch hier die Bedeutsamkeit der Namen anzunehmen. Es braucht diese Bedeutsamkeit der Namen durchaus nicht gerade eine Prophetie des Vaters vorauszusetzen, noch auch, dass gerade die Träger der Namen selbst immer deren Bedeutung entsprochen haben müssen. Es braucht z. B. Enosch durchaus nicht selbst אנוש gewesen zu sein. Der Vater kann ja den Namen je nach dem Charakter der Zeit gegeben haben, den diese bereits angenommen hatte. Die — modifizierte — Ähnlichkeit der Namen beider Geschlechtsreihen ist in die Augen springend: ,עירד :ירד ,קין :קינן למך :נלמך ,מתושאל :מתושלח ,מחייאל :מהללאל ,חנוך :חנוך. Es ist aber auch augenfällig, dass, während dort die Geschlechter nur abwärts gehen: ,מחייאל ,עירד ,חנוך ,קין מתושאל, bis למך die endliche Nichtigkeit der Geschlechter trotz der beginnenden Kultur ausspricht, hier, im sethitischen Geschlechte, ein Schwanken vom Schlechteren zum Besseren und vom Besseren zum Schlechteren hervortritt, bis endlich wieder ein למך in seinem Sohne die endliche Rettung des Geschlechtes verkündet. Auf קינן :אנוש, also schon verwandt mit קין, jedenfalls ein getrübtes, von Gott abgefallenes Geschlecht, darauf מהלל-אל eine Erhebung zu Gott, dann ירד wieder ein Sinken, חנוך eine Wiedererhebung, מתושלת ein Preisgeben der Massen und dann למך. Vergegenwärtigen wir uns den Gang dieser Entwicklung näher.

Auf שת folgte ein

אנוש, und in dessen Zeit begannen die Menschen den Namen ׳ה zu vergessen, nicht das Bewusstsein von Gott, sondern von der Würde und Göttlichkeit des Menschen, von der besonderen Beziehung Gottes zum Menschen zu verlieren, das der Name ׳ד ausdrückt. Wo aber aus großem oder kleinem Kreise dieses Bewusstsein schwindet, und der Mensch nicht mehr seine Befriedigung in Gott und in der Erfüllung seines Willens findet, da wird er אנוש, (siehe Kap.4, 26) und auf einen א^ש ist noch immer ein

קינן ein den Besitz vergötterndes Geschlecht gefolgt, ein Geschlecht, dem nicht die Gott dienende Verwendung, sondern das Haben der Güter als Ideal vorschwebt: Materialismus des Besitzes. Einzelne gehen in diesem Streben zu Grunde. Im großen Ganzen arbeitet sich immer doch wieder ein geistigeres hervor. Das Greif- und Tastbare befriedigt doch endlich nicht mehr überall und alle. Man sucht Erhebung zum Göttlichen. Auf קינן folgt stets ein

מהלל־אל Preis, Anschauung Gottes. Auf ein materielles ein "frommes" Geschlecht. Doch von dem bloßen Gottespreis, der bloßen Gottanschauung geht keine Regenerierung des Menschengeschlechts aus. Wo die Gottesverehrung nur in dem "Psalm" in der Gottesanbetung, nicht — wie im Judentum — in der Unterwerfung des Lebens unter das Gesetz des göttlichen Willens besteht, wohl der Name Gott, aber nicht der Name ׳ה wiederkehrt, da folgt auf einen מהללאל immer ein

