Noach - נֹחַ - Genesis / B'reisheet 6:9 - 11:32 Making Torah Personal ~ Ga'ava

These few verses occur at the end of B'reisheet, just prior to the beginning of Noach: (5) יהוה saw how great was human wickedness on earth—how every plan devised by the human mind was nothing but evil all the time.(6) And יהוה regretted having made humankind on earth. With a sorrowful heart,(7) יהוה said, “I will blot out from the earth humankind whom I created—humans together with beasts, creeping things, and birds of the sky; for I regret that I made them.”(8) But Noah found favor with יהוה.

(9) This is the line of Noah.—Noah was a righteous [wholehearted] man in his generation; Noah walked with God.— (10) Noah begot three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth. (11) The earth became corrupt before God; the earth was filled with lawlessness.(12) When God saw how corrupt the earth was, for all flesh had corrupted its ways on earth,

(1) When Abram was ninety-nine years old, יהוה appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am El Shaddai. Walk in My ways and be wholehearted.

You must be wholehearted with your God יהוה.

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.

But I will establish My covenant with you, and you shall enter the ark, with your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives.

For your part, take of everything that is eaten and store it away, to serve as food for you and for them.”

And Noah did just as יהוה commanded him.

And all flesh that stirred on earth perished—birds, cattle, beasts, and all the things that swarmed upon the earth, and all humankind. All in whose nostrils was the merest breath of life, all that was on dry land, died.

Going back to the line: ‎את האלוהים התהלך נח‎, “Noach ‎walked with G’d;” the emphasis in this line is on the ‎attribute for G’d used, i.e. ‎אלוקים‎, the attribute of Justice. It was ‎beyond Noach’s kind of tzidkut, righteousness, to turn the ‎attribute of Justice into an attribute of Mercy through his ‎lifestyle. In this respect he was different from Avraham and ‎Yitzchok, concerning both of whom the Torah writes that they ‎‎“walked before G’d,” not merely “with G’d.” (Compare Genesis ‎‎17,1 and 48,15) In those verses the Torah wished to alert us to ‎the patriarchs’ ability to persuade G’d to substitute the attribute ‎of Mercy for the attribute of Justice, on occasion.

יהוה smelled the pleasing odor, and יהוה resolved: “Never again will I doom the earth because of humankind, since the devisings of the human mind are evil from youth; nor will I ever again destroy every living being, as I have done. So long as the earth endures, Seedtime and harvest, Cold and heat, Summer and winter, Day and night Shall not cease.”

The fear and the dread of you shall be upon all the beasts of the earth and upon all the birds of the sky—everything with which the earth is astir—and upon all the fish of the sea; they are given into your hand. Every creature that lives shall be yours to eat; as with the green grasses, I give you all these.

I will maintain My covenant with you: never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.”

Everyone on earth had the same language and the same words. And as they migrated from the east, they came upon a valley in the land of Shinar and settled there.

They said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and burn them hard.”—Brick served them as stone, and bitumen served them as mortar.— And they said, “Come, let us build us a city, and a tower with its top in the sky, to make a name for ourselves; else we shall be scattered all over the world.”

But YHWH came down to look over the city and the tower that the humans were building. YHWH said: Here, [they are] one people with one language for them all, and this is [merely] the first of their doings— now there will be no barrier for them in all that they scheme to do!

Cain knew his wife, and she conceived and bore Enoch. And he then founded a city, and named the city after his son Enoch.

Come-now! Let us go down and there let us baffle their language, so that no one will understand the language of his neighbor. So YHWH scattered them from there over the face of all the earth, and they had to stop building the city.

Therefore its name was called Bavel/Babble, for there YHWH baffled the language of all the earth-folk, and from there, YHWH scattered them over the face of all the earth.

Therefore the pious deemed it good for a man to afflict himself sometimes, in order to put down the evil inclination of arrogance, which grows strong only through abundance, similar to what our sages, of blessed memory, said: "a lion does not roar over a basket of straw but over a basket of meat" (Berachot 32a).

(11) Take care lest you forget your God יהוה and fail to keep the divine commandments, rules, and laws which I enjoin upon you today. (12) When you have eaten your fill, and have built fine houses to live in, (13) and your herds and flocks have multiplied, and your silver and gold have increased, and everything you own has prospered, (14)beware lest your heart grow haughty and you forget your God יהוה —who freed you from the land of Egypt, the house of bondage; (15) who led you through the great and terrible wilderness with its seraph serpents and scorpions, a parched land with no water in it, who brought forth water for you from the flinty rock; (16) who fed you in the wilderness with manna, which your ancestors had never known, in order to test you by hardships only to benefit you in the end— (17)and you say to yourselves, “My own power and the might of my own hand have won this wealth for me.”(18) Remember that it is your God יהוה who gives you the power to get wealth, in fulfillment of the covenant made on oath with your fathers, as is still the case.

Six things the LORD hates; Seven are an abomination to Him: A haughty bearing, A lying tongue, Hands that shed innocent blood, A mind that hatches evil plots, Feet quick to run to evil, A false witness testifying lies, And one who incites brothers to quarrel.

Arrogance leads to the pursuit of wealth in order to lord over people. You already know what happened to Korah and his band because of his arrogance, for he sought to make himself great and to assume greatness that had not been given to him by Heaven, and from this he entered into controversy and from the controversy came jealousy and hatred. All of these qualities are very demeaning qualities, as shall, with God's help, be explained.

A man’s pride will humiliate him, But a humble man will obtain honor.

For the commandment is a lamp, The teaching is a light, And the way to life is the rebuke that disciplines.

let lying lips be stilled that speak haughtily against the righteous with arrogance and contempt. How abundant is the good that You have in store for those who fear You, that You do in the full view of men for those who take refuge in You.

Every haughty person is an abomination to the LORD; Assuredly, he will not go unpunished.

In that day, You will no longer be shamed for all the deeds By which you have defied Me. For then I will remove The proud and exultant within you, And you will be haughty no more On My sacred mount.

ARROGANCE: Generally, the matter of arrogance is that a man ascribes importance to himself on himself and imagines that he is worthy of praise.