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<title>The Generation of the Flood rebelled against God's dominion</title>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><font
size=2 color=black face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;
color:black'>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.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><i><font
size=2 color=black face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;
color:black;font-style:italic'>Now the earth had become corrupt before God; and
the world had become filled with oppression. </span></font></i><font size=2
color=black face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;
color:black'>(Genesis 6:12)<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><font
size=2 color=black face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;
color:black'>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)<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><font
size=2 color=black face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;
color:black'>God is endlessly tolerant of man's sins, but He listens to the cry
of the oppressed, as we are taught:<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><i><font
size=2 color=black face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;
color:black;font-style:italic'>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.</span></font></i><font
size=2 color=black face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;
color:black'> (Exodus 22:21-23)<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><font
size=2 color=black face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;
color:black'>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.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><font
size=2 color=black face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;
color:black'>This principle finds its strongest expression in the story of the
destruction of <st1:City w:st="on">Sodom</st1:City> and <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City
w:st="on">Gomorrah</st1:City></st1:place>, the twin cities who are metaphors
for evil and its consequences:<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><i><font
size=2 color=black face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;
color:black;font-style:italic'>Now the people of <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City
w:st="on">Sodom</st1:City></st1:place> were wicked and sinful towards God,
exceedingly. </span></font></i><font size=2 color=black face=Arial><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'>(Genesis 13:13)<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><font
size=2 color=black face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;
color:black'>Yet, despite their evil, God only brought them to justice because
of the outcry of an oppressed maiden.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><i><font
size=2 color=black face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;
color:black;font-style:italic'>"I will descend and see: if they act in
accordance with this outcry, then destruction!"</span></font></i><font
size=2 color=black face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;
color:black'> (Genesis 18:21)<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><font
size=2 color=black face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;
color:black'>The Midrash explains that this outcry, which prompted God to sit
in judgment, was the scream released by <st1:place w:st="on">Lot</st1:place>'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)<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=black face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'>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!<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
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