da sinkt, trotz der "Mundfrömmigkeit", das Geschlecht. Allein gerade aus ,ירד

der geistigen und sittlichen Gesunkenheit rafft sich die Zeit zu einem

חנוך, zu einem Rüsten, Pflegen und Bilden der edleren Keime hervor. Allein es bleibt in Zeiten der Gesunkenheit ein solches Anstreben eines Edlern nur das Streben einzelner, edlerer Naturen, und diese fühlen sich in solchem Gegensatze zur Masse, dass sie מתושלת, idie Masse preisgeben. Sie glauben ihr Ziel erreicht, wenn sie nur sich emporgerettet. Die Masse wird ihnen מתים, die sie שלה preisgeben, aufgeben. Wurzel von מתים ist מתה, nur noch in מתי, die Frage nach einem zukünftigen Moment, wann? vorhanden. Verwandt mit מתח: Ausdehnen im Raume, so מתה in der Zeit, (wie קוה: Schnur und Sehnsucht vom gegenwärtigen zum zukünftigen Moment in der Zeit). Die Frage מתי vermisst etwas in der Gegenwart und fragt nach dem Punkte, wann das, was eigentlich schon da sein sollte, eintreten werde. So wird in מתה von der Gegenwart abgesehen und sie nur als Brücke zur Zukunft hin betrachtet. Der geistige, sittliche und soziale Hochmut hat Menschen, die eben so gut ׳צלם אלקי sind wie die höchsten, mit dem schrecklichen Namen "Proletariat" (׳=zu nichts gut als Kinder für die junge Zukunft zu schaffen) belegt. Es ist möglich, dass ein ähnlicher Hochmut in מתים und demgemäß in מתושלח ausgedrückt ist. Jedenfalls liegt in מתושלח ein Preisgeben der Masse. Nun heißt es eigentümlich von ויתהלך חנוך את :חנוך האלקים ואיננו וגוי. Selbst die Weisen sind in der Ansicht über seinen Charakter (ב"ר כטי) schwankend, obgleich doch dieselben Worte bei Noa die höchste Stufe bezeichnen. Allein hier — mit dem Begriff מתושלח zusammengenommen — bezeichnet dieses "Umgang haben mit Gott" dass חנוך, um sich zu dem Umgang mit Gott zu rüsten, die Masse gemieden habe, sei es aus Furcht oder aus Verachtung. התבודדות aber, mönchisches Zurückziehen von den Menschen, ist unjüdisch. Unsere צדיקים und חסירים lebten in der Masse, mit der Masse und für die Masse, betrachteten es als ihre Aufgabe, die Massen vielmehr zu sich heranzuerziehen. Das Volk preisgeben — מתושלח — ist eine krankhafte Erscheinung in Zeiten, in welchen der Begriff Gott zu bloß theoretischer Spekulation geworden, wo der Gottesgedanke den Menschen zum Schwärmer macht, ihn dem Leben entzieht, das man flieht, weil man seine Reize fürchtet, oder seine Aufgaben — in blindem Hochmut — verachtet. Dieses Sichzurückziehen, diese Askese, der die תורה gerade entgegentritt, beruht auf dem Irrtum, als ob das Göttliche jenseits, außerhalb des gewöhnlichen Lebens liege. Bei Noa war das התהלך את האלקים nicht die Summe, sondern die Grundlage eines ganzen tatenreichen Lebens, Noa war ein איש צדיק תמים בדרתיו, und die Quelle, aus welcher er die geistige und sittliche Kraft zu solchem Leben schöpfte, war: ׳את האלקי התהלך נח, war sein Wandel mit Gott. Allein wo, wie bei Henoch, damit die ganze Summe des Lebens erschöpft ist, es nicht zum Leben hinführt, sondern vom Leben entfernt, da ist es ein verfehltes Streben, das wenigstens die Welt nicht zu bessern vermag, das für die Welt unnütz ist. Dies ist auch die Ansicht unserer Weisen זייל. Es ist um so wichtiger, dies hervorzuheben, als eine andere, unsprünglich nicht auf jüdischem Boden erwachsene Ansicht ihn zu einem Halbgott macht, und in ihm die Apotheose eines asketischen Lebens findet. Es sind מינים, die dem R. Abahu gegenüber aus dem כי לקח אתו א׳ vindizieren wollten, dass Henoch nicht gestorben sei, weil es auch vom Elia heiße ד׳ לוקח את אדניך. R. Abahu verwies sie aber auf das הנני לוקח ממך את מחמד עיניך (Ezechiel 24. 16), wo eben mit לקיחה das Sterben der Gattin des Propheten an der Pest angekündigt wird, und diese Zurückweisung wird ausdrücklich gebilligt, יפה השיבן ר׳ אבהו. Die Weisen scheinen in dem איננו den ganzen Vorwurf zusammengefasst zu finden, dass er איננו, dass er schon im Leben tot, der Welt nichts nütze gewesen, er "war nicht da" für die Welt, und sie sehen in dem ׳לקח אתו אלקי einen frühzeitigen Tod. אמר ר׳ איבו חנוך חנף היה פעמים צדיק פעמים רשע אמר הב״ה עד שהוא בצדקו אסלקנו. Höchst bezeichnend fügt er hinzu: בר"ה דנו בשעה שהוא דן כל באי עולם "Gott habe ihn am ר"ה zusammen mit allen übrigen Erdenbürgern gerichtet" und begegnet damit dem irrigen Gedanken, der in einem solchen bloß beschaulichen Leben etwas besonders Heiliges, von Gott besonders zu Berücksichtigendes findet, indem er hervorhebt, wie Henoch gar nicht besonders berücksichtigt, sondern in Gemeinschaft mit allen anderen Menschen sein Urteil gefunden. —

Auf Methuschelach folgt

ויהיו כל ימי אדם. The total lifespan of Adam comprised, etc. There is a reason why the Torah describes the lifespan of Adam in general as well as in specific terms i.e. כל ימי אשר חי. We have to remember that the lifespan of every human being is determined prior to his birth. This rule did not apply to Adam when he was created as he would have lived forever had he not sinned.. The line ויהיו כל ימי אדם אשר חי tells us that his lifespan was determined only while he was already alive. When the Torah does employ the words ויהיו כל ימי פלוני this means that all the people mentioned lived out the full lifespan allocated to them at birth. The Torah did not intend to teach us arithmetic by giving us totals when it had already given us the number of years the respective person lived before fathering a son and the years he lived subsequently.

ויהיו כל ימי אדם, the reason why the Torah summed up once more the total of the number of years Adam lived since his creation, although anyone who is not a simpleton could have figured this out from the data already provided by the Torah, is in order that the scribe should not make a mistake. Once both the individual numbers and the sum total is provided one can double check the total and no mistake will be made. When the number of the soldiers in the army of Israel is recorded, an individual number being supplied for each tribe, the Torah nonetheless troubles itself to spell out the grand total of all these numbers combined. Compare (Numbers 1,46 as well as 26,51).

ויהיו כל ימי אדם תשע מאות שנה ושלשים שנה, “Adam lived for a total of 930 years.” This is not a precise number, i.e. that he lived 930 years to the day after his creation, but that he lived longer than 929 years. This rule applied to all the numbers given in the Torah for the number of years that people lived prior to the deluge.

Nine hundred. Sometimes the hundreds are written first and sometimes the units. In general when the units are written last it indicates that the person’s last few years were just as fruitful as the rest of his life and when they are written first it indicates that his final years were unproductive. There are exceptions to this rule, however; see Rashi 23:1.

וימת, “he died;” this is the standard formula used by the Torah for the death of anyone who died before Noach. It is to tell us that this death occurred not due to sickness, etc., but due to the curse of mortality that man became subject to after having been seduced by the serpent. From Noach’s time onward, the Torah did not always add the fact that a person died, once it had informed us about how many years they lived. [The author’s problem appears to have been that the words: “he died,” were superfluous once we knew how old they became. Ed.]

ויחי שת חמש שנים ומאת שנה ויולד את אנוש, seeing that the Israelites trace themselves back to שת, he is the only one of Adam’s sons who is mentioned here.

... In every generation, the scholars (of that generation) are making up [alternative translation: are finishing, or filling up] the Torah, because the Torah is being interpreted in every generations according to the needs of that generation And according to the source of their souls - so is God enlightening the eyes of the wise people of that generation, in Its holy Torah. And whoever denies that, it is as if they deny/do not believe in in the Torah, heaven forbid. (Translation by Abby Stein)

ויולד את חנוך, “he begat Chanoch.” This was the seventh generation, a number that was predestined for holiness and sanctity. David is also mentioned as having been the seventh son of his father Yishai, although that had been obvious from the way Samuel had been looking for the man to replace King Shaul. (Chronicles I 2,15) The number “seven” is special in the seven “heavens,” the seven deserts the Jewish people traversed, i.e. the desert of Sinai, in the seven seas, i.e. Lake Tiberias. [The subject has been expanded upon in Pirkey de Rabbi Eliezer, chapter 18. Ed.] The seventh universe (which according to our tradition, will be the last and perfect universe), as well as the seventh day of Creation, are all examples of the significance of the number “seven.”

