[Avodah] Questions on Parshat Noach

[Yisroel]

1a. The first pusuk refers to Hashem's act of punishing - "vayimach" - in this man was wholly responsible and is therefore listed first. The second pasuk refers to the actual death - "vayigvah" - and the death of man is deemed here to be of least significance.  
1b. See 1a

2. Why do you say most were not involved in the egel? The pasuk says the entire nation was involved. 
I doubt Hashem considers unity in sin to be meritorious. It was the general communal unity that protected the dor haflaga, as opposed to the lack of bein Adam l'Chaveiro of the dor hamabul. In this sense there was no difference between the state of nation at the time of the egel or the meraglim. 

On Oct 30, 2011, at 12:13 AM, Liron Kopinsky <liron.kopinsky at gmail.com> wrote:

> 2 questions I had on Parshat Noach:
> 
> Question 1:
> The Gemarrah in Brachot 61A says that adam was created last in creation but first for puranot, as it says (Gen 7:23) 
> וַיִּמַח אֶת-כָּל-הַיְקוּם אֲשֶׁר עַל-פְּנֵי הָאֲדָמָה, מֵאָדָם עַד-בְּהֵמָה עַד-רֶמֶשׂ וְעַד-עוֹף הַשָּׁמַיִם...
> And He blotted out every living substance which was upon the face of the ground, both man, and cattle, and creeping thing, and fowl of the heaven...
> We see from the fact that it mentioned man first, that man therefore was punished first.
> 
> Just 2 pesukim earlier it says:
> וַיִּגְוַע כָּל-בָּשָׂר הָרֹמֵשׂ עַל-הָאָרֶץ, בָּעוֹף וּבַבְּהֵמָה וּבַחַיָּה, וּבְכָל-הַשֶּׁרֶץ, הַשֹּׁרֵץ עַל-הָאָרֶץ--וְכֹל, הָאָדָם.
> And all flesh perished that moved upon the earth, both fowl, and cattle, and beast, and every swarming thing that swarmeth upon the earth, and every man;
> Here, man is quoted last.
> 
> 1a) Why is the order switched in these 2 pesukim?
> 1b) Why does the gemarrah seem to ignore the first pasuk when drawing its lesson about who was first in receiving punishment?
> 
> Question 2:
> The standard answer to the question "Why was the dor hamabul punished so much more than the dor hapalaga, even though the dor hamabul were (only) sinning bein adam l'chaveiro but the dor hapalaga were waging war against Hashem?" is that the dor hapalaga were all united together, and even though they had bad motives, that unity was a big positive in their favor.
> 
> If this is true, then why was the sin of the meraglim - where all of Bnei Yisrael were united in their sin - punished worse than the sin of the egel hazahav - where there was opposition and most people were not involved?
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