In the succeeding generations after Adam, immorality, theft and strife became rampant throughout society. The corruption was so widespread that it polluted the very environment, and G-d decided to send a flood to purify the whole world and destroy all the evil.
Only one righteous person existed, Noach, who walked in the ways of G-d. G-d instructed Noach to build an enormous ark to spare him and his family from the flood. G-d wanted Noach to involve himself in this tedious and time-consuming task in order to attract the attention of others, and warn them that the world would be destroyed if they did not change their evil ways. Unfortunately, Noach did not exert much influence on his contemporaries, and nobody’s behavior changed.
As a result of man’s degeneration, the animal life also degenerated, and G-d set out to destroy them, too. Noach was ordered to take pairs of all the different species of animals and birds into the ark to protect them from extinction. Heavy rains poured down for forty days and nights, flooding the entire earth. Noach, his family, and all the animals remained in the Ark for a year before they could emerge to rebuild the world.
As a reassurance to Noach and all future mankind, G-d sent the rainbow as proof of a covenant that He would never again send a flood to destroy the world.
Unfortunately, the experience of the flood did not seem to have much of an effect on Noach’s grandchildren. A few generations later, the society again began to slide, albeit in a more sophisticated manner. Man began to deny G-d’s authority by building a great tower as a monument to his own strength, power, and independence.
This time too, G-d showed them the folly of their actions by thwarting their plans. He confused the people’s communication with each other, thereby preventing them from working together. This was the source of a single society becoming fractured into different nations and languages. Because unity had been the cause of their sin, G-d caused them to become dispersed.
...Shem and Yefes took a garment…covered their father…their faces were turned away and they did not look at their father’s nakedness... (Gen. 9:23)
Sensitivity towards another person’s shame is an important attribute. Rabbi Menachem Feiffer related the following incident:
On the morning of Shabbos during Sukkos, two men were sitting in the synagogue near an open window. To their surprise they saw a young man climbing the steps to the synagogue carrying his lulav and esrog. Either he had forgotten it was Shabbos, or he did not know that that one does not take the lulav on Shabbos. One of the men quickly shut the blinds so nobody else would see the young man, and his friend hurried outside and led the young fellow to the coatroom, where he could put down the lulav without being seen, thus sparing him any embarrassment.
Did You Know...
The Torah obligates all mankind to observe seven basic laws of morality:
- Believe in G-d
- Do not blaspheme G-d
- Do not murder
- Do not commit adultery or incest
- Do not steal
- Set up a judicial system to legislate and enforce interpersonal law
- Do not tear a limb off a living animal to eat, showing unnecessary cruelty.
Although the first six of these laws were already obligatory upon Adam and Eve, the seventh law was not given to Adam and Eve, because man was not allowed to consume meat until after the Flood and it did not have much practical appplication. The laws are called the Noachide Laws, because of the seventh law which was given to Noah.
