Part I. The Ancient Mabul
When we come to the subject of the Mabul, one of the first things we immediately understand is that the Mabul was a way of eliminating sinful people. סָמָח ı∆רָ‡ָה ‡≈לָּמ יםƒ ̃ ל¡‡ָה י≈נ¿פƒל ı∆רָ‡ָה ̇≈חׁ ָ ̆ ƒ ַ̇ו – And the earth became corrupt before Hashem and the earth became filled with violence... and therefore Hashem said, ı∆רָ‡ָה ̇∆‡ םָ ̇יƒחׁ¿ ַ̆ מ יƒנ¿נƒה¿ו – Behold I am going to destroy them with the earth (Bereishis 6:13). There was wrongdoing in the world so Hakadosh Baruch Hu did what He does constantly—He sanitized the world.
It’s like the forest fires; everyone knows that sometimes large conflagrations burn through forests and thousands of trees are destroyed. And although it seems to be a destruction, actually it’s a great benefit for the world. Because sometimes when the trees grow old, many of them are infested with fungi and bacteria. All across the forest, there are sick trees that spread disease and decay to other trees and plants.
And so, when Hakadosh Baruch Hu sees that the danger has become too widespread and unrelenting, He sends a bolt of lightning to ignite a forest fire that levels the whole forest to the ground. And now the forest is sanitized; the sanitized soil will now produce a new forest that is pure from any disease.
That’s one of the purposes of the forest fires—the devastation is actually a cleansing; it’s a new beginning.
And so, certainly, we can say that the Mabul was a forest fire of water. Hakadosh Baruch Hu was purifying the world from the wicked people; civilization had grown tall and strong but was infected with the disease of wicked and decadent behavior. And when Hakadosh Baruch Hu saw the rot was spreading from family to family, from village to village and city to city, the time finally came to make an end to it all—to send a flood to wipe it all away and thereby sanitize the world.
A Better Option
But actually there’s a question here. Because to us it seems that a destroying flood was too much. After all, Hakadosh Baruch Hu could have sent a worldwide epidemic to wipe out all the human beings from the face of the earth and He could have left the world intact. Certainly; there are epidemics that can travel quickly from person to person, from one family to another and then from city to city, killing everyone in its path. Hakadosh Baruch Hu could have punished the Dor Hamabul with a pandemic—and just like the rot of society had spread from person to person, middah k’neged middah, a disease would be sent by Hakadosh Baruch Hu, and the world would be punished in the same manner.
It could have been a sickness that wouldn’t affect the animals. Why destroy the beasts after all? And not only the animals went lost; even the earth itself was obliterated. The plants and trees were ripped away; fruit orchards and wheat fields and barley and rice paddies—everything went lost. The seeds were left floating in the water and later they were able to grow again, but there was nothing now. No more fields and forests. No villages or cities. No more houses and buildings. Everything disappeared.
And that’s a difficult thing to understand. Why was it necessary to sanitize the world of anything other than men? It was mankind who were the sinners! The cows and sheep didn’t do anything wrong! The earth? What did the earth do to deserve destruction? What did the houses and fields and trees do?
The Beckoning World
And it’s such a big question that we’re forced now to say another reason for the Mabul, a reason that will resolve that difficulty as well.
In Koheles (3:11), it states a very important principle: ןַ ָ̇נ םָלֹעָה ̇∆‡ םַ םָ בƒל¿ ב – Hashem put the world into the hearts of men. It means that Hashem made it so that man is captivated by the world. It’s a lovable world and we fall head over heels for the world at first sight!
Don’t you see how a little child is immediately enthralled with everything around him? You take him to the country, to Monroe, and right away he’s infatuated with the outdoors; the grass and the trees and the grasshoppers and the ants—you can’t pull him away.
Even the plain street entices him. A little boy, you let him play outside for a little, you need horses to drag him back into the house! I remember how my sons, one after the other, fell in love with the street.
Now, what’s on the street already? There was no candy on the street, no amusements on the street, no joy rides—just a plain street. But it draws him anyhow because “Hashem put the world into man’s heart.”
The Original Tech Giants
And it doesn’t end when the child grows up; all the days of our lives, Hashem is putting this world into our hearts. That’s His Plan—He wants mankind to love this world because that’s the only way Olam Hazeh will function. It takes an interest in the world if there are going to be houses and roads and doctors and car mechanics. People have to be interested in the world if there’s going to be a world. That’s why Hashem “put the world into the hearts of men.”
And the Dor Hamabul was exceptional in fulfilling that possuk. They were busy with everything, building the world we have now. It was during those early years that mankind gained all the techniques necessary for our daily lives. And even if we have made very many advances since then, they’re built almost completely on the work of the ancients; we are merely midgets standing on the shoulders of giants.
They had to learn how to make use of fire; how to cook and bake, and how to make tools. They studied all the plants and trees and fruit in order to develop the science of horticulture and agriculture. They had to learn how to make textiles too. It's not so easy to make clothing. You need hundreds of years of experience; years and years of trial and error. You wouldn’t have the faintest idea what to do with a cotton plant or with flax or with the wool on the back of a sheep! It's very complicated.
Why They Lived So Long
How did they sew? They had to invent a needle and a scissor. It means they developed methods of making tools from metal. Something like that took hundreds of years of one person's experience; it took years of genius to perfect the art of metallurgy. You have to have “the world in your heart” if you’re going to innovate methods of extracting metals from ore and utilizing those metals.
That’s one of the reasons they lived long in those years—Hakadosh Baruch Hu was utilizing their stay in this world to set the stage for the future of mankind. They needed time to accumulate all the information and experience necessary to develop the processes and tools that the world needs in order to function.
And so we understand right away that when Hashem made this world a place that entrances man, it was so that the world should continue to function; so that people should be His messengers in building Olam Hazeh for future generations. And so if it were us, we would say that Koheles means like this: “Hashem put the world into the hearts of men so that the world should function forever.”
The World Wide Web
But when we look at the end of that possuk, we see that Shlomo Hamelech tells us something altogether different: םָ בƒל¿ ב ןַ ָ̇נ םָלֹעָה ̇∆‡ םַ םָ ‚ – Why did Hashem put the world into the hearts of men? What was His intention when He made such an interesting world? םָ„ָ‡ָה ‡ָˆ¿מƒי ‡ ל ר∆ׁ ֲ̆‡ יƒל¿ בƒמ ףֹסו „ַﬠ¿ו ׁ ̆ ‡ֹר≈מ יםƒ ̃ ל¡‡ָה הָׂ ָ̆ﬠ ר∆ׁ ֲ̆‡ ה∆ׂ ֲ̆ﬠַּמַה ̇∆‡ – In order that man shouldn’t discover the plan of Creation that Elokim made from the beginning to the end. You hear that? It’s a trap! The world is a big trap waiting to snare you!
Of course, Hakadosh Baruch Hu put the world into the minds of men so that they should be busy with it and make it a better world, that’s poshut; but Shlomo Hamelech is telling us a secret here. More important than building the world, Hakadosh Baruch Hu wants you to build yourself. And a person is only built up by overcoming tests.
And so םָ בƒל¿ ב ןַ ָ̇נ םָלֹעָה ̇∆‡ םַ םָ ‚ – why did He make man so vulnerable to the sights and sounds of this interesting world? ה∆ׂ ֲ̆ﬠַּמַה ̇∆‡ םָ„ָ‡ָה ‡ָˆ¿מƒי ‡ ל ר∆ׁ ֲ̆‡ יƒל¿ בƒמ יםƒ ̃ ל¡‡ָה הָׂ ָ̆ﬠ ר∆ׁ ֲ̆‡ – In order that man should not discover the work that Elokim made. He intentionally made the world as a trap; will you get lost in all the interesting things? Will you get so busy with the world that you’ll go overboard and forget what the world is really for?
When Builders Become Destroyers
And that’s what happened in the generations before the Mabul. They built the world, but as they did so, they became distracted and forgot about building themselves. The world was so bewitching, so interesting, that they became Olam Hazeh people. As their minds filled with this world more and more, they became so busy with everything that they forgot about their real purpose in the world. Because the only thing that really matters is that you should “discover the plan of Creation that Elokim made from the beginning to the end.” Hakadosh Baruch Hu! That’s the only subject that should be occupying your mind! Be busy with this world, certainly; but don’t ever forget the One Who made the world.
And that’s why the Mabul came upon the world. The word Mabul means that it made everything into hevel. The Mabul was mihabeil it all; it made everything into nothing! When they looked outside and they saw “a blanket of water covering the face of the earth,” (Bereishis 7:20) it was a great shock! Wherever you looked, nothing and nothing and nothing. “Where is everything?! The world that was thumping continuously in our hearts, the world we thought about day and night, the world we lived for, is nothing now!”
Everything is Nothing
Ooh, was that a lesson! Before the Mabul, a person's eyes could sweep over the landscape and see trees and gardens and forests and people; and it was all so very interesting—so interesting that they forgot about the main purpose in life.
But now, when Noach and his family, the ones from whom the world would be made again, gazed at the expanse of nothingness on all sides, they said, “Look! The old generation went wild over trying to get more money; now they’re all wiped out. They were busy raising livestock; they had big herds of sheep and cattle. And now it’s all gone. Some had beautiful gardens; all gone. Many had built beautiful homes, palaces; all wiped out! Some even had kingdoms with power and income as rulers. All gone!”
People had fought with each other over possessions. This one said, ‘This field is mine.’ The other one said, ‘It’s mine.’ And they were busy sometimes for generations fighting with each other. It’s all wiped out. Where are your enemies now? All gone. Where are the people you were jealous of? Gone. Where are the politics, the kings, and the princes? Nothing! All the enmity and hostility and jealousy, all the competition that had been םָ בƒל¿ ב, firmly entrenched in their hearts, everything was wiped out by the Mabul.
That’s why Hashem said, “Behold I am going to destroy the people along with the earth” (ibid. 6:13). Even the earth and everything on it will be washed away to teach you the great lesson: It’s a busy world and you must live in this busy world. But whatever you do, don’t get distracted; don’t get lost in the world. Don’t forget that it’s really nothing.”
“The way you see it now,” Hashem said, “with everything gone, that’s the real truth.” The Mabul made it all hevel now so that you should see the truth of Olam Hazeh—it’s a beautiful place. It’s interesting and entrancing and very distracting; but whatever you do, don’t forget the only subject that really matters—the One Who put you into this world.