Chanoch walked with Elokim. That is, he emulated His ways by performing acts of lovingkindness and issuing rebuke.

ויהי כל ימי חנוך חמש ושישים שנה ושלש מאות שנה, “and all of Chanoch’s years were three hundred and sixty five years.” The number of his years on earth corresponded to the number of days in a solar year, no more and no less. This righteous person was familiar with the power of the sun and he understood the tremendous power exerted by the sun; he realized that this was due to a celestial input which remained active within the sun. I have already mentioned earlier (1,14) that there are celestial luminaries which guide the luminaries in our world. and that all of them draw on the original light which this righteous person Chanoch merited to enjoy. This is the reason the Torah used the word ויהי in connection with Chanoch. [The other people whose life and death are mentioned in this chapter are simply described as ויהיו ימי פלוני וגו', “so and so lived, etc.” Ed.] The word ויהי is meant to take us back to the days of creation when the Torah spoke in terms of יהי אור,”let there be light,” followed by ויהי אור “light came into being.” We find the expression ויהי applied to Moses when he was on Mount Sinai (Exodus 24,18). At that time Moses was granted the illumination of the Torah, in fact so much so that when he descended the second time his forehead emitted rays of physical light.

ויתהלך חנוך AND ENOCH WALKED [WITH GOD] — He was a righteous man, but his mind was easily induced) to turn from his righteous ways and to become wicked. The Holy One, blessed be He, therefore took him away quickly and made him die before his full time. This is why Scripture uses a different expression when referring to his death by writing ואיננו “and he was not”, meaning, he was not in the world to complete the number of his years.

ויתהלך, similar to Genesis 48,15 ויתהלכו אבותי לפניו, “before Whom my forefathers walked.” The wording means that Chanoch channeled all his love and desire into fulfilling the will of G’d, and he acquired a deep understanding of the ways of his Creator already at the age of 65. For the remaining 300 years of his life on earth he walked with G’d. In spite of this, he did not neglect his duties of producing offspring. As a result of his ever more profound study of theological matters he came to despise his body, so that when he no longer performed the commandment of being fruitful and multiplying, G’d decided that he had served his purpose on earth, and He removed him from the earth even though he had lived only less than half a normal lifespan.
ואיננו כי לקח אותו אלוקים, the word ואיננו is meant to convey that he did not die from sickness, nor did he suffer pains before he died. His contemporaries had not considered his impending death as even a remote possibility, so that they were totally unprepared for it. They did not notice his absence until he had actually died. When the Torah employs the unusual phrase כי לקח אותו אלוקים, this is an allusion to the fact that G’d removed his soul to the heavenly regions. We have the same expression in Psalms 73,24 ואחר כבוד תקחני, “You took me toward honour.” Similar uses of the expression occur in Psalms 49,16 כי יקחני סלה, the thrust of the word לקח אלוקים being that instead of death leading to gehinnom, the party described as subject to G’d taking him, is transported by G’d immediately to his life in the hereafter.
On the other hand, the expression cannot be explained in this fashion in Ezekiel 24,16 הנני לוקח את מחמד עיניך במגפה, “see I shall take from you the darling of your eyes, by the plague.” Even though the verse is introduced by the word הנני which always introduces something constructive, positive, and which might mislead the reader into thinking that what follows will be something good, something pleasant, the word במגפה, by the plague, makes it plain that being deprived of his wife is not presented by G’d as a positive experience for the prophet. It implies that not only will the prophet suffer mentally, but his wife will suffer physically. Also in Exodus 21,35 when the expression כי יגוף (same root) is used it is followed by the words ומת, that the party who has been gored will die as a result of such a goring. All this proves that מגפה is descriptive of a painful disease, or injury. On the other hand, it is a sudden affliction, whether in the form of a disease or assault by the horns of an ox.
People who have led blameless lives do not experience death throes, but die without experiencing such painful afflictions. By contrast, the popular understanding of the departure from earth of both Chanoch and the prophet Elijah, is that G’d transferred them to their afterlife, Gan Eden, complete with their bodies. Though a widespread popular perception, it is shared by some of our sages (Derech Eretz zuttah 1,9 as well as a remark in Bereshit Rabbah 25) These people imagine both Chanoch and Elijah as leading the kind of idyllic life in Gan Eden that Adam had enjoyed briefly before he sinned. They are presumed to continue in this fashion until the arrival of the Messiah. We may be allowed to ask why in the story here in chapter 5, the Torah concludes the reference to each individual named with the concluding word: וימת, he died, whereas in chapter 10 when the generations after Noach are enumerated, the Torah does not even bother to mention that these people had died. One answer given is that seeing that the people mentioned here died during the deluge their death had to be mentioned, i.e. that they did not die of natural causes. [this cannot not be correct, as the deluge occurred in the year 1556 and several of the people mentioned in our chapter whose ages at death are given, died earlier than that, including Noach’s grandfather Metushelach, and Lemech, his father, who died during the lifetime of his father Metushelach. Ed.]
I believe that the people mentioned in our chapter whose death is reported were righteous people; as a result their death left behind a spiritual void. Not a single one died a violent death during the deluge. This is why the Torah reports their death as a death from natural causes. Only their respective offspring died during the deluge. The people whose life (but not whose death) is recorded in chapter 10 were evil, so that their deaths did not leave behind a spiritual void at all, and their death did not warrant mentioning. Also, seeing that they did not live nearly as long as their antediluvian counterparts, there was nothing special about their dying when they did.

He could easily be induced to turn... Rashi is explaining: Since it is written, “Chanoch walked with Elohim,” we see he was righteous. So why did he die before his time? [The answer is] because “he could easily be induced...”

ואיננו, כי לקח אותו אלוקים, seeing that he was unique in his generation the Torah describes his absence from earth as איננו, “he no longer existed.” [the author means that whenever we leave behind offspring that can carry on our work on earth we have not totally disappeared, though we may be dead. Ed.]

