Up until the sin of Odom Horishon, good was a separate entity
in this world, as was evil. Odom was enveloped in pure
goodness. The sin of eating from eitz hada'as
introduced confusion in the world and a blurring of the clear
boundaries of good and evil, that is, it started the grey
areas.
Man was still able, however, to toil in order to distance
evil from him. Came the Flood and all of these distinctions
were erased; now evil pushed itself forward and people
embraced that with vigor. "And Hashem saw that the wickedness
of man was great in the earth and that all the impulse of the
thoughts of his heart was only evil continually"
(Bereishis 6:5). Only evil -- without a smattering of
good.
When the situation becomes "only evil," the world can no
longer exist. If a person is confronted by a situation or
thing that appears to him completely evil, he must exert
himself to seek out something redeemingly good, some hidden
core or spark of goodness, for otherwise, it cannot continue
to exist. "There is no evil that does not contain some good,"
says the Tzror Hamor 24:2. This explains how that
which appears wholly evil can possible exist. But the
generation of the Flood was so corrupt that Hashem, in
Person, testified and said, "Only evil continually." And then
came the Flood.
"Hashem created His world to be all good, or at least, mainly
so. Thus, if it is altogether bad, it cannot exist. And since
the generation of the Flood was wholly evil, He had no resort
but to destroy this degenerate world and rescue only the
small element of good that remained" (Radak).
The presence of the tzaddik Noach had no effect
whatsoever upon the evil generation. He persevered in
building the ark for one hundred and twenty years, during
which time he warned the people of the impending doom. Not
only did they disregard his warning, they actually mocked the
old man who was "futilely" building himself a refuge from the
floodwaters he believed would eventually come. His
righteousness did not touch them in the least.
The good was totally detached from their evil, and their evil
was completely apart from his goodness. They did not even
leave themselves a hairsbreadth of goodness, a thin lifeline
of hope. "And He destroyed every living substance upon the
face of the ground . . . and only Noach remained alive, and
they that were with him in the ark."
The generation of the Flood imagined itself to be
"progressive." Each one lived to satisfy his own impulses and
drives, without structure, ethics, or a moral code of
behavior. There were no laws, only the law of the wild, the
instinct of self preservation and self gratification. The
family structure was destroyed. Even the dividing lines
between man and animal were effaced to the degree that the
whole world became corrupt. At this point, their fate was
sealed for destruction (Rashi Sanhedrin 105).
A similar example can be brought from modern times, from the
Communist regime. Many national barriers were destroyed to
create the Soviet Union, a conglomerate of different races
and nationalities. Also destroyed by this rule of terror was
the family structure, all for the supreme good of the Party.
Husbands and wives, parents and children were pitted one
against the other and encouraged to turn informer for every
slight infraction or suspicious `revolutionary' behavior,
behavior which is completely contrary to natural loyalties.
One extreme example was the statues which they erected in
honor of a boy who excelled in his loyalty to the Motherland
and informed upon his own father to the K.G.B. for having
spoken against the government.
The Communists considered themselves progressive, making
history, eradicating old fashioned ideas, mores, social
norms, even religion, which they claimed to be the opium of
the masses. They ridiculed revered symbols and replaced them
with new slogans of lies and bigger lies which spoke of
equality, joint effort for the common good, while stripping
the populace of its private property and possessions.
These political figures were later exposed to have lined
their own pockets. They confiscated everything for the sake
of the State, but secretly enriched themselves at the State's
expense. These leaders opened foreign bank accounts and lived
it up as an elite class, while the masses were reduced to the
brink of starvation. In the end, their fate was sealed, as
with the generation of the Flood, because of robbery. How
symbolic it is that Communism collapsed in the end because
those who were corrupted by love of money were so absolutely
corrupted that their whole structure disintegrated.
We also live in a reality where those who consider themselves
progressive disseminate this poison of progress through a
systematic breakdown of social structures -- to free people
from all moral obligations and social conventions. They tout
their perverse ideologies of all kinds of "freedoms"
brazenly, in public, and gain the support of the government
and the intelligentsia who rule the ivory towers. What was a
sacred, inviolate social institution yesterday, turns into
folly and outmoded, archaic convention today, a source of
mockery and ridicule. The pace setters are the writers,
artists, judges, media people who provide a vivid reminder of
the lessons we must learn from the dor hamabul.
*
They are servants to their impulses, servants to the lust for
power, for self gratification. They mutually crown themselves
with titles, honors and degrees. They are the intelligentsia,
the lettered academicians, the progressives, the thinkers.
But it sometimes happens that even they may shudder when one
of their ranks takes things a bit too far, too soon, and
shuffles off conventions and restraints to a new degree of
licentiousness. And they cry out in protest. But why?
Shouldn't they remind themselves that they began the process
of shackle-shaking, of removing the barriers of conformity
and decency. Did they not realize where progressiveness and
permissiveness would lead?
Some time ago, they raised a cry against a former kibbutznik
artist who gave freedom to his tongue in an interview for a
national paper in which he outlined his definition of
progress: Society, he said, must rid itself of all
superfluous elements. What are these? The old folk, the weak,
helpless and handicapped, the unemployed, the dregs of
society and so on.
A top politician from the Left justifiably argued that he was
expressing pure Nazi dogma. When the Nazis were just
beginning to perfect the ideology of genocide, they also
practiced on the helpless and unfortunate elements of society
under the guise of doing something good for mankind, of
freeing society from this burden. It did not take them long
to reach the Final Solution with regard to the Jews, and to
drown them in their own bloodbath.
