The pasuk says “And Elokim saw the earth and it was corrupt for all flesh corrupted its way on the earth.” (Bereshis 6:12). Rav Chatzkel Abramsky asks a question: Why was it only “And Elokim saw that the earth was decadent”? The pasuk seems to imply that only the Ribono shel Olam saw that things were bad. What about all of society?
Rav Chatzkel Abramsky explained that sometimes when society begins to decline, the society does not realize how far they have drifted. We need the Ribono shel Olam to say, “My gosh! Look at what has happened.”
Before the Mabul, things had become so corrupt and people had become so accustomed to the corruption and the decadence and the depravity that He was the only one to notice the problem. “And Elokim saw” but everyone else said, “This is just the way it is!”