ואיננו, “and suddenly he had disappeared;” his “death” is described as if he had never lived, as he died so much younger than all the other people named in the Bible so far [except for Hevel who had been murdered. Ed.]

כי לקח אותו FOR GOD TOOK HIM — before his time; a similar meaning of לקח “to take” we find in (Ezekiel 24:16), “I take away from thee the desire of thine eves [by a plague]”.

ואיננו כי לקח אותו אלוקים, “he had disappeared as G-d had taken him.” [In the Torah commentary of Samuel DavidLuzatto, (translated recently by this editor) this formulation is understood as definite proof that there is an afterlife of the soul in heavenly region. Ed.] According to our author, Onkelos [not in our editions, Ed,] translates the word איננו here as meaning: “he still exists,” meaning that seeing that G-d had not let him die, he will return at the time before the Messiah comes, with Elijah. He claims that this contrasts with Onkelos in all other places where the word: אין appears where he translated it as that the phenomenon described no longer existed. According to the Zohar, Chanoch died a natural death, G-d removing him from the temptation to fall victim to the wicked ways of his contemporaries. [This would explain why so many outstanding Jewish Rabbis died before reaching the age of 40, G-d rewarding them before they would succumb to more temptations on this earth. Ed.] The prophet Jonah had asked G-d to be treated thus. (Jonah 4,3) Compare also Psalms: 49,16.

ויולד בן AND HE BEGOT A SON (בן “son”, connected with the root בנה ‘‘to build”) — from whom the world was built up (peopled) (Tanchuma 1:1:11)

ויולד בן ויקרא את שמו נח, “he fathered a son and he called his name Noach.” The number 10 is crucial to the world and its continued existence. Noach was the tenth generation of the human species. It was therefore appropriate that he became instrumental in assuring the continued existence of the world, and, more specifically, mankind. Seeing that the rest of mankind was slated to perish during the deluge and none of them proclaimed the name of G’d you do not find the word בן, “son,” or the word שם, “name“ (allusion to the name of G’d) mentioned in connection with the birth of any of the other people listed in the Torah since Sheth. In Noach’s case, the word בן is not so much a description of his being a son,” but it is related to בנה, “built,” i.e. this person rebuilt the world after the deluge and assured its continued existence. In other words: this “son” was a “builder.”
We find further that the very word שם refers to maintaining something, preventing it from decaying. When Solomon said in Proverbs 10,7 ושם רשעים ירקב, that the “name of the wicked will rot,” this may strike us as strange at first glance seeing that שם, “name,” is something abstract and if so how could something abstract be subject to decay? However, Solomon referred to the actual subject of the שם, “name,” he spoke about.
There is another question in connection with Noach. According to what Lemech, Noach’s father is reported to have exclaimed when his son was born, he should have called him מנחם, “comforter.” Perhaps the letter מ in the word מנחם was somehow “swallowed,” and Noach’s real name was נחם. We have a similar construction in Zechariah 11,7 where the prophet says לאחד קראתי נעם ולאחד קראתי חבלים, “one I named Favour, the other Unity.” According to the normal rules of grammar the word should have been מנעם. However, we find frequent instances when a word is slightly abbreviated. In this instance, the reason may have been to make the name נח also spell חן (with the letters reversed) ,as it was he who found חן in the eyes of G’d.
The reason Noach’s father Lemech said of this son זה, “this one,” may be that he was part (maybe the first) of the tenth generation of mankind, and, as we pointed out earlier, any “tenth” is holy. There is a similarity here to Exodus 15,2 זה א-לי ואנוהו, “this is my G’d and I will enshrine Him.” Lemech meant hat there were two reasons why he called “this one” Noach. This is reflected in the two cantillations on that very short word, i.e. it has both the tone-sign telisha and the tone-sign geresh. Do not be flippant about this as the entire Torah is full of all kinds of hints and allusions which have been written at the command of the Supreme Intellect. Anyone who delves into unraveling the secrets hidden in the text pays attention to every detail. This is why the sages said (Nedarim 37) that the cantillations also originated at Mount Sinai. When Nechemiah 8,8 speaks of ושום שכל ויבינו במקרא, “with careful analysis so that they could understand it,” he referred to 1) the text itself, 2) the cantillations.

From whom the world was built up. Rashi is answering the question: Why does it say בן here, and not for other descendants? It simply should have written ויולד את נח. Perforce, בן connotes בנין (building).

(28-29) למך. Wie der kainitische, spricht auch der sethitische למך (wofür wir keine etymologische Bedeutung wissen) bedeutungsvolle Worte über die Zukunft, allein in entgegengesetztem Sinne aus. Dort endet das Geschlecht in vollendetster Verzweiflung, (soweit wir den Seherspruch verstanden). In Seths Geschlecht stellt sich aber ein anderes Bild der Entwicklung dar. Hier sehen wir fortwährend das Bessere aufkeimen und den Kampf mit dem Schlechten versuchen. Darum hat hier auch der Zukunftsspruch Trost im Munde: Dieser, oder dieses wird uns trösten von unserem Wirken und von dem entsagungsvollen Schaffen unserer Hände.

ויולד בן, “he begot a son.” Note that the Torah did not write “he begot Noach,” as it had done when listing the nine generations previous to Noach. This is already a hint that the future of mankind would be descended from this son of Lemech after the deluge. Noach and his three sons and their wives were the only survivors of the deluge. An alternate interpretation. Metushelach, Noach’s grandfather, a G–d fearing person, advised his son Lemech not to name his firstborn son immediately after he was born, as all the other people of that time were idolaters and sorcerers, and if they had known why his father had called him Noach they would have tried to harm him had they known his name, by applying their sorcerers’ formulas.

