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3 Cheshvan 5760 - October 13, 1999 | Mordecai Plaut, director Published Weekly
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Opinion & Comment
The Noach's Ark of Modern-day Times

by Yisroel Spiegel

Up until the sin of Odom Horishon, good was a separate entity in this world, as was evil. Odom was enveloped in pure goodness. The sin of eating from eitz hada'as introduced confusion in the world and a blurring of the clear boundaries of good and evil, that is, it started the grey areas.

Man was still able, however, to toil in order to distance evil from him. Came the Flood and all of these distinctions were erased; now evil pushed itself forward and people embraced that with vigor. "And Hashem saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that all the impulse of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually" (Bereishis 6:5). Only evil -- without a smattering of good.

When the situation becomes "only evil," the world can no longer exist. If a person is confronted by a situation or thing that appears to him completely evil, he must exert himself to seek out something redeemingly good, some hidden core or spark of goodness, for otherwise, it cannot continue to exist. "There is no evil that does not contain some good," says the Tzror Hamor 24:2. This explains how that which appears wholly evil can possible exist. But the generation of the Flood was so corrupt that Hashem, in Person, testified and said, "Only evil continually." And then came the Flood.

"Hashem created His world to be all good, or at least, mainly so. Thus, if it is altogether bad, it cannot exist. And since the generation of the Flood was wholly evil, He had no resort but to destroy this degenerate world and rescue only the small element of good that remained" (Radak).

The presence of the tzaddik Noach had no effect whatsoever upon the evil generation. He persevered in building the ark for one hundred and twenty years, during which time he warned the people of the impending doom. Not only did they disregard his warning, they actually mocked the old man who was "futilely" building himself a refuge from the floodwaters he believed would eventually come. His righteousness did not touch them in the least.

The good was totally detached from their evil, and their evil was completely apart from his goodness. They did not even leave themselves a hairsbreadth of goodness, a thin lifeline of hope. "And He destroyed every living substance upon the face of the ground . . . and only Noach remained alive, and they that were with him in the ark."

The generation of the Flood imagined itself to be "progressive." Each one lived to satisfy his own impulses and drives, without structure, ethics, or a moral code of behavior. There were no laws, only the law of the wild, the instinct of self preservation and self gratification. The family structure was destroyed. Even the dividing lines between man and animal were effaced to the degree that the whole world became corrupt. At this point, their fate was sealed for destruction (Rashi Sanhedrin 105).

A similar example can be brought from modern times, from the Communist regime. Many national barriers were destroyed to create the Soviet Union, a conglomerate of different races and nationalities. Also destroyed by this rule of terror was the family structure, all for the supreme good of the Party. Husbands and wives, parents and children were pitted one against the other and encouraged to turn informer for every slight infraction or suspicious `revolutionary' behavior, behavior which is completely contrary to natural loyalties. One extreme example was the statues which they erected in honor of a boy who excelled in his loyalty to the Motherland and informed upon his own father to the K.G.B. for having spoken against the government.

The Communists considered themselves progressive, making history, eradicating old fashioned ideas, mores, social norms, even religion, which they claimed to be the opium of the masses. They ridiculed revered symbols and replaced them with new slogans of lies and bigger lies which spoke of equality, joint effort for the common good, while stripping the populace of its private property and possessions.

These political figures were later exposed to have lined their own pockets. They confiscated everything for the sake of the State, but secretly enriched themselves at the State's expense. These leaders opened foreign bank accounts and lived it up as an elite class, while the masses were reduced to the brink of starvation. In the end, their fate was sealed, as with the generation of the Flood, because of robbery. How symbolic it is that Communism collapsed in the end because those who were corrupted by love of money were so absolutely corrupted that their whole structure disintegrated.

We also live in a reality where those who consider themselves progressive disseminate this poison of progress through a systematic breakdown of social structures -- to free people from all moral obligations and social conventions. They tout their perverse ideologies of all kinds of "freedoms" brazenly, in public, and gain the support of the government and the intelligentsia who rule the ivory towers. What was a sacred, inviolate social institution yesterday, turns into folly and outmoded, archaic convention today, a source of mockery and ridicule. The pace setters are the writers, artists, judges, media people who provide a vivid reminder of the lessons we must learn from the dor hamabul.

*

They are servants to their impulses, servants to the lust for power, for self gratification. They mutually crown themselves with titles, honors and degrees. They are the intelligentsia, the lettered academicians, the progressives, the thinkers. But it sometimes happens that even they may shudder when one of their ranks takes things a bit too far, too soon, and shuffles off conventions and restraints to a new degree of licentiousness. And they cry out in protest. But why? Shouldn't they remind themselves that they began the process of shackle-shaking, of removing the barriers of conformity and decency. Did they not realize where progressiveness and permissiveness would lead?

Some time ago, they raised a cry against a former kibbutznik artist who gave freedom to his tongue in an interview for a national paper in which he outlined his definition of progress: Society, he said, must rid itself of all superfluous elements. What are these? The old folk, the weak, helpless and handicapped, the unemployed, the dregs of society and so on.

A top politician from the Left justifiably argued that he was expressing pure Nazi dogma. When the Nazis were just beginning to perfect the ideology of genocide, they also practiced on the helpless and unfortunate elements of society under the guise of doing something good for mankind, of freeing society from this burden. It did not take them long to reach the Final Solution with regard to the Jews, and to drown them in their own bloodbath.

If the sharp critics of that artist were honest in their criticism, they should have rightly asked themselves: Are we truly much different, much removed from the underlying principle? Had they not already given themselves allowance and franchise for all aberrations from ethical rules and codes of morality that had always been unquestionably accepted by society? Isn't that what they have been doing all along -- removing all restraints and giving everyone free reign to do "their own thing"?

These are the restraints that the Torah is talking about, "For all flesh had corrupted its way on earth," as interpreted by Chazal. Is it so difficult to understand that when every abomination and deviation becomes a norm, it can only lead to that untenable notion of "ridding society of undesirable/unproductive elements"? Don't they understand that after it has become permissible to murder fetuses wholesale fashion while in their mothers' womb, and after all attempts are made to validate euthanasia, that it is not far removed from this explicit Nazi notion?

*

The Torah declared that the world "was not created for anarchy, but to become settled" (Yeshaya 45:18). Man was created with a commandment to "be fruitful and multiply and fill up the earth and rule it." Along came the generation of the Flood and corrupted and morally polluted the earth. Not suddenly, but gradually, in the space of ten generations, "all of which came and provoked [heavenly] wrath, until He brought upon them the floodwaters" (Ovos 5:1).

They rebelled against the divine blueprint for the world, that man should inhabit and rule it. This is only possible when each species adheres to its kind, according to the design of nature. But they decided that they could make changes and impose their own program by tampering with natural law. They defied the norms of society, ridiculed codes and conventions, and left nothing holy that they did not violate.

Thus with modern day "progressive" thinking. Woe to such freedom which is nothing more than licentiousness. They imagine they are introducing something new, an innovation. Were they to study history and the lessons derived by our Sages in parshas Noach, they would realize that four thousand years ago there existed the same social rebels, the progressives, the promoters of the various unbridled freedoms.

But that is the very point -- they refuse to learn the lessons of history; they cannot grasp the fact that they are not moving forward but, rather, rapidly regressing, accelerating in reverse to disenlightenment, devastation and doom. They are sinking their own ship in the Flood of their making.

At this point, they are still able to denounce a person who speaks of ridding society of unproductive elements. This still looks bizarre in their eyes. But the cesspool from which this idea originated is the selfsame wellspring from which all their previous perverted ideas sprang forth of uncontrolled gratification, of a "nonstop city," of drugs and other unmentionable ills of society. Everything can begin from a simple aberration, a slight, sometimes even unnoticeable veering off center from the straight path of Torah, from a leaning towards modernity, from a shoulder- shrug to a psak halocho, from a sneer for something that appears to them as an unnecessary stringency, from the garbled transmission of messages to the next generation -- parents to children or teachers to students.

All these slight variances widen the differences in the space of another generation or two until they reach an abysmal self- hatred that calls for "Stop the Chareidim!" or "Stamp Out the Dossim!" This only opens the way for such infamous Nazi ideas -- but by then it is already too late.

*

The only hope is the Noach's Ark, to learn the lesson that even in a generation like that of the Flood, which had no parallel in history, intelligent man can still save himself. In a world so depraved, where there is nothing left still impermissible, where no crime is beyond the pale of political approval, there can come a man like Noach, together with his nuclear family, and preserve himself against the floodwaters of perversion and corruption, and obey the command of Hashem and build for himself and his family an ark of survival against the Flood.

Not for a day or two, a month or two, or even a year or two, did he hold his own, but for a period of one hundred and twenty years, doggedly, devotedly, indefatigably, he built the ark, plank after plank, level upon level, with precise design, so that it would be capable of preserving every specie of every kind of living creature. He stood single- handed against the entire generation, they with their sick society and he with the word of G-d. And Noach built the ark that was to save the world and to regenerate it after all was eradicated from the face of the earth. They watched -- but refused to heed the lesson. They continued in their ways -- and he, undaunted, in his.

This incredible scenario symbolizes the conflict of the Jewish world steadfast in its belief, clinging to the Torah for dear life, in apposition to the entire generation and its ills and wills, our generation included. But the council of Hashem spoken forth from the throats of our Sages was to establish our own Noach's ark, our own sanctuary, our haven against all the evil storm winds and murky floodwaters that threaten to engulf every good portion. Those who followed the advice of the sages, sought refuge within the ark, in the yeshivos and Torah strongholds, and they were rescued from the dangers of the dor hamabul and their counterparts down the corridors of history.

The Alter of Novardok said that now, in our times and generations, the council of the Sages, and the Rambam, to avoid the dangerous influence of a sick society and flee to the deserts and caves should be translated into building impregnable fortresses of Torah and mussar, to mend and build them up, to construct an ark of defense against the saboteurs and enemies, to create a unique, insular world that will safeguard those men of truth lest they be swept along the polluted streams of the nether world.

In a responsa to the Satmar Rebbe zt'l, who commented upon the above quote from the Rambam who advised shunning society and fleeing civilization and asked what to do in these times, the Chazon Ish replied that the yeshivos are those "deserts" that will protect us and insure our survival. The Noach's ark of our times, he stressed, the safe havens, are our holy yeshivos.

(Hagaon R' A. Zeitchik zt'l, Ma'ayenei Chaim, p. 33).


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