Corruption Pandemic
This week’s Torah reading, Parshat Noach, describes one of the greatest catastrophes this planet ever saw. The world underwent destruction, with a flood destroying everything in existence on land, sparing only Noach (Noah)’s ark and its inhabitants. What was the cause of the great disaster? The verses in this week’s Torah reading (6:12-13) reveal the answer. It was because every flesh had been corrupted, and the land became full of larceny. The evil behavior reached such a degree of corruption that the Midrash tells us (Bereishit Rabbah, 28:8) that the animals were being attracted to species other than their own, and the earth was producing distorted produce. How did this happen? How did the nature of animals and the land change?
Natural Spread
The Beit Halevi explains this concept as follows: Just as we see with human nature, that when one gets into a certain pattern, he becomes inclined and drawn to naturally continue following this pattern, so too, a person’s habits have an effect on his surroundings. When a person becomes accustomed to a certain way of behavior, even if he does so in secret, without anyone’s knowledge, he causes his surroundings to also become inclined to that particular trend. And the more mankind becomes entrenched in a particular behavior, the stronger the influence is upon the creations in his environment, to the point that it affects even animals and the earth itself. Because man had become so corrupt, by the way people followed their lusts with disregard to what should be off limits, the natural ways of the animals and the land became distorted as well.
Noach – The Virtuous Pillar of Society
But there was one family who survived. That was the family of Noach. Noach was the one who ensured the survival of life on this planet. How did Noach do it? What great invention did Noach have with which he managed to save his family and the animals he brought along with him in the ark? The difference between Noach and everyone else, as the verse says, is that Noach followed the virtuous ways of God. We all owe our existence today to Noach, because he saved the world, and we are all his descendants. In contrast to the rest of the world whose behavior struck havoc upon the earth, by being a virtuous pillar, Noach became of the greatest contributors to the world’s existence.
The Greatest Global Contributors
We have to understand, as Rabbi Avigdor Miller points out, that this concept continues to exist in our times as well. The greatest contributors to society are the people who are involved in Torah, spiritual pursuits and live a virtuous lifestyle. It is these people who are improving the world the most. A person can introduce great inventions and innovations to society. But if in his private life he engages in immoral behavior, he is causing more disaster to the world than he is improving it. As we see during the generation of Noach, there were people who came up with great inventions and built many great things, but ultimately, these people brought about the greatest corruption of the world.
Builders of the World
Rabbi B., who spent his time learning and teaching Torah, would sometimes find himself amongst people who lacked appreciation for what he was involved in. They would ask him, “Do you work?” in anticipation that he would say that he doesn’t, and they could accuse him of being unproductive. So Rabbi B. would answer, “I’m involved in construction.” The conversation would continue, as he would describe how great his construction projects are, until he would reveal that he was referring to “building people,” by influencing and educating them in Torah.
This concept applies to us as well. We all have the power to contribute globally with our personal actions and decisions. The choices we make in our private lives have a ripple effect on our entire surroundings, and the world at large. When we go in the right way, and cause others to be inclined to follow a virtuous path, we are rewarded for our contribution.
Accounting for Others
The Beit Halevi explains that this is the meaning of the term our Sages use when saying that one will have to stand for judgement and an accounting. Judgement is for a person’s actual deeds, and “accounting” refers to the part a person has in the deeds of others, by the influence he had contributed through his own personal deeds. The greatest contribution we can make to society is working on ourselves. Even our most personal and confidential deeds have a great effect on the world.
By Rabbi Yitzchok Aryeh Strimber torah4every1@gmail.com
