Devar/5768/Noach
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…I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake; for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth… (Gen 8:21)
God uses these words to begin His promise not to destroy Creation again. And it seems from the words that the reason is because man was created with a desire to do evil - and therefore, the Holy One, blessed be He cannot justify such a serious punishment as He brought in this portion. It is difficult to understand: how is it possible to say that God, Who created man and planted within him these tendencies, only now "remembers"? Further, since He knew about man's evil inclination, why did He punish him at all? After all, he "doesn't deserve it", since he had this tendency to evil from the very moment he drew breath! There is a verse from the previous portion: "If thou doest well, shall it not be lifted up? and if thou doest not well, sin coucheth at the door; and unto thee is its desire, but thou mayest rule over it." (Gen 4:7) , in which He says to Cain that he doesn't have to follow his evil inclination, rather if he overcomes it, he will rule it (as in our Sages statement: 'Who is mighty? The one who conquers his inclination.' (Mishna Avoth 4:1)).
This verse explains to us that even though "his imagination is evil from his youth", he can overcome it and do what is good. And this is what the mishna intends by saying: "All is foreseen, but permission is granted" (Mishna Avoth 3:18). And more clearly explained by the Rambam: "Permission is granted to every person: if he wishes to bend himself to the good path and to be righteous, he has permission; and if he wishes to bend himself to the evil path and be an evildoer, permission is granted." (Laws of Repentance 5:1).
That is to say, even though God indeed knows everything; despite that fact, permission is granted us to do as we wish. The Rambam continues very strongly: "You should not entertain the notion that the foolish among the other nations, and the majority of the uneducated of the Jews say, that the Holy One blessed be He decrees upon a person from his conception that he be a righteous person or an evildoer. The matter is not so, rather each and every person has the ability to be as righteous as Moses our teacher, or as big an evildoer as Jeroboam; or wise or foolish, or merciful or cruel, or a miser or a spendthrift; and similarly all other personality traits." (ibid 5:2).
If so, what can we say about the words, "evil from his youth"? That is, when a person is born he hasn't got the ability to know and discern good from evil, and he will behave only according to his evil inclination. But when he becomes wiser and matures, he will understand what God demands of him, and will be able to do His will or the opposite - the choice is his. Therefore, He may He be blessed, can punish man for his sins - since he has the ability to do what is good, but he choses not to do it. Therefore, "he deserves it"! God gave humans the opportunity to do as they wished, and not only did they not do good, rather they caused even the animals to sin as it says, "for all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth." (Gen 6:12). The corruption extended over all the earth; therefore God chose to erase and clean, and to make a new beginning to the history of mankind.
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