ויולד בן, “he begat a son;” the Torah did not write: “he sired Noach,” as it did in similar situations, i.e. Genesis 5,6; 5,9; Judges 11,1; Chronicles I 1,34, et al. The reason is that Noach warranted an extra verse seeing that the whole human race today exists thanks to him. The entire human race was destroyed during his lifetime; only he, his wife and his children and their wives, having been saved. A different interpretation: Metushelach, Lemech’s father, advised his son not to immediately name him as his contemporaries who were worshipping all kinds of idols, and who would curse and kill people who were monotheists, would try and kill him by telling their idols his name. After Noach had married and had sired a son, his father turned to his father again and was told then to call him Noach, as he had the potential to save all of mankind if they would follow his lifestyle. If not, they would all perish before they could harm him. (Compare Torah sh’leymah item 71 on this verse)

זה ינחמנו THIS WILL COMFORT US — He will ease from off us (ינחמנו) the toil of our hands. For until Noah came people had no agricultural instruments and he prepared such for them. The earth had brought forth thorns and thistles when they sowed wheat in consequence of the curse imposed upon Adam Harishon: in the days of Noah, however, this ceased (Tanchuma 1:1:11). This is what is meant by the word ינחמנו (viz., ינח מנו). If, however, you do not explain it in this manner, but from the root נחם “to comfort”, then the meaning you give to this expression (connecting it with the idea of “comfort”) will have no application to the name נח, and you would have to call him מנחם “Comforter”.

זה ינחמנו, if you were to question why our sages do not describe Lemech as a great prophet, as they described Ever who had called his son Peleg, foreseeing that in his time mankind would be divided into 70 languages, etc., (Seder Olam 1) the reason is that Noach was the first man born after the death of Adam, and by calling him Noach he merely expressed the hope and prayer that Noach would be able to atone for the iniquity which Adam had perpetrated. The word נח is an allusion to הנחה, a relief, reduction in cost, i.e. the curse that mankind suffers under, especially the earth, should be lifted now that Adam had been replaced by an innocent human being who did not share time on earth with Adam who had brought a curse upon mankind. In the case of Peleg, it is impossible to see in that name the expression of a prayer, a plea; hence we must interpret it as a sign of his father’s prophetic vision.

זה ינחמנו, Lemech prayed that this son would provide him with the ability to take a rest from his heavy labour. The root of the word נח is מנוחה, rest, (retirement). The word is also used in connection with giving one a respite from one’s enemies, as in Esther 9,16.

ויקרא את שמו נח, לאמור זה ינחמנו ממעשינו, our sages (Bereshit Rabbah 25,2) say that לא השם הוא המדרש, ולא המדרש הוא השם, that the name נח is not compatible with the allegorical explanation offered by the Midrash, neither is the Midrash compatible with the name נח. Lemech should not have related the name נח to נחמה, but should have related it to נח זה יניחנו, “this one will bring relief,” as opposed to: “this one will comfort us, i.e. the meaning of the word נחמה. On the other hand, if what he had in mind by naming his son נח, was נחמה, the comfort that he expected or hoped that his son would bring to the world, he should have named him נחמן זה ינחמנו. “this one will bring us comfort, consolation.” The Midrash is absolutely correct. However, if someone finds rest, relief after having experienced troubles, this is in itself his comfort, his consolation. The Hebrew language does not make such fine distinctions when it comes to the names reflecting linguistically accurately what the giver of the name had in mind. When Chanah named her first born son, the one for whom she had prayed in the Tabernacle at Shiloh, שמואל, giving as her reason for this name כי מה' שאלתיו, “for I have borrowed him from the Lord,” she should have called him שאול, if she had taken the words of our Midrash to heart. (Samuel I 1,20) The word שאול means something or someone borrowed. The name שמואל is close enough to make us realise what she had had in mind. In fact Chanah’s thoughts are reflected more accurately in the name שמואל than they would have been in the name שאול. The name שמואל actually contains not only the thought that he has been borrowed, or asked for, but that he had been borrowed, or asked for from G’d. Similar considerations apply to the name יעבץ, derived from עצב, anguish, sadness, (Chronicles I 4,9) His mother mentioned that she named him so because he had been born out of pain. There are more such examples to be found throughout the Bible.
According to our sages Lemech must have been a great prophet, for how else could he predict that Noach, his son, would turn out to be a boon to mankind? What did he see or know that caused him to make such a prediction? According to Tanchuma Bereshit 11, people did not know what a plough was and they had to do all their work on the soil by hand. Noach invented the plough, thus becoming a great benefactor of mankind. He trained oxen and donkeys to pull a ploughshare, thus easing the labour the farmers had to perform. This was the relief and consolation he provided for all of the human species. When Lemech referred to ממעשי ידינו, “from what we had to do with our hands,” he meant that henceforth due to his son, animals could perform some of the labour which, up until then had been performed by each farmer literally with his own hands. [In accepting this interpretation, we must assume that the name Noach was not bestowed on Noach at birth. Ed.] The word מעשה as applying to working one’s field, appears in Judges 19,16 ממעשהו מן השדה, “from his work, from the field.” Even though the word מעשה can apply to any kind of work, it is used in the main in connection with work in the field. ומעצבון ידינו, from the frustration we have been experiencing over the work of our hands 'אשר אררה ה, which the Lord had cursed. Lemech referred to 3,17 where G’d had told Adam that as a result of his having listened to his wife, the earth would be cursed and he would have to eat his bread only after experiencing עצבון. In spite of Noach having invented the plough, people after him continued to work very hard to gain their livelihood through tilling the soil. However, he had definitely made their chores easier due to his clever invention.
According to the plain meaning of the text, when Lemech had said זה ינחמנו, he had certainly not expressed a prophetic vision with these words, but he had called Noach by that name as a sort of prayer, seeing in his birth a special blessing. [perhaps the fact that he had not become a father until he was 182 years old had something to do with this. Everyone else mentioned in the chapter fathered a son at a much younger age. Ed.] When Rachel gave birth to Joseph, she called him Joseph as a good omen, saying that she named him thus so that G’d might give her another son. (Genesis 30,24). Moses recorded, at the command of G’d, all these vital statistics of the people from Adam until Noach, in order that we, who have inherited the Torah, should know that the universe has not always existed but was created by G’d, an important fact for every human being to be aware of.

