[Avodah] Interesting Insight on Noach

[Micha Berger]

On Wed, Oct 18, 2017 at 09:37:17AM -0400, Richard Wolberg via Avodah wrote:
: ... account in Tanchuma, R’eh, 3:

:> From the moment that God gave the Torah, it is only he who sins that will
:> be punished, though before that, the whole generation was responsible
:> for the sin of the individual. Thus there were many righteous men swept
:> away with the deluge in the time of Noah. Hence, since Noah was the
:> "most" righteous, he was spared although the other righteous were not,
:> as a consequence of collective guilt at that time.

The text is available at <http://j.mp/2xQClM9> or
<https://www.sefaria.org/Midrash_Tanchuma,_Re'eh.3.1?lang=bi> The siman
opens with quoting Eikhah 3:38, "miPi Elyon lo seitzei hara'os vehatov"
and then immediately starts with this statement from R' Avin. However,
the quote has that after Matan Torah, whomever sins, "HQBH poreia mimenu",
and before that, the whole generation "meshaleim chet'o". Arguably this
translation might be missing something by leaving the language of Hashem
collecting, as though on a debt.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             One doesn't learn mussar to be a tzaddik,
micha at aishdas.org        but to become a tzaddik.
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