Two Minute Torah Podcast

Noah 5770 by Rabbi Eli Garfinkel

There is a rabbinic tradition that violence, or chamas, is the sin that tipped the scales and caused God to destroy the world. The Talmud, on Sanhedrin 108a, records the following midrash regarding Genesis chapter 6, verse 13: Rabbi Yohanan said, "Behold the power of violence. The generation of the Flood violated every moral standard, but that generation was not sentenced to death until that started engaging in theft." This is a difficult teaching to understand. Rabbi Baruch Halevi Epstein, who wrote the Torah Temimah, explains that theft leads to violence, and it is the physical violence that ultimately led God to destroy the world. He quotes a midrash that appears in the weekday edition of Siddur Sim Shalom: "Great is peace, for even if Israel were to worship idols, I would not be able to punish them as long as they were living in peace." Rabbi Epstein continues, "As long as the generation of the Flood was not stealing and causing violence, they were not punished. But once they started stealing, which causes arguments and hatred, they were found guilty and punished for all of the other sins they had committed in the past."

This midrash has profound implications for our world today. The nation of India is rife with idolatry and polytheism, sins that a Jew must avoid even if doing so would lead to death. Nonetheless, India and Israel share very close and friendly relations. There are many other nations that are fierecely monotheistic but are in a perpetual state of war with Israel and the Jewish people. This midrash suggests that although Judaism regards polytheism and idolatry as serious sins, God prefers a peace-loving, idolatrous society to a warlike nation that believes in one God.