THIS ONE WILL CONSOLE US - One might be tempted to say that this word is from the root “console,” and Rashi has rebutted this on the basis that the name “Noach” is not consistent with this root and has explained that it is derived from the root “rest.” According to Rashi, the word here is inexact. However, one need not to resort to this explanation, it is possible to understand the word in both senses. “Comfort” only applies to ongoing permanent tragedies, and not ones that arise from human activity and evil that arose during the days of Noah. Similarly, “rest” does not apply to the land, which was permanently cursed by God (since the land remained in this state even after the flood.) The name “Noah” includes both roots – “comfort” and “rest.” This is why the word is spelled nun-chet without a third letter, so that it can be considered a cognate of both roots. “This one will console us” can be understood in both senses, similar to Rashi’s explanation.

HE NAMED HIM NOACH, SAYING "THIS ONE WILL CONSOLE US" - I have explained in my commentary on Isaiah that the sense of the verb N-CH-M is the change of attitude; this is consistent with the idea of consoling mourners, as the mourner’s attitude changes from grief to happiness; this is also consistent with the idea of regret, as it says here, this “one will make us regret” – from now on we will refrain from our useless activities that have no positive effect for the benefit of humankind, and thereby, we will also find rest from our evil and the land which is cursed as the result of our evil ways. Similarly, it is written in Haggai, “you have sown much and reaped little – be mindful of the way that you have been behaving” and as I explained there. By way of regretting ones evil ways, and resolving to change them, the curse will also be changed to a blessing and there will be relief, as in Isaiah 13, “on the day when God will relieve you from your sadness, your anger, and your toil.”

He will give us rest. Bereishis Rabbah says: Was Lemech a prophet, that [when Noach was born] he knew about this? R. Shimon ben Yehotzedek said: Noach was born circumcised. For when Hashem cursed the earth, Adam said to Him: O Master of the World! Until when? Hashem told him: Until you beget a circumcised person. Once Noach was born circumcised, they said: He will give us rest! (Divrei Dovid)

זה ינחמנו מן האדמה, “this one will bring us consolation regarding the condition of the earth. Seeing that he had been born after the death of Adam, the curse decreed on earth as being effective during Adam’s lifetime could now be lifted. [According to my calculation Noach was born in the year 1056 after Adam had been created. Seeing that theTorah did not report anyone being born after Lemech, Noach’s father, who was born when Adam was still alive, there is no contradiction here. Ed.]

If you do not explain it this way then the meaning of the term is not... I.e., if you explain ינחמנו as “he will comfort us,” then its meaning is not related to the name Noach — and the verse says that Lemech named his son Noach because of ינחמנו. For נח [means “rest” and] does not mean “comfort,” so you would have to call him Menachem for the meaning to match the name. And the verse does not say יניח ממנו את מעשינו [although it is closer to “Noach”] because then it would mean that they rested from the work of their hands, and that did not yet happen. They still needed to plow, sow and thresh. Therefore it says that Noach “will bring us rest from... the anguish of our hands,” as he prepared plowing tools for them which they did not have as yet. Why did Rashi not explain, “From our work and the anguish of our hands,” following the order of the verse, but rather put “the anguish of our hands” first? The answer is: “Anguish” refers to the earth’s curse to produce thorns and thistles. And as soon as Noach was born, that curse stopped. But Noach did not make the plow until he grew up. Thus Rashi mentioned “anguish” first, indicating that the verse as well should be understood this way.

ויחי למך שתים ושמונים שנה ומאת שנה, “and Lemech lived for one hundred and eighty two years, etc.” When you calculate from the creation of Adam until this point you will find that Noach was born 1056 years after Adam had been created. This number is arrived at by adding the 130 years which elapsed before Sheth was born, 105 years until Sheth fathered Enosh, 90 years until Enosh fathered Keynon; 70 years until Keynon fathered Mahalalel; and 65 years until Mahalalel fathered Yered. Add another 162 years until Yered fathered Chanoch; then it took another 65 years until Chanoch fathered Metushelach and 187 years until Metushelach fathered Lemech. This was followed by another 182 years until Lemech became the father of Noach, a total of 1056 years. When you consider that Adam died at 930 years of age it is clear that Noach never saw Adam, having been born 126 years after the death of the first human being. However, Noach’s father Lemech had still known the first human being, Adam, seeing he was 182 years older than his son Noach. Adam had been 874 years old when Lemech was born.

(30-31). נח. Es ist schon längst bemerkt, לא השם הוא המדרש ולא המדרש nicht harmoniert. Ebenso ist ינחמנו mit der Deutung נח dass der Name ,הוא השם darauf aufmerksam gemacht, dass es hier im Vergleich zur ganzen vorangehenden Reihe ausnahmsweise heißt: ויולד בן, und wird dies dahin erklärt: כי ממנו נבנה העולם, in ihm sei der jüdische Begriff Sohn: בן in seiner vollsten Bedeutsamkeit als derjenige hervorgetreten, "durch den die Welt fortgebaut" wurde. Allen Vorgängern, indem sie das Glück hatten, ein Kind auf den Armen zu haben, hatte es nicht genügt, ein Kind zu haben, sie hatten immer darin eine besondere Seite, eine besondere Richtung, etwas Besonderes erblickt. Lemech sah in seinem Kinde nur den "Sohn", den בן und wollte in seinem Namen aussprechen: זה ינחמנו, dies, unsere Kinder, unser בן, ist unter allem, was wir wirken und so entsagungsvoll schaffen, das Einzige, was uns trösten kann. Es heißt nicht ינחמנו על־, uns trösten über unser Wirken, sondern מ־ von unserem Wirken. Der ganze Boden, alle Mittel des Menschenwirkens trügen den Fluch, waren — zur Erziehung des Menschengeschlechtes — gedrückt und gehemmt, nur der Mensch lag nicht unter dem Fluche; es war nur die Erde in ihrer Entwicklung gehemmt. Während nun Lemech׳s ganze Umgebung aus dem Gesamtboden der Menschenentwicklung den Segen hervorbringen wollte, und an dem auf der Erde ruhenden Unsegen scheiterte, sprach Lemech das bedeutsame Wort: ממעשנו וגו׳, von allem unserem Schaffen, von allem, worauf wir bei unserer Tätigkeit Verzicht leisten müssen, von der ganzen Erde, auf welcher wir den Fluch Gottes gewahren, gibt es nur eins, was uns trösten kann, nur eins, in welchem wir das Ziel all unseres Strebens finden, und das wir hinderungslos auf die ganze Höhe seiner Bestimmung bringen können, und das ist זה, ist unser Kind, ist בן ist unser Sohn, der "Baustein" aller Weltzukunft. Denn eben, weil auf dem Menschen kein Fluch ruht, kann mit jedem Menschen in jeder Zeit das Höchste erreicht werden, sind Kinder immer, um mit David zu sprechen, "die Pfeile in der Hand des Helden" denen wir die Richtung geben können, dass sie בוני עולם werden. Es ist dies völlig unabhängig ׳ממעשנו ומעצבון ידינו מן האדמה אשר אררה ד

