The End of All Flesh

"…קץ כל בשר בא לפני כי מלאה הארץ חמס מפניהם והנני משחיתם את הארץ." (בראשית ו:יג)

“ה’ said to Noach, the end of all flesh has come before Me, for the land is full of violent thievery from before them, and I will destroy them and the land.” (Beraishis 6:13)

Chazal explain the level of depravity Man had reached. Carnal sins hit rock bottom, with a free-for-all of intermingling humans and animals, and even the animals mated with other species, upending the natural order of the world, because of the influence from the corruption of the people. But this descent into licentiousness and immorality didn’t seal their fate.

The Gemara in Sanhedrin (108a), says theft was the final straw. Like the later people of Sodom, the people before the flood would steal a bit at a time, less than one could prosecute for. They would take advantage of others, and think only of themselves. While the moral sins were mostly against G-d, these people also sinned against Man with no compunctions.

The Sforno adds that landowners would steal from sharecroppers overtly, and sharecroppers would steal from landowners secretly. Thus, all the produce was going to thieves. The land was being abused and it had to stop. The people, as well as the land, would be wiped away. But there’s more.

The Targum Onkelos here is striking. He explains this verse to mean, “…the land has become full of thieves because of their evil deeds…” He seems to make a distinction between the thieves and the actions which led to the land being full of robbery. It doesn’t say that they are being destroyed because they steal, but because of their wicked behavior which led to theft. So, what are we talking about?

Earlier, the Haamek Davar comments that it was the promiscuity which led to a degradation in the abundance of grain and crops. Their wicked behavior brought a consequence that there was a shortage. However, instead of acknowledging their faults and repenting, they responded to the shortage by stealing! They added layer upon layer to their sins.

Hashem essentially said, “I created a world for people to be able to grow and improve. I gave Man the ability to create and innovate, to make the world a better place. But now, when I’ve shown them the evil of their ways, they find new ways to defile and degrade themselves! This world has reached the end of the line.”

What brought the world to destruction was not just the wickedness, but that it had permeated everything so through and through that nothing could escape the contamination. Had they only sinned but not stolen, at least individuals could have repented and been saved. But the world became so full of corruption that there was no longer the ability to repent. Even Noach was only saved because Hashem gave him a special gift of being rescued.

We can learn from this to contemplate our actions and their consequences, and be willing to admit where we went wrong. Then we need to work on correcting it and being the Mankind Hashem created the world to house. Otherwise, we have no business being here.

The midrash recounts a story of a man who sold a tree to another. After the purchase, the buyer uprooted the tree and discovered a hidden treasure beneath it. Being an honest man, he returned to the seller and said, ‘I only bought the tree—not what lies beneath it. The treasure should be yours.’ But the seller, equally honest, replied, ‘I sold everything that came with the tree, including what’s under it.’

“Unable to resolve the dispute, they turned to the king for judgment. The king asked each man if he had children. When both said, “Yes,” the king ruled that their children should marry, and the treasure be shared between them. Alexander the Great, who happened to be visiting, praised the king’s wisdom. The king then asked how such a case would be judged in Alexander’s kingdom. Alexander replied that the treasure would belong to the crown and both men would be executed for concealing it.

Shocked, the king asked, “Does the sun shine in your land? Does the rain fall? Are there animals?”

“Yes,” Alexander replied. “Then know,” said the king, “that it is not in your merit, but solely in the merit of the animals that the sun shines and the rain falls!”