NOACH: The Discovery of Death

What Caused the Flood? A Meteor? Climate Change?

The Torah is not an ordinary book. It is a Divine book, and it calls for an unusual kind of reading. That means reading its silences, reading between its lines and, above all, knowing that nothing in a Divine text is superfluous.

Chapter 5 of Bereshit, in last week’s Parasha, gives us the first human genealogy. It is a list, seemingly unnecessary, of how many years each of Adam’s descendants lived. The Torah names nine generations: Adam, Seth, Enosh, Kenan, Mahalalel, Yered, Chanokh, Metushelach and Lemekh, the father of Noach. All of them lived long lives. The longevity record (so far…) belongs to Metushelach, who lived 969 years.

Still, the question remains. Beyond satisfying our curiosity about family trees, what does this birth-and-death registry of the pre-Flood world teach us? Why do we need to know the ages of the first humans?

Look closely, and you will find something remarkable.

WHAT DID ADAM DIE OF?

In the year 930 from Creation, something extraordinary happened. Adam, the first man, died. By then there were hundreds of thousands, maybe millions, of his descendants, spread over ten generations. They knew a person could be killed, as Abel had been. But now, for the first time, they faced a “natural” death.

HaShem had told Adam he would not live forever. But that warning took more than nine centuries to come true. That was long enough for people to forget they were mortal. Adam, Seth, Enosh and the others were so old that people saw them as immortal.

Adam’s natural death set off shock and panic. Only one thing could ease that fear, the terrible fear of death. People could tell themselves that Adam’s death was an exception. He died because he disobeyed God and ate the forbidden fruit.

LOST INNOCENCE

Then, in the year 987, came the second natural death. (The Torah does not give this date outright. It has to be worked out from the text.) Chanokh died at the relatively young age of 365…

This second death could not be blamed on disobedience, as Adam’s could. The Torah says plainly that Chanokh was a righteous man who walked with God (Gen. 5:24)…

Chanokh’s death was devastating. The Torah describes it in words that seem to carry the surprise and terror of that generation. They were facing something no one really understood. Dying of natural causes was so new that people did not yet have ordinary words for it. So the text does not say Chanokh “died.” It says it the way a child would describe death: “And Chanokh was no more… for God took him.”

The third natural death was Seth’s, Adam’s son, in the year 1042. Now death was a confirmed fact, and it was here to stay.

THE END OF THE WORLD?

Humanity did not take the discovery of death well… Awareness of mortality set off a panic that brought out the worst in people.

Picture the Hollywood scene: people learn that a meteor is about to hit the earth and destroy it, and they turn to violence and despair. The men of that generation did the same when they understood that “they were going to die.” They turned violent, abused the weak and took what belonged to others. Then: “And the powerful men saw the women [of other families, tribes, etc.] and took them [by force]…” The generation of the Flood was guilty not only of robbery but also of murder and sexual violence.

At that point HaShem decided two things:

1. To shorten human life. As we will see, this happened gradually. Ten generations after Noach, people lived only 150 or 200 years, and lifespans kept shrinking after that. A shorter life would make people more aware of their mortality and of the need to live with purpose.

2. To bring the Flood, a “reset” of human civilization with Noach and his sons.

CLIMATE CHANGE?

Now we understand. The Flood was not caused by a meteor or by climate change. It was caused by anarchy, chaos and corruption: people reacting violently to the discovery that they would die.

Noach, the hero of this week’s Parasha, was born in the year 1056. He was the first man born into a world of people who knew they were mortal.

After the Flood, Noach received the first code of law. Seven basic rules forbid murder, robbery, sexual violence and so on, and require courts of justice to prevent anarchy and impunity. All of this would bring a new climate of law and order.

But we will have to wait another ten generations for another man, Abraham Abinu, and his descendants to make a second discovery:

1. Life is limited and relatively short, but it is an opportunity HaShem gives us to come close to Him by our own will and effort.

2. God did not create us to exploit others, but to help them.

3. And finally, mortality affects the human body, but the Divine spirit, the neshamah, survives death if it is properly nourished.

Rabbi Yosef Bitton