Er nannte seinen Sohn darum נוח .נח ist die zur Ruhe gekommene Bewegung. Lautverwandt mit נוא .נוֹעַ ,נ֗הַ ,נוֹא ist die unterbrochene Bewegung, daher נָא: halbgar. הָנִיא jemanden in seinem Vorhaben hindern. Und wenn wir bei jemandem eine missliebige Stimmung voraussetzen, die wir ändern möchten, so drückt dies die Partikel נָא aus. — נה ist das schmerzliche Gefühl, das durch eine Hemmung hervorgerufen wird: die Klage. — נוע die wirkliche Bewegung nach einem Ziele. -ist die zur Ruhe, zum Ziele gekommene Bewegung. — Nicht, dass wir uns be נוח wegen müssen, sprach Lemech mit diesen Worten aus, ist der Jammer, sondern dass wir uns zwecklos bewegen, ohne Ziel abmühen. Richten wir unsere Augen auf unsere Kinder, finden wir in ihnen Ziel und Zweck all unseres irdischen Strebens, so haben wir ein Ziel, das wir unter allen Umständen erreichen können, und das uns Trost für alles bieten kann, was wir unerreicht oder unvollendet lassen. Unsere Kinder sind die בוני עולם sie bauen weiter auf unserem Anfang, sie vollenden, wo uns die Hand gesunken. — Er nannte ihn nicht מנחם ,נחמן, und sprach auch nicht זה יניחנו sondern nannte ihn נח und sprach זה ינחמנו; denn es sollte ein Doppeltes ausgesprochen werden: a. dass im Kinde der Trost liege; b. worin der Mangel liege, für den Trost zu suchen sei. b. würde bei נחמן und a. bei יניחנו nicht zum Ausdruck gekommen sein. So aber spricht er aus: wir sind trostlos, weil uns das Ziel fehlt, wir תנועה, aber keine מנוחה haben. Im Kinde winkt uns das Ziel und darin von selbst der Trost.

נחם, diese Wurzel hat eine eigentümliche Bedeutung. Im Piel: trösten, Niphal: getröstet werden, aber auch: seinen Entschluss ändern in bezug auf eine beabsichtigt gewesene Handlung; endlich auch Reue in Beziehung auf Geschehenes, wie אין איש נחם על רעתו oder אחרי שובי נחמתי. Grundbedeutung: seinen Sinn ändern, daher Reue und Änderung eines Entschlusses. Auch Trost ist eine völlige Umkehrung der bisherigen Stimmung in Beziehung auf ein Ereignis. In bemerkenswerter Weise verhalten sich die Wurzeln: נחם ,נעם ,נהם ,נאם wie נוח ,נוע ,נה ,נוא und bezeichnen wie diese ebenso vier Stadien einer Bewegung, und zwar einer inneren. — נאם in נְאֻם: spezifischer Ausdruck für das prophetische Wort Gottes. Der Ausspruch Gottes ist nicht bloß geäußerter Gedanke, sondern bereits Bewegung, Anfang einer Tat; allein noch נא, noch innegehalten, zurückgehalten. Es kommt daher in תנ"ך nur vom Gottes worte vor.

נהם, ähnlich נה, Empfindungs-Ausdruck einer gehemmten Bewegung, entweder der Ungeduld über zu langsames Erreichen, wie das Brüllen des Löwen, oder des Schmerzes über unterdrückten Willen, das Klagen, Jammern. — נעם, wie נע, ist dasjenige, was uns in Bewegung setzt, anzieht, wohin wir uns frei und gerne bewegen, das An genehme. — נחם endlich ist die in ihrer Richtung umgekehrte Bewegung, ähnlich נח. Daher scheint נהם, auch wo es Reue bedeutet, mit einem völligen Aufgeben bisheriger Richtungen verbunden zu sein. Ebenso aber auch Trost. Ein schmerzlicher Verlust setzt uns in Bewegung, die Lücke auszufüllen, der Trost bringt uns zur Ruhe, schließt die Lücke und hemmt die Bewegung.

Obgleich die Absicht geäußert, kann in .נאם Das menschliche Wort ist noch nicht ihm נהם, innere Bewegung, Gährung entstehen, und er kann sich nach zwei Seiten hin entscheiden. Das Ziel bleibt ihm entweder נעים, zieht ihn auch ferner an, oder es tritt נהם bei ihm ein und er giebt es auf.

ויהי כל ימי למך, why did the Torah bother to provide us with the number of years these wicked people lived on earth? This listing of historical data is also the custom of the prophets, one after another [when they listed the years wicked kings reigned over Israel or Yehudah. Ed.] Their purpose in doing so was to tell us how many years had elapsed since the creation of Adam, the first human being until the time when the events recorded by the prophets occurred. When we add up the numbers provided by the Torah both here, and in the chapters after the deluge, we have a continuous historical record of the history of mankind, and more especially, that of the Jewish people. The prophets spell out specifically the number of years that had elapsed between the Exodus from Egypt and the building of the Temple by Solomon, the high point of Jewish history. Daniel augments the record by providing information about how many years elapsed between the destruction of the first Temple and that of the second Temple.

בן חמש מאות שנה FIVE HUNDRED YEARS OLD — R. Judan said: “How is it that all the previous generations had children at the age of hundred years and this one (Noah) at the age of 500 years? The Holy One, blessed be He, said, “If they (Noah’s children) be wicked, they will perish by the water of the Flood and it will grieve this righteous man; if they be righteous, I shall have to trouble him to construct several arks.” He therefore restrained him from having children until he was 500 years old, in order that Japhet, the oldest of his sons (cf. Rashi on Genesis 10:21) should not reach the punishable age before the Flood. For it is written (Isaiah 65:20), “For as a lad shall one die when he is one hundred years old”, meaning, that in the future time, he will only then be of punishable age, and this was so, too, before the giving of the Torah (Genesis Rabbah 26:2) .

