Center for Jewish Leadership and Ideas Parashat Noah (Genesis 6:9-11:32) – Tishri 5774 1 Before and After the Flood Or: It All Depends on How You Look Rabbi Shai Held Something very strange happens after the great flood in Noah’s day. Let’s look closely at what happens “before” and “after” the storm. Genesis 6 reports that the earth “became corrupt before God” and… “filled with lawlessness” (Genesis 6:11). God is disappointed, and gives up on humanity: “The Lord saw how great was man’s wickedness on earth, and how every plan devised by his heart was nothing but evil all the time” (6:5). The forty-day flood comes, bringing death and devastation in its wake. Noah emerges from his ark, offers a sacrifice to God, and then things take a very surprising turn. Now that the deluge is over, God seemingly has a change of heart, and decides “never again to destroy every living being” (8:21). The reason given, though, is baffling: “Never again will I doom the earth because of man, since the devisings of man’s heart are evil from his youth” (8:21). Whereas Genesis 6 suggests that God floods the earth because of humanity’s sinfulness, Genesis 8 tells us that God commits never to flood the earth again… because of humanity’s sinfulness. The reason for God sending one flood has now mysteriously become the reason for God not sending another. Some scholars try to wriggle their way out of what seems like a contradiction by translating The text wants us to know that human nature has not changed after the flood—nor, seemingly, will it in any eon we could recognize. What has changed after the flood is not human nature but God’s attitude towards it.