Causes of Cataclysm

 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 to God. 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. 6:13 “The earth became corrupt before God; the earth was filled with lawlessness. When God saw how corrupt the earth was, for all flesh had corrupted its ways on earth, God said to Noah, ‘I have decided to put an end to all flesh, for the earth is filled with lawlessness because of them: I am about to destroy them with the earth.’”

 

It is clear that the text is telling us that there is a direct link between human corruption (Evil? Intolerance? Hatred? Sins of the flesh? – the text doesn't tell us what) and God’s actions. It sets up a traditional sin causes punishment dialectic which much of Jewish tradition accepts.

            I have a problem with this view. Cataclysms are not the result of sin, despite what some fundamentalist religious authorities aver. One might even argue that God’s creation of a rainbow after the Flood was a signal that He would never eradicate humanity in any fashion.

            But some cataclysms are the work of humanity. Ignore, if you will, that climate change poses a threat to ourselves and future generations. That ignorance is willful and wrong. Ignore the millions of economic refugees seeking a better life, and that ignorance is also willful and wrong. Refuse vaccination because you fear that the vaccine doesn't work (it does) or because it somehow impinges on your personal freedom (there are far greater limitations we accept without thinking). That ignorance is also willful and wrong

            Last week, I suggested that when God created Man, He knew His creations could create the most terrible darkness. We can create Holocausts and plagues, wars and floods, mass extinctions and what we politely call “inhumane” activities. When God created Man, He also endowed human beings with the ability to care for others, to seek knowledge, and as we most often recite, to see to the needs of the widow, the orphan, and the stranger.