If the sharp critics of that artist were honest in their
criticism, they should have rightly asked themselves: Are we
truly much different, much removed from the underlying
principle? Had they not already given themselves allowance
and franchise for all aberrations from ethical rules and
codes of morality that had always been unquestionably
accepted by society? Isn't that what they have been doing all
along -- removing all restraints and giving everyone free
reign to do "their own thing"?
These are the restraints that the Torah is talking about,
"For all flesh had corrupted its way on earth," as
interpreted by Chazal. Is it so difficult to understand that
when every abomination and deviation becomes a norm, it can
only lead to that untenable notion of "ridding society of
undesirable/unproductive elements"? Don't they understand
that after it has become permissible to murder fetuses
wholesale fashion while in their mothers' womb, and after all
attempts are made to validate euthanasia, that it is not far
removed from this explicit Nazi notion?
*
The Torah declared that the world "was not created for
anarchy, but to become settled" (Yeshaya 45:18). Man
was created with a commandment to "be fruitful and multiply
and fill up the earth and rule it." Along came the generation
of the Flood and corrupted and morally polluted the earth.
Not suddenly, but gradually, in the space of ten generations,
"all of which came and provoked [heavenly] wrath, until He
brought upon them the floodwaters" (Ovos 5:1).
They rebelled against the divine blueprint for the world,
that man should inhabit and rule it. This is only possible
when each species adheres to its kind, according to the
design of nature. But they decided that they could make
changes and impose their own program by tampering with
natural law. They defied the norms of society, ridiculed
codes and conventions, and left nothing holy that they did
not violate.
Thus with modern day "progressive" thinking. Woe to such
freedom which is nothing more than licentiousness. They
imagine they are introducing something new, an innovation.
Were they to study history and the lessons derived by our
Sages in parshas Noach, they would realize that four
thousand years ago there existed the same social rebels, the
progressives, the promoters of the various unbridled
freedoms.
But that is the very point -- they refuse to learn the
lessons of history; they cannot grasp the fact that they are
not moving forward but, rather, rapidly regressing,
accelerating in reverse to disenlightenment, devastation and
doom. They are sinking their own ship in the Flood of their
making.
At this point, they are still able to denounce a person who
speaks of ridding society of unproductive elements. This
still looks bizarre in their eyes. But the cesspool from
which this idea originated is the selfsame wellspring from
which all their previous perverted ideas sprang forth of
uncontrolled gratification, of a "nonstop city," of drugs and
other unmentionable ills of society. Everything can begin
from a simple aberration, a slight, sometimes even
unnoticeable veering off center from the straight path of
Torah, from a leaning towards modernity, from a shoulder-
shrug to a psak halocho, from a sneer for something
that appears to them as an unnecessary stringency, from the
garbled transmission of messages to the next generation --
parents to children or teachers to students.
All these slight variances widen the differences in the space
of another generation or two until they reach an abysmal self-
hatred that calls for "Stop the Chareidim!" or "Stamp Out the
Dossim!" This only opens the way for such infamous Nazi ideas
-- but by then it is already too late.
*
The only hope is the Noach's Ark, to learn the lesson that
even in a generation like that of the Flood, which had no
parallel in history, intelligent man can still save himself.
In a world so depraved, where there is nothing left still
impermissible, where no crime is beyond the pale of political
approval, there can come a man like Noach, together with his
nuclear family, and preserve himself against the floodwaters
of perversion and corruption, and obey the command of Hashem
and build for himself and his family an ark of survival
against the Flood.
Not for a day or two, a month or two, or even a year or two,
did he hold his own, but for a period of one hundred and
twenty years, doggedly, devotedly, indefatigably, he built
the ark, plank after plank, level upon level, with precise
design, so that it would be capable of preserving every
specie of every kind of living creature. He stood single-
handed against the entire generation, they with their sick
society and he with the word of G-d. And Noach built the ark
that was to save the world and to regenerate it after all was
eradicated from the face of the earth. They watched -- but
refused to heed the lesson. They continued in their ways --
and he, undaunted, in his.
This incredible scenario symbolizes the conflict of the
Jewish world steadfast in its belief, clinging to the Torah
for dear life, in apposition to the entire generation and its
ills and wills, our generation included. But the council of
Hashem spoken forth from the throats of our Sages was to
establish our own Noach's ark, our own sanctuary, our haven
against all the evil storm winds and murky floodwaters that
threaten to engulf every good portion. Those who followed the
advice of the sages, sought refuge within the ark, in the
yeshivos and Torah strongholds, and they were rescued from
the dangers of the dor hamabul and their counterparts
down the corridors of history.
The Alter of Novardok said that now, in our times and
generations, the council of the Sages, and the Rambam, to
avoid the dangerous influence of a sick society and flee to
the deserts and caves should be translated into building
impregnable fortresses of Torah and mussar, to mend
and build them up, to construct an ark of defense against the
saboteurs and enemies, to create a unique, insular world that
will safeguard those men of truth lest they be swept along
the polluted streams of the nether world.
In a responsa to the Satmar Rebbe zt'l, who commented
upon the above quote from the Rambam who advised shunning
society and fleeing civilization and asked what to do in
these times, the Chazon Ish replied that the yeshivos are
those "deserts" that will protect us and insure our survival.
The Noach's ark of our times, he stressed, the safe havens,
are our holy yeshivos.
(Hagaon R' A. Zeitchik zt'l, Ma'ayenei Chaim, p.
33).
