[Avodah] Noach "Oppression Of One's Fellowman Is The Worst Sin"

[R Wolberg]

The Generation of the Flood rebelled against God's dominion. But the Torah
itself informs us that it was not this rebellion that brought on the world's
destruction. The immediate cause of the destruction was the oppression of
man by his fellow.

Now the earth had become corrupt before God; and the world had become filled
with oppression. (Genesis 6:12)

The Talmud learns from here that although the earth was totally corrupted by
idolatry and immorality, the fate of the flood generation was only sealed
for destruction because of acts of robbery and oppression. (Sanhedrin 108a)

God is endlessly tolerant of man's sins, but He listens to the cry of the
oppressed, as we are taught:

You shall not cause pain to any widow or orphan. If you cause him [the
orphan] pain ... if he shall cry out to Me, I shall surely hear his outcry.
My wrath shall blaze and I shall kill you by the sword, and your wives will
be widows and your children orphans. (Exodus 22:21-23)

God's anger must be ignited before He will consent to sit in judgment, and
it only blazes when the cry of the oppressed reaches His ears. Once God
assumes the seat of justice, He will administer retribution for all of man's
sins, but unless He is prompted to do so by the cries of the oppressed, man
can, in effect, do as he likes as God will never agree to sit in judgment.

This principle finds its strongest expression in the story of the
destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, the twin cities who are metaphors for
evil and its consequences:

Now the people of Sodom were wicked and sinful towards God, exceedingly.
(Genesis 13:13)

Yet, despite their evil, God only brought them to justice because of the
outcry of an oppressed maiden.

"I will descend and see: if they act in accordance with this outcry, then
destruction!" (Genesis 18:21)

The Midrash explains that this outcry, which prompted God to sit in
judgment, was the scream released by Lot's daughter Plitas as she was
cruelly murdered by the populace for having committed the crime of secretly
feeding a pauper. (Pirkei d'R'Elazar, Ch.25)

The same thing had happened in the time of the generation that preceded the
flood, and it was this kind of cruelty of man against man that led God to
destroy the earth. If you want to really hurt God, then hurt your fellow man
and it may be one of the last times you hurt anyone!

 

rw

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