Devar/5771/Noach
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< Devar | 5771
עברית
English
Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God made He man (Gen 9:6)
Immediately after this warning, God commands: And you, be ye fruitful, and multiply; swarm in the earth, and multiply therein (Gen 9:7). Two aspects of man's reality: life and death, which are in essence the same issue.
In our portion, God commands all humans regarding preservation of their existence, about continuing the species and the fitting punishment for murderers. Killing is the cancellation of life, therefore it is mentioned next to the verse regarding fruitfulness. But God had already commanded Adam and Eve regarding being fruitful -- why then did He need to repeat His command now?
One might say that after Noah and his group saw the Flood and the destruction which followed in its footsteps, and that every living creature on the entire face of the earth was wiped out, they lost hope and said to themselves that there was no reason to carry on reproducing. the end of all flesh is come before Me (Gen 6:13) said God -- and perhaps the surviving remnants of humanity suspected that even their own end was near. Therefore He commanded them, saying that even though the earth was desolate, despite all the destruction and loss -- they had an obligation to continue and to replenish the world with varieties of life.
Perhaps they imagined to themselves that God didn't value life very much, since after all He killed every living thing -- and therefore it would be acceptable to kill whoever one wished. Regarding this our verse came to inform them that only by God's command is it permissible to kill another, and that it is an uppermost value to guard life.
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