By Rabbi Dovid Sapirman, Dean, Ani Maamin Foundation
As we read the tale of the Mabul this week, the thought must cross our minds that it must have been horrible to live in such a time. In the era preceding the Flood, idolatry was universal, immorality unbridled, and civilization lived in constant fear of theft. How awful indeed!
When the Torah describes the cause of the Mabul, it initially mentions only the sin of arayos. Hashem then muses that He will extend the life of civilization for another 120 years, giving the people a chance to do teshuvah. If they did not, this was not a world that deserved to survive. Only later, as Hashem prepared to bring His retribution, does the Torah mention the word vatishacheis, “became perverted,” which refers to both arayos and avodah zara, and then, too, does it mention the rampant thievery.
What do we learn? In a society obsessed with its desires, all decency disappears. When people are focused only on their own wants, disregarding all responsibility to others, even stealing will become permissible in their eyes.
But is our generation any better? Corruption and perversion still exist today. The Midrash tells us that Hakadosh Baruch Hu did not bring the flood until they legitimized their lust by writing marriage contracts between two males—an abomination that has spread throughout the Western world and beyond in just the past few decades. The lack of busha, the obsession with the most private of human relationships, is as rampant today as today as it was then. Classical idol worship still exists in some developing countries, but the Western world has fallen prey to something worse: the worship of nothing.
Halachically, all the heretical philosophies that are widely accepted today—denial of a Creator, evolution, and so forth—are themselves a subcategory of idol worship.
What can we do to escape, or at least minimize, the influence of the Mabul raging all around us? We too need to build a teiva. Our homes, our shuls and batei midrash, all must be a haven where we can keep ourselves safe from the decadence of society and build ourselves a holy atmosphere. We must never allow the floodwater outside to enter our teiva.
What will be our walls? Meticulous and joyful observance of halacha in the home. Passionate tefillah from the heart, not just mumbling. Enthusiastic learning of Hashem’s Torah. All these will constitute a teiva for us, one that will protect us from the hashchasa outside.
