The meaning of lawlessness

Noach

Gen 6:9-11:32

Précis: The story of Noah (Hebrew: Noach) and the Flood appear in this parasha. Noah, called by God, builds the Ark and collects the animals. It rains for forty days and nights. Noah and his family are saved, and afterward leave the Ark, build an altar, and make sacrifices. God sets a rainbow as a promise not to destroy mankind again. Noah plants a vineyard, makes wine, and becomes drunk. An odd incident with sexual overtones takes place with his sons. The story of the Tower of Babel is included in this parasha, and it ends with a genealogy of the ancient peoples of the Bible, concluding with Abram. 

Gen. 6:11 “The earth became corrupt before God; the earth was filled with lawlessness.”

 

As is noted in Etz Hayyim, the Jerusalem Talmud understands the word translated as “lawlessness” (hamas) to mean that people cheated each other for such small sums that the courts could not prosecute them (JTBM 4:2).  [Aside: I've discussed the ironic meaning of this particular Hebrew word previously.]

The inability of the courts to deal with minor judicial matters, the Talmud relates, caused people to lose faith in the power of government to provide them with a fair and livable world, and society began to slip into anarchy.

It does not require a society to engage in seriously egregious behaviors to become “lawless” as the phrase is used here, although serious divergence from the ethical mandates of Torah inevitably result in hamas. We learned several decades ago that limiting graffiti (itself a relatively minor matter) can have the effect of reducing more serious crimes. When small crimes become common (and accepted) the road towards hamas has been paved.

If, as the Sages opine, lawlessness increases when crimes are too small to be justiciable, how much greater is lawlessness when the judicial system itself is undermined and perverted? How great does hamas become when the ruler's whim becomes the defining measure of judicial behavior? 

The rule of law begins an uninterrupted decline towards hamas (also defined as chaos) when the system of justice is undermined by the ruling classes.

Very Good

Bereshit

Gen. 1:1 - 6:8

 

Précis: The first Book of the Torah, Bereshit (Genesis, literally “in the beginning” or “When God began to create”) begins with the familiar story of creation. The world is created in six days and God rests on the seventh. The stories of Adam and Eve and the Garden of Eden are included, as is the story of Cain and Abel.

 

Gen. 1:3-4, 31“God said, ‘Let there be light’ and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and God separated the light from the darkness… God saw everything that God had made, and indeed, it was very good.'” 

             

Rabbi Lea Mühlstein has offered an insight on these opening phrases of Bereshit (10 Minutes of Torah, 10/13/25). At its start, creation unfolds with purposes: order out of chaos is “good.” Light and the seas and the Earth itself are “good.” It is only at the end of ​creation (including humans) that God look​s at everything together and call​s it tov me’od (very​ good).

According to Rashi, the world is not “very” good until it contains humans with the power to choose and act. Later thinkers ​also stressed human responsibility. As Franz Rosenzweig taught in “The Star of Redemption,” creation is not a finished event, but rather an ongoing process. Creation does not end in Bereshit; it continues when human beings take responsibility for the world. In other words, God declares creation “very good” not because it is finished but because it has been entrusted to us.

This stewardship is eternal, and we emphasize it as we begin another year of the Torah cycle. Mühlstein challenges us: in this year, what light must we identify? How must we separate darkness from goodness? How will we affirm what is tov me’od for our communities, for the Jewish People, and for the world?

 

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