Noach: 5783 - Rabbi Shimon Zonnenfeld with a short insight for Parshas Noach: "The inclination of man's heart is evil from his youth" - in Parshas Bereishis this is the reason for the Flood, and in Parshas Noach it is the reason not to…

00:00 The Torah tells us: “Hashem said, ‘I will wipe out the man whom I created from the face of the earth.’” Why? It says: “For the wickedness of man was great upon the earth, and every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all day long.” So Hakadosh Boruch Hu reaches the conclusion: I will wipe out man from the face of the earth. What are we told in Parshas Noach? When Noach leaves the ark, Hakadosh Boruch Hu says: “I will not again curse the ground because of man.” He will not bring another Flood. Why? The same words: “For the inclination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; nor will I again strike down every living thing as I have done.” Now there’s a question here: the same words, the same reason. Before, that was the reason Hakadosh Boruch Hu said He would wipe out man and brought the Flood. Afterward, Hakadosh Boruch Hu swore that He would never bring another Flood. Why? For the very same reason. How does that make sense? Chassidus explains that from here we learn that every line of reasoning has a line of reasoning that leads to the opposite conclusion. Whenever something is founded on an intellectual argument, you can always find an argument to the contrary. And we learned this on the last pages of Tractate Kesubos, where that Sadducee said, “You are a hasty people, who put your mouths before your ears.” They said, “We will do, and we will hear.” That’s the foundation. To observe Torah and mitzvos, the foundation is kabbolas ol. Not because I understand it that way, but because that is what Hakadosh Boruch Hu commanded. Even without my understanding it. Not on the basis of reason. And that is also how chapter 41 of Tanya begins: the beginning of the service, its essence and its root, are the service of kabbolas ol and fear of Heaven. If that isn’t the foundation, if a person bases all their observance of Torah and mitzvos solely on reason—on reason, you can always find a contrary argument. And the Torah itself is proof of that. After all,

02:30 we saw just eighty years ago that the people who were supposedly the most cultured, right, did the worst things in the world—things people had never done before. Because if it’s based only on reason, on culture, it can turn out exactly the opposite.