ויהי נח בן חמש מאות שנה, we do not know why Noach waited for such a long time to sire children, seeing that all the generations who had preceded him generally sired children at about the age of 100. It appears that the early generations did not chase after women during their youth and did not feel the need to mate and settle down until they had become close to 100 years old. When they did marry, their main concern was to leave offspring behind them, not to indulge their libido. They were aware according to what they had observed that they had a long lifespan at their disposal. This belief was reinforced by their confidence that their lifestyle was pleasing in the eyes of G’d. Noach, who had observed the corrupt ways of his contemporaries wanted to hold off siring children, because he was afraid that any children of his might also be displeasing in the eyes of G’d. He waited until he was 500 years old when he felt the urgent need to mate with a woman. It is also possible, that he had prophetic insight, i.e. that G’d told him to get married and to sire children. These children were good, but Cham was not as good as his brothers. Noach did not produce daughters. According to Bereshit Rabbah 26,2 G’d had reasoned that in the event that Noach’s children turned out to be wicked, He did not want them to die in the deluge. In the event they should turn out to be good people, G’d’ did not want Noach to have to construct separate cabins for all of them in the ark so that they could enjoy their privacy. G’d therefore made Noach sterile until he reached the age of 500. According to the view of Rabbi Eleazar, son of Rabbi Yossi Haglili, even Yaphet, Noach’s eldest, was not quite 100 years old when the deluge began and people under 100 years of age were not considered culpable for their deeds in those times.

I would have to burden him to build many arks. Maharam Yafeh objected: On the contrary, if they would be righteous, together with their wives they would be more than ten and would protect the world, and no arks would be needed! For Rashi explains in Parshas Vayera (18:32) that Avraham did not pray [for Sedom to be saved] for less than ten tzaddikim, since [he knew that] the generation of the Flood had eight tzaddikim, and it did not save their generation. This implies that ten tzaddikim would save their generation. The answer is: Ten tzaddikim would not save the whole generation from the Flood; they would save their city only. Consequently, “I would have to burden him to build many arks” for all the inhabitants of their city, as the Flood would still come and wipe out the rest of the world. (Tzeidah L’Derech)

Im Gegensatz zu allen Früheren hat Noa sich erst so spät verheiratet, und heißt es daher nicht wie bei den übrigen einfach: ויחי, sondern ויהי בן; ein Gegensatz, dessen Bedeutung durch das folgende noch klarer hervortritt. — Schem, Cham und Japhet werden uns noch später in ihrer charakteristischen Eigentümlichkeit vorgeführt.

ויהי נח בן חמש מאות שנה ויולד, “When Noach was five hundred years old, he begat;” people knew that the deluge was about to occur, as explained by Rashi already in connection with the attitudes displayed by the wives of Lemech (the descendant of Kayin); he therefore delayed becoming a father until G-d had promised him that he and his children would survive. [Up until then, the Torah had reported of people beginning to father children around the age of 100. Ed.] (based on an ancient version of Tanchuma)

את שם ואת חם ואת יפת SHEM, HAM AND JAPHETH — But was not Japheth the eldest? But you naturally first interest yourself in Shem who was a righteous man, who was born circumcised (a sign of righteousness) and from whom Abraham was to descend (Genesis Rabbah 26:3).

ויולד נח את שם, את חם, ואת יפת, in the opinion of our sages (Sanhedrin 69) Yaphet was the oldest. They derived this from Genesis 11,10 where the Torah writes ויהי שם בן מאה שנה ויולד את ארפחשד שנתים אחר המבול, “Shem was 100 tears old when he begat Arpachshad 2 years after the deluge.” If Shem had been the eldest, he would have been 100 years old already at the end of or during the deluge, not 2 years later. We think that Shem was born during Noach’s 501st year, allowing for the fact that the year was a leap year, and his wife had become pregnant when Noach married her when he was 500 years old. The deluge commenced in the 600th year of Noach’s life. As a result, Shem was 99 years old when he entered the ark at the start of the deluge. After the deluge he was only 100 years old. How could the Torah describe him as 100 years old 2 years after the deluge? We must therefore conclude that Yaphet was the eldest. This is also how we must understand Genesis 10,21 אחי יפת הגדול, “the brother of Yaphet, the senior.” Even though our sages have arrived at this conclusion, we must wonder why, every time, the three brothers are mentioned together, Shem is always mentioned as the first one. Surely, this suggests that Shem was the oldest. The words “2 years after the deluge,” may be understood as “2 years after the beginning of the deluge.” At that time Shem would have been 99 years old as we have mentioned already. When the Torah speaks of his son being born 2 years after the deluge, we must understand this as at the beginning of the second year after the deluge.

Of punishable age. You might ask: Rashi already explained what would happen if Noach would have children before the age of five hundred, why was that explanation not sufficient? The answer is: It still needed to be explained what Noach gained by waiting, for if his children would be wicked they too would be destroyed! Thus the second reason is needed, that Noach’s children would not be of punishable age, thus Noach’s merit can save them even if they would be wicked. But all the other people who were not of punishable age were destroyed nonetheless, since they had no [saving] merit. Thus, only one ark was needed. For Noach’s children were not considered righteous just because they were below punishable age — only in Noach’s merit were they saved, which is why Noach did not build a separate ark for each of them.

And so it was before the Torah was given. This raises a difficulty: Later, in Parshas Chayei Sarah (23:1), Rashi explains: “When Sarah was one hundred years old, she was like a twenty year old regarding sin.” This implies that from the age of twenty, she was already at a punishable age. Furthermore, Yaakov and his sons did not live to be one hundred and fifty. How could it be that for two thirds of their lives, they were not of punishable age? (Nachalas Yaakov, see further explanation there)

First you must discuss... Question: [If so,] why is Yefes not mentioned after Shem, [as he too was righteous]? The answer is: The Torah did not wish to change [the order] too much. Since Shem and Cham were born one after the other, it did not interrupt between them. (Maharshal)