Parsha_Push Parshat Noach

In the Book of Genesis, “collective punishment” appears three times. The Flood is the first and most severe, as it punishes all of humanity. The Tower of Babel also affected, it seems, all of humanity, though the punishment appears less severe. Although it doesn’t have to be seen as punishment, the phrasing compares the Tower of Babel to Sodom, and there – the third instance – it’s clear there is sin and collective punishment.

What’s special about these three cases? Although the sages saw these sins as most severe – idolatry (especially in the Tower of Babel), sexual immorality (especially in the generation of the Flood), and bloodshed (especially in the story of Sodom), the stories themselves are less sharp and clear.

In the Flood story, it speaks of taking wives “of all whom they chose,” corruption (an unclear verb), and violence. In the Tower of Babel, they want to make a “name” for themselves, but there are no clear expressions of idolatry. In Sodom, the descriptions are more severe regarding the treatment of Lot’s guests, but in the Book of Ezekiel (16:49), the description of Sodom’s sin is perhaps softer: “Behold, this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom: pride, fullness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy.”

The gap between the relatively mild sin and the severe punishment cries out to heaven. And the question becomes sharper in light of the gap between the punishment here and the official punishment in the law for sins of these types. Is there a death penalty in the Torah for rape and sexual exploitation?! (There is, but only in certain cases involving incest, while in Genesis 6 the sin seems more focused on exploitation and rape). Is there a death penalty in the Torah for building tall towers to heaven, which involve self-aggrandizement and pushing aside the Divine Presence? Is there a death penalty in the Torah for stinginess and lack of hospitality?

So why is the Divine response so severe? One could say there’s a gap between regular criminal law and higher Divine morality (indeed, there are Divine punishments in the prophets’ stories for such sins by individuals), and one could also say there’s a gap between an individual’s sin and societies that have no right to exist. The stories of Genesis teach us that sometimes the affliction starts relatively small (exploitation, self-aggrandizement, stinginess), but an entire society founded on such afflictions is a society that will not survive.