Envisioning a New World, through a flood and a new beginning

The contrast between the beginning of the book of Bereshit and our parsha is not only striking in terms of G-d’s vision for the world, but is even fascinating to compare on a textual level.

After completing creation, “And G-d saw all that He had done, and behold it was very good.” (1:31) Compare that to the beginning of Chapter 6, “Hashem saw that man’s wickedness on earth was increasing. Every impulse of his innermost thought was only for evil, all day long.” (6:5)

Unlike the optimism that came with G-d’s declarations of “Let there be light” (1:3) and “Let us make Man” (1:26), we see, “Hashem regretted that He had made man on earth, and He was pained to His very core. Hashem said, ‘I will obliterate humanity that I have created from the face of the earth - man, livestock, land animals, and birds of the sky. I regret that I created them.’” (6:6-7)

[A very lively conversation can be had over the usages of “Elokim” (which I translate in verses as “G-d”) and the “shem havaya” Tetragrammaton (which I translate in verse as “Hashem”). In the interest of space, that conversation will be ignored now, beyond noting it in the translation.]

Despite the regret over the creation of Man, G-d chooses to rebuild the world not with a new, perhaps more perfect model of humans, but with one specific human who “has found favor in G-d’s eyes.” (6:8)

In other words, the prototype seems to be what G-d wants. It’s just the wrongly mutated models which have caused God to “regret” the first 1650 (or so) years of human endeavor.

Like Adam, Noach had three sons who are named in the Torah. Unlike the terms “Adam” (human) and “Basar” (flesh) which are used to describe the flawed human beings (6:6,13), Noach is called an “Ish” (6:9, 9:20) – the same term used to describe Adam when he is first introduced to his wife – before any sinning had taken place. “She will be called ‘Ishah’ (woman) for she had been taken from ‘Ish’ (man).” (2:23) “Ish,” it seems, is a better kind of human than an Adam or a Basar.

The difference between Noach’s world and the world of Adam, however is laid out in how the world is described and what God sees and says.

In the beginning, the land was empty and void with the spirit of G-d hovering over the water’s surface. G-d said, “Let there be light” and it was, and G-d saw the light was good. (summary of 